McMaster wasn't aware of White House's foreign call "lockdowns"
Source: Axios
Three former administration officials tell Axios that former national security adviser H.R. McMaster did not authorize and was not aware of the "locking down" of transcripts of conversations between President Trump and foreign leaders that were politically damaging but didn't pose national security risks.
Why it matters: Congressional investigators want to learn how, when and at whose direction transcripts were moved out of the typical computer system and into a classified system meant for highly sensitive security matters.
That process was described in the whistleblower's complaint about the July 25 call between President Trump and Ukraine's President Zelensky.
Details: Early reports suggested the practice might date to McMaster's tenure (February 2017–April 2018).
After calls between Trump and leaders of Mexico and Australia were leaked in 2017, the National Security Council did tighten a once-larger circle of staff and interagency officials who got access to foreign leader call transcripts by default, two of the former officials said. But that's not the same as whisking transcripts away to a classified system.
Read more: https://www.axios.com/hr-mcmaster-trump-foreign-leader-classified-system-e6057c09-da01-4a37-9908-05da980b624a.html
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