https://dailycaller.com/2020/0
ed-michael-flynn/?utm_source=p
d=grZzo6dVBFGNM00qINEiE52VVQ1a
DAILYCALLER.COM
....and breaking on Marie Yovanovitch" State Department emails obtained by
the conservative group Citizens United this week indicate that the former
U.S. ambassador to Ukraine was involved in discussions about the natural gas
firm Burisma Holdings and even in a meeting with a company representative,
despite testifying to Congress during the impeachment inquiry that she knew
little about the firm.
Burisma Holdings was at the center of impeachment proceedings against
President Trump, after he pressed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky
during a phone call to look into the Biden family's dealings in Ukraine.
Former Vice President Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden, held a lucrative
position on the board of Burisma Holdings.
Biden, Comey, Brennan Submitted Flynn 'Unmasking' Requests
Michael Flynn Getty Images/Drew Angerer
CHUCK ROSS <https://dailycaller.com/autho
REPORTER
May 13, 20202:54 PM ET
Former Vice President Joe Biden and the directors of the three main U.S.
intelligence agencies submitted so-called "unmasking" requests for
information about Michael Flynn contained in highly classified intelligence
reports, according to documents released Wednesday.
The documents
<https://www.grassley.senate.g
20CEG%20RHJ%20%28Unmasking%29.
in Biden's name on Jan. 12, 2017. Similar requests were made under the names
of James Comey, John Brennan and James Clapper, the former directors of the
FBI, CIA and Office of the Director of National Intelligence, respectively.
Denis McDonough, who served as chief of staff to President Obama, also
submitted a request on Jan. 5, 2017, the documents show.
Unmasking describes the process whereby high-level U.S. government officials
request information regarding American citizens mentioned in classified
foreign intelligence reports. It is not illegal to make unmasking requests,
but the Flynn case is unique because information about phone calls he had
with Russia's ambassador was leaked to the media during the presidential
transition period.
David Ignatius, a Washington Post columnist, mentioned the call in a Jan.
12, 2017, column (RELATED: Documents Shed Light On Media Leak Central To
Michael Flynn Case)
<https://dailycaller.com/2020/
gton-post/>
Sens. Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson released the list of names on
Wednesday. Richard Grenell
<https://dailycaller.com/2020/
bama-officials/> , the acting director of national intelligence,
declassified the information last Thursday, and provided it to the senators
this week.
Paul Nakasone, the director of the National Security Agency (NSA) provided
the list to Grenell on May 1.
It is not clear whether Biden or others who submitted the unmasking requests
saw the information related to Flynn. The document released on Wednesday
said that the unmasking requests were made under 16 different government
officials' names for an unspecified number of intelligence reports.
Democratic Presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden addresses
the media and a small group of supporters with his wife Dr. Jill Biden
during a primary night event on March 10, 2020 in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania. (Photo by Mark Makela/Getty Images)
"Below is a list of recipients who may have received Lt. Gen Flynn's
identity in response to a request processed between 8 November 2016 and 31
January 2017 to unmask an identity that had been generically referred to in
an NSA foreign intelligence report," the document stated.
"While the principals are identified below, we cannot confirm they saw the
unmasked information."
The list includes several high-profile Obama administration figures,
including Brennan, Clapper and Biden. But also includes lesser known
officials at the Treasury Department and State Department. A flurry of
requests were submitted in mid-December 2016, the records show.
Republicans have focused on the unmasking issue to try to figure out who
leaked information about communications that Flynn had in late December 2016
with Sergey Kislyak, who then served as Russian ambassador to the U.S.
Kislyak contacted Flynn on Dec. 28, 2016, the same day that the Obama
administration ordered 35 Russian diplomats to leave the U.S. because of
Russian hacking during the presidential campaign.
The records do not settle the question of who made the unmasking request for
information from Kislyak's communications with Flynn.
Comey suggested in testimony to the House Intelligence Committee on March 2,
2017 that someone in the FBI made the request that revealed that Flynn spoke
with Kislyak.
Clapper submitted an unmasking request on Dec. 28, 2016, according to the
declassified documents. But Clapper suggested in testimony
<https://intelligence.house.go
Intelligence panel that the FBI submitted the request regarding the Kislyak
phone calls.
"I don't know the circumstances of the unmasking, you know. That's a better
question to direct to the FBI or the DOJ," Clapper told the House panel on
July 17, 2017.
The declassified records list Comey as the only FBI official to make an
unmasking request for Flynn records. That request was submitted on Dec. 15,
2016, two weeks before Flynn spoke with Kislyak.
John Bass, who served as U.S. ambassador to Turkey, submitted a request for
Flynn information on Dec. 28, 2016. The next request was not submitted until
McDonough, the White House chief of staff, did so on Jan. 5, 2017.
McDonough did not respond to a request for comment. The Biden campaign also
did not respond to a request for comment.
Days after Flynn's contacts with Kislyak, FBI and Justice Department
officials began discussing whether Flynn violated the Logan Act, an obscure
law that prohibits American citizens from negotiating with foreign
governments regarding U.S. government policy.
FBI officials arranged to interview Flynn regarding his contacts with
Kislyak. The retired lieutenant general ended up pleading guilty to making
false statements to the FBI during that interview, which was conducted at
the White House on Jan. 24, 2017.
The Justice Department filed a motion to drop the case against Flynn
<https://dailycaller.com/2020/
after the discovery of FBI documents related to the Flynn investigation.
One document was an FBI memo dated Jan. 4, 2017 that authorized the closure
of a counterintelligence investigation against Flynn. The memo said that the
FBI found no evidence that Flynn was working as an agent of Russia. The
bureau had investigated Flynn and three other Trump associates for possible
Russia ties since August 2016.
Grenell, who also serves as ambassador to Germany, took the list of names to
the Justice Department last week asking for the information to be released
to the public. Grenell has been behind a recent push to declassify and
release documents related to the FBI's investigation of Trump associates.
He was involved in the process of declassifying footnotes from a Justice
Department inspector general's report on the investigation. Those footnotes
showed that the FBI received evidence in 2017 that Russian intelligence
operatives might have fed disinformation to Christopher Steele
<https://dailycaller.com/2020/
r-trump/> , the author of a dossier that accused the Trump campaign of
conspiring with the Kremlin.
Grenell also recently pressured House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam
Schiff to release 53 transcripts of interviews that the committee conducted
as part of its own Russia probe. The transcripts showed that Obama officials
such as James Clapper, Susan Rice and Ben Rhodes had not seen evidence of
collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia by the time they left
office.
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