Susan Rice takes center stage in Trump intel drama

WASHINGTON—Susan Rice, a former White House national security adviser, has moved to the center of Republican intelligence probes for allegedly requesting the identities of people in security reports connected to President Donald Trump’s transition team and campaign.

Republicans on Capitol Hill have since questioned her involvement in numerous leaks of sensitive information, and the president suggested today that Rice is a criminal.

“I think it’s going to be the biggest story,” Trump said in an interview with The New York Times. “It’s such an important story for our country and the world. It is one of the big stories of our time.” The Times asked if he thought Rice committed a crime. “Do I think? Yes, I think,” Trump responded.

Rice denied any wrongdoing Tuesday, telling MSNBC the allegations she unmasked Trump officials’ identities or leaked them for political purposes were false.

“I leaked nothing to nobody and never have and never would,” Rice said. “The notion, which some people are trying to suggest, that by asking for the identity of an American person, that is the same as leaking it, is completely false.”

Rice served as President Barack Obama’s national security adviser during his second term and stepped down on Jan. 20. Bloomberg reported Monday she had requested the “unmasking” of names redacted from reports connected to Trump before leaving her White House post.

She explained that, when reviewing raw intelligence data reports as part of her job, she would routinely ask for identities of U.S. citizens. Rice said she did this no more or less during the transition time between the election and Trump’s inauguration than was routine.

The U.S. intelligence community collects raw data on many persons of interest around the world as part of its national security precautions. During this process, U.S. citizens are regularly incidentally recorded. But their identities remain redacted unless a senior intelligence officer asks to unmask them to add context or clarify the significance of something in the intelligence report.

National Security Agency Director Michael Rogers told the House Intelligence Committee last month about 20 people have the authorization to unmask.

Rice said there was no correlation between unmasking someone and leaking the information. When someone gets unmasked, only the requester has access to the identity.

In January, Michael Flynn took over for Rice as Trump’s national security adviser, but his stint was short-lived. Flynn left his position after his name appeared unmasked in intelligence reports and later was leaked to the press. The reports revealed contacts with the Russian ambassador in December. The White House fired him when it became clear Flynn lied about the conversations.

The White House and Republicans in Congress have been investigating how Flynn’s information leaked to the press for weeks without much success. Now, Rice is their No.1 suspect.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told Fox News on Tuesday it would not surprise him if Rice were behind the leaks with the goal of undermining the Trump administration.

“When it comes to Susan Rice, you need to verify, not trust,” Graham said. “I’m not going to prejudge here, but I think every American should know whether or not the national security adviser to President Obama was involved in unmasking Trump transition figures for political purposes.”

Last month, Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., the House Intelligence Committee chairman, met with an anonymous source at the White House who showed him instances of Trump transition officials’ being incidentally surveilled by U.S. intelligence. Nunes said several unmasked names of Trump officials appeared in the reports, including Flynn’s.

The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that Nunes’ committee wants to bring in Rice for questioning.

Meanwhile, the Senate Intelligence Committee is in the middle of its investigation into Russian election meddling. According to The Washington Post, committee chairman Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., said Rice may also be of interest to that investigation.