Susan Rice’s great unmasking escape: National Security Council records sent to Obama Library
Judicial Watch also told the records may not be publicly available for 5 years, so it’s up to Congress to get the records.
It seems ages ago, but was just a couple of months ago that controversy swirled around former National Security Advisor Susan Rice’s “unmasking” of names from classified intelligence reports.
We reported on the inconsistencies in Rice’s story on April 3, Susan Rice unmasked? Previously said “I know nothing about” Nunes allegations, and the following day on her interview by Andrea Mitchell, Susan Rice: Sought unmasking but “absolutely not for any political purpose”:
Mitchell’s questions allowed Rice to confuse the issue by mixing unmasking and leaking, and also framing questions as to intent rather than the facts of what happened.
Rice did not deny unmasking names of Trump campaign and transition persons, but rather, refused to name names and went back into a defense of lack of bad intent.
“I received those reports, and there were occasions I would receive a report in which a U.S. person” … “and sometimes it was necessary to find out who that U.S. official was.” Rice didn’t dispute that sometimes she requested identification. She said intelligence community made decision whether to disclose the name she had requested.
“Absolutely not for any political purpose”
Rice said “I’m not going to sit here and prejudge” whether willing to testify before Congress, but later refused a Senate request to testify voluntarily. That lead to this Trump response on Twitter:
Now there is a new twist. Those White House unmasking records have been removed … to the Obama Library in Chicago, which isn’t even built yet.
This all came known when Judicial Watch sought the records. Judicial Watch’s press release states, in part, that the records not only have been removed, they may be unavailable for 5 years:
Judicial Watch today announced that the National Security Council (NSC) on May 23, 2017, informed it by letter that the materials regarding the unmasking by Obama National Security Advisor Susan Rice of “the identities of any U.S. citizens associated with the Trump presidential campaign or transition team” have been removed to the Obama Library.
The NSC will not fulfill an April 4 Judicial Watch request for records regarding information relating to people “who were identified pursuant to intelligence collection activities.”
The agency also informed Judicial Watch that it would not turn over communications with any Intelligence Community member or agency concerning the alleged Russian involvement in the 2016 presidential election; the hacking of DNC computers; or the suspected communications between Russia and Trump campaign/transition officials. Specifically, the NSC told Judicial Watch:
Documents from the Obama administration have been transferred to the Barack Obama Presidential Library. You may send your request to the Obama Library. However, you should be aware that under the Presidential Records Act, Presidential records remain closed to the public for five years after an administration has left office.
There is a legal issue, as Judicial Watch noted in its press release, as to whether the National Security Council is subject to the Freedom of Information Act. So it might be that the transfer of files didn’t create actual legal harm, but that point is moot if the files have been removed.
This doesn’t mean the records are gone forever. The unmasking documents likely exist in the intelligence agency files. But for a non-governmental entity like Judicial Watch they might as well be on Mars.
As Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, indicates in this video, it may be up to Congress or the Special Counsel to obtain the documents.
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Comments
D.C. Is more corrupt than the drug cartels. How does this happen, come on big brains, explain this to the grandmother here. I am watching thus great country swirling the drain and NO ONE SEEMS TO CARE!
We do and Donald Trump does, Louis Gomert does, most of talk radio does, etc.
Who doesn’t (who doesn’t that matters, anyway?) – THE GOPe.
The Crying Boehners are a greater roadblock than the democrats.
Primary-out enough rinos rats and replace them with patriots, and you’ll see some ‘caring.’
Great new band name – The Crying Boehners.
Unfortunately it will probably be a prog-rock group.
Here we have another huge democrat corruption and obstruction of justice event in the open: Will the Justice Department take a shot, or will we simply hear more silence from Republican leadership lambs?
“Republican leadership” is an oxymoron.
We need to stop using the expression, or we mock ourselves every time we do.
I understand your point.
What short name do you propose to refer collectively to those Republicans who currently occupy congressional positions heretofore referred to as “leadership”?
RINOs, leading from Behind Obama……….
They are RINOs, but RINO includes many who are not in “leadership” positions. We need a good label for the false “leaders.”
They are like the “Judas Goat.”
“A Judas goat is a trained goat used in general animal herding. The Judas goat is trained to associate with sheep or cattle, leading them to a specific destination. In stockyards, a Judas goat will lead sheep to slaughter, while its own life is spared.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judas_goat
Let’s also keep in mind that the Obama “Library” will not contain his papers, as other Presidential Libraries do. The National Archives hasn’t said what the game plan is at this point, so the records are being processed for now in an old furniture store in the Chicago suburbs (the address shown in the letter above is correct — makes me wonder how good the security and fire protection might be). I’ve seen some reports that seem to indicate that the records will be digitized and made available at the Obama Library in that manner, but the physical records will likely remain with the National Archives at some to be named later location. In any event, I suspect research involving those records (once they are available) will be challenging as they will likely be mixed in with other Archives collections somewhere.
This reminds me of the following scene from “Raiders of the Lost Ark”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRP0MBNoieY
Why would somebody as undistinguished as Barry Obama come to the attention of somebody like al-Mansour? Why would al-Mansour intervene on behalf of a purported infidel? Something is suspicious here.
Barry gave him a lewinsky.
Barry is too narcissistic to give anything – he only gets.
Two words: “Manchurian Candidate.”
You only need to listen to Obama talking off script to get a grasp of just how underwhelming a person he is.
LOL RE: “WORKED AS AN “EDITOR IN CHIEF” 50 HOURS A WEEK.”
We all know that is just not true.
It would have cut into his dope time! LOL
Apparently he gave up his law licence.
What I’d like to see are his school and college grades.
What could go wrong?
https://www.archives.gov/st-louis/military-personnel/fire-1973.html
So, nothing in the Obama Library can be subpoenaed? How, exactly does that work?
What is the point of a “library” if you have to subpoena its contents?
It’s not a library; it’s an archive. But the records belong to the public, so they cannot call it Obama’s archive. They have to use the fig leaf of “library” to give it a look of being a public facility. But it’s not, and they aren’t fooling anyone except themselves.
It’s high time taxpayer money stop funding these “presidential” libraries.
Just in. Signs for Obama’s have already been made: “LIE-Barry.”
The Democrats outmaneuver the Republicans at every turn
What the h€ll is Sessions doing for Gods sakes !!!
It’s up to the GOPe to step up.
Will “Paul and the Pussies” (new trademark) do it?
Primary the GOPe rats out.
have been removed to the Obama Library.
Cute; passive voice there … like it’s nobody’s fault, but the records were spirited off by the Space Unicorns while nobody was looking.
My bet? The records have been destroyed. Everything else is a ploy to prevent anyone from finding that out for a few years, until any trails have gone nice and cold, or the Dems are in charge again and can smother it all, forever.
We don’t yet have any real grasp of the desperate depths of criminality plumbed by the Obama administration.
Somebody removed them – they didn’t just walk off.
Find out who removed them (and who ordered the removal) and indict them for obstruction of justice – once and for all!
If the stone blocking the tomb of obama’s records in office is ever rolled aside we will find that his was the most corrupt one in our nation’s history. He has not only violated his oath of office but also most of the laws of the land. He has misused, for personal gain, most of the federal agencies in our government. He has lied to the American people on a daily/hourly basis. Everything he touched has become suspect for its legal foundations. The man was a one man mafia!
“The man was a one man mafia!…”
Don’t give him that kind of credit. He just wasn’t that bright. His handlers were, however. And obama was easily corrupted.
When obama started believing his own press, he started making decisions on his own. He placed the ENTIRE leftist farm (and his malignant legacy, for whatever it was) on hiillary clinton.
Not too bright, is he?
And herein lies the problem. Obama believed the fake news about his brain being the size of a small planet when in fact it was no larger than an anorexic peanut.
Listening to this guy talk at the best of times is an exercise in self deception (about how truly magnificent his brain is) but listening to him talk off prompter is another world of pain altogether!
The guys intellect is seriously limited. It was only the left who wanted a god and made him their king that kept this guys self created legend going.
Obama is a progressive ideologue which folks confuse with smarts….Spitting out the Marxist claptrap is not intelligence, it’s indoctrination.
Obama is always the smartest man in an airplane toilet.
Unless he’s squeezed in a trick – then he’s not……..
Sounds legit. Oh…..it sounds totally against the law.
Is Sandy Berger now the chief archivist for the Archives?
You know what an banana republic looks like. This is what an Obama republic looks like.
She knew she didn’t have to leak anything. All she had to do was unmask and the leak machine would function on it own.
Don’t expect anything that would out Obumbler or his peeps as corrupt to appear in his ‘libary.’
“Dirty Rice.”
“… so it’s up to Congress to get the records.”
Good luck with that! Here is something I never would have guessed about how personally deep into the Clinton corruption Mueller:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-06-19/hillary-clinton-told-fbis-mueller-deliver-uranium-russians-2009-secret-plane-side-ta
Is it a stretch to say that Mueller is part of the Clinton protection team? How can we possibly expect that Congress will cooperate in cleaning up the swamp? Are all legal channels for restoring our democracy closed?
Considering how since last November, calls for violence against police has expanded to encompass just about anyone and anything defending the American Way, I can only conclude that Trump is a serious threat to these criminals. These enemies of America are determined to burn down the house rather than relent to those who insist on “playing nice” out of a naive belief that passive virtue will prevail against evil. Do we have the spine to fight these people or don’t we?
As a detective, I worked with the feds. They copy and store everything. My partner was on a task force. To do anything, he had to submit the request to his boss, who sent it to his boss, who sent it to his boss for approval. Then back down the chain. All by email.
If those emails were scrubbed after Trump won, that is a crime. If not they are sitting right there in some mid level supervisor’s email box.
What kills me is that if you let old dog detectives like my crew work this, we’d have those pencil necked geek feds peeing themselves in a week and doing a perp walk by August!
This is all a charade. No real cops are working this. Trump should send down someone to NSC and kick some crap loose! He won. Act like it.
RE: “This is all a charade. No real cops are working this.”
….and never forget….Email is Forevah!
I don’t know if anyone else is tired of the shenanigans of the Obama crew, but I am. The cleverness of Obama has grown tedious many years ago, far beyond mere politics.
Why can’t some judge just issue a warrant for the documents, along with anyone hindering their retrieval? ALSO, why would anyone from the last administration still have their clearance now? If those documents are in any fashion classified, then why would Obama or Rice still have access to them – they don’t work for the government any longer (except perhaps for the ‘Deep State’)
Okay, I’ll bite. The NSC can, I believe, under the law, decline to release the request by Sec. Rice because they didn’t produce the document. Sort of like the clerk of court can’t give someone a copy of a police report as they’re not the originating agency. Fine. However, why can’t the NSC provide a redacted information on what they produced for Sec. Rice and as that document (which must exist) was produced by them and cannot be reasonably seen as part of the Presidential Library Archives.
IMO, this is clearly a bait and switch. Someone is slow walking this data to ensure that by the time it’s released (maybe five years) we’re past the 2020 presidential election.
The GOP “leadership” needs to rent, grow or buy a pair and act as if they’re in power! Demand the records and hold the NSC and whomever else has the records in contempt until produced. Moreover, what is the misdirection with the “Obama Presidential Library” mumbo-jumbo?!? eRecords, Presidential Records Act and a plethora of other laws dictate who is responsible for and how long the retention of documents must be and at no point does it prescribe a non-profit should simple be given everything to “safeguard”. Christ, can the media actually do something instead of screaming “Russia”!
The GOP “leadership” is probably too busy planning their next Foam Party with Little Marco.
I have mentioned before that much of what is happening now is not the undermining of the Trump administration, but the attempt to protect members of the Obama administration, including President Obama. And, the Establishment Republicans are right in there helping the Democrats do that.
Nunes saw these records, before he was disappeared. So, they were “released” to the Obama “Library” by members of the Trump administration. When Nunes went public, the records should have been seized immediately, by the DOJ, as potential evidence of a criminal offense. But, this was not done. So, now potential evidence of a crime is in the wind. Bigger than Watergate, people.
“… including President Obama”
WTF THERE IS NO PRESIDENT OBAMA!
There is only a much hated “citizen” Obama who thinks he’s coated with Teflon. The ONLY honor and respect he has is what ‘honor and respect’ his deluded sycophants assign him. To the rest of the nation he could be the dude pumping gas down at the corner, after ripping off America for BILLIONS of dollars.
Special Counsel? Hahahahahaha. Special Counsels are only for Republicans. And Congress? Republicans don’t have the testosterone to do anything substantive about this outrage! Once again Team Obama / Team Hillary walks……..
It’s over and this country is doomed to failure!