Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, says it’s scary to know which Obama administration officials requested and received the identity of a U.S. citizen mentioned in classified foreign intelligence reports during the 2016 presidential transition.
“It’s scary who they are. You have the president’s chief of staff, the president’s vice president, you have people as close to President Obama as there can possibly be. And we should have a chance to talk to these people and ask them why in the heck were you doing this, particularly in this time frame,” Jordan said Thursday during an appearance on Newsmax TV’s “Spicer & Co.”
The person whose name was unmasked was Michael Flynn, who briefly served as Trump’s national security adviser in early 2017 before resigning after reports he had misled Vice President Mike Pence about his phone calls with Russia’s ambassador.
Trump and his allies claim that unmasking was used to spy on Flynn and potentially entrap him.
Jordan says former FBI Director James Comey is “the common denominator throughout all of this.
“He was the guy who was in charge of the FBI during the Clinton investigation, in charge of the FBI one when they started the Trump-Russia investigation, stayed onto the new administration. … Jim Comey is the central player. I hope we get a chance to talk to him again.”
Unmasking, a term used when the identity of a U.S. citizen, lawful resident or corporate entity is revealed in classified intelligence reports, is designed to be used only for national security reasons.
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Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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