Trump’s National Security Adviser Thinks Susan Rice Did Nothing Wrong
H.R. McMaster disagrees with his boss in a big way.
Donald Trump’s National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster has concluded that Susan Rice, who was the national security adviser for former President Barack Obama, did nothing wrong when she requested the unmasking of U.S. citizens.
According to a Bloomberg report, the revelation comes from two intelligence officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity with Bloomberg’s Eli Lake.
Donald Trump and his Republican allies have accused Susan Rice of inappropriately unmasking the identities of Trump and his associates who were picked up through incidental intelligence collection on foreign surveillance targets.
“The steady drumbeat of stories disclosing details of the FBI investigation into possible Trump World collusion with Russia; intercepted communications between Russian officials about contacts with Trump advisers; and the leaked conversations of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn with the Russian ambassador. All this boxed the president in on Russia. Trump compounded these problems by falsely denying contacts between his campaign and Russians and then firing FBI Director James Comey,” Bloomberg reports
Republican Congressman Devin Nunes is under an ethics investigation after he publically accused members of the Obama administration of surveilling Trump associates. In the process, Nunes revealed classified information about the existence of FISA warrants and other intelligence collections.
A hallmark of Donald Trump’s public defense has been to undermine the integrity of the investigators and accusing the Obama administration of improper behavior. So it is important that Donald Trump’s own national security adviser doesn’t agree with him.
As Bloomberg notes, “Not everyone agrees that what Rice did was improper. She was after all receiving much new intelligence about Russia’s role in the election, some of which suggested coordination with Trump associates. National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster has concluded that Rice did nothing wrong, according to two U.S. intelligence officials who spoke to me on condition of anonymity. That might explain why Trump has yet to declassify more information on the prior administration’s unmasking requests.”
[image via Twitter]
