House Intelligence Committee issues subpoenas in “Russia investigation,” demands to know who unmasked Team Trump officials
(National Sentinel) Congress: The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on Wednesday issued more than a half-dozen subpoenas, four which were related to its investigation into Russian “meddling” in the 2016 presidential election, and three dealing specifically with the unmasking of officials on President Donald J. Trump’s transition team and subsequent administration.
The panel, it seems, is getting serious about zeroing in on former Obama administration officials who, on the surface at least, appear to have used U.S. intelligence as a political weapon — and quite possibly at the former president’s direction.
As reported by The Wall Street Journal, the three subpoenas are likely tied to Republican panel members’ efforts to get to the bottom of the unmasking — that is, the revealing of Americans’ identities caught up in intelligence surveillance of foreign subjects — that is highly irregular and unusual or, at least, it used to be before the Age of Obama. (Related: Most Americans think Leftist ‘establishment media’ is committing treason by publishing classified info.)
The paper noted:
The Republican-led committee issued four subpoenas related to the Russia investigation. Three subpoenas are related to questions about how and why the names of associates of President Donald Trump were unredacted and distributed within classified reports by Obama administration officials during the transition between administrations.
Specifically, the committee sent subpoenas regarding unmasking to the National Security Agency, the Central Intelligence Agency and the FBI. GOP members of the panel have sought a more complete understanding about how Trump campaign officials and associates were exposed in classified intelligence reports — exposures that were subsequently illegally leaked to the disgusting “establishment” media.
The subpoenas are aimed at uncovering any requests by former National Security Advisor Susan Rice, former CIA Director John Brennan (a noted Obama hack) and former United Nations Ambassador Samantha Power to unmask Americans whose identities were previously concealed in classified intercepts. The three former Obama officials were not sent subpoenas personally, a source familiar with the documents told The WSJ.
Up to now, Powers was not included on any witness lists to appear before the Intelligence Committee, so the fact that her name came up in the three subpoenas probably indicates the panel is widening its probe.
“Typically, information about Americans intercepted in foreign surveillance is redacted, even in classified reports distributed within the government, unless a compelling need exists to reveal them. Unmasking requests aren’t uncommon by top intelligence community officials but Republicans want to know whether any of the unmaskings of Trump campaign officials during the transition were politically motivated,” the paper reported.
The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence is also conducting its own probe of whether Russia interfered in the election and whether Trump associates were colluding with Moscow on any level; so far, there has been no evidence that happened, and even top Democrats have admitted they’ve not yet seen anything that would even suggest collusion.
For his part, Trump has consistently called the probes a Democrat-media-created “witch hunt.” (Realted: Insane Democrat Base Demanding Nothing Short Of Impeachment For Trump But The Party Knows It Can’t Deliver.)
For months now, the discredited fake news media has insinuated that Team Trump and the Kremlin were equal partners in a multi-year effort to “steal” the election from Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. No one believed that before Clinton lost to Trump, mind you, but as we’ve learned from additional reporting, that didn’t stop the Obama regime from illegally spying on Team Trump in a desperate bid to find something — anything — which could help Clinton.
Though it’s unclear what else the House and Senate intelligence committees are after in terms of information, one aspect of this entire episode has yet to be publicly explored: What did Obama know about all of this and when did he know it? What role did he play? What instructions did he give to his operatives and the intelligence community?
And why hasn’t any of that information been leaked?
This story originally appeared at NewsTarget.com.
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