--- 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=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 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=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Susan Rice: 'I Leaked Nothing to Nobody' on Trump Transition 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  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, DC. 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, DC.Mark Wilson—Getty Images 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.” ```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"}}]}] ```