There was NSA product being gathered on General Michael Flynn before the Kislyak phone call. That is flat out spying.
— Adam Housley (@adamhousley) May 13, 2020
Earlier this week, it was reported that Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell had declassified a list of former Obama administration officials who were allegedly part of the effort to “unmask” then-incoming national security adviser Michael Flynn, which led to charges against the retired lieutenant general.
CBS News’ Catherine Herridge has now received the list of names who, according to Grenell’s declassification notification, “may have received Lt. Gen. Flynn’s identity in response to a request processed between 8 November 2016 and 31 January 2017 to unmask an identity that had been generically referred to in an NSA foreign intelligence report.”
“Each individual was an authorized recipient of the original report and the unmasking was approved through NSA’s standard process, which includes a review of the justification for the request,” Grenell continued. “Only certain personnel are authorized to submit unmasking requests into the NSA system. In this case, 16 authorized individuals requested unmaskings for [redacted] different NSA intelligence reports for select identified people.”
“While the principals are identified below, we cannot confirm they saw the unmasked information,” Grenell warned. “This response does not include any requests outside of the specified time-frame.”
The list includes the usual suspects involved in the Russia-collusion narrative, such as former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power, former Director for National Intelligence James Clapper, former Director of the CIA John Brennan, and former FBI Director James Comey.
The last entry on the list, however, raises some eyebrows. It appears former vice president and de facto Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden had requested the information.