Thread by @GeorgeCroner

The former "acting" (and I use that term in its most literal sense) DNI is completely adrift on the "unmasking" issue, just as he was when he ordered the substantively pointless but politically motivated declassification of an NSA memo detailing Flynn unmasking requests made /1

https://twitter.com/AshaRangappa_/status/1316497168405073925

at the end of 2016. Anyone who doubts the legitimacy of the surveillance that contributed to the questioning of Flynn needs to read Sally Yates's testimony given to the Senate Judiciary Cmte. in August. Here's the Washington Post's summary: 1) The Trump transition team was not /2

being surveilled, nor was Flynn. While she could not say why because of national security concerns, it was obvious that then- Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak was the one being monitored. Flynn wound up being recorded when he spoke with Kislyak; 2) Flynn was attempting to /3

undercut sanctions (per Yates’s testimony: “General Flynn had essentially neutered the U.S. government’s message of deterrence”); 3) Flynn lied to the vice president about his calls; 4) The FBI’s investigation was a counterintelligence — not criminal — investigation; /4

5) The investigation was not closed on Jan. 4 precisely because the FBI learned of Flynn’s conversation with Kislyak; 6) Flynn’s lying to the FBI was material and indeed at the core of the counterintelligence investigation, contrary to Attorney General William P. Barr’s /5

assertion in trying to undo Flynn’s guilty plea by dismissing the case; and 7) It was highly abnormal and unprecedented for the attorney general to step in to rescue a friend of the president in this way, an action that damages the Justice Department's credibility. /6

So, Flynn's identity was never masked because he was picked up on a FISA Title I surveillance of Kislyak undermining U.S. policy. @RichardGrenell's pointless declassification of unmasking requests made to NSA relating to Flynn's identity had nothing to with any sort of /7

improper counterintelligence directed at incoming members of the Trump administration. @RichardGrenell ignores that this country only has one government at a time and, in late 2016 and early 2017, that government's actions were being undermined by Flynn in his conversations /8

with a senior official of the foreign government that had directly interfered in the recent election where that foreign government had a decided preference for Donald Trump. If @RichardGrennell questions that assertion, he should read the January 2017 Intelligence Community /9

Assessment or perhaps the findings of the Republican-controlled Senate Intelligence Committee on Russian interference in the 2016 election - particularly Vols. IV and V.

I address the entire subject of "unmasking" in Appendix D of this Report upenn.us5.list-manage.com/track/click?u=…. /10

(I also wrote the section at pp. 37-71 describing the dangers posed by the Durham and Bash "investigations"). Grennell's declassification of the memo that he directed NSA produce regarding Flynn "unmasking" requests served no valid intelligence purpose and is representative /11

of the now-confirmed futility of the "Bash investigation" into "unmasking" - a contretemps manufactured by Trump and his fellow travelers and abetted by partisan DNIs like Grennell and Ratcliffe who obsequiously put political objectives above the interests of the Intelligence /12

Community they swore to lead. As noted by @AshaRangappa_ and @MaxBoot, these are the essential facts that won't be rebutted by empty suggestions from @RichardGrenell that they're unaware of "undisclosed information." If there was anything ... anything ... that could have /13

rescued the Bash inquiry from its ignominious end, believe me, the current DNI would already have declassified and sent it to @LindseyGrahamSC to further the "Russian Hoax" narrative that is an insult to the American electorate. Instead, @RichardGrenell is left to backpedal /14

furiously saying that the "unmasking" wasn't "illegal" but shouldn't have occurred during the "peaceful transition of power." I think he has hypoxia stemming from inexperience with ever attempting to occupy the high ground. To have this Trump acolyte talk about "DC morals" /15

and "peaceful transition" betrays the level of hypocrisy by all those who insult by suggesting that they have done anything to "make American great again." /End