Trump Tries to Deflect Russia Scrutiny, Citing ‘Crooked Scheme’ by Obama
< < Go Back
President Trump sought to turn attention away from the Russia investigation on Monday, saying that “the real story” was what he called a “crooked scheme against us” by President Barack Obama’s team to mine American intelligence reports for information about him during last year’s presidential campaign.
The president’s broadside against his predecessor coincided with a string of reports in conservative news media outlets that Susan E. Rice, Mr. Obama’s national security adviser, requested the identities of Americans who were cited in intelligence reports about surveillance of foreign officials, and who were connected with Mr. Trump’s campaign or transition.
Former national security officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, described the requests as normal and said they were justified by the need for the president’s top security adviser to understand the context of reports sent to her by the nation’s intelligence agencies.
The process of “unmasking” Americans whose names are redacted in intelligence reports, they said, is not the same thing as leaking them publicly.
Republicans pointed to the reports about Ms. Rice on Monday. “Smoking gun found!” Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, wrote on Twitter. “Obama pal and noted dissembler Susan Rice said to have been spying on Trump campaign.”
Intelligence officials are supposed to guard the privacy of Americans caught up in routine eavesdropping of foreign officials. In daily intelligence reports to officials like Ms. Rice, they typically refer to Americans who came up in recorded conversations as U.S. Person One or U.S. Person Two. But high-ranking officials, as Ms. Rice was, can ask intelligence briefers to provide names to better understand the meaning of the report.
It remains unclear how many names were unmasked by Ms. Rice. But several former officials said she did so for legitimate reasons: The Obama White House was concerned during the election about continuing attempts by the Russian government to hack Democratic email accounts and interfere in the campaign. Ms. Rice, they said, needed to understand if Americans were involved in that.
But at least one name is known to have been unmasked: Michael T. Flynn, the former national security adviser. He was selected for that post during American surveillance of Russia’s ambassador in December, when the two talked about the sanctions Mr. Obama had just imposed on Moscow.
Mr. Flynn was forced out in February after it emerged that he had misled Vice President Mike Pence about the nature of the calls. But Mr. Trump and other White House officials have suggested that the real problem in the Flynn case involved the leaks about his calls with the Russian envoy, not the content of the calls themselves — or what Mr. Flynn did or did not tell colleagues about his communications.
More From The New York Times: