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THE FLYNN โ€œUNMASKINGโ€ NON-SCANDAL GETS EVEN MORE NON-SCANDALOUS

Turns out the former national security adviserโ€™s name was not redacted in FBI reports.


By Eric Lutz

Donald Trumpโ€™s allies are escalating their probes into the origins of the Russia investigation, announcing their intention to issue subpoenas for information about the โ€œunmaskingโ€ ofย Michael Flynnโ€”the presidentโ€™s 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 Obamaโ€™sย administration, whichโ€”as the conspiracy theory goesโ€”was improperly spying on Flynn and others in Trumpโ€™s circle. โ€œIโ€™m trying to explain to the American people what happened in Crossfire Hurricane,โ€ย Lindsey Grahamย told reportersย this week.

But there appears to be a problem with the โ€œunmaskingโ€ theory: Flynn was not, in fact, unmasked in the report on his Kislyak call. Theย Washington Postย on Wednesdayย reportedย that, in the FBIโ€™s report about communications between Flynn and Kislyak, Flynnโ€™s name appeared unredacted, making the hunt to find out who in the Obama administration sought to reveal his name in intelligence materialsโ€”well, kind of unnecessary. โ€œThey included Flynnโ€™s name from the beginning,โ€ a former United States official told theย Post. โ€œThere were therefore no requests for the unmasking of that information.โ€

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Michael Flynn

As theย Postย points out, government officials request redacted names in intelligence reports be โ€œunmaskedโ€ to get a better sense of what they are reading. But, the official told the paper, Flynnโ€™s 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. โ€œWhat is our goal?โ€ an official wrote in the notes. โ€œTruth/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 Barrโ€™s 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 Flynnโ€™s name. Trump loyalistย Richard Grenell, the acting director of national intelligence, declassified a list of Obama officialsโ€”including presumptive Democratic nomineeย Joe Bidenโ€”who requested to โ€œunmaskโ€ an American citizen whose name was redacted from intelligence reports.

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It was already a non-scandal; what Trump and his allies have cast in ominous terms is a routine practice. โ€œI 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 Flynnโ€™s name appeared in the report on the December 29, 2016 Kislyak phone call, and needed no โ€œunmaskingโ€ to begin with.

Of course, these Trumpworld investigations arenโ€™t meant to make sense. The idea here is not so much to uncover wrongdoing as it is to have the words โ€œObamaโ€ and โ€œBidenโ€ and โ€œinvestigationโ€ 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 Riceโ€™s recently declassifiedย emailย to herself in which she notedโ€”gasp!โ€”thatย Barack Obamaย made clear he wanted investigations into Russiaโ€™s election hacking to be done โ€œby the book.โ€ โ€œThe Obama Administration is turning out to be one of the most corrupt and incompetent in U.S. history,โ€ Trumpย tweetedย last week. โ€œObamagateโ€ is looking more and more like this cycleโ€™sย Hillary Clintonย email scandalโ€”a web of implication and insinuation that doesnโ€™t 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 doesnโ€™t mean it canโ€™t work.

About Whispers from the North

Whispers from the Northย is an online platform that appreciates the ecological, cultural and socio-economic diversities of Northern Kenya. We also acknowledge that the lives of the communities of northern Kenya has been shaped by a number of intrinsic and extrinsic factors which have led to complex challenge that calls for a multifaceted approach.

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