--- title: Susan Rice Denies Charges She Politicized Surveillance description: Former National Security Advisor Susan Rice strongly denied charges that she sought to politicize surveillance about Donald Trump canonical: https://time.com/4725121/susan-rice-donald-trump-surveillance-msnbc-interview/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-04-04T16:47:58.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-13T09:58:32.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Susan Rice Denies Charges She Politicized Surveillance og:description: "I leaked nothing to nobody, never had, never would." og:url: https://time.com/4725121/susan-rice-donald-trump-surveillance-msnbc-interview/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd3f32fa4e7193d08/6988c144196cf450c303f86e/susan-rice-surveillance.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 594 og:image:height: 334 og:image:alt: White House National Security Adviser Susan Rice, speaks while incomming White House National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, listens, during the 2017 Passing The Baton conference at the United States Institute of Peace, on January 10, 2017 in Washington og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Susan Rice Denies Charges She Politicized Surveillance twitter:description: "I leaked nothing to nobody, never had, never would." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd3f32fa4e7193d08/6988c144196cf450c303f86e/susan-rice-surveillance.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Susan Rice: 'I Leaked Nothing to Nobody' on Trump Transition > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=c0da4a47-11ed-4fd5-b5c3-e37dd9254582&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Senator Warner Criticizes President Trump in Opening Statement of Russia Investigation Hearing [Watch (HLS stream): Senator Warner Criticizes President Trump in Opening Statement of Russia Investigation Hearing](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/AZmfPa2n.m3u8) (1:06)  _Published 2017-03-30. Warner, a Democrat, took a jab at President Trump, emphasizing that the allegations are not "fake news."_ by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) ## Ryan Teague Beckwith Updated: Dec 13, 2023 9:58 AM UTCPublished: Apr 4, 2017 4:47 PM UTC Warner, a Democrat, took a jab at President Trump, emphasizing that the allegations are not "fake news." by [Ryan Teague Beckwith](https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/) ## Ryan Teague Beckwith Updated: Dec 13, 2023 9:58 AM UTCPublished: Apr 4, 2017 4:47 PM UTC Former National Security Advisor Susan Rice strongly denied Republican charges that the Obama Administration sought to politicize surveillance during the presidential transition. In [an interview on MSNBC](http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/susan-rice-speaks-out-unmasking-accusations-i-leaked-nothing-nobody-n742486) Tuesday, the former Obama advisor called claims that she and others sought to “unmask” the names of Trump advisers caught on so-called “incidental surveillance” for political reasons “absolutely false.” “I leaked nothing to nobody, never had, never would,” she said. Instead, she said that in some instances the identities of people reference on foreign surveillance would have been directly released to her — admitting it was [“possible”](https://twitter.com/MSNBC/status/849295471222833152) that some Trump advisers might have been mentioned by foreign officials — but said that is a far cry from leaking them to reporters. “Imagine if we saw something of grave significance that involved Russia, China or anyone else interfering in our political process and we needed to understand the significance of that” by unmasking the identity of the American involved, she told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell. “To not understand it would be a dereliction of duty.” She said she was “surprised” and “shocked” by [Trump’s March tweet](https://twitter.com/MSNBC/status/849295471222833152) that the Trump Tower was “wiretapped” by the Obama Administration, saying the claim was untrue and that making it was “not typical of the way presidents treat their predecessors.” FBI Director James Comey and top Republican leaders have said [there is no evidence](http://time.com/4713187/donald-trump-obama-wiretap-fact-check/) Trump was wiretapped. Rice has recently become the target of Republicans criticizing the Obama Administration’s handling of surveillance. In [an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt](http://www.businessinsider.com/tom-cotton-susan-rice-2017-4), Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas called her the “Typhoid Mary” of Obama’s foreign policy, referencing a woman in the 1900s who infected multiple people with a deadly disease. When asked about the remark, Rice declined to respond, saying she has been “called a lot of things by folks on the right that are unfair and disingenuous.” ## Transcript I would hope that the President is as anxious as we are to get to the bottom of what happened. But I have to say editorially, that the President's recent contact with his wild and uncorroborated accusations about wiretapping and his inappropriate and unjustified attacks on America's hard working intelligence professionals. Does give me grave concern. This committee has a heavy weight of responsiblity to prove that we can continue to put our political labels aside to get us to the truth. I believe we can get there. I've seen first hand, and I say this to our audience, how serious members on both sides of this dias. Have worked on this sensitive and critical issue. As the Chairman and I have said repeatedly, this investigation will follow the facts where they lead us. But any time I believe we're not gonna be able to get those facts, and we're working together very cooperatively to make sure we get the facts that we need from the intelligence community, we will get that done. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4725121/susan-rice-donald-trump-surveillance-msnbc-interview/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4725121/susan-rice-donald-trump-surveillance-msnbc-interview/"},"headline":"Susan Rice: 'I Leaked Nothing to Nobody' on Trump Transition","datePublished":"2017-04-04T16:47:58.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-13T09:58:32.000Z","description":"'I leaked nothing to nobody, never had, never would'","url":"https://time.com/4725121/susan-rice-donald-trump-surveillance-msnbc-interview/","keywords":["White House","Barack Obama","National Security","Donald Trump","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd3f32fa4e7193d08/6988c144196cf450c303f86e/susan-rice-surveillance.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ryan Teague Beckwith","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ryan-teague-beckwith/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd3f32fa4e7193d08/6988c144196cf450c303f86e/susan-rice-surveillance.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"White House National Security Adviser Susan Rice, speaks while incomming White House National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, listens, during the 2017 Passing The Baton conference at the United States Institute of Peace, on January 10, 2017 in Washington","caption":"John Kerry, Susan Rice, Michael Flynn Attend \"Passing The Baton\" Conference","creditText":"Mark Wilson—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4725121/susan-rice-donald-trump-surveillance-msnbc-interview/","name":"Susan Rice: 'I Leaked Nothing to Nobody' on Trump Transition"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Senator Warner Criticizes President Trump in Opening Statement of Russia Investigation Hearing","description":"Warner, a Democrat, took a jab at President Trump, emphasizing that the allegations are not \"fake news.\"","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/AZmfPa2n/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2017-03-30T16:02:46.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/AZmfPa2n.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4725121/susan-rice-donald-trump-surveillance-msnbc-interview/","duration":"PT1M6S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4725121/susan-rice-donald-trump-surveillance-msnbc-interview/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```