While Special Counsel Robert Mueller continues his witch hunt to find some dirt — any dirt — on current and former officials with Team Trump, senior leaders in Congress are renewing efforts to find out more about why key figures in the Obama White House unmasked Trump campaign members during last year’s presidential campaign.

As reported by the Washington Free Beacon, which quoted unnamed sources for its story, senior GOP leaders want to know what was really behind the Obama administration’s push to obtain highly classified intelligence on the Trump campaign (and eventually Trump administration) figures and allies, including former Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, Trump’s initial national security adviser and perhaps the first administration figure to be unmasked.

Critics of the unmasking allege that the Obama White House did so for nefarious, politically-motivated reasons as a way to undermine the incoming administration and hamstring Trump as president, especially his national security team, multiple senior U.S. officials told the Free Beacon.

The site noted further:

The recent admission by Obama administration National Security Adviser Susan Rice that she requested the unmasking of Trump associates named in highly classified intelligence community reports has placed renewed attention on an investigation into why this information was obtained and then leaked to the press.

It should be noted that, initially, Rice denied unmasking anyone, but was eventually forced to own up to it after new information was published. Then, she simply denied that she did it for political purposes, claiming there were legitimate intelligence reasons for doing so (think the Russia collusion narrative, which is in and of itself a fabrication).

But besides Rice, former Obama United National Ambassador Samantha Power, as well as other senior Obama officials, made hundreds of unmasking requests. Mind you, these people were functionaries and political appointees; they were “intelligence professionals” with a need to know. And the fact all of this illegal unmasking and then leaking of identities happened to a rival presidential campaign is outrageous and unprecedented.

Most of the unmasking requests came within the final year of the Obama administration after Trump had declared his intention to seek the Republican presidential nomination and had begun actively campaigning. The officials who spoke with the Free Beacon believe that the requests may only be part of a larger effort by the Obamaites to improperly monitor Team Trump in the lead-up to the 2016 election.

The subsequent leaking of information about the Trump campaign has further fueled speculation that the surveillance and unmasking was all done for political purposes in a bid to tar the incoming administration. (Related: SHOCKER: Did Obama National Security Advisor Susan Rice “Unmask” Team Trump Members?)

As for Power, she is believed to be the anonymous official responsible for “hundreds of unmasking requests during the final year of the Obama administration,” according to current and former U.S. officials who spoke to the Free Beacon.

Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., chairman of the House Intelligence Committee which is looking into the unmasking, asked Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, a former U.S. congressman and then U.S. senator from Indiana who served on the Senate Armed Services and Intelligence committees, for assistance in addressing the unmasking.

So far, congressional investigators have learned that “one official [whose] position has no apparent intelligence-related function” — who many now believe is Power — “made hundreds of unmasking requests during the final year of the Obama administration.”

Understand there is no reason whatsoever the U.N. ambassador would have any reason at all to look at intelligence pertaining to a rival presidential campaign, let alone unmask American citizens working for said campaign.

There was little justification provided for those requests, officials said. Nunes noted: “Of those requests, only one offered a justification that was not boilerplate and articulated why that specific official required the personal information for the performance of his or her official duties.”

One former official described any requests for unmasking as “rare,” even requests from the intelligence community or State Department.

“The outrage about Obama officials spying on Americans, let alone on the Republican candidate and then incoming president, is both real and legitimate,” one source told the Free Beacon. “But there are still a lot of unknowns, which could make things a lot worse.”

Yeah, like, what did Obama know about all of this and what was his role?

J.D. Heyes is a senior writer for NaturalNews.com and NewsTarget.com, as well as editor of The National Sentinel.

Sources include:

FreeBeacon.com

TheNationalSentinel.com