The email is the latest document mentioning Biden to be declassified by Trump administration officials. Last week, the day after receiving a request from Johnson and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell sent Congress a document from the National Security Agency listing government officials who made “unmasking” requests in late 2016 and early 2017 that revealed the name of Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn. Biden made one of the requests. The document said all the requests were made by people authorized to do so, and were handled properly.
Rice’s spokesperson said the email also indicates that the administration didn’t interfere in the FBI investigation involving the Trump campaign.
„Furthermore, the email makes clear that the Obama administration did not change the way it briefed Michael Flynn — but rather that President Obama asked Director Comey ‘to inform him if anything changes in the next few weeks that should affect how we share classified information with the incoming team,'“ the spokesperson continued in a statement. „In fact, Ambassador Rice briefed Michael Flynn for over 12 hours, on four separate occasions and led the National Security Council in preparing and delivering to him over 100 separate briefing memos. Ambassador Rice did not alter the way she briefed Michael Flynn on Russia as a result of Director Comey’s response.“
Rice also called for the Trump administration to release the transcripts of phone calls between Flynn and the Russian ambassador during the transition.
„The American people deserve the full transcripts so they can judge for themselves Michael Flynn’s conduct,“ the statement read.
Trump and his allies, meanwhile, pointed to the document as evidence to claim the Obama administration illegally spied on his campaign. Some of those claims were not particularly subtle. “JOE BIDEN IS GUILTY,” read the subject line of a recent Trump campaign fundraising email.
And John Durham, a U.S. attorney, is helming a Justice Department probe scrutinizing the investigation into Russian election interference and the Trump campaign.
When a reporter asked Trump what law Biden may have broken, he declined to go into detail. And Attorney General Bill Barr said he didn’t expect Durham’s probe to result in criminal charges against Obama or Biden.
“We live in a very divided country right now, and I think that it is critical that we have an election where the American people are allowed to make a decision, a choice, between President Trump and Vice President Biden based on a robust debate of policy issues,” Barr said in a press call on an unrelated topic. “And we cannot allow this process to be hijacked by efforts to drum up criminal investigations of either candidate.”
“Our concern over potential criminality is focused on others,” he added.
Source: politico.com
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