The White House is denying that President Barack Obama directed authorities to censor partial transcripts of Omar Mateen’s phone conversations with law enforcement during last week’s Islamic terrorist attack. The partial transcripts were released today.
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said on Monday that the decision to redact segments of the partial transcripts was made by the FBI and Department of Justice without direction from Obama.
“[The decision to censor the partial transcripts] was made entirely by the Department of Justice and officials at the FBI,” said Earnest, denying that Obama had directed or guided the decision.
During Monday’s White House Press Briefing, several reporters asked Earnest if the Obama Administration’s resistance to acknowledging the religious and ideological dimensions of Islamic terrorism might benefit Republicans and the broader right.
CNN’s Michelle Kosinski asked if Republicans were correct to describe censorship of the transcripts connecting Mateen’s motives to broader terrorist movements as “preposterous,” given the obviousness of his motivations. Another reporter asked if the decision to censor might embolden unspecified “conspiracy theories.”
No questions were asked about immigration (either legal and illegal) or refugee policies as they relate to Orlando or other Islamic terrorist attacks in the homeland.
“Allah,” “ISIS,” and “Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi” were initially replaced with “omitted” in square brackets. Hours later, the FBI released an updated version of the censored and partial transcript which included the name of ISIS’s leader while still censoring “Allah” and “ISIS.”
No audio – complete or incomplete – has been authorized for release to the public.
In a series of Sunday show interviews, Attorney General Loretta Lynch claimed that excisions were done in order to prevent the spread of propaganda from unqualified “violent extremists.”
Obama Administration officials, including Lynch and Earnest, have repeatedly expressed claims of commitment to “transparency” with respect to the ongoing investigation. These promises of transparency have been directly connected to claims of desire to inform Mateen’s victims and their families of ongoing investigatory developments.
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