Zeroing-In: Grassley and Johnson Ask DNI Grenell for Declassified Unmasking List in 2017

Timing Relates to NSA Database Exploits…

A very interesting letter from Senator Chuck Grassley and Senator Ron Johnson asking DNI Richard “Ric” Grenell to declassify and release all of the unmasking requests from January 2016 to January 2017.

Results to be provided in tranches if needed.

Within the letter (pdf here) the senators appear to be targeting specific dates for cross referencing with previously identified NSA database abuses.  Some of their inquiry appears to be guided by ‘open source’ reporting on the issue.

(pdf here)

This approach is very interesting because “unmasking” would be an outcome of creating some form of intelligence reporting. Perhaps a CIA report; perhaps part of the FBI investigation; or perhaps even material that enters the presidential daily briefing or similar.

We know there are thousands of results from contractors searching the NSA database without any effort to minimize the results and sharing those results outside the intelligence community. {Go Deep}

The non-minimized database extractions, the search results themselves, were eventually deleted at the direction of NSA Direction ADM Mike Rogers; who also stated the NSA preserved the audit-logs of ‘non-compliant’ system users who unlawfully searched the database.

There
should be is an easy way to cross-reference the dates, times and extractions to any material later used in the assembly of a report or briefing material, which was eventually unmasked.   Take the Trump campaign names from the queries and compare them to any unmasked Trump campaign names in any subsequent reports (FBI or other).

NSA Director Mike Rogers previously said he retained the audit-trail and audit logs which matches the exact time-frame outlined within the letter by Senators Johnson and Grassley.   The custodian of those NSA logs is currently…. wait for it…. Ric Grenell.