Vice President Joe Biden with President Barack Obama, in 2013. Leigh Vogel / WireImage file
Trump and his allies call it “Obamagate,” and the claims are multifold: that Obama and Biden had advance knowledge of the FBI’s plans to interview Flynn about phone calls he had with the Russian ambassador to the U.S. during the 2017 presidential transition period; and that Biden nefariously requested the “unmasking” of Flynn, who was an unnamed American who turned up in intelligence collected from the communications of foreigners under U.S. surveillance.
Former Obama administration officials say it is false that Biden or Obama knew in advance about the FBI’s interview of Flynn, which took place four days after Trump took office — a contention that is corroborated by a review of the very documents that Trump and his allies are citing to bolster their claims.
The documents included a letter from the head of the National Security Agency, Gen. Paul Nakasone, which said that the administration officials who had made the requests were authorized to receive the information, and that the requests had been reviewed by the NSA at the time to make sure they were appropriately justified.
Flynn, a retired Army lieutenant general, was fired less than a month after he became Trump’s national security adviser for lying to Vice President Mike Pence and other senior White House officials by saying he hadn’t discussed sanctions with Kislyak. Flynn later pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about the same thing.
Bates issued a separate statement saying that “all normal procedures were followed” with the “unmasking” requests pertaining to Flynn and that “none of these individuals could have known Flynn’s identity beforehand.”
Rice’s lawyer responded at the time that “the Obama White House was justifiably concerned about how comprehensive they should be in their briefings regarding Russia to members of the Trump transition team, particularly Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, given the concerning communications between him and Russian officials.”
Navy Vet
Article URL : https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/trump-allies-push-obamagate-record-fails-back-them-n1206666