House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes accused the FBI of “drastically” deviating from standard operations by refusing to give the Trump campaign a defensive briefing on Russian interference in the 2016 election.
As an example, the California Republican pointed out that Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., was briefed amid concerns that one of her staff members was possibly working as a Chinese spy.
“Providing a defensive briefing, like the one given to Sen. Feinstein, is a typical response to these kinds of situations,” Nunes said in a statement to Fox News. “The refusal to give the Trump campaign a defensive briefing, and instead opening a sprawling counterintelligence investigation of American citizens, is one of many alarming ways that intelligence leaders drastically diverged from normal procedures in their Trump campaign investigation.”
In recent days reporting emerged that said Chinese intelligence officials recruited a staff member at Feinstein’s local office to provide them with details on local politics. Feinstein said she was notified five years ago about the concerns and subsequently removed the staffer.
“Five years ago the FBI informed me it had concerns that an administrative member of my California staff was potentially being sought out by the Chinese government to provide information,” Feinstein said in a statement. “He was not a mole or a spy, but someone who a foreign intelligence service thought it could recruit.”
“He never had access to classified or sensitive information or legislative matters,” Feinstein added. “The FBI never informed me of any compromise of national security information.”
Although Feinstein was granted a defensive briefing, Trump did not get one as the FBI initiated an investigation into the activities of the Trump campaign amid concerns of collusion with the Kremlin.
The FBI proceeded to obtain surveillance warrants against former Trump campaign official Carter Page. An FBI informant also met with multiple members of the Trump campaign.
The FBI did not provide a comment to Fox News on why Trump was not given a defensive briefing when the investigation began.
A retired FBI special agent and former national spokesperson Jon Iannarelli, said that it was possible the difference in managing the cases was due to the scope of each situation.
“The Feinstein investigation was very narrow, in terms of who their target was, whereas the Trump investigation appears to be much broader,” Ianarelli told Fox News.
“When you’re conducting a public corruption investigation, if you’re looking at someone who’s working for the official but have nothing to indicate that the official is involved, you may notify the official to prevent the investigation from being compromised,” Iannarelli added.
[Also read: Devin Nunes says ‘pay close attention’: Top Obama DOJ official Bruce Ohr will become ‘more and more important’]
