EXCERPT:
BRENNAN: "Good to see you, Brian. What they’re seeing right now is the politicization of the intelligence community and an effort by the Trump Administration, as you said, to divert attention from the ongoing COVID crisis. Let’s get straight what unmasking is. The National Security Agency, which is responsible for collecting intercepted communications, and then pushing them out to the intelligence community, the NSA professionals, when they see these intercepts of national security value, they distribute these reports, and if there’s a U.S. person’s name in it, they will conceal that name for privacy purposes as well as for counterintelligence investigative purposes. So the report will say something like 'U.S. Person Number One,' 'U.S. Person Number Two,' 'U.S. Person Number Three.' When these reports are sent out, there are individuals within the government who have the authority and responsibility to find out who might be engaged in discussions with foreign government officials, whether they be intelligence officers or foreign government officials or whomever.”