Flynn’s name was never ‘masked’ on key intelligence document: report

An FBI report on communications between former national security adviser Michael Flynn and then-Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak never redacted Flynn’s name, despite GOP allegations that Flynn was “unmasked” by the Obama administration.

The Washington Post reported Wednesday that former U.S. officials with knowledge of the FBI’s report on Flynn’s communications with Kislyak, which eventually led to his ouster from the White House and later charges of lying to FBI agents, never masked Flynn’s name because his name and position were relevant to understanding the report.

If true, the news would come as Republicans have sought for weeks to determine whether top officials in the Obama administration sought to reveal Flynn’s identity and status as the subject of an investigation for political purposes. Flynn was ousted from the White House after news reports revealed he had lied to Vice President Pence about his conversations with Kislyak in 2017.

“When the FBI circulated [the report], they included Flynn’s name from the beginning” one former official told the Post. “There were therefore no requests for the unmasking of that information.”

Republicans have maintained that whichever Obama administration officials were involved in the leak of information about Flynn’s phone call with the Russians to the news media were involved in a crime, as it is a felony to release classified materials without going through the proper channels.

President Trump himself has suggested that former President Obama was involved in the effort, which he has dubbed “Obamagate” and referred to in multiple tweets and at White House news conferences in recent days.