A senior aide for Joe Biden’s campaign attacked a journalist at CBS News for reporting on the Obama administration officials who received unmasking information on Michael Flynn, calling her a “rightwing hack.”
“SCOOP: Catherine Herridge is a partisan, rightwing hack who is a regular conduit for conservative media manipulation ploys because she agrees to publicize things before contacting the target to ask for comment,” tweeted Biden’s Director of Rapid Response Andrew Bates.
Herridge, who is a senior investigative correspondent for CBS, first reported on the declassified list of Obama White House officials who may have received Flynn’s identity. The final name on that list was then-Vice President Joe Biden, with a request date listed of Jan. 12, 2017. Notably, that was the same day that David Ignatius of the Washington Post ran a story containing leaked classified details from Flynn’s call with the Russian ambassador.
Biden and other top Obama officials received information in response to “unmasking” requests targeting retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn in the final weeks of the previous administration, according to a memo declassified by acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell.
The list, obtained by the Washington Examiner on Wednesday, shows Biden received information at least once in response to such an unmasking request on Jan. 12, 2017, but it is not clear whether he made the request or even looked at the information. Biden is now the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee in the 2020 contest for the White House.
In an interview earlier this week, after first denying that he knew anything about the FBI investigation into Flynn, Biden corrected himself when pressed on it by journalist George Stephanopoulos, who noted his presence at a high-profile Oval Office meeting in the final days of the Obama administration on Jan. 5, 2017. After that meeting, documents show that Comey discussed intercepted contacts between Flynn and then-Russian Ambassador to the United States Sergey Kislyak with President Barack Obama and Biden.
Biden audibly sighed on ABC’s Good Morning America as Stephanopoulos asked what the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee knew about an early 2017 investigation into Flynn and whether there was anything improper done by the Obama administration.
“I know nothing about those moves to investigate Michael Flynn,” Biden said. “This is all about diversion. This is a game this guy plays all the time. The country is in crisis. … He should stop trying to always divert attention from the real concerns of the American people.”
But after Stephanopoulos followed up, noting that the former vice president was said to be in attendance at the early January 2017 meeting, Biden corrected himself.
“I thought you asked me whether or not I had anything to do with him being prosecuted,” Biden replied, after fidgeting with his earpiece. “I was aware that there was, that they asked for an investigation, but that’s all I know about it.”
Flynn pleaded guilty in 2017 to making false statements to the FBI related to his December 2016 calls with the Russian ambassador but sought to withdraw his guilty plea earlier this year. The Justice Department moved to dismiss the case against Flynn last week as new details emerged about the FBI’s targeting of Flynn.
The newly declassified records show that 16 individuals made unmasking requests related to the incoming Trump national security adviser, and the list shows which officials received that sensitive information. It was not immediately clear which individuals made the requests, but those who received the unmasking information were laid out chronologically.
