During an interview Wednesdat with Fox News Chennel's Bill O'Reilly, famous journalist Bob Woodward made the argument that if information about Trump campaign officials being "unmasked" in intercepted communications is true, "it is a gross violation."



"It is not what Trump said [about the wiretap], but apparently what has happened here is a couple of diplomats who can be legitimately wiretapped, were talking about meeting with Trump or people on his transition team -- and of course you can learn all kinds of things from diplomats gossiping, because that is what occurs. Under the rules --and they're pretty strict-- you are supposed to, it is called minimization, you don't name the American person who is being discussed.



"But the idea that there was intelligence value here is really thin," Woodward added. "It's, again, down the middle, it is not what Trump said, but this could be criminal on the part of people who decided, oh, let's name these people."



He also noted: "Under the rules, that name is supposed to be blanked out, and so you've got a real serious problem potentially of people in the Obama administration passing around this highly classified gossip."