![\"\"](\"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Barr-Wont-Agree-to-Delay-Durham-Report-640x480-1.jpg\")
Chip Somodevilla\/Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n
by JOEL B. POLLAK<\/p>\n
A Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation into the \u201cunmasking\u201d requests made by outgoing Obama administration officials in 2016 and 2017 has ended without any criminal charges or findings of wrongdoing, according to the\u00a0Washington Post<\/em>.<\/p>\n The\u00a0Post<\/em>\u00a0did not\u00a0report<\/a>\u00a0whether that included investigations into leaks of the names of Americans who had been \u201cunmasked\u201d in classified reports \u2014 specifically, former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, whose name was leaked to the\u00a0Post<\/em>.<\/p>\n The\u00a0Post<\/em>\u00a0reported<\/a>:<\/p>\n The federal prosecutor appointed by Attorney General William P. Barr to review whether Obama-era officials improperly requested the identities of individuals whose names were redacted in intelligence documents has completed his work without finding any substantive wrongdoing, according to people familiar with the matter. In May, then-Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell declassified a list of Obama administration officials who had made unmasking requests related to Flynn. Former Vice President Joe Biden\u2019s name was\u00a0among those on the list<\/a>.<\/p>\n Washington Post<\/em>\u00a0columnist David Ignatius was the first to\u00a0reveal<\/a>\u00a0Flynn\u2019s telephone conversations with then-Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak, though the leak\u00a0may have been made<\/a>\u00a0to the\u00a0Post<\/em>\u00a0newsroom.<\/p>\n It is illegal to leak classified information, including the names of Americans who appear on intelligence intercepts of foreign communications.<\/p>\n
\nThe revelation that U.S. Attorney John Bash, who left the department last week, had concluded his review without criminal charges or any public report will rankle President Trump at a moment when he is particularly upset at the Justice Department. The department has so far declined to release the results of Bash\u2019s work, though people familiar with his findings say they would likely disappoint conservatives who have tried to paint the \u201cunmasking\u201d of names \u2014 a common practice in government to help understand classified documents \u2014 as a political conspiracy.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n