Hat tip to Dan Bongino.  He revealed an interesting tidbit in his podcast today, so you’ll have to check it out.

Here’s the set up…

Earlier this week, a list of people in the Obama administration who unmasked General Flynn was released by acting Director of National Intelligence Rick Grenell.

The list included the likes of Joe Biden, John Brennan, James Comey, James Clapper, Samantha Power, and even Obama’s chief of staff Dennis McDonough.

The Obama team, along with their media acolytes are shrugging this off as routine, but I am trying to figure out how routine it is for a sitting Vice President to unmask the incoming National Security Advisor for the new administation, just a week before inauguration day.

But, I digress… that is not the issue here.

The issue is that the Flynn call was not unmasked.

So, let me define the term unmasking.

Unmasking occurs when there is surveillance on a member of a foreign government, and they communicate with an American citizen.  To gain further understanding of what the conversation may be about, an authorized individual may request that the name of the American be unmasked.

As I said though, while Flynn’s name was unmasked numerous times leading up to the election and afterwards, his call with Russian Ambassador Kislyak was not masked.

How do we know this?

The call occurred December 29th.

Between December 28th and January 4th, there were no unmasking requests involving General Flynn.  None, zip, nada.

But, Obama had the transcript of the call between Flynn and Kislyak.  How do we know that?

Because Sally Yates testified that Obama told her about the call on January 5th, and she was stunned by the information.

So, how did Obama know about the call?

Bongino describes four possible ways that Obama could’ve received the transcript of the call.

  1. Flynn was unmasked… we know this did not happen
  2. There was a FISA warrant on Flynn – the December IG report into FISA abuse did not indicate that there was, and we still do not know of any such warrant
  3. Flynn was the subject of a criminal investigation – However, while he was being investigated, it was a FBI counterintelligence investigation, not a criminal investigation, so there would be no warrant to monitor his communications.

So, this comes to the fourth option, which I will get to.

James Comey testified that the FBI had the transcript in late December or early January.

Andrew McCabe testified that the FBI came up with the transcript through an effort to respond to a tasking from (redaction).

So, who tasked the FBI with what effort that resulted with this transcript of Flynn’s call with Kislyak?

Remember, options 1, 2 and 3 above do not fit here.

So what is option Four?

Bongino goes on to indicate that through the FISA act of 1978, the sitting president may go around going through the FISA court to conduct surveillance on a foreign official, with authorization from the Attorney General, as long as there is no likelihood that an American citizen may be caught up in the surveillance.

So, how does this affect Flynn if he couldn’t be unmasked as a result of FISA surveillance?

Here’s where it gets juicy.

Just conducting surveillance on a foreign official would not guarantee a call to General Flynn, but clearly he had a target on his back.

The call occurred on December 29, 2016.

General Flynn was vacationing in the Dominican Republic.  Kislyak called Flynn in the Dominican Republic.  The likelihood that Kislyak would call anyone else in the Dominican Republic is slim and none.

But, how could it be guaranteed that Kislyak would call Flynn while he was on vacation in the Dominican Republic?

On December 29, 2016, the Obama Administration announced new sanctions against Russia and kicked out 35 Russian delegates from the U.S.

So, of course Kislyak would want to speak to someone in the incoming administration, and that someone was General Flynn.

Consider what happened next…

The DC office of the FBI was ready to close out the counterintelligence investigation into Flynn, as they had found no derogatory information.

However, according to Peter Strzok, the “7th Floor” at the FBI, which effectively refers to Comey and McCabe, wanted to keep the investigation open.

On January 5, there is a meeting at the Oval office attended by Obama, Biden, Comey, Clapper, Susan Rice, and Sally Yates.  Rice memorializes this meeting in an email to herself on Inauguration Day, January 20th, and indicates that Obama wants the investigation into Flynn to be done “by the book.”

On January 6, Comey briefs Donald Trump about the pee tape information in the Steele Dossier, after a briefing involving Clapper and Brennan about the Intelligence Community Assessment that the Russians interfered in the election.

A week later, the Flynn call with Kislyak is leaked to the Washington Post.  It is this call that resulted in Flynn’s resignation and ultimately the charges against him, a case which is STILL unresolved due to all the FBI/DOJ and Mueller team shenanigans.

All of this was done to set a narrative that there were ties between the incoming Trump administration and the Russians.

This narrative was continued through appearances in the media by the likes of Clapper, Brennan, Samantha Power, Susan Rice and others.

It sure looks like Obama’s fingerprints are on this, and if so, he’s got some questions to answer.

Here is the link to the Bongino podcast… Bongino.