Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) is demanding a criminal probe into former Obama National Security Adviser Susan Rice, who has been outed as the source for inappropriately ‘unmasking’ private citizens associated with President Trump’s campaign.

“The FBI should be investigating whether any laws were broken,” DeSantis charged in an interview with the Fox Business Network.

Via the Washington Examiner:

FBI officials should investigate whether former President Barack Obama’s national security adviser broke any criminal laws by requesting the identities of Trump campaign officials caught up in foreign surveillance, according to a Republican lawmaker.

“Congress needs to get to the bottom of this and the FBI should be investigating whether any laws were broken,” Rep. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., said Monday.

 

The legality of the situation seems to hinge on the reasoning behind Rice unmasking these individuals. If she did so in the course of a national security concern, she’s within her legal rights. If she did it for political purposes, then there are some issues that need to be probed.

For her part, Rice told MSNBC in an interview that “The allegation is that somehow, Obama administration officials utilized intelligence for political purposes,” something she insists is “absolutely false.”

DeSantis however, points out that Rice may have “dug herself more of a hole” by making such a statement, especially in light of the fact that just two weeks earlier she denied unmasking Trump team members altogether.

“She said intelligence wasn’t used for political purposes … We know that’s false,” DeSantis said. “There were a number of leaks of classified information involving US persons including Michael Flynn that are illegal.”

Former Ambassador John Bolton agrees with DeSantis, explaining “If … her (Rice) real motivation was political, she was committing a kind of fraud on the intelligence gathering system.”

“If she participated in that kind of fraud to help the political misuse of that intelligence she’s got serious legal problems here,” he added.

One thing is clear: while the Democrats and liberal media have been screaming about Russian conspiracy theories, they have been deflecting from the real issue, which is whether or not the Obama administration used the official defense apparatus to harm their political opponents.

Read more at the Political Insider