In an interview posted to YouTube Monday, reporter Sara A. Carter told Fox News host Sean Hannity that Deputy Attorney Rod Rosenstein likely re-authorized FISA warrants against President-elect Donald Trump following the 2016 presidential election.

In addition, Carter revealed the number of unmasking requests exploded during the time frame of the missing Strzok-Page text messages.

Credit: Maureen Dowling

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“We have to ask ourselves, was Rod Rosenstein involved in re-authorizing those FISA surveillance warrants?” asked Carter.

“Don’t we believe the timing shows he had to?” Hannity interjected.

“We believe the timing shows he had to,” replied Carter, who then added, “we don’t have positive proof of that yet, but what we know of is that those FISA surveillance warrants were re-authorized again and again and they were continuing to investigate President Trump and members of his team even after the election.”

Carter then turned her attention to the unmasking scandal embroiling former key Obama officials, U.S Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power and Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes.

“You know what’s even more concerning to me Sean, is the fact that during those months of those missing text messages — remember the unmasking?”

“That is when we discovered — I remember John Solomon and I wrote these stories about the unmasking — that’s when it sped up.”

“That’s when the unmasking went into high gear,” revealed Carter.

“We have Samantha Power with 300 unmaskings, although she’s denying that she signed off on those unmaskings.”

“We have Susan Rice, we have others within the Obama administration that have signed off,”

Hannity then asked Carter, “Do we know if Ben Rhodes did it?”

“We suspect Ben Rhodes was involved in it,” Carter replied.

Former Obama administration officials are the subject of intense scrutiny in relation to Congress’ investigation into ‘unmasking’ allegations. According to the Washington Free Beacon, former United Nations Ambassador Samantha Power ‘unmasked’ hundreds during her final year as an Obama administration official.

Washington Free Beacon reports:

Power was first identified by the Washington Free Beacon last month as a central figure in a congressional investigation into efforts by senior Obama administration officials to obtain classified intelligence information in what many allege was an effort to undermine President Donald Trump and his incoming national security team. Power 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 about the ongoing investigation. Efforts by the former Obama administration to obtain the names of Trump allies included in raw intelligence reports have fueled speculation that subsequent leaks to the press were orchestrated by the former administration and its allies in a bid to damage the current White House and smear Trump’s most senior confidantes.

When asked why Power would need to be involved in such gathering of classified intelligence, the source said, “That’s just not the sort of thing that she should have been concerned about, unless she was playing the role of political operative with the help of the intelligence community.”

As TGP previously reported, independent journalist and author Mike Cernovich broke the story that the leaker and unmasker is former NatSec Advisor, Susan Rice.

On Sunday, we learned additional text messages sent and received by disgraced FBI agent Peter Strzok had been handed over to Congress. In yet another twist to the Strzok saga, the FBI failed to hand over a block of the agent’s text messages between Dec. 14, 2016, and May 17, 2017 because they went “missing.”

The revelation raises even more questions about possible collusion between the FBI, Justice Department with the Obama White House, in an effort to undermine Trump.