Former National Security Adviser Susan Rice appearing on ABC's "This Week" with George Stephanopoulos on Sunday, June 4, 2017.

(CNSNews.com) – Former National Security Adviser Susan Rice was asked on Sunday if subpoenaed intelligence documents will show that she improperly requested the unmasking of American citizens caught up in foreign surveillance. She did not say no:

I'm confident that those documents will show that I, like national security advisers before me, and other senior officials in positions of responsibility, whether at the State Department, Defense Department, or the intelligence community, were doing what we needed to do to do our jobs, which is to protect the American people, to protect classified information, to protect civil liberties. That's what those documents will show.

Here is the entire exchange between host George Stephanopoulos and Rice:

“Finally, the chairman of the House Intelligence Community, Devin Nunes, subpoenaed the CIA, NSA, and the FBI, for any information they had about requests you may have made to quote, ‘unmask’ U.S. individuals in intelligence reports,” Stephanopoulos said. “Do you have any objection to having these agencies comply with the subpoena? And what will the committee learn if they do?”

Rice responded: “I don't have, of course, any objection to the agencies being responsive to congressional oversight. That's what they're expected to do. And this, I think, is a question now between the House intelligence committee and the agencies.

“I think what is unfortunate is that it appears that this request, or this subpoena rather, was issued on a unilateral basis by the chairman, not on a bipartisan basis.



“And I think, George, at this stage with our democracy being challenged and threatened directly by a foreign adversary, it points up the critical importance now more than ever of our working on a bipartisan basis, and our protecting and advancing our national security interests on a bipartisan basis. So I hope that, going forward, that can be the case.”

Stephanopoulos followed up: “And you're confident those documents won't show that you did anything wrong?”

As noted above, Rice responded: “I'm confident that those documents will show that I, like national security advisers before me, and other senior officials in positions of responsibility, whether at the State Department, Defense Department, or the intelligence community, were doing what we needed to do to do our jobs, which is to protect the American people, to protect classified information, to protect civil liberties. That's what those documents will show.”

And that’s where the interview ended.

Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), the chairman of the House intelligence community, last week issued three subpoenas related to the unmasking of Americans, but he did so without consulting the committee’s top Democrat, Rep. Adam Schiff (Calif.).

“That's a problem,” Schiff told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell last Thursday.

Schiff said he thinks the three subpoenas issued unilaterally by Nunes – who has recused himself from leading the Russia probe – are part of a “White House desire to shift attention away from the Russia probe and on to the issue of unmasking.”

Schiff said he will not be distracted from the Russia probe, and he said it’s up to House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) to decide if he “wants to allow this kind of thing to go on.”

Schiff told Mitchell it is not necessary to subpoena the intelligence agencies for information on unmasking because, “I think the agencies are cooperating with us. I don't think they've demonstrated any intent to withhold information. So apart from, I would imagine the publicity surrounding the issuance of subpoenas, I don't really see the point.”

At the same time Nunes unilaterally subpoenaed the intelligence agencies, the House intelligence committee issued four subpoenas on a bipartisan basis, all related to the Russia investigation – one each for former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and his consulting group; and one each for Trump lawyer Michael Cohen and his law firm.