Johnson salutes Grenell, Barr as 'heroes' and 'patriots' for actions in Michael Flynn case

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Sen. Ron Johnson says Ric Grenell and William Barr are heroes for exposing threat to US democracy

Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, joins Bret Baier on 'Special Report.'

Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis., called two Trump administration officials "heroes" and "patriots" Wednesday for their role in exposing what he called a "threat to our democracy."

Johnson told "Special Report" that Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell and Attorney General William Barr are being unfairly attacked for their roles in declassifying a list of Obama administration officials involved in the so-called unmasking of Michael Flynn.

Grenell declassified the document last week, which allowed Johnson and Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, to release it to the public earlier Wednesday.

"It is, from my standpoint, pretty curious that the Vice President of the United States would be requesting the unmasking, in this case of General Flynn, eight days before he left office," Johnson said. "Attorney General Barr and Acting Director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell -- they are heroes, they are patriots -- and they are being unfairly attacked right now, and mercilessly attacked."

DOCUMENT LISTING NAMES OF OFFICIALS WHO SOUGHT 'UNMASKING' OF MICHAEL FLYNN

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Johnson said the two officials recognized the unmasking of Flynn as a "threat to our democracy."

"It's outrageous what the Obama Administration and [those] high up in the administration were doing toward the tail end of their administration, and the ones that were held over, what they did in the early days of the Trump Administration as well," he said. "These [Barr and Grenell] are real heroes in terms of what information they are beginning to divulge ... [so the] American people really understand what happened."

Johnson also responded to a statement from the Biden Campaign's rapid response director, Andrew Bates, who characterized the uproar as "Donald Trump’s attempt at dishonest media manipulation to distract from his response to the worst public health crisis in 100 years..."

Bates' statement went on to say that none of the individuals on the declassified list could have known Flynn's identity beforehand:

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"It's telling that these documents were selectively leaked by Republicans abusing their congressional powers to act as arms of the Trump campaign after having them provided by a partisan official installed for this very purpose," Bates continued, appearing to take a swipe at Grenell.

Johnson remarked that it is ironic to hear Biden's camp to invoke the idea of a distraction.

"I've always felt that what we've witnessed with the whole Russian investigation, the hoax, the fact that the FBI knew full well by the end of January [2017] that there was nothing there and yet James Comey set up the appointment of a special counsel," the Wisconsin lawmaker continued.

"I always thought that was a massive diversionary operation on the part of members of the Obama Administration to divert attention away from what they were doing during the campaign [and with] the exoneration of Hillary Clinton."

Fox News' Madeleine Rivera contributed to this report.