Lawmakers
probing the surveillance of key officials in the Trump campaign and
administration say the intelligence agencies now nominally under the
president’s control are stonewalling efforts to get to the bottom of who
revealed names and leaked protected information to the press.
The
House and Senate Intelligence Committees are currently investigating
allegations the Obama administration spied on Trump associates – and
possibly Trump himself – for as long as the year preceding his
inauguration. And while former Obama National Security Adviser Susan
Rice has been implicated as at least one of the officials who sought
redacted names from surveillance transcripts, multiple lawmakers and
investigators for the panel told Fox News the CIA, FBI and National
Security Agency - all agencies in position to aid the probe – are not
cooperating.
“Our requests are simply not being answered,” said
one House Intelligence committee source about the lack of
responsiveness. "The agencies are not really helping at all and there is
truly a massive web for us to try and wade through.”
A Senate Intelligence Committee source said the upper chamber had the same experience.
“Our requests are simply not being answered.”
- House Intelligence Committee source
“Any information that will help find the wide
extent on the unmasking and surveillance is purposely not being
provided,” said the Senate source.
An FBI spokesperson said the bureau is working in good faith.
“The FBI will continue to work with the congressional oversight committees on their requests,” the spokesperson said.
A CIA spokesperson told Fox News the NSA was the lead agency on the matter and referred questions to it.
In a statement to Fox News, the NSA called the allegations "categorically untrue."
"Allegations
that the National Security Agency is 'withholding information' from
congressional intelligence committees investigating Russian interference
in the 2016 election are categorically untrue," the statement said.
"NSA fully supports the committees' work. We have already made available
significant information in response to their requests, and we look
forward to continuing to work with them in the execution of their
important responsibilities."
Sources within the NSA said they are
watching the investigation closely, with one telling Fox News, “A number
of people saw a lot of very questionable stuff. [The Obama
administration was] using national assets and intelligence for
politics.”
It was not clear if the alleged lack of cooperation was from top brass or agency holdovers resisting the new administration.
The
CIA is now headed by former Rep. Mike Pompeo, who himself served on the
House Intelligence Committee prior to his nomination. The FBI and NSA
are run by James Comey and Mike Rogers, respectively. Both are holdovers
from the Obama administration. Last month, both men declined to appear
at a private closed door House Intelligence Committee briefing and have
not met with the committee members since.
The meeting was supposed
to be a follow-up to public testimony by Comey and Rogers to the
committee in late March on the topic of Russian meddling in the
presidential election and the alleged mishandling of intelligence
related to the Trump transition team.
During the public hearing,
the pair had declined to answer more than 100 questions, and Comey has
been completely unavailable since.
House Intelligence Chair Devin
Nunes, R-Calif., told Fox News he had hoped that behind closed doors,
Comey and Rogers would be more forthcoming.
Nunes also wanted to
ask them about intelligence reports he’d viewed that showed incidental
electronic intercepts of Trump team communications. The intelligence
reports, which included surveillance of foreign targets, revealed that
the names of Trump's team had been "unmasked" or revealed, and their
identities widely disseminated throughout the government and to the
media.
Nunes said during a March 22 press conference that he was
“troubled” because the reports he’d seen were not connected to Russia or
any foreign intelligence.
U.S. intelligence sources have told Fox
News that Rice, President Obama's national security adviser, is
responsible for unmasking at least some of Trump team named in
surveillance reports.
Rice said Tuesday on MSNBC, “It was not
uncommon, it was necessary at times to make those requests…..” to
understand the information. But Rice maintained she is not the leaker,
didn’t send the information to the press and did not use the information
for political purposes.
And while U.S. intelligence sources told
Fox News that unmasking requests escalated after Trump was elected, Rice
claimed she didn’t remember. “I don’t have a particular recollection of
doing that more frequently after the election.”
President Trump
on Wednesday claimed that he believes Rice may have committed a crime by
requesting the identities of Trump associates who were mentioned in
U.S. surveillance, though he did not provide proof.
Asked by the New York Times if Rice committed a crime, Trump said, “Do I think? Yes, I think.”
Rice
isn’t the only Obama official implicated in the Trump team surveillance
scandal. Multiple sources insist she was part of a group involved at
the highest levels and was not calling the shots.
“A lot of us are
upset. We believe this group of people were using national assets for
politics and misappropriating them,” said one NSA source. “Don’t forget
as the national security advisor, Susan Rice is supposed to ingest and
digest. Despite what you are hearing, it is not normal to investigate
especially in the broad manner that was being done. She [was] a White
House staffer, not a member of an intelligence agency."