CBS News Source: Susan Rice Asked For 'Unmasking' Of Trump Advisers
WASHINGTON (CBSNewYork/AP) -- A top Obama national security adviser said it's "absolutely false'' that the previous administration used intelligence about President Donald Trump's associates for political purposes.
A source close to former Obama National Security Adviser Susan Rice confirmed to CBS News that Rice had asked for names of the Trump team to be unmasked to her after seeing them referenced in intelligence briefs.
Identities of U.S. civilians caught in U.S. intelligence are usually concealed or masked, CBS2's Dick Brennan reported.
"There's a troubling direction that some of this is going in," White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said, adding the focus should be on Obama administration leaks. "The deputy assistant secretary for defense of Russian Affairs said very publicly that this was part of an attempt of the Obama administration to spread classified information."
As national security adviser it was within Rice's authority to request unmasking of names, although the source says Rice did not ask that the names be distributed through the intelligence community as members of the Trump White House continue to allege.
Rice said it was sometimes necessary for her to request the identity of Americans whose communications were swept up in intelligence reports. She says the requests would only be made for national security purposes.
Rice, in an interview on MSNBC, would not say whether she had viewed intelligence involving Trump and his aides. She said that information is classified.
She said that as National Security Adviser she would sometimes ask for identities of U.S. civilians caught up in foreign surveillance, but it had nothing to do with politics.
"There is no equivalence between the so-called unmasking and leaking. The effort to ask for the identity of an American citizen is necessary to understand an intelligence report in some instances," she said.
Rice also denied that she leaked information to the press, saying "I leaked nothing to nobody.''
In the meantime, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) says he will move to end an expected filibuster by Democrats of the nomination to the Supreme Court of Neil Gorsuch. McConnell has said he will seek a vote on the so-called "nuclear option" to change Senate rules and confirm Gorsuch with a simple majority.
"It should be unsettling to everyone that our colleagues across the aisle have brought the Senate to this new low, and on such an impressive nominee with such broad bipartisan support," McConnell said.
Democrats said they won't take the blame if Republicans do with the nuclear option.
"Every time int he history of this country that a Supreme Court nominee has failed to earn the necessary votes to pass the Senate, the answer has been to change the nominee, not the rules," Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said.
On Tuesday, President Trump was out on the stump talking to a trade group, and repeating a campaign slogan.
"I don't want to be president of the world. I am President of the United States, and from now on it's going to be America first," he said.
It appears if things unfold as expected a final Senate vote on Gorsuch would come on Friday.
(© Copyright 2017 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)