Dems' 'unmasking' spree now gets special investigator
U.S. attorney appointed to review Obama administration scandal
By WND StaffPublished May 28, 2020 at 9:50am
That spree of "unmasking" done by Democrats at the end of the Obama administration now will be getting a special review.
Unmasking is when government officials demand to know the identity of Americans who may be caught up in surveillance by the government of foreigners, and it's become a scandal because of what the FBI did with Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who for a time was President Trump's national security adviser.
In fact, dozens of officials during the Obama administration insisted on being provided details about those Americans.
The Washington Examiner reports that Attorney General William Barr now has appointed U.S. Attorney John Bash of Texas to oversee an investigation of those events.
The focus reportedly will be on a time frame just before and after President Trump was elected.
Kerri Kupec, a spokeswoman for the Department of Justice, revealed the appointment late Wednesday.
She explained this investigation will be intended to help the ongoing criminal investigation of the Trump-Russia investigators being handled by U.S. Attorney John Durham.
She explained, during an appearance on Sean Hannity's program, "So John Durham, as part of his investigation, had been looking at the issue of unmasking, and the attorney general determined that certain aspects of unmasking needed to be reviewed separately as a support to John Durham’s investigation.
So he tapped John Bash, one of our U.S. attorneys out of Texas, to do just that."
She noted that while unmasking is allowed under the law, "certainly the frequency, the motivation, and the reasoning behind unmasking can be problematic."
Durham's own assignment has been to determine whether there was any misbehavior on the part of intelligence and national security officials as they reviewed allegations, now debunked, of ties between the Trump campaign in 2016 and Russia.
FBI special counsel Robert Mueller investigated for more than two years, without finding any evidence of any crimes.
Durham's review was converted to a criminal investigation shortly after he opened it.
Evidence shows that dozens of officials working for Barack Obama demanded that intelligence agencies identity by name Flynn, over conversations with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, conversations that were determined to be routine.
During the program, Hannity told Kupec his own sources revealed that "even members of Donald Trump's family have been unmasked."
"Well that’s why the attorney general determined that it was appropriate to look at unmasking as a support to John Durham’s investigation, and looking specifically at episodes both before and after the election," Kupec said.
"And like I said, you know, the frequency, who was unmasking whom, all of these circumstances and events can shed light and give us a better understanding of what happened with respect to President Trump, his campaign, and then of course what happened after he was elected as well."
The Daily Caller News Foundation reported just days ago that Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham requested records of Obama administration officials who made so-called “unmasking” requests for information on President Donald Trump, as well as members of his family and campaign.
Graham’s request is a follow-up to the release of a list on May 13 of 39 Obama-era officials who submitted requests that unmasked the identity of Michael Flynn in government intelligence reports, the report said..
The list revealed former Vice President Joe Biden, former FBI Director James Comey and former CIA Director John Brennan, and others, made Flynn-related requests.
Graham is seeking similar documents related to requests for information on Trump and members of his family, Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner.
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