Former Vice President Joe Biden has been identified as among a group of Obama administration officials who had access to information after Gen. Mike Flynn that was ‘unmasked’ in U.S. intelligence reporters.
A National Security Agency document signed by Director Gen. Paul Nakasone lists Biden as among those who may have received information on Flynn in the final days of the Obama administration or were otherwise involved in his unmasking.
The leaked memo immediately set off a clash in Washington, with President Trump tearing into Biden, his presumed 2020 opponent, for unmasking, which he connected to the prosecution of Flynn, which he termed a disgrace.
‘When I see what is happening to him, it’s disgraceful,’ Trump said of Flynn. ‘And it was all a ruse. And by the way the FBI said he didn’t lie,’ Trump said at the White House Wednesday.
‘With all the stuff I’m hearing about lying. The FBI said he didn’t lie. But the sleazebag said, “Well we don’t care what they say, we’re saying he lied,’ Trump continued.
‘What they’ve done to that man and that family is a disgrace,’ Trump said as he addressed reporters about the coronavirus.
‘I just left Gen. Milley and he said was a great man and a great soldier,’ the president said, conveying words that had the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Mark Milley, vouching for Flynn, a former three star general who ran the Defense Intelligence Agency before getting fired by President Obama.
‘It’s a massive thing. Who can believe a thing like this,’ said Trump, holding a up a notecard he indicated was a list of the information.
During separate comments on Fox Business Network, Trump told host Maria Bartiromo it was ‘all Biden,’ and casting Biden as a key player in Flynn’s prosecution – although it was carried out by career prosecutors after the election and resulted in a guilty plea by Flynn.
‘They weren’t after General Flynn, they wanted him to lie about me, make up a story. And with few exceptions, nobody did that,’ Trump told Bartiromo. ‘There were many people, I watched [former national security official] KT McFarland the other day, I watched where she was, knock knock FBI, you know, the FBI, this was all Obama, this was all Biden,’ Trump said.
McFarland told Fox she was ‘ambushed’ as part of a ‘setup’ by the FBI.
‘These people were corrupt, the whole thing was corrupt, and we caught them, we caught them. And what you saw just now, I watched Biden yesterday he could barely speak, he was on Good Morning America right? He said he didn’t know anything about it, and now it just gets released right after he said that. It gets released that he was one of the unmaskers. Meaning he knew everything about it, so he lied to your friend George Stephanopoulos.”
McFalarland, the former deputy national told a senator during he confirmation process to an NSC post she was unaware of Flynn’s contacts with the Russian ambassador. But she was revealed to have written an email that said ‘General Flynn is talking to the Russian ambassador this evening’ on December 29, when President Obama imposed sanctions on Russia.
The new unmasking document appears to reveal which official or officials ordered Flynn’s name be ‘unmasked’ from intelligence reports, although it also includes hedging language. U.S. citizens have their names blacked out in such reports, although certain officials have the authority to unseal the information.
Trump pointed to Sunday comments by Biden that he didn’t know details of the Flynn prosecution. ‘He said he knows nothing about anything,’ Trump said. ‘And then it gets released today that he’s the big unmasker.’
A National Security Agency document identifies Joe Biden as among a group of officials who may have received information on ‘unmasking’ of Mike Flynn in the final days of the Obama administration.
In Biden’s case, he gained access to the documents on January 12, 2016 – a little over a week before he left office, according to the Washington Examiner.
He is listed among a group 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 to unmask a name in an NSA intelligence report.
But the memo also refers to Biden as among a group of ‘principals’ – although it still stops short of confirming he ever saw the information.
‘While the principals are identified below, we cannot confirm they saw the unmasked information. This response does not include any requests outside of the specified time-frame,’ according to the memo.
Flynn’s conversations with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S. got picked up by U.S. intelligence
A newly declassified memo lists officials who submitted requests to the NSA to unmask Gen. Mike Flynn in intelligence documents
It listed those who ‘may have received’ Flynn’s identity
Biden’s name appears last on the chronological list
Grenell declassified the document last week and provided it to a pair of Republican senators for their ‘situation awareness’
Flynn’s calls with former Russian ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak got picked up by U.S. intelligence intercepts during the transition, and became part of the Russia probe.
Flynn would later plead guilty to lying to the FBI about his undisclosed Russia contacts – although the Justice Department last week took the extraordinary move of seeking to drop the case. A federal judge is awaiting ‘friend of the court’ documents relating to the controversial case.
Under unmasking – which became a heated topic during the House Intelligence Committee’s own Russia probe – the process begins when government officials are provided access to documents with classified information blacked out.
Certain senior government officials are granted the authority to seek ‘unmasking’ of individuals whose names are blacked out. Names are obscured to protect the privacy of U.S. citizens. To do so, they must put in a request to the classifying authority – in this case, the National Security Agency, which picks up information through a wide net of electronic surveillance.
Such requests are relatively routine – and are meant to provide a fuller understanding of the document at hand. However at the time of seeking an unmasking, the U.S. official does not know the identity of the ‘masked’ person.
If the request clears the agency’s review process and is justified, the requesting official is provided access to the information. The government records who makes such requests and when, providing the opportunity to look back after the fact.
‘Each individual was an authorized recipient of the original report and the unmasking was approved through NSA’s standard process, which includes a review of the justification for the request,’ the document said, indicating the spy agency signed off on the disclosures after a review.
The memo was ordered declassified by acting Director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell.
Grenell provided the information to Iowa Republican Sen. Charles Grassley and Wisconsin GOP Sen. Ron Johnson for what he wrote was their ‘situational awareness.’ He says he issued the order May 8 of this year. Trump named Grenell to his post in February.
The letter to the senators was dated May 13, the same day it was released.
According to intelligence community reporting required by the surveillance reauthorization laws, the NSA unmasked 10,012 U.S. persons in the 2019 calendar year.
In 2017, the year Flynn was unmasked, he was one of 9,529 U.S. persons who were unmasked.
According to the DNI report, after an intelligence report is distributed containing masking, ‘other federal agencies may request that the masked information in the report be revealed or “unmasked.”’
It continues: ‘The requested identity information is released only if the requesting recipient has a “need to know” the identity of the U.S. person and if the dissemination of the U.S. person’s identity would be consistent with the applicable legal authorities.’
Former FBI Director James Comey is among those officials named on the unmasking document. FBI agents were investigating Flynn
Former ambassador to the UN Samantha Power was also on the list
Former Obama chief of staff Denis McDonough is listed as making a January 5, 2017 unmasking request about Flynn
‘I knew nothing about those moves to investigate Michael Flynn,’ Biden said when asked about Flynn’s prosecution on ABC’s ‘This Week’ Sunday.
‘This is all about diverting attention from the horrible way in which he has acted,’ Biden said of President Trump. ‘We don’t have coronavirus because of him, but we have the devastating impact of it because of his lack of a policy, because of his lack of action. It’s all about diversion.’
Biden campaign spokesman Andrew Bates said in a statement: ‘Donald Trump’s attempt at dishonest media manipulation to distract from his response to the worst public health crisis in 100 years has backfired. These documents simply indicate the breadth and depth of concern across the American government – including among career officials – over intelligence reports of Michael Flynn’s attempts to undermine ongoing American national security policy through discussions with Russian officials or other foreign representatives.’
Bates continued: ‘Importantly, none of these individuals could have known Flynn’s identity beforehand. These documents have absolutely nothing to do with any FBI investigation and they confirm that all normal procedures were followed – any suggestion otherwise is a flat out lie. What’s more, it’s telling that these documents were selectively leaked by Republicans abusing their congressional powers to act as arms of the Trump campaign after having them provided by a partisan official installed for this very purpose. The only people with questions to answer are Grenell, Sen. Grassley, and Sen. Johnson for their gross politicization of the intelligence process.’
The memo connects numerous other officials to the unmasking. Former NSC spokesman Ned Price noted it included career CIA station chiefs and chiefs of mission. Others identified by the memo include former FBI Director James Comey, U.S. ambassador to the UN Samantha Power, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, U.S. ambassador to Italy John Phillips, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, and U.S. ambassador to Turkey John Bass.
Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, a Trump ally who sits on a permanent subcommittee on investigations, told Fox News Biden should be forced to answer questions on the unmasking.
‘He needs to be questioned on this because we can’t elevate someone to the president who is willing to use the intelligence community to spy on his political opponents. That should be a deal-killer.’
‘What kind of person eavesdrops,’ Paul said. ‘Is that something that we think is a legitimate function of government to eavesdrop on your opponents, without a warrant?’
Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, indicated he wants to pursue the unmasking issue further.
‘I specifically want to know how many unmasking requests were made, if any, beyond General Flynn regarding members of the Trump campaign team, family, or associates,’ he said.
THE MIKE FLYNN SAGA: HOW TRUMP APPOINTEE BECAME INCENDIARY STORY
Mike Pence was a career Army intelligence officer who served in Afghanistan and Iraq and was still in uniform as a three-star general when he became Barack Obama’s head of Defense Intelligence in July 2012.
But he fell out badly with the Obama administration, was forced out in July 2014 and moved into private intelligence consulting.
2015
December 10: Flynn is paid to travel to Moscow and sits beside Vladimir Putin at dinner celebrating propaganda outlet RT (right). His consulting business has Russian clients
2016
February: Flynn signs up to provide national security advice to the Trump campaign; in the next few months he is floated as a possible running mate
July 20 : Flynn leads ‘lock her up’ chants at the Republican National Convention and claims Obama concealed the actions of Osama bin Laden
July 31: FBI open counter-intelligence investigation Crossfire Hurricane into group of Trump aides, including Flynn, for possible Russian influence. In 2014 an FBI informer had told agents he saw Flynn spending time at a dinner in the UK with a Russian woman with ties to Kremlin intelligence; the information is included in their investigation. Flynn is code-named Crossfire Razor
November 4: Trump wins the election, and meets Obama who advises him not to hire Flynn. Trump ignores the advice and makes him national security adviser designate
November 30: Obama’s ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, makes the first of what will be 48 requests by Obama and Obama-eras officials to ‘unmask’ a redaction from intelligence reports which covers up Flynn’s name
December 2016
Flynn meets Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak (right) at Trump Tower and exchanges calls and messages throughout the month.
December 29: Hours after Obama announces sanctions on Russia for election interference, they speak and Flynn says it will be ‘reviewed’ when Trump takes power. The call is heard by intelligence agents who monitor Kisylak’s calls and details are included in intelligence reports. The next day Putin says Russia won’t retaliate for the sanctions
2017
January 4: FBI drafts report saying there is ‘no derogatory information on RAZOR [Flynn].’ But 20 minutes later FBI counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok tells case agent ‘don’t close RAZOR,’ and ‘7th floor involved’ meaning FBI leadership. He also emails lover Lisa Page, a senior FBI lawyer, about the Logan Act – a never-enforced 1799 law banning private people from interfering in foreign relations. ‘Razor still open,’ he writes and calls news ‘serendipitously good’. ‘Phew, but yeah, that’s amazing that he is still open. Good I guess,’ Page replies. Strzok respond: ‘Yeah, our utter incompetence actually helps us. 20% of the time I’m guessing :)’
January 5: Obama holds Oval Office briefing on Russian election interference with Joe Biden, CIA director John Brennan, FBI director James Comey, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and deputy attorney general Sally Yates. He asks Comey and Yates to stay behind and says he has ‘learned of the information’ about Flynn’s call to Kislyak. Comey mentions the Logan Act
January 6: Obama’s top intel figures – Brennan, Clapper and Comey – give the Trump team including Trump a briefing on Russia at Trump Tower
January 10: Joe Biden is most senior Obama official to request an ‘unmasking’ of an intelligence report which reveals Flynn’s name
January 12: Bombshell Washington Post report reveals Flynn’s call to Kislyak on December 29, ‘according to a senior U.S. government official’ saying: ‘What did Flynn say, and did it undercut the U.S. sanctions?’ It mentions the Logan Act
January 14: Flynn tells Pence he did not discuss sanctions; in coming days Trump officials repeat this on television – including Mike Pence the following day
January 20: Trump is inaugurated; Flynn becomes national security advisor
January 22: The Wall Street Journal reveals Flynn is subject to a counter-intelligence investigation over links to Russia
January 23: Strzok and Andrew McCabe the FBI Deputy director exchange messages planning to interview Flynn
January 24: Two FBI agents – Peter Strzok and one whose name remains secret – go to the White House and interview Flynn in his West Wing office. Their notes say he denies talking about sanctions with Kislyak and said ‘if I did I don’t remember’
January 26 and 27: Yates tells White House counsel Don McGahn that Flynn has lied to Mike Pence and other officials, is therefore compromised, could be blackmailed by Russia, and other aspects of his conduct are worrying which she can’t tell McGahn because they are classified
January 28: Flynn sits in the Oval Office to take part in Trump’s first call with Putin
February 9: Washington Post reveals Flynn did discuss sanctions and publishes interview in which he repeats denial ‘categorically.’ After the story is published, he tells the newspaper a different version – that he may have discussed sanctions
February 10 and 11: Trump says he will ‘look into’ Flynn but the aide is at Mar-a-Lago dinner with Shinzo Abe. Pence
February 13: Washington Post reveals that McGahn was warned about Flynn by Yates. Flynn resigns admitting he ‘inadvertently’ misled Pence, prompting Pence to mislead on Face the Nation in January
February 14: Trump meets Comey and says Flynn is ‘a good guy’ and ‘I hope you can see your way to letting this go.’
March 30: Flynn offers to testify to Congress – at the time both House and Senate are Republican-controlled – or the FBI on Trump-Russia in exchange for immunity from prosecution; nobody takes up the deal offer
May 9: Trump fires Comey, and on May 17 Robert Mueller is appointed special counsel
May 10: Senate Intel Committee subpoena Flynn for his contacts with Russia; he cites Fifth Amendment; they later subpoena in more detail, and by early June he turns over documents voluntarily
November 5: Mueller’s investigators revealed to be ready to indict Flynn and his son Michael Jr. on multiple charges. They are looking at his foreign lobbying and even whether he plotted to kidnap a Turkish cleric from the U.S. and deliver him to Turkey – but are also wiling to strike a deal to let his son off if he flips
November 16: Mueller team interview Flynn for first time
November 22: Flynn withdraws from ‘joint defense deal’ with Trump, suggesting a deal is in the works
December 1: Flynn signs a plea deal with Mueller; he will plead guilty to lying to the FBI at the White House interview. In exchange his son gets out of charges, and Flynn himself escapes charges of failing to register his lobbying for foreign entities. He appears in court and admits under oath lying to the FBI and affirms that he understands the deal. ‘I recognize that the actions I acknowledged in court today were wrong, and, through my faith in God, I am working to set things right,’ he says. The White House says: ‘The false statements involved mirror the false statements to White House officials which resulted in his resignation in February of this year.’
December 2: Trump tweets: ‘I had to fire General Flynn because he lied to the Vice President and the FBI’
2018
January: Flynn is repeatedly interviewed as he cooperates with Mueller and sentencing is repeatedly deferred
June 7: Obama deputy national security advisor reveals in book that Obama administration first learned of Flynn’s December 2016 communications with Kislyak from Trump transition team members and not from ‘unmasking’ his name in intelligence reports
December 18: Flynn appears in court for sentencing hearing; Mueller’s recommendation is little or no jail time. But Judge Emmet Sullivan says ‘arguably you sold your country out’ and asks why he was not charged with ‘treason.’ Sentencing is deferred
2019
June 12: Flynn fires Covington & Burling, his white shoe law firm, and hires new lawyer Sidney Powell, who had told him on Fox News to ditch his plea deal
August 30: Flynn files motion accusing prosecutors of conning him into a guilty plea by withholding exculpatory material while other parts of the government trying to ‘smear’ him as a Russian agent
December 16: Judge rejects Flynn’s motion after reviewing Intel Inspector General report into the FBI and DOJ actions before the 2016 election and sets sentencing date for January 28
2020
January 7: Prosecutors say they want up to six months for Flynn; a week later he files to ask to withdraw his guilty plea ‘because of the government’s bad faith, vindictiveness, and breach of the plea agreement.’ A week later he asks for probation if he can’t get out of his deal. Sentencing is deferred until February 20
February 14
Attorney General Bill Barr appoints political appointee Jeffrey Jensen, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri, to examine Flynn’s prosecution
April 29
New notes released by Jensen show Strzok discussing keeping Flynn as a target on January 4 2017. They also show an unnamed FBI official’s notes from around the interview with Flynn on January 24 2017, saying: ‘What is our goal? Truth/Admission or to get him to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired?’ Trump starts a tweet storm which lasts into the next day, saying: ‘What happened to General Michael Flynn, a war hero, should never be allowed to happen to a citizen of the United States again!’
May 7
Department of Justice says it is withdrawing support for prosecuting Flynn saying the interview in the West Wing was ‘untethered to, and unjustified by, the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation into Mr. Flynn’ and that it was ‘conducted without any legitimate investigative basis.’