Top Republican's attempt to steer the Trump-Russia probe toward 'unmasking' may be about to backfire spectacularly

A top Republican's attempt to deflect in the
Trump-Russia probe could be about to backfire.
At the heart of the dispute is why the Obama
administration requested the "unmasking" of
Trump associates involved in conversations with
Russian officials.
The documents obtained by the chair of the
House Intelligence Committee could be trouble
for some of the Trump associates involved.
President Donald Trump and his supporters
have been on a mission to expose why the
Obama administration requested the
unmasking of his associates who were either
mentioned or directly involved in surveilled
conversations with Russian officials last year.
But pursuing that line of inquiry, which
Trump has called » "the biggest story" about
his campaign and Russia, could provide more
ammunition to the administration's critics
than its defenders — and a » new report
» suggests it could backfire in spectacular
fashion.
Intelligence documents obtained by House
Intelligence Committee chairman Devin
Nunes — who subpoenaed the National
Security Agency, FBI, and CIA for them
earlier this summer without telling his
Democratic colleagues » — contain no
evidence of wrongdoing by the Obama
administration, Reuters reported Monday.
But the memos do indicate that some of
Trump's associates made contact with
Russian nationals during the election that
may have violated an 18th-century law called
the Logan Act, which prohibits private
citizens from attempting to intervene in a
conflict between the US and a foreign
government.
It is unclear whether Nunes will share the
content of the intelligence reports with his
fellow committee members. Early reports
have suggested that Trump associates like
former national security adviser Michael
Flynn and early campaign foreign policy aide
Carter Page were either mentioned or directly
involved » in surveilled conversations with
Russian officials during the election.
An intercepted conversation between Russian
officials leaked to The Washington Post »
earlier this summer about Trump's son-in-
law, Jared Kushner, is another example of
how digging deeper into which of Trump's
associates surfaced in US intelligence reports
— and why — has heightened rather than
eased scrutiny of the Trump campaign's ties
to Russia.
The Post reported that Kushner, then a top
transition official and now a senior adviser
to the president, discussed the possibility of
setting up a secure line of communication »
between Trump's transition team and Russia
when he met with then-Russian Ambassador
Sergey Kislyak in December. Kislyak relayed
the request by phone to his superiors in
Moscow in a conversation that was promptly
picked up by US eavesdroppers.
Kislyak's call, which apparently described an
attempt to bypass the US's national-security
and intelligence apparatus, would have gone
into an intelligence report distributed among
top government officials like Susan Rice,
President Barack Obama's national security
adviser.
It also would have raised a big red flag, said
Michael Hayden, a former director of the CIA
and NSA. When asked earlier this year if » he
would have sought to unmask the US person
cited by Kislyak as having proposed a secret
back channel to Russia, Hayden was
unequivocal.
"Oh my, yes," he told Business Insider.
"Anyone would have."
A Democratic committee aide told Business
Insider in June that Nunes and other
Republicans on the committee were trying to
make questions about unmasking "the focal
issue" of the committee's probe into Russia's
election interference because "they're trying
to divert attention away from the
investigation" into Trump's campaign.
"That's the obvious motive," the aide said,
adding that Nunes told the Democrats "super
last minute" about his unmasking subpoenas.
"The Democrats feel that Nunes has gone
rogue, or that he's trying to undermine the
committee because he no longer serves in the
top position on this investigation."
Nunes stepped aside from the Russia
investigation after telling the press and
Trump » , but not his fellow committee
members, that he had seen reports showing
that the intelligence community "incidentally
collected" information about Trump and his
team during the transition period.
(Republican and Democratic sources who
reviewed the same intelligence, however, told
CNN » they saw no evidence of wrongdoing
by the Obama administration.)
The intelligence reports Nunes obtains,
however, will likely be of interest to FBI
special counsel Robert Mueller as he
continues his probe into Russia's election
interference and whether the Trump
campaign colluded with Moscow.
"Pushing the 'unmasking' line only leads to
more information about why the requests
were made," said Susan Hennessey » , a former
attorney for the NSA. "Not a path that's been
helpful to his cause thus far."
Responding to criticism of the subpoenas,
Nunes tweeted » at the time that he was
"seeing a lot of fake news from media elites
and others who have no interest in violations
of Americans' civil liberties via unmaskings."
Current and former US intelligence officials
have acknowledged that leaking the identities
of US persons named in intelligence reports is
illegal. But requests by top administration
officials, like Rice, to identify which US
persons foreign agents are speaking to or
about would not have been unusual or against
the law » .
Indeed, the House Intel Committee under
Nunes' leadership made at least 5-6
unmasking requests to US spy agencies
related to Russia's election meddling between
June 2016-January 2017, the Washington Post
reported » in June. Nunes would have had to
sign off on any committee requests to reveal
the identities of US persons mentioned in
intelligence reports.
Rice, for her part, has denied that she ever
requested unmaskings for political purposes
— but any politically motivated unmasking
request would most likely be shot down by
the NSA anyway.
"The NSA is notoriously conservative in
revealing US identities in its reporting,"
Hayden told Business Insider earlier this
year » . "Obviously, a request from the
national security adviser to unmask an
identity would be given great weight. That
said, it is not automatic and goes through a
carefully documented process at the NSA
before an identity is unmasked."

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