Trey Gowdy challenges media: Tell us who 'unmasked Michael Flynn's name' in Russia envoy call transcript

Former House Oversight Committee Chairman and Fox News contributor Trey Gowdy challenged the mainstream media Friday to reveal who in the Obama administration "unmasked" then-National Security Adviser Michael Flynn over conversations between Flynn and Russia's then-ambassador to the U.S.

"I'd love for the D.C. media, who loves leaks -- they live on leaks -- I wish somebody would leak to them who it was that told President Obama that Michael Flynn's name was in that transcript," Gowdy said on "Hannity."

Gowdy explained that as a member of the House Intelligence Committee, he had questioned a number of figures in the Russia investigation, including former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, former U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power and former Trump attorney Michael Cohen.

Host Sean Hannity said Gowdy asked Power about the request to make public that Flynn was having conversations with the then-Russian envoy, Sergey Kislyak.

"Samantha Power's explanation ought to scare the hell out of you," said Gowdy, paraphrasing it as: "'Somebody on my team may have made them but I didn’t make them.'"

"Keep in mind, somebody unmasked Michael Flynn’s name," Gowdy said. "Somebody unmasked his name and then gave that to President Obama. It wasn’t Sally Yates -- she didn’t know about it."

Earlier in the interview, Hannity asked whether Gowdy was able to confirm during the hearings whether anything in ex-MI6 Agent Christopher Steele's Russia-Trump dossier was verified or verifiable.

"Glenn Simpson couldn’t even do it," Gowdy said of the former Wall Street Journal reporter and co-founder of opposition research firm Fusion GPS -- which commissioned Steele's dossier.

"Michael Cohen -- who hates the president -- he said the dossier is a bunch of lies," he added. "This is somebody who hates Trump and he said it is a bunch of lies. Glenn Simpson bought and paid for it and he couldn’t verify it.

"I cannot believe the United States government relied on that piece of work," said Gowdy, referring to the fact the dossier was used as an exhibit in obtaining a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant to surveil former Trump campaign staffer Carter Page.

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Gowdy later claimed that reporters from several prominent news organizations "helped [House Intelligence Committee Chairman] Adam Schiff" legitimize the House probe into Trump.

"[They] sat there and helped Adam Schiff perpetrate this fraud. Next time I'm [on 'Hannity'] I will give you the names of the reporters," he said.

Gowdy, however, noted that Schiff himself enjoys legal "immunity" due to his position as a member of Congress.

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