Senator asks Justice Department to declassify Susan Rice email on Oval Office confab about Russia

A top Senate Republican asked the Justice Department to declassify the email that former Obama national security adviser Susan Rice sent herself about an early January 2017 Oval Office discussion about the Trump-Russia investigations. Sen. Ron Johnson, the chairman of the Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, sent a letter obtained by the Washington Examiner to Attorney General William Barr on Monday, asking for the partly redacted email to be declassified in its entirety and provided to the committee. “I understand your office is currently reviewing a January 20, 2017, email from former National Security Advisor Susan Rice,” Johnson wrote. “In that email, Ambassador Rice summarized an Oval Office meeting with President Barack Obama and other administration officials that occurred on January 5, 2017. A majority of Ambassador Rice’s email was declassified but a portion of the email remains classified.” The Wisconsin Republican argued that “the significance of that meeting is becoming increasingly apparent as more and more information is declassified,” and “for these reasons, it is essential that Congress and the American people understand what occurred during that January 5, 2017, meeting and how it was later characterized by administration officials.” Johnson said, “The declassification of Ambassador Rice’s email, in whole, will assist these efforts.”

Former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates told Robert Mueller’s special counsel team she first learned the U.S. government had intercepted conversations between retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn and Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak from Obama himself following a White House meeting about the intelligence community assessment attended by Yates, Rice, then-Vice President Joe Biden, former FBI Director James Comey, then-CIA Director John Brennan, then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and others. Obama asked Yates and Comey to stay behind with Rice and Biden when the meeting concluded. On Obama’s last day in office, Rice penned an internal memo detailing the Jan. 5 meeting. "On January 5, following a briefing by IC [intelligence community] leadership on Russian hacking during the 2016 presidential election, President Obama had a brief follow-on conversation with FBI Director Jim Comey and Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates in the Oval Office. Vice President Biden and I were also present," she wrote in an email to herself. “President Obama began the conversation by stressing his continued commitment to ensuring that every aspect of this issue is handled by the intelligence and law enforcement communities ‘by the book.’ … The president stressed that he is not asking about, initiating, or instructing anything from a law enforcement perspective. He reiterated that our law enforcement team needs to proceed as it normally would by the book,” Rice said.

If Barr allows the full letter to go public, it would be the latest in a series of declassified revelations. Last week, acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell declassified a National Security Agency document revealing unmasking requests from Obama officials between Election Day 2016 and Inauguration Day, with Biden being one of the authorized recipients of the unmasking intelligence. DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz released a December report revealing flaws in the FBI’s Trump-Russia investigation, and footnotes newly declassified by Grenell and Barr show that the FBI was aware that British ex-spy Christopher Steele’s dossier might have been compromised by Russian disinformation. “Thank you for your leadership and determination in providing relevant information to Congress, including the recent declassification of footnotes from the Office of the Inspector General report about the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane investigation,” Johnson told Barr on Monday. “The American people deserve transparency, and your tenacious work to bring previously hidden documents and conduct into the light is admirable and vitally important.”

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/senator-asks-justice-department-to-declassify-susan-rice-email-on-oval-office-confab-about-russia

I usually like to pull letters and other doc's directly from pdf's links, interesting is this particular link has been removed from scrib. I did manage to gather the links directly from the article..in the foot notes of this letter are 2 other links w/b attached.

cc: The Honorable Gary C. Peters Ranking Member

>>9234505

Senator asks Justice Department to declassify Susan Rice email on Oval Office confab about Russia

Attached..additional documents.

https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Johnson%20Letter%20-%20Footnotes%2020200402%20w%20att%202.pdf

https://www.hsgac.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/2020-05-13%20ODNI%20to%20CEG%20RHJ%20(Unmasking).pdf

The chopping block: Trump’s list of fired IGs

1. Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson: President Trump wrote to Congress on April 3 he no longer had confidence in Atkinson, who helped facilitate the whistleblower complaint that led to his impeachment. Republicans had criticized changes in the whistleblower policies by Atkinson that permitted secondhand information to be used to launch an investigation.

2. Department of Defense acting Inspector General Glenn Fine, who was to chair the panel overseeing coronavirus federal spending: No official explanation provided by Trump for the April 7 firing. Trump said, “I don’t think I ever met Fine,” and suggested he was cleaning out Obama-era holdovers, citing “reports of bias.”

3. Health and Human Services acting Inspector General Christi Grimm: Trump replaced Grimm on May 1 with assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Weida after Grimm released a report in late March that found “severe shortages of testing supplies” and “widespread shortages of personal protective equipment” among other problems experienced by medical workers battling the coronavirus. Trump later tweeted that Grimm was an Obama-era holdover who never contacted coronavirus task force members before conducting the report.

4. State Department Inspector General Steve Linick: The Trump administration fired Steve Linick on Friday. In a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Trump said he no longer had full confidence in Linick. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had advised Trump to fire Linick. House Democrats had called on Linick to open an investigation into Pompeo’s efforts to secure an arms deal with Saudi Arabia. Linick was also investigating reports Pompeo used his staff to conduct personal chores.

1. Department of Transportation acting Inspector General Mitch Behm: The Trump administration on Sunday installed Howard “Skip” Elliot as the new acting inspector general, replacing Behm, who will remain in his prior job as deputy inspector general.

Trump’s IG shuffle has largely attracted Democratic criticism, but his firing of Linick has raised bipartisan alarm in Congress. Pelosi wrote to Trump Monday, giving him a 30-day deadline to explain why Linick was fired. Republicans want more information, too. Sen. Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican, wrote to Trump Monday, asking him to provide further justification for firing Linick by June 1. Grassley also demanded Trump respond to a Friday request for more details about his decision to fire Atkinson. “As mentioned in previous letters, Congress’s intent is clear that an expression of lost confidence, without further explanation, is not sufficient … This is in large part because Congress intended that inspectors general only be removed when there is clear evidence of unfitness, wrongdoing, or failure to perform the duties of the office,” Grassley wrote to Trump. Sen. Mitt Romney, a Utah Republican, harshly criticized Trump for the string of IG removals, as did Sen. Susan Collins, a Maine Republican. Collins is a co-author of the 2008 Inspectors General Reform Act, which requires a president to provide reasons for an IG’s removal. “The President has not provided the kind of justification for the removal of IG Linick required by this law,” Collins said Saturday.

Late Monday, the Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch told the Washington Examiner in a statement he has been in contact with the Trump administration about Linick's firing. "The role of an inspector general is important throughout our government and is meant to work independently to root out waste, fraud, and abuse at every level, all with total detachment from politics," Risch said. "When Congress created that position, this official was designated to serve at the discretion of the president as part of his control of the executive branch. It is the president's prerogative and within his authority to make decisions regarding the adequacy of performance and continued employment of the inspector general. I have been in contact with the administration over this matter and expect to continue to learn more."

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/congress/the-chopping-block-trumps-list-of-fired-igs

Israeli company invents masks diners can wear while eating

Israeli inventors have developed a coronavirus mask with a remote control mouth that lets diners eat food without taking it off, a device they say could make a visit to a restaurant less risky. A squeeze of a lever, much like a cyclist operates a handbrake, opens a slot in the front of the mask so that food can pass through. The process could get messy with ice cream or sauces, but more solid morsels can be gobbled up in a flash à la Pac-Man in the arcade game.

“The mask will be opened mechanically by hand remote or automatically when the fork is coming to the mask,” Asaf Gitelis, vice president of Avtipus Patents and Inventions, said on Tuesday as he demonstrated the device at its offices near Tel Aviv. “Then you can eat, enjoy, drink and you take out the fork and it will be closed, and you’re protected against the virus and other people sitting with you.”

The company said it plans to start manufacturing the mask within months and had already submitted a patent. It said it would likely sell at a 3 to 10 shekel (85 cents to $2.85) premium above the price of the simple pale blue medical masks many Israelis wear. Outside a Juice Bar in Tel Aviv, Reuters showed customers a cellphone video of the mask in action. Opinion was divided. “I think this mask, that enables me to eat while I’m still wearing it, is a must-have,” said Ofir Hameiri, a 32-year-old graduate student. But eating an ice cream cone, Ron Silberstein, a 29-year-old musician, said: “I don’t think this mask could hold this kind of ice cream — it’s dripping all over. I wouldn’t want to wear it afterward.” Israel has largely reopened its economy after a dramatic drop in cases of the novel coronavirus. Restaurants are open only for takeout for the time being.

https://nypost.com/2020/05/18/israeli-company-invents-masks-diners-can-wear-while-eating/