On Monday, Republican Senator Chuck Grassley grilled former acting Attorney General Sally Yates and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper on whether or not they had reviewed classified documents in which Trump, his associates, or members of Congress were spied on and whether or not their names had been “unmasked.”
When U.S. intelligence agencies spy on foreigners who happen to be talking to an American citizen, they are supposed to hide or “minimize” the name of that American and they are not allowed to view that name unless there are specific national security reasons to do so. The process of uncovering these names of surveilled American citizens is known as “unmasking.”
Senator Grassley asked Yates and Clapper a simple question. “Did either of you ever review classified documents in which Mr. Trump, his associates, or members of congress had been unmasked?”
“Well, yes,” responded Obama’s DNI James Clapper.
Grassley then asked Clapper if he could provide details on why he was viewing these unmasked names.
“No, I can’t,” Clapper responded.
Grassley then posed the same question to Sally Yates, to which she gave the same response, that she had indeed viewed the unmasked names of Trump, his associates, or members of Congress, but she could not provide any details.
The question about unmasking is asked about 2 minutes and 19 seconds into the video.
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