Speaker Paul Ryan Paul Davis RyanAt indoor rally, Pence says election runs through Wisconsin Juan Williams: Breaking down the debates Peterson faces fight of his career in deep-red Minnesota district MORE (R-Wis.) says he thinks the unmasking of associates of President Trump by officials appears to have been politicized.

Ryan on Tuesday appeared on “Fox & Friends” to discuss the investigations into Russia’s interference in the United States' presidential election last year.

“Do you think the motivation though, on whomever did this, was to sandbag the Trump administration?” Fox host Steve Doocy asked.

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“Well, I’m not going to prejudge this investigation because we’re in the middle of it, but it certainly looks like that. It certainly looks like this was politicized,” Ryan responded.

Unmasking refers to restoring a U.S. citizen’s name in intelligence surveillance reports. American citizens' names are redacted from such reports when incidentally collected during foreign surveillance.

Former acting Attorney General Sally Yates and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper testified Monday in front of a Senate Judiciary subcommittee about Russia’s attempt to meddle in the presidential election.

Ryan on Tuesday said unmasking information and then leaking it to the media is a crime.

“That is a crime. And so that is taking classified information, unclassifying it, and leaking it out. That is something somebody in the Obama administration decided to do,” Ryan said.