Trump administration declassifies full Susan Rice email sent on Inauguration Day

On the day of President Donald Trump’s inauguration, outgoing national security adviser Susan Rice sent herself an email that has since drawn intense scrutiny from Republicans.

Now the full text of the email has been declassified, and POLITICO reviewed it. It says that then-FBI Director James Comey worried about sharing classified information with the Trump team because of incoming national security adviser Michael Flynn’s frequent conversations with the Russian ambassador but that Comey had no knowledge of Flynn sharing classified information with the envoy.

Republicans have seized on the document as potential evidence that the outgoing president had ordered the FBI to spy on the new administration, as Trump has alleged. And they have raised questions about the “unusual” nature of Rice memorializing the conversation in an email to herself, suggesting that in warning Comey to proceed “by the book,” Obama was implying that top law enforcement officials had done the opposite. Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Rice said it shows the Obama administration handled the Flynn situation appropriately.

The email, most of which was already declassified, describes a Jan. 5, 2017, Oval Office meeting that followed up on an intelligence briefing about Russian interference in the 2016 election. Attendees included then-President Barack Obama; Comey; Sally Yates, who was the acting attorney general; Vice President Joe Biden; and Rice, who was Flynn’s predecessor in the job.

The email, which memorialized the meeting two weeks after it happened, said Obama wanted to be sure “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,” the email continued. “He reiterated that our law enforcement team needs to proceed as it normally would by the book.”

The newly declassified portion describes Comey’s response.

“Director Comey affirmed that he is proceeding ‘by the book’ as it relates to law enforcement,” Rice wrote. “From a national security perspective, Comey said he does have some concerns that incoming NSA Flynn is speaking frequently with Russian Ambassador Kislyak. Comey said that could be an issue as it relates to sharing sensitive information. President Obama asked if Comey was saying that the NSC should not pass sensitive information related to Russia to Flynn. Comey replied ‘potentially.’ He added that he has no indication thus far that Flynn has passed classified information to Kislyak, but he noted that ‘the level of communication is unusual.’ The President asked Comey to inform him if anything changes in the next few weeks that should affect how we share classified information with the incoming team. Comey said that he would.”

The email is the latest document mentioning Biden to be declassified by Trump administration officials. Last week, the day after receiving a request from Johnson and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell sent Congress a document from the National Security Agency listing government officials who made “unmasking” requests in late 2016 and early 2017 that revealed the name of Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn. Biden made one of the requests. The document said all the requests were made by people authorized to do so, and were handled properly.

Rice’s spokesperson said the email also indicates that the administration didn’t interfere in the FBI investigation involving the Trump campaign.

“Furthermore, the email makes clear that the Obama administration did not change the way it briefed Michael Flynn — but rather that President Obama asked Director Comey ‘to inform him if anything changes in the next few weeks that should affect how we share classified information with the incoming team,’” the spokesperson continued in a statement. “In fact, Ambassador Rice briefed Michael Flynn for over 12 hours, on four separate occasions and led the National Security Council in preparing and delivering to him over 100 separate briefing memos. Ambassador Rice did not alter the way she briefed Michael Flynn on Russia as a result of Director Comey’s response.”

Rice also called for the Trump administration to release the transcripts of phone calls between Flynn and the Russian ambassador during the transition.

“The American people deserve the full transcripts so they can judge for themselves Michael Flynn’s conduct,” the statement read.

Trump and his allies, meanwhile, pointed to the document as evidence to claim the Obama administration illegally spied on his campaign. Some of those claims were not particularly subtle. “JOE BIDEN IS GUILTY,” read the subject line of a recent Trump campaign fundraising email.

And John Durham, a U.S. attorney, is helming a Justice Department probe scrutinizing the investigation into Russian election interference and the Trump campaign.

When a reporter asked Trump what law Biden may have broken, he declined to go into detail. And Attorney General Bill Barr said he didn’t expect Durham’s probe to result in criminal charges against Obama or Biden.

“We live in a very divided country right now, and I think that it is critical that we have an election where the American people are allowed to make a decision, a choice, between President Trump and Vice President Biden based on a robust debate of policy issues,” Barr said in a press call on an unrelated topic. “And we cannot allow this process to be hijacked by efforts to drum up criminal investigations of either candidate.”

“Our concern over potential criminality is focused on others,” he added.