Samantha Power, Obama’s former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, “unmasked” Americans at such a rapid rate in the administration’s final days in office that she averaged more than one request per day in 2016.
Multiple sources, who could not comment publicly on the matter, told Fox News that over 260 requests were made by Power in 2016 to identify Americans whose names surfaced in foreign intelligence surveillance:
The details emerged ahead of an expected appearance by Power next month on Capitol Hill. She is one of several Obama administration officials facing congressional scrutiny for their role in seeking the identities of Trump associates in intelligence reports — but the interest in her actions is particularly high.
The report indicated the reason that Congress is especially interested in Power’s role in unmasking Trump officials is due to a July 27 letter sent from House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes to Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats.
In the letter, Nunes said the committee learned “that one official, whose position had no apparent intelligence-related function, made hundreds of unmasking requests during the final year of the Obama Administration.”
Fox News added that Power is believed to be the official that the letter was referring to and that although “previous U.N. ambassadors have made unmasking requests,” the number is usually in the “low double digits.”
Power is just the latest Obama official caught up in the unmasking scandal, as former national security advisor Susan Rice was recently caught lying about the unmasking of Trump officials.
While it is not necessarily a crime to unmask U.S. citizens in foreign intelligence surveillance, it is illegal to release their names — something that happened when a person with access to the information leaked former national security advisor Michael Flynn’s name to The Washington Post.