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Turns out the former national security adviserโs name was not redacted in FBI reports.
By Eric Lutz
Donald Trumpโs allies are escalating their probes into the origins of the Russia investigation, announcing their intention to issue subpoenas for information about the โunmaskingโ ofย Michael Flynnโthe presidentโs former national security adviser, who was forced out of the administration after less than a month over his shady contacts with then-Russian ambassadorย Sergey Kislyak. The retired general lied to Vice Presidentย Mike Pence, and later to federal investigators, about the interactions, and admitted as much when he pleaded guilty toย Robert Muellerย in 2017. But he has since become a cause for the president and other Republicans, who say he was set up by deep state actors working in concert withย Barack Obamaโsย administration, whichโas the conspiracy theory goesโwas improperly spying on Flynn and others in Trumpโs circle. โIโm trying to explain to the American people what happened in Crossfire Hurricane,โย Lindsey Grahamย told reportersย this week.
But there appears to be a problem with the โunmaskingโ theory: Flynn was not, in fact, unmasked in the report on his Kislyak call. Theย Washington Postย on Wednesdayย reportedย that, in the FBIโs report about communications between Flynn and Kislyak, Flynnโs name appeared unredacted, making the hunt to find out who in the Obama administration sought to reveal his name in intelligence materialsโwell, kind of unnecessary. โThey included Flynnโs name from the beginning,โ a former United States official told theย Post. โThere were therefore no requests for the unmasking of that information.โ
As theย Postย points out, government officials request redacted names in intelligence reports be โunmaskedโ to get a better sense of what they are reading. But, the official told the paper, Flynnโs name was unredacted because his identity was essential to understanding the importance of the contacts outlined in the reports.
Trump, in contrast, has insisted that Flynn was the victim of a set-up as part of a larger scheme to subvert his presidency. He latched onto documentsย unsealedย last month as evidence: notes and emails among FBI agents apparently written in preparation for their interview with the retired general. โWhat is our goal?โ an official wrote in the notes. โTruth/Admission or to get him to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired?โ The right immediately called for his exoneration, andย William Barrโs Justice Department took the extraordinary step of moving toย drop the caseย against Flynn. A federal judge hasย hit the pause buttonย on that for now, but Trump and his allies have continued the crusade in Flynnโs name. Trump loyalistย Richard Grenell, the acting director of national intelligence, declassified a list of Obama officialsโincluding presumptive Democratic nomineeย Joe Bidenโwho requested to โunmaskโ an American citizen whose name was redacted from intelligence reports.
It was already a non-scandal; what Trump and his allies have cast in ominous terms is a routine practice. โI think it is a desperate and manipulative attempt to turn into a scandal what was appropriate action taken by senior officials,โ a former national security officialย toldย my colleagueย Abigail Tracy last week. But the story line falls apart even further with the revelation that Flynnโs name appeared in the report on the December 29, 2016 Kislyak phone call, and needed no โunmaskingโ to begin with.
Of course, these Trumpworld investigations arenโt meant to make sense. The idea here is not so much to uncover wrongdoing as it is to have the words โObamaโ and โBidenโ and โinvestigationโ appear in the same sentence as much as possible between now and November, and to occasionally turn up nefarious-sounding but ultimately benign materials, likeย Susan Riceโs recently declassifiedย emailย to herself in which she notedโgasp!โthatย Barack Obamaย made clear he wanted investigations into Russiaโs election hacking to be done โby the book.โ โThe Obama Administration is turning out to be one of the most corrupt and incompetent in U.S. history,โ Trumpย tweetedย last week. โObamagateโ is looking more and more like this cycleโsย Hillary Clintonย email scandalโa web of implication and insinuation that doesnโt add up to anything, but is just confusing enough to muddy the waters and distract from the corruption and incompetence that has been unfolding in plain sight this whole time. It seems particularly tired this time around, but that doesnโt mean it canโt work.
