WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — On April 3, media reports suggested that Obama's National Security Adviser Susan Rice asked US intelligence agencies to unmask the names of Trump's associates that were added to reports during surveillance of the presidential transition team.
Rice has previously denied accusations that she was trying to politicize intelligence, and said she issued requests to unmask names in intelligence reports for work purposes. She refused to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Russia's alleged meddling in the US election.
"Well, I’m not going to prejudge this investigation because we’re in the middle of it, but it certainly looks like that. It certainly looks like this was politicized," Ryan told the "Fox & Friends" program when asked if he thought the unmasking of names was an attempt to hurt the Trump administration.
Ryan stressed that unmasking classified information and leaking it to the media is a crime.
"That is something somebody in the Obama administration decided to do," he added.
On Monday, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told the Senate Judiciary Committee that he had in one case requested the unmasking of Trump, his associates or members of Congress. Clapper said more than 1,900 US citizens’ names were unmasked in 2016.
