Susan Rice meets with House Intelligence Committee
Former National Security Adviser Susan Rice appeared on Capitol Hill on Wednesday for a meeting with the House Intelligence Committee, presumably as it relates to the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, specifically the issue of the "unmasking" of Trump associates during the presidential transition.
Rice was seen entering the Capitol by CBS News early Wednesday morning as she was expected to face questions from lawmakers in a closed-session of interviews.
First reported by The Wall Street Journal, subpoenas were issued to seek information about requests made by the former Obama administration official, as well as former CIA Director John Brennan and former UN Ambassador Samantha Power to unmask names contained in classified documents.
Rice did at times ask that certain names in intelligence reports be "unmasked" in order to understand the context in which they were mentioned in intelligence reports, a former national security official previously told CBS News.
Rice asked for the identities of those Americans picked up during surveillance of foreign nationals when it was deemed important context for national security, and she did not ask that the information be disseminated broadly, according to this former official.
A Bloomberg report said that Rice requested the unmasking of Trump officials. Names of Americans swept up incidentally in the collection of intelligence are normally masked, or kept redacted, in intelligence briefings. However, the law provides for much leeway when it comes to unmasking by National Security Council officials, which suggests that Rice's request was legal.
President Donald Trump had tweeted that Trump Tower had been wiretapped by then-President Obama, a claim for which there is still no evidence. Later, House Intelligence chairman Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., said he had obtained evidence showing that the names of Trump associates that were swept up incidentally by intelligence agencies had been unmasked. That evidence is believed to have been provided to Nunes by the National Security Council.
CBS News' Margaret Brennan contributed to this report.
