Susan Rice DENIES Ordering Intel Community To Produce 'Spreadsheets' Involving Trump

The Obama administration's national security advisor played a central role in "unmasking" several Trump campaign officials who had been swept up in USA surveillance operations against foreign targets during last year's presidential election campaign, according to current White House officials and sources on Capitol Hill.

Mr Trump denies any ties to Moscow, and has instead alleged that Mr Obama ordered wiretapping of Trump Tower during the presidential election. Trump launched the first salvo last month when he tweeted that Obama had wiretapped his NY skyscraper, an explosive allegation that senior intelligence and law enforcement officials have denied.

MITCHELL: Did you leak the name of Mike Flynn?

"I leaked nothing to nobody and never have and never would", Rice said.

The White House - which has access to the intelligence that allegedly shows Rice was behind the unmasking - was playing coy. "It is absolutely false that Obama officials used intelligence for political purposes". "No spreadsheet, nothing of the sort".

"The allegation is that somehow Obama administration officials utilised intelligence for political purposes, that is absolutely false", she said. This is completely made up: Let's say there was a conversation between two foreigners about a conversation they were having with an American, who was proposing to sell to them high-tech bomb making equipment. However, senior national security officials can request the identities of the Americans if that helps understand the intelligence better.

Rice could not be reached for comment on the report.

Cotton, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, added that he's "never asked for an unmasked name". Rice's unmasking requests were found during that review, according to the official, who insisted on anonymity in order to discuss the sensitive information. "Our committee routinely reviews whether our intelligence agencies are properly masking names and unmasking them as appropriate". Specifically, this provision outlines several possible justifications upon which the government can rely to claim the unmasking was necessary, such as if the information indicates the US person is an agent of a foreign power, is engaged in the unauthorized disclosure of classified information, may be involved in a crime, or may be the target of hostile intelligence activities of a foreign power.

RICE: That is exactly right, Andrea. In order to protect the privacy rights of those USA persons, the government has imposed procedures for "minimizing" or "masking" those persons' identities.

"If I saw an intelligence report that looked potentially significant ..." The intelligence community then process that request through their normal procedures and if they feel they can give the answer, they will give the answer. "That's necessary for me to do my job". "Nor will we aid and abet the people trying to misinform you, the American people, by creating a diversion".

This is the same Susan Rice who also claimed in 2014 that Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl "served the United States with honor and distinction" and that he "wasn't simply a hostage; he was an American prisoner of war captured on the battlefield".

McCAIN: "I think the circumstances indicate that there's a possibility that that request could have been politically motivated".