WaPo: Nunes-Led Committee Asked Intel Agencies To
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Posted On: 06/03/2017 12:44:41 PM
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WaPo: Nunes-Led Committee Asked Intel Agencies To ‘Unmask’ Americans
Hah, a GOPER 'unmasker' is unmasked. LOL!
The Republican-controlled House Intelligence Committee requested that spy agencies unmask the identities of individuals and organizations related to President Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, the Washington Post reported Friday. The committee’s chairman, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), has accused Obama administration officials of abusing the same power toward political ends.
The Post reported, citing unnamed current and former officials, that a tally of U.S. spy agencies found that Nunes’ committee requested “five to six unmaskings of U.S. organizations or individuals related to Trump or Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton between June 2016 and January 2017.”
Unnamed officials familiar with the matter told the Post that the unmasking requests “focused on the identities of U.S. organizations that had been hacked by the Russians in 2016.”
Though the officials did not specify who in the committee made the unmasking requests, nor what their party affiliation was, the Post noted that Nunes would have had to sign off on any such requests from the committee.
In April, Nunes stepped aside from the committee’s investigation into Russian election interference and possible Russian collusion with the 2016 Trump campaign after it was revealed that he had secretly received information from the Trump administration that he later used to accuse Obama administration officials, primarily former National Security Adviser Susan Rice, of politicizing the unmasking process.
The House Ethics Committee launched an investigation into Nunes’ handling of classified documents. Intelligence experts and officials have repeatedly emphasized that Rice was well within her right to request the unmaskings that she did. She has vociferously denied any political motivation.
“This notion that there are these politically motivated unmaskings is just nonsense,” one unnamed official told the Post Friday, referring to both congressional and White House unmasking requests.
Nunes has continued to focus on unmasking as a potential abuse of power, to protests from Democrats. Despite his recusal from the Russia probe, Nunes’ committee, without informing committee Democrats, issued subpoenas Wednesday to the National Security Agency, the FBI and the Central Intelligence Agency, demanding to know why some Trump associates’ names had been unmasked in some reports.
The committee’ ranking member, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), characterized Nunes’ subpoenas as unnecessary and an attempt to distract from the congressional and federal probes into Trump associates.
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