Attorney General William Barr has tapped an outside prosecutor to investigate allegations of 'unmasking' related to the Russia probe

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• Attorney General William Barr has tapped an outside prosecutor to review "unmasking" issues related to the FBI's Russia investigation, a Justice Department spokesperson announced.
• Barr has asked US attorney John Bash to look into the matter as part of an investigation into the origins of the Russia probe being conducted by US attorney John Durham.
• Bash will be tasked with looking at instances of unmasking that occurred before and after the 2016 presidential election, the frequency, and who made the unmasking requests, DOJ spokesperson Kerry Kupec said.
• The inquiry "can shed light on and give us a better understanding of what happened with respect to President Trump, his campaign," and "what happened after he was elected as well," Kupec added.
• Barr's decision comes after President Trump and his allies have doubled down on allegations that Obama administration officials illegally "unmasked" the identity of former national security adviser Michael Flynn in intelligence reports.
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Attorney General William Barr has tapped an outside prosecutor to review "unmasking" issues related to the FBI's Russia investigation, Justice Department spokesperson Kerri Kupec announced Wednesday.

"Unmasking" refers to the practice of revealing the identity of a US person whose name is incidentally collected in intelligence reports monitoring the communications of foreign agents.

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