Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said he didn’t see anything at the White House on Friday that changes his mind about committee Chairman Devin Nunes’ decision to deviate from “normal review procedures.”
In a statement, the California Democrat said he and his staff director reviewed what they were told was “precisely the same materials that were provided to the chairman over a week ago.”
That was a reference to the documents reviewed by Nunes on the White House grounds two weeks ago, related to surveillance of President Trump’s associates. Nunes then returned to the White House to brief President Trump personally on his findings before sharing those revelations with members of his own committee, which has prompted the ire of many of his fellow lawmakers.
Schiff said he cannot discuss publicly the content of the documents, but noted that if the White House had any concern about them, they “should have been shared with the full committees in the first place as a part of our ordinary oversight responsibilities.”
“Nothing I could see today warranted a departure from the normal review procedures, and these materials should now be provided to the full membership of both committees,” Schiff said. “The White House has yet to explain why senior White House staff apparently shared these materials with but one member of either committee, only for their contents to be briefed back to the White House.”
A White House official said Trump met briefly with Schiff after he viewed the documents.
Several lawmakers, including Schiff, have called on Nunes to recuse himself from the panel’s investigation into Russia’s involvement in the 2016 election.
