(Mobile Conservative -) Reports indicate that former President Obama’s national security adviser Susan Rice accessed numerous intelligence reports throughout Obama’s last seven months in office that contained NSA intercepts involving Donald Trump and his team. According to talk radio host Rush Limbaugh, surveillance “unmasking” by former national security adviser Susan Rice demonstrates how “the Obama administration weaponized politically our intelligence services against the Republicans and against Trump.”
Circa reports:
The intelligence reports included some intercepts of Americans talking to foreigners and many more involving foreign leaders talking about the future president, his campaign associates or his transition, the sources said. Most if not all had nothing to do with the Russian election interference scandal, the sources said, speaking only on condition of anonymity given the sensitive nature of the materials.
Ordinarily, such references to Americans would be redacted or minimized by the NSA before being shared with outside intelligence sources, but in these cases, names were sometimes unmasked at the request of Rice or the intelligence reports were specific enough that the American’s identity was easily ascertained, the sources said.
The justification for Rice accessing the reports is not yet clear and may require some additional information gathering through the House and Senate intelligence committees. It’s also unclear exactly how information managed to flow so far beyond Rice. Congress may want to investigate whether or not former President Obama himself was briefed on this ‘unmasked’ information. One thing is clear: Trump was surveilled, and sensitive information was leaked.