Former CIA Director John Brennan on Thursday lashed out at President Donald Trump in the wake of revelations that he was among various Obama-era officials who may have received “unmasked” intelligence on former Let. Gen. Michael Flynn, accusing the president of overseeing the most odious “disinformation machine” in history.
“.@realDonaldTrump’s propaganda & disinformation machine, which operates according to a despot’s playbook, is the most aggressive & odious in history,” Brennan, who served as then-President Barack Obama’s top spy between 2013 and 2017, wrote on social media. “It far surpasses even Russia’s ability to trample the truth, harm U.S. security, & undermine America’s reputation worldwide.
Brennan’s outbursts come one day after acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell submitted the declassified list of Obama officials who had requested names to be “unmasked” between November 8, 2016, and Jan. 31, 2017 to Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Ron Johnson (R-WI) and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA). Other top Obama officials included in such list are former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Samatha Power, former White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, and former Vice President Joe Biden.
The list became public days after the Department of Justice dropped its criminal case against Flynn, who pleaded guilty to making false statements to the FBI regarding his contacts with Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak during President Trump’s transition period.
Speaking to Capitol Hill reporters Wednesday, Johnson signaled that he will request the officials, including Biden, the presumptive Democrat nominee, to testify regarding their roles in Flynn’s unmasking.
“Right now we’re in the information-gathering phase of this and this obviously, from my standpoint, raises a lot more questions than it actually answers,” Johnson told reporters, according to The Hill. “We will start requesting interviews with those individuals.”
“I want to find out what you were looking at, why you unmasked an American’s identity and how you used that,” the Wisconsin Republican added, before stating that he will seek interviews with Brennan, Clapper, McDonough, and “possibly” Biden.