The “unmasking” has become a ridiculous right wing pseudo-scandal. They are in a full-fledged frenzy But, in case you’ve forgotten what it was about, it’s really very simple.
The Obama administration imposed sanctions on the Russian government for interfering in the 2016 election. When they were informed that that phone surveillance of the Russian ambassador showed an unnamed American talking to him about how to respond to those sanctions. All US citizens names are “masked” when they are picked up in such foreign intelligence surveillance.
National security officials are authorized to request that such names are unmasked in cases of a national security threat and they did. The person turned out to be Michael Flynn, a top national security member of the Trump team.
There was absolutely nothing untoward about the Obama administration being concerned about an American speaking to the Russian ambassador about the sanctions. They would have been remiss if they didn’t request it.
And by the way, here are numbers on “unmasking” over the course of the Trump administration:
And remember, all the Obama administration knew when they asked for the unmasking was that the person talking to the Russian Ambassador about ignoring the sanctions was an American.
What do these people think they were supposed to have done? Ignore it?