Republicans have questioned why Michael Flynn's name was "unmasked," or revealed in an FBI report, but it turns out it was never masked in the first place.
WASHINGTON — In a blow to GOP efforts to create a cloud of scandal around so-called unmasking, two sources familiar with the matter told NBC News that Michael Flynn's name was never redacted from an FBI intelligence report about his phone conversation with the Russian ambassador to the U.S.
That call with Kislyak was monitored by the FBI under a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant covering Kislyak, as is standard practice, current and former officials have said. The FBI monitors many former ambassadors and foreign officials working in the U.S. as part of routine counterintelligence inquiries.
Unmasking is a routine practice by which senior officials with security clearances request to learn the names of Americans who are overheard speaking to foreigners if the names are deemed important to understanding the intelligence. The names are otherwise usually redacted, or"masked."
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