Samantha Power denies serial unmasking

It has been reported that Samantha Power, while serving as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, requested or initiated a request for more than 260 unmaskings of Americans whose conversations were picked up during surveillance. But today, according to Rep. Trey Gowdy, Power denied making anything close to that number of unmasking requests.

Here is what Gowdy told Fox News’ Bret Baier:

BAIER: You are also looking, and have talked to the former Ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power. We reported that she requested or her officer requested 260 plus efforts to unmask, in other words, get who was talking about picked up in surveillance. How did she answer that question? Why so many?

GOWDY: Well, I’ll tell you broadly, Bret, I think if she was on your show, she would say those attempt to unmask may have been attributed to her. But they greatly exceed, by an exponential factor, the number of requests that she actually made.

I assume Gowdy is accurately characterizing Power’s testimony. I don’t assume Power is telling the truth, but she may be.

If she is, I agree with Gowdy who also told Baier, “We’ve got to get to the bottom of that.” Did the alleged unmaskings incorrectly attributed to Power actually occur? If so, who was responsible for them and how did the unmaskings come to be incorrectly attributed to Power?

Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.

Responses