REPORT: Michael Flynn’s name wasn’t masked in FBI report on contacts with Russian envoy

MAY 20, 2020

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As the most reliable and balanced news aggregation service on the internet, DML News App offers the following information published by WASHINGTONEXAMINER.COM:

Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn’s name was never hidden from view in a report about his contacts with a Russian envoy during the presidential transition period.

The FBI, not the National Security Agency, wiretapped Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak’s Dec. 29, 2016, conversations with President Trump’s incoming national security adviser, former U.S. officials told the Washington Post in a report published Wednesday.

The article goes on to state the following:

“When the FBI circulated [the report], they included Flynn’s name from the beginning,” a former senior U.S. official said. “There were therefore no requests for the unmasking of that information.”

The Epoch Times reported on this last week, explaining:

The name of Michael Flynn wasn’t masked to protect his identity in transcripts of his calls with a Russian ambassador that were distributed or revealed to President Barack Obama and a number of top officials in his administration, recently released documents indicate.

Information about the calls, including Flynn’s name, was leaked to the media within days, setting off a series of events that cost the retired Army lieutenant general his job as national security adviser, millions of dollars in legal fees, and several years of his life.

In addition, Obama administration officials made dozens of unmasking requests for intelligence reports that involved Flynn’s identity between the 2016 election day and the first days of President Donald Trump’s administration, the documents (pdf) show.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, asked Richard Grenell, acting Director of National Intelligence, to disclose the names of those who allegedly “unmasked” Flynn.

“Most of the requests were made prior to Flynn’s calls with Russia’s ambassador, and a wide range of officials received that information, including ambassadors, NATO officials, law enforcement and intelligence officials, and former Vice President Joe Biden,” the Examiner reports.

On Dec. 19, FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe testified to the House Intelligence Committee:

“I do not believe that that summary was ever masked. I’m also not familiar with any requests that we received to unmask anything. I’m not — I’m not aware that if we got one, it would strike me as unnecessary if nothing was masked.”

There were 49 unmasking requests, none of which occurred between Dec. 29, 2016, and Jan. 4, 2017.

Flynn spoke over the phone with Kislyak on Dec. 29, 2016.

On Jan. 4, the FBI moved to shutter its counterintelligence investigation of Flynn as it established no “derogatory” information. That’s when Peter Strzok, former FBI head of counterintelligence operations, made efforts to keep the probe open.

“Then-FBI Director James Comey later told the House Intelligence Committee that the probe was kept open after the FBI obtained Flynn’s calls with Kislyak regarding the sanctions,” the Epoch Times reported.

Flynn was accused of lying to the FBI, whose agents interviewed him on Jan. 24, 2017.



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