Democrat and former Obama aide Susan Rice - who in the aftermath of the American Embassy in Benghazi being destroyed and our ambassador and three other Americans murdered, told the American people the entire incident was a protest gone awry - is again the subject of a proposed congressional investigation. Rice is accused of unmasking private citizens under surveillance by the Obama administration, including members of then-presidential candidate Trump’s campaign team.
Rice scandal summons images of Watergate
For her part, Rice and her defenders deny any responsibility for gathering and leaking names from classified surveillance files, but claim politics were not in play.
It is not clear how Rice would know whether or not politics were at play if she had nothing to do with gathering or leaking the names.
According to news reports, Rice allegedly asked intelligence officials to identify "unmask” the names and identities of Trump associates in the heat of the campaign before they were leaked to the public via mainstream media reports. In an interview with liberal, Democrat-friendly MSNBC, Rice declined to talk specifics, but claimed it was “absolutely false” that the Obama administration used the intelligence “for political purposes.”
Experts say leaks were political
However, experts say it would be difficult to imagine a circumstance where the gathering and leaking of such information from government intelligence services during an election year would not be considered political.
Fred Fleitz, an ex-CIA analyst, told FOX News, “It is hard to fathom how the demasking of multiple Trump campaign and transition officials was not politically motivated.” The Democrats' use of government surveillance to influence a presidential election goes to the heart of watergate, except the stolen information was electronic and represents the breaking and entering and leaking of classified electronic files, allegedly by an outbound Democratic administration campaigning for Hillary Clinton.
With Democrats in control of the White House, Obama administration was able to fend off Benghazi investigations and protect Rice during previous scandals. Now out of power and in disarray, Democrats may use her as the political equivalent of a test dummy should the leakgate investigation crash through sagging walls protecting the now defunct Obama administration.
