President Obama’s National Security Adviser Susan Rice is rejecting allegations that she leaked the names of Trump associates whose communications were swept up by U.S. intelligence agencies’ foreign surveillance. Earlier this week, it emerged that Rice was the official who “unmasked” the names of Michael Flynn and other Trump associates, whose names repeatedly came up in the U.S. surveillance records targeting the communications of Russian officials. While the names of Americans who are swept up by U.S. foreign surveillance are to be kept concealed from the public, top U.S. officials, such as Susan Rice, have the power to “unmask” their names internally so they can understand the context of the conversations. This is Susan Rice, speaking with MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Tuesday.

Andrea Mitchell: “Did you seek the names of people involved in—to unmask the names of people involved in the Trump transition, the Trump campaign, people surrounding the president-elect—”

Susan Rice: “Let me begin—”

Andrea Mitchell: “—in order to spy on them, in order to expose them.”

Susan Rice: “Absolutely—absolutely not for any political purposes, to spy, expose anything. But let me—”

Andrea Mitchell: “Did you leak the name of Mike Flynn?”

Susan Rice: “I leaked nothing to nobody, and never have and never would.”