House intelligence committee sources say career officials at the
National Security Council are slow-walking the delivery of subpoenaed records on former National Security Adviser
Susan E. Rice’s handling of classified information and the “unmasking” of
Trump campaign workers — material from the Russian hacking probe that middle-level
NSCmanagers claim was transferred to President Obama’s library and could “remain closed to the public for five years.”
One source, speaking only on the condition of anonymity, called the transfer curious and appeared to reflect an effort by former administration officials to obscure evidence on whether
Ms. Rice and other top officials in the Obama White House illegally tried to identify which
Trump campaign and transition aides had been caught up in the U.S. intelligence intercepts of Russian interference in the presidential race.
The two high-level intelligence committee sources told The Washington Times that they are confident the panel’s investigators, despite the delays, will eventually get their hands on the records shipped to a heavily secure archive for Mr. Obama’s yet-to-be-built presidential library.
A spokesman at the
National Security Council would not directly address questions on the Rice case, saying only that the
council’s staff is “still in the process of reviewing record requests” to ensure that any “executive privilege concerns” are taken into account.
The spokesman, Michael N. Anton, said the intelligence committee subpoenas were not submitted directly to the
NSC, but to other agencies within the U.S. intelligence community. He did not respond to a request for specifics on which agencies.
The Barack Obama Presidential Library in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, declined to comment Thursday on the handling of
Ms. Rice’s documents.
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