Sen. Tom Cotton Tuesday backed Sen. Lindsey Graham's call to subpoena several of former President Barack Obama's officials who were involved in the unmasking of President Donald Trump's first National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, saying it's important to know what was happening at the end of the previous presidential administration.
"Some of them may have had legitimate reasons," the Arkansas Republican said on Fox News' "America's Newsroom" of the move to reveal Flynn as the person shown through surveillance as speaking with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
"There were career and intelligence professionals, many of whom operate undercover, but there were a lot of partisan officials as well," Cotton said about the list of Obama officials revealed to have sought Flynn's identity. "(There were) the White House chief of staff, the Secretary of the Treasury, even Vice President Joe Biden, himself. When you pile that on to the abuses of getting electronic wiretaps on some Trump campaign advisers, we need to get to the bottom of what is happening."
Graham, R-S.C., who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Monday his panel plans a vote on June 4 for a subpoena authorization for several people, including former FBI Director James Comey, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, a former CIA Director John Brennan, reports The Hill.
Last week, Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Ron Johnson, R-Wis., made a list of Obama officials who had requested Flynn's identity be unmasked after the list was declassified by Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell.
Cotton on Tuesday said there is no doubt, based on the declassified list, that Obama and Biden were at least "well aware" of the FBI and its misconduct in Flynn's case.
"The acting attorney general told the House Intelligence Committee that she learned the unmasking of Michael Flynn’s phone call from President Obama himself," said Cotton. "That is why it is so important we get to the bottom of what was going on in the final days of the Obama administration . . . it appears to be gross abuses of power.”
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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