ABC:
Transcript for Susan Rice faces accusations of 'unmasking'
Trump officials
Now we'll dig into that story about Obama national security
adviser Susan rice and the questions over how and why she unmasked trump
administration officials. That term unmasking is new for most of us. When the
U.S. Spies on a foreign target an American may get caught up in the
surveillance. Those names are not revealed. John Smith becomes U.S. Person. But
national security officials can ask for the names to be unmasked if they feel
it's necessary to understand the intellige intelligence. Unmasking is legal.
Leaking ab unmasked name to the press is not legal. Cecilia Vega is covering
the story from the white house. Good morning, Cecilia. Reporter: Good morning
and there is a strong denial from Susan rice. She said she did not leak any of
those names and did nothing illegal but Democrats and Republicans see this very
differently. The left sees Susan rice as a scapegoat. The right sees her as the
smoking gun that proves the president's wiretapping claims. This morning,
allies of president trump joining in a chorus of anger. Three Republican
members of congress sending this letter to senate and house intelligence
committees demanding president Obama's former national security adviser be
called to testify saying that Susan rice's behavior appears negligent at best
and criminal at worst. To them she could be the smoking gun that proves
president Obama wiretapped president trump but from rice a firm denial. I
leaked nothing to nobody. And never have and never would. Reporter: She does
admit she asked to un-marv the identities of Americans picked up by
surveillance. But she says it was all part of her job. This is not anything
political has been alleged. That's absolutely Faust. We can't be passive
consumers of this information and not -- and do our jobs effectively to protect
the American people. Reporter: Rice would not "The name of god is
mercy"s but sources tell ABC news that as the intelligence community
investigated Russia's election meddling in some cases trump campaign and
transition officials were caught up in surveillance. Rice requesting their
identities. Republican lawmakers outraged. So if this is what the people are
saying it is, this is totally unusual and I think totally wrong and
inappropriate. Reporter: And senator Rand Paul tweeting, smoking gun found. But
rice says there was nothing illegal and there was no wiretapping. The
intelligence community, the director of the FBI has made that very clear. There
was no such collection, surveillance on trump tower or trump individuals.
Reporter: So adamant denial. Another Republican calls rice the typhoid Mary of
the Obama administration. Surprisingly the white house has been pretty
restrained on this one, George. Sean spicer calling these reports about rice
and unmasking troubling. Okay, Cecilia, thanks very much. Let's bring in John
avlon of "The daily beast" and author of "Washington's
farewell." Thanks for coming in. Let's try to unpack this whole unmasking
controversy if it is, indeed, a controversy. As Cecilia said in the piece
unmasking legal, proper, routine for national security officials. If that
information were leaked it would be a problem. That's right but there's no
evidence at this point and goes to the intent of an unmasking. What'shaing is
the politicization of national security in order to deflect from the focus of
much of the point on capitol hill which the FBI investigation about possible
Russian contact with the trump transition and campaign. But this is being
pumped up by partisan media by something equivalent to validate the president's
claims. It has nothing to do with the president's claims about wiretap. Nothing
to do with wiretapping at all but that distinction is not -- is without a
difference to most hard-core partisans who are trying to defend the president
or deflect away from the main investigation
NBC:
It doesn't have the ring of "Benghazi," or
"Whitewater," but Republicans are seizing upon what they see as a new
scandal: "Improper unmasking."
The issue: Did President Obama's national security adviser,
Susan Rice, do something wrong when she requested that the identities of some
Trump aides be "unmasked," or revealed to a small group of cleared
government officials, after those names turned up in surveillance reports of
foreigners in the waning days of the last administration?
"Now we know that someone in the Obama administration
was eavesdropping and specifically searching a databank looking for the Trump
(people)," Sen. Rand Paul proclaimed Tuesday on MSNBC's Morning Joe.
Senior Obama administration officials don't dispute that
Rice requested the "unmasking" of certain Americans whose names
appeared in intelligence reports resulting from eavesdropping on foreigners —
meaning the foreigners were discussing the Americans or talking to them.
Usually, those names are blacked out. But the blackout can be lifted if doing
so is necessary to help understand the intelligence.
Requesting that is a routine thing for national security
advisers to do, according to former senior officials, including Keith
Alexander, who directed the National Security Agency.
Related: What Does It Mean That Trump May Have Been
Incidentally Surveilled?
Rice didn't and couldn't "order" the unmasking of
any American, current and former officials say. The agencies that hold the raw
surveillance transcripts — usually the NSA or the FBI — make that decision.
It's a process subject to rules and reviewed by lawyers, and it has to be
justified by an intelligence purpose
Rice's role was first discussed by Mike Cernovich, who is
also known for promoting a false story that a Washington, D.C. pizza parlor was
a nest of pedophiles connected to Hillary Clinton. Unmasking was then the
subject of a story by Eli Lake, a conservative columnist for Bloomberg View.
Related: Nunes Backs Down From Assertion Trump Was Monitored
It's hard to imagine FBI Director James Comey or NSA
Director Mike Rogers participating with Obama officials in
"political" surveillance of the Trump transition, which is the allegation
some Republicans are making. Rogers, after all, has acknowledged that he met
with Trump about a job in his administration. Comey has been criticized for how
he handled the Hillary Clinton email investigation, and for actions that polls
show helped Trump.
Alexander told NBC News he routinely turned down requests
for unmasking by senior officials in the Bush and Obama administrations.
At the end of the Obama administration, the FBI and the NSA
were sifting through intelligence reports on Russian hacking. One goal of their
investigation, FBI Director James Comey has made clear, was to learn whether
any Trump associates colluded with the Russian effort to interfere in the
election on Trump's behalf.
If Russians under surveillance were talking about or to
Trump associates, the names of those people would have been relevant.
Related: Trump's Communications Possibly Picked Up By
'Incidental' Surveillance, Intel Chair Says
Likewise, if two Chinese officials were talking about
business relationships with an incoming government official, that person's
identity also might be relevant.
These are hypotheticals. That's all we have at the moment,
because all the surveillance reports are classified and nobody is talking in
detail about them.
That brings up another point: "unmasked" does not
equal made public. The surveillance reports containing the names of Trump and
his aides were still highly classified and viewable by a limited number of
cleared individuals.
CBS:
We learned more today about the President's allegation that
he and his aides were caught up in Obama-era surveillance,” Anchor Scott Pelley
said, teeing up reporter Margaret Brennan on CBS’s “Evening News.” Strangely,
Pelley stayed away from flinging the fiery insults which drew him much praise
from the left. Instead of calling Trump’s claims ‘baseless’ he kept it neutral,
only referring to them as “allegations.” He also described what the concern was
as “Obama-era surveillance,” something he had not done in the past.
Brennan played defense for Rice, stating, “Well, Scott, as
national security adviser to the president, Susan Rice could and did request
the names of individuals who were picked up during legal surveillance of
foreign nationals.” She then cited unnamed sources who told her there was
nothing wrong with what Rice did:
Now, according to a former national security official, Trump
associates were not the sole focus of Rice's request, but they may have been
revealed when she asked to understand why they were appearing in intelligence
reports. However, Rice did not spread the information according to this former
official, who insisted that there was nothing improper or political involved.
