WarSclerotic

Trump transition officials ‘unmasked’ by intel community, Washington Times, Stephen Dinan, March 22, 2017

President Donald Trump, followed by Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway, left, walks into the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2017, as David O’Steen of the National Right to Life watches.

Multiple Trump transition officials were “unmasked” by the intelligence community in what could be repeated violations of federal secrecy laws, the chairman of the House intelligence committee said Wednesday.

The information was all gathered legally, Rep. Devin Nunes said, but at some point multiple Trump officials’ names were attached to the information gathered by the intelligence community. That could be a violation of law, depending on the reasons for it.

He said the information appeared to have been scooped up in regular, legal intelligence gathering during November, December and January.

He said there still is no evidence that Trump tower was wiretapped, as the president asserted. But the congressman said the new information, brought to him, does suggest that some in the intelligence community were following the activities of the Trump team closely.

Mr. Trump and his aides have been beset by a number of leaks from within the intelligence community, and the president has demanded a probe into those leaks.

Mr. Nunes said he was headed to the White House later to brief the president on his information, which he said was a surprising find.

“They need to see it,” he said.

It was already known that former Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn’s communications were ensnared by intelligence gathering and his name was attached to it in intelligence documents — a process known as “unmasking.”

Mr. Nunes said it now appears others were also unmasked.

That process is supposed to protect Americans from disclosure, but it appears to have broken down in this case.

“I’m really bothered by the unmasking,” Mr. Nunes said.

Asked whether this information backed up Trump officials’ accusations that they were spied upon, he replied, “I guess it all depends on one’s definition of spying.”

This entry was posted on March 22, 2017 at 7:50 PM and is filed under Intelligence community, Leaks, Trump administration, Trump transition. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

Tags: Intelligence Community, Leaks, Trump administration, Trump transition