It's not a stretch of logic to think that names are unmasked and added to inter agency reports as a part of that investigation.
This stuff didn't happen in a vacuum.
Except
Comey has stated that unmaking was a felony.
I think you confuse what Comey actually testified to.
Rep Trey Gowdy grills FBI's Comey on wiretapping, Russia
South Carolina Representative Trey Gowdy grilled
FBI Director
James Comey on Monday.
Comey: I think other elements of the government that are consumers of our products can ask the collectors to unmask. The unmasking resides with those who collected the information. And so, if Mike Rogers' folks collected something and they sent it to me in a report and it says, "U.S. person number one," and it's important for the FBI to know who that is, our request will go back to them. The White House can make similar requests of the FBI or of NSA, but they can't on their — they don't on their own collect, so they can't on their own unmask. [
To person offscreen] I got that about right?
Unknown person offscreen: Yeah, that's correct.
Gowdy: So I guess what I'm getting at, Director Comey, is you say it's vital, you say it's critical, you say it's indispensable. We both know it's a threat to the reauthorization of 702 later on this fall, and oh, by the way,
it's also a felony punishable by up to 10 years. So, how would you begin your investigation, assuming for the sake of argument that a U.S. citizen's name appeared in the Washington Post and The New York Times unlawfully? Where would you begin that investigation?
Comey: Well, I'm not going to talk about any particular investigation —
Comey: I can't, but I hope people watching know how seriously we take leaks of classified information, but I don't want to confirm it by saying we're investigating it, and I'm sorry I have to draw that line. I just think that's the right way to be.
Gowdy: Well, I'm not going to argue with you, Director Comey, but it is — you know, we're going to discuss a lot of important things today, whether Russia attempted to influence our democratic process is incredibly important. Whether they sought to influence it is a separate analysis, incredibly important. The motive behind that interference and influence, incredibly important. Our U.S. response, incredibly important. Some of that may rise to the level of a crime. Some of it does not rise to the level of a crime. One thing you and I agree on is the felonious dissemination of classified material most definitely is a crime. So, I would ask you, and I understand some of the procedures that you are up against — I would humbly ask you to seek authority from whomever you need to seek authority from. Because I'm going to finish the same way I started. This is an agreement between the American people and its government. We are going to — we, the American people, give certain powers to government to keep us safe, and when those powers are misused and the motive is not criminal investigations or national security, then I'll bet you my fellow citizens are rethinking their side of the equation. Because that U. S. citizen could be them next time.
It could be you. It could be me. It could be anyone until we start seriously investigating and prosecuting what Congress thought was serious enough to attach a 10-year felony to. With that, I would yield back, Mr. Chairman.
Maybe you can find Comey saying unmasking was a felony, but I can only find Gowdy making that claim.