No Improper Activity Is Found in ‘Unmasking’ Requests Under Obama
Trump and Republicans in Congress saw evidence of plot to spy on his incoming administration
A federal prosecutor’s review found no improper activity by Obama administration officials who requested the identities of Americans whose names were redacted in classified intelligence reports around the time of the 2016 presidential election, two officials familiar with the matter said.
The prosecutor, John Bash, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas, left the Justice Department last week for a job in the private sector.
At the direction of Attorney General William Barr, Mr. Bash reviewed Obama officials’ requests for “unmaskings,” a common practice in which authorities request and receive the names of U.S. citizens mentioned in intelligence reports, which often include intercepted communications of foreign officials under electronic surveillance.
President Trump and Republicans in Congress cited the unmasking requests as evidence of a plot by senior Obama officials to spy on Mr. Trump’s incoming administration. In particular, they pointed to unmasking requests of conversations that included Mr. Trump’s incoming national security adviser, Michael Flynn.
Mr. Bash’s review, announced in May, came as part of a broader, ongoing criminal investigation Mr. Barr ordered into the origins of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Russia probe, led by John Durham, the U.S. attorney in Connecticut. Mr. Bash was asked to review whether the unmasking requests were improper, and his research was intended to be folded into Mr. Durham’s probe, officials said.
Mr. Barr has told top Republicans not to expect findings or new indictments by Mr. Durham before the Nov. 3 presidential election, dealing a disappointment to Mr. Trump and his supporters in Congress. They had hoped
the probe would shed new light on the underpinnings of the investigation into links between the Trump campaign and Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Mr. Durham’s investigation has led one FBI lawyer to plead guilty to altering a document used to obtain surveillance against a former Trump campaign adviser. Little else has been made public about any additional action Mr. Durham plans to take.
Reacting to news reports that Mr. Bash’s inquiry had yielded no major findings of wrongdoing, Mr.
Trump said in a Wednesday interview with Newsmax: “Personally, I think it’s ridiculous. It’s ridiculous. It’s a disgrace.” Mr. Trump added: ”I think it’s really a horrible thing that they’re allowed to get away—when they say no indictments, they actually said no indictments before the election.”
In earlier interviews, Mr. Trump criticized Mr. Barr, who has been one of his most loyal cabinet members.
Mr. Trump has escalated pressure on his attorney general to prosecute his political rivals in the weeks leading up to the election.
“Unless Bill Barr indicts these people for crimes, the greatest political crime in the history of our country, then we’re going to get little satisfaction unless I win,” Mr. Trump told Fox Business Network last week.
Former Obama administration officials said they weren’t surprised by Mr. Bash’s conclusions.
“There was never any wrongdoing,” Nick Shapiro, who was deputy chief of staff at the Central Intelligence Agency during the Obama administration, said in a statement. “This much-hyped and misleading nonsense was a politically motivated probe initiated by William Barr to please Donald Trump, and now they are just trying to quietly bury it and pretend like no gross abuse of power ever happened.”
Mr. Flynn resigned weeks into his tenure over his conflicting statements about his contacts with a Russian official before the inauguration. He later pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about those talks. Still later, he attempted to withdraw his guilty plea. The Justice Department
has moved to drop the charge against him, saying Mr. Flynn’s false statements to the FBI weren’t material to a continuing investigation.
