Gowdy: What does the term mask mean in the concept of FISA and other surveillance programs?

Comey: As Director Rogers explained, it‘s our practice, approved by the FISA court, of removing the names of U.S. persons to protect their privacy and their identity, unless it hits certain exceptions. So, masking means, as Mike Rogers said, I‘ll often see an intelligence report from NSA that will say, U.S. person number one, U.S. person number two, U.S. person number three and there‘s no further identification on the document.

Gowdy: Admiral Rogers said that there are 20 people within the NSA that are part of the unmasking process. How many people within the FBI are part of the unmasking process?

Comey: I don‘t know for sure as I sit here. Surely more, given the nature of the FBI‘s work. We come into contact with U.S. persons a whole lot more than the NSA does because we may be conducting — we only conduct our operations in the United States to collect electronic surveillance, to conduct electronic surveillance — so I can find out the exact number. I don‘t know it as I sit here.