April 4, 2017

Susan Rice Fights Back

“I leaked nothing to nobody—and never would.”

ZUMA

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Former National Security Adviser Susan Rice on Tuesday strongly rejected allegations that she improperly requested the “unmasking” of the identities of Trump associates whose communications were picked up in surveillance conducted by US intelligence.

“The allegation is that somehow Obama administration officials utilized intelligence for political purposes,” Rice told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell. “That’s absolutely false.”

Rice’s statement on Tuesday follows a report published in Bloomberg View Monday, citing anonymous intelligence officials who said that Rice requested the identities of certain Americans who were referenced in intelligence reports related to the Trump team. The identities of private US citizens are normally anonymized when they appear in intelligence reports about surveillance of foreign targets, but in certain cases, officials can ask for them to be revealed in order to provide greater context. Rice described this process as “longstanding” and “established,” but she said she could not discuss any specific unmasking that may have occurred. 

The Bloomberg report landed amid President Donald Trump’s continued accusations that former President Barack Obama—Rice’s boss at the time—ordered illegal wiretapping of Trump and his associates during the 2016 election. Bloomberg noted that there is “no evidence to support that claim” and that Rice’s alleged “unmasking requests were likely within the law.”

Still, conservative media outlets and lawmakers have since jumped on the story as evidence of Trump’s assertions.

On MSNBC, Rice provided an in-depth explanation of the unmasking process, and argued that the previous administration’s actions were proper. “We’d only do it to protect the American people, to do our jobs in the national security realm,” Rice said. “That’s the only reason.”

When asked whether she leaked information from the intelligence reports to the public, Rice categorically denied the charge.

“There’s no equivalence between so-called unmasking and leaking,” she said. “The effort to ask for the identity of the American citizen is necessary to understand the importance of an intelligence report in some instances.”

“I leaked nothing to nobody—and never would,” said Rice.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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