Pressure Mounting: Top Democrat Open to Susan Rice Testifying

Rep. Adam Schiff indicated that former White House national security adviser Susan Rice is “welcome to testify” before the House intelligence committee on reports alleging that she was responsible for “unmasking” the identities of Trump campaign officials.

“Whether she has pertinent testimony or not, I can’t say. If she does, we’d be happy to have her come in,” Schiff told CNN’s Chris Cuomo Wednesday on “New Day.”

The bombshell story was first reported by Bloomberg on Monday:

The pattern of Rice’s requests was discovered in a National Security Council review of the government’s policy on “unmasking” the identities of individuals in the U.S. who are not targets of electronic eavesdropping, but whose communications are collected incidentally. Normally those names are redacted from summaries of monitored conversations and appear in reports as something like “U.S. Person One.”

Bloomberg reported that two U.S. officials spoke to them on the condition of anonymity, where they admitted that the National Security Council’s senior director for intelligence, Ezra Cohen-Watnick, oversaw the review of Trump associates involved with the Trump campaign and transition.

In February, Cohen-Watnick first became aware that Rice attempted to unmask U.S. persons in intelligence reports on multiple occasions that related to Trump’s team.

After he became aware of what was going on, Cohen-Watnick then spoke with the White House General Counsel’s office on what was happening. Bloomberg reports that the General Counsel’s Office told him to “end his own research into the unmasking policy.”

The story went one step further on Tuesday when Susan Rice was exposed for lying about having any knowledge of the “unmasking.”

Last month on “PBS NewsHour,” Rice was asked point blank about the reports from the Trump administration claiming they were wiretapped.

“I know nothing about this,” Rice said, adding, “I was surprised to see reports from Chairman Nunes on that account today.”

Rice attempted to clear the air on Tuesday when she sat down for an interview with MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports.”

When asked by Mitchell about the accusations, Rice said they “absolutely false.”

Mitchell pressed Rice to discuss whether or not she unmasked any names associated with the Trump transition team.

“Absolutely not — for any political purposes — to spy, expose, anything,” Rice claimed.

“Did you leak the name of Mike Flynn?” Mitchell asked.

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

Testifying before the committee or seeing the documents from the White House would clear the air on this entire report.

Someone is lying, and the American people deserve to know the truth.

The post Pressure Mounting: Top Democrat Open to Susan Rice Testifying appeared first on RedState.

Source: http://www.redstate.com/mwalsh8/2017/04/05/pressure-mounting-top-democrat-open-susan-rice-testifying/