Judge Napolitano: How Flynn's unmasking by Obama officials became 'arguably a crime'
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Judge Andrew Napolitano said on Thursday that one of the individuals involved in the unmasking of White House national security adviser Michael Flynn may have committed the "crime of espionage."
Napolitano explained that U.S. authorities who are spying on a foreign person are supposed to report to their superiors if an American is involved in the communications without exposing the identity. Only those with a national security clearance can request the “unmasking" of that person.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“That’s what happened with respect to General Flynn,” Napolitano told "Fox & Friends," referring to Flynn's phone call with the Russian ambassador.
He said such requests happen often, but in Flynn's case, someone in the Obama administration leaked the name and it was reported on by The Washington Post.
“That is arguably the crime of espionage,” Napolitano said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Napolitano's comments come after it was revealed top Obama administration officials purportedly requested to "unmask" the identity of Flynn during the presidential transition period, according to a list of names from that controversial process made public on Wednesday.
The list was declassified in recent days by acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell and then sent to GOP Sens. Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson, who made the documents public. The roster features top-ranking figures including then-Vice President Joe Biden — something that is already being raised by the Trump campaign in the bare-knuckle 2020 presidential race in which Biden is now the Democrats' presumptive nominee.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The list also includes then-FBI Director James Comey, then-CIA Director John Brennan, then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and Obama's then-chief of staff Denis McDonough.
Napolitano said that it is “bizarre” that there were 39 requests for such information by members of the Obama administration, career Department of Justice officials and intelligence officials about conversations involving Flynn.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“Not one of those requests is about the Dec. 29th conversation with Ambassador Kislyak, which formed the basis of this prosecution in his guilty plea. Now that’s odd. Why isn’t the person who asked for that mentioned there? Maybe, that’s the person that went to The Washington Post and, maybe the intelligence community has kept that information even from their boss [Richard Grenell], so that name doesn’t get out there," he argued.
A transcript unearthed Sunday indicates that at the time The Washington Post’s newsroom was deeply divided over whether it was even worth reporting that incoming national security adviser Michael Flynn was speaking to Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak in December 2016 — before the Post published details in a column from an opinion writer who “was able to just throw this piece of red meat out there.”
On Jan. 12, 2017, Washington Post columnist David Ignatius reported that Flynn had phoned Kislyak “several times on Dec. 29, the day the Obama administration announced the expulsion of 35 Russian officials as well as other measures in retaliation for the hacking.” Ignatius asked whether Flynn violated the “spirit” of the Logan Act — an obscure statute that has never been used successfully in a criminal prosecution.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Fox News' Gregg Re, Brooke Singman, and David Spunt contributed to this report.