Senate Judiciary Committee begins to shift its focus to the Obama ‘unmasking’ scandal

  I have been saying for quite some time that the Democrats might rue the day they kept pushing the Russia collusion/hacking angle because it might just come back around to them. They are not clean either…

  Recently we learned that Barack Obama knew about Russia’s attempted hacking but he decided to do nothing about it because he did not want to do anything that might take down the Democrats in election he felt was already in the bag for Hillary Clinton. That in and of itself deserves an investigation because he apparently put politics ahead of the “integrity of the electoral process” but that will probably have to wait for a different day.

  While that aspect of the Russia hacking scandal seems to have gone unnoticed by the mainstream media and the establishment in Washington it appears as if the Senate Judiciary Committee is starting to shift it focus to the Obama administration on an issue where, unlike the Trump collusion aspect of the investigation, there is actual evidence of wrongdoing–I am referring to the “unmasking scandal. Here is more:

After months of investigating alleged Russian meddling and possible collusion with the Trump campaign, the Senate Judiciary Committee appears to be shifting its attention to the Obama administration’s surveillance and “unmasking” of Trump campaign and transition officials.

Two top Republican senators have asked the FBI to turn over its applications for warrants to spy on Americans tied to its probe on Russia’s election interference during the 2016 presidential election. The committee also reportedly held a closed door meeting on Wednesday, focused on the “unmasking” of Trump officials by the Obama White House.

And more:

“We are writing to request information regarding FISA-related actions by the FBI and the Justice Department in the course of the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election, including the investigations into allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians,” the two GOP senators said.

In addition to any proposed or finalized warrant applications to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, the two senators also want the court’s responses.

And more still:

During the closed-door hearing with FBI officials on Wednesday, Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee reportedly explored the unmasking accusations more deeply.

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, Rhode Island Democrat, told Carl Ghattas, executive assistant director of the FBI national security branch, that he specifically wants answers during the closed-door hearing about the leaks surrounding President Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, who resigned over contacts with Russia.

“There is a specific allegation that has been floating around that the conversations between Michael Flynn and [Russian] Ambassador [Sergey] Kislyak came into the White House with Flynn masked,” Mr. Whitehouse told his fellow committee members. “And that a decision was made in the Obama White House to unmask him — which then led to leaks to the newspapers and so forth.”

Mr. Ghattas heads up the FBI’s operations and intelligence efforts involving national security matters. In March, Ms. Rice admitted to requesting the unmasking of some Americans redacted in raw intelligence reports but argued that the requests were part of her job and were not politically motivated.

This could get interesting before all is said and done.

malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium