Names of Obama Officials Involved in Michael Flynn Situation Declassified
The list of former Obama administration officials who were allegedly involved in the “unmasking” of former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn has been declassified and could be released to the public soon.
Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell declassified the list days after the Justice Department dropped its case against Flynn, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.
A senior government official told The Wall Street Journal that the declassified list could be released at any time.
Flynn’s “unmasking” events occurred between the November 2016 election and Donald Trump’s inauguration in January 2017. As Fox News reported: “Unmasking occurs after U.S. citizens’ conversations are incidentally picked up in conversations with foreign officials who are being monitored by the intelligence community.
“The U.S. citizens’ identities are supposed to be protected if their participation is incidental and no wrongdoing is suspected. However, officials can determine the U.S. citizens’ names through a process that is supposed to safeguard their rights.”
Office of the Director of National Intelligence statistics show that the National Security Agency had unmasked an American by request of high-ranking officials about 9,200 times in 2016 and 9,500 times in 2017, according to The Wall Street Journal. It is unclear how many of those statistics pertain to Flynn.
A source familiar with the information told Fox News that the list was part of several pieces of intelligence Grenell is declassifying in stages.
Fox News asked the source if former President Barack Obama’s name was on the list. Although the source would not confirm or deny it, they said the list would make a huge impact.
In an interview on the Fox Business show “Sunday Morning Futures,” Flynn’s attorney, Sidney Powell, said that Obama was involved in the plot to set up Flynn.
“The whole thing was orchestrated and set up within the FBI, Clapper, Brennan, and in the Oval Office meeting that day with President Obama,” Powell said.
The Wall Street Journal reported the declassification of the list was unprecedented, but according to Fox, the final decision to release the list will be made by Attorney General William Barr.
The declassified list could be part of the next round of documents pertaining to the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election and the treatment of Flynn.
FBI documents unsealed late last month showed that top bureau officials had questioned if the “goal” of interviewing Flynn in 2017 was “to get him to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired.”
The notes were handwritten by the FBI’s former head of counterintelligence, Bill Priestap, after he met with then-FBI Director James Comey and then-FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, Fox News reported.
“What is our goal?” one of the notes said. “Truth/Admission or to get him to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired?”
Another option suggested in the notes was to get Flynn “to admit to breaking the Logan Act” when he talked with the FBI officials about his contact with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the time between Trump’s election and inauguration.
“If we get him to admit to breaking the Logan Act, give facts to DOJ + have them decide,” the note read.
The Logan Act is a 1799 statute that was enacted to prevent individuals from negotiating with foreign governments without authorization.
Flynn had initially pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI but later decided to fight the charges against him instead. On Thursday, the Justice Department announced it was dropping its case against Flynn.
U.S. Attorney Jeff Jensen, who reviewed the Flynn case, recommended the move to Barr last week.
“Through the course of my review of General Flynn’s case, I concluded the proper and just course was to dismiss the case,” Jensen said in a statement. “I briefed Attorney General Barr on my findings, advised him on these conclusions, and he agreed.”
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