Obama adviser Susan Rice sought names of Trump officials in intelligence reports

Former Obama administration national security adviser Susan Rice was reportedly behind dozens of requests to unmask the identities of U.S. persons swept-up in foreign surveillance reports that connected to the Trump transition.

The revelation, reported by Bloomberg on Monday, apparently emerged from a National Security Council review of the government's policy on unmasking, in which the identities of people in the U.S. who are not being targeted in electronic surveillance, but whose communications get collected incidentally, are disclosed.

Those identities are typically supposed to be minimized, except when that information would provide foreign intelligence value.

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Rice's conduct would likely meet that broad standard, and it does not appear that she broke the law. The disclosures also do not provide any support for President Donald Trump's unsubstantiated statements on Twitter on March 4 that he had been wiretapped on the orders of President Barack Obama.

However, the information about Rice offers additional context amid at least three investigations into Russia's interference in the 2016 election and potential collusion between the Kremlin and the Trump team.

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On the House and Senate intelligence committees, each of which is conducting a Russia inquiry, Republican members in particular have expressed concern about unmasking policies under the Obama administration, warning that the practice could be abused for political purposes.

The developments about Rice's involvement also shed more light on the controversy surrounding House intelligence committee chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., who announced last month to the press and to the White House – without first meeting with members of his own committee – that he'd seen intelligence reports indicating that Trump associates had been incidentally swept-up in foreign surveillance.

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Notably, the National Security Council review that uncovered Rice's requests was apparently being led by Ezra Cohen-Watnick, its senior director for intelligence. The New York Times reported last week that Cohen-Watnick was one of two officials who supplied Nunes with the intelligence reports. Nunes confirmed having viewed the reports on the grounds of the White House.

Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House intelligence committee, was invited to review intelligence reports at the White House on Friday. In a statement, he said that while he "cannot discuss the content of the documents," there was "nothing I could see today" that "warranted a departure from the normal review procedures."