When Americans who are not the target of a warrant are mentioned in reports about such surveillance,<br />their identities are obscured, and they are typically referred to as U. S.<br />But top officials, like the national security adviser, can ask the intelligence agencies to disclose the names, a process called unmasking.<br />After Representative Devin Nunes, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, announced last month<br />that he had seen reports indicating that Mr. Trump or his associates might have been “incidentally” swept up in the monitoring of foreigners, Ms. Rice told PBS: “I know nothing about this.<br />Former national security officials have said that Ms. Rice was justified in asking for the names<br />of Trump associates referred to in reports that intelligence agencies sent to her last year.<br />The purpose, she said, was “to do our jobs,” but “absolutely not for any political purpose, to spy, expose, anything.”<br />She added that she had never made public the identities of any Trump associates mentioned in intelligence surveillance.<br />Mr. Trump said on Monday that he had been the target of a “crooked scheme” by Mr. Obama’s team,<br />and he followed up on Tuesday by retweeting a link from the Drudge Report: “RICE ORDERED SPY DOCS ON TRUMP?”<br />Fellow Republicans seized on reports about Ms. Rice in the conservative news media.<br />At issue are her requests for the identities of Americans caught up in electronic surveillance of foreigners,<br />as cited in reports provided to her by intelligence agencies: Americans who were affiliated with Mr. Trump.
