Jim Sciutto, a former Obama appointee who joined CNN in 2013, told viewers Monday night that the issue of Susan Rice’s reported unmasking of Trump associates — whose names were later leaked to the media — “appears to be a story largely ginned up, partly as a distraction from the larger investigation.”
Sciutto quoted someone who works for Rice as saying, “The idea that Ambassador Rice improperly sought the identities of Americans is false,” prompting CNN to roll out its “BREAKING NEWS” banner noting that someone close to Rice denies she did anything wrong.
Sciutto also cited several unnamed officials from both Republican and Democratic administrations, who reportedly told him that what Rice did in unmasking Trump associates was not itself unusual.
At issue, however, is not just whether Rice unmasked Trump associates’ names, but also if she did so for political purposes, and whether she or any other Obama administration official illegally leaked the associates’ names to the media.
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