[NYP] Former acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell has declassified the transcripts of the phone calls between former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and former Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak, a senior administration official confirmed to The Post.The move by Grenell comes on the same day he was replaced by former Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Tx.), who was sworn in Tuesday after being confirmed to the position by the Senate in a 49-44 vote Thursday.
Now that the declassification review process for those transcripts is complete, his successor Ratcliffe will decide whether they are released.
The trove of Russia probe documents includes transcripts of the December 2016 calls between Flynn and Kislyak.
Last week, Grenell said that he was in the process of declassifying those files after House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) had asked him to do so.
Last week, Flynn’s lawyer Sidney Powell joined former National Security Adviser Susan Rice in calling for the transcripts to be released.
Powell said last Wednesday on SiriusXM’s "The Dan Abrams Show" that she "would love" to see those conversations become public, arguing that she believes the transcript would help exonerate her client.
"I think the reason we haven’t seen [the transcripts] is because the word ’sanctions’ doesn’t even appear in them," she said at the time.
Rice’s spokeswoman also called for the release of the transcripts in response to a declassified email written by Rice and sent to herself on President Trump’s inauguration day.
The email, which was declassified by Grenell, documented a Jan. 5 meeting she took part in with Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, FBI Director James Comey and Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates regarding Flynn.
Rice wrote that Comey had expressed some concerns about the frequency with which Flynn was communicating with Kislyak, saying it could pose an issue when it came to sharing sensitive information.