House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes’ decision to brief the White House and then hold a press conference on potentially improper “monitor[ing]” of President Trump’s transition team drew a rebuke from a Senate Republican counterpart.
“No, I think our committee should function independent of the White House and anything that happens within our committee needs to be completely — not only bipartisan, but nonpartisan — we’re going after a set of facts and issues,” Senate Intelligence Committee member James Lankford, R-Okla., told reporters Thursday during a joint press availability with Maine Sen. Angus King. “So, I think it’s most appropriate for the committees to work independent of the White House, not next to the White House.”
Nunes took bipartisan criticism from colleagues who argued that his decision to reveal that there had been “incidental collection” of information on Trump and members of his transition team, which was then circulated within the intelligence community. Trump touted the report as a partial vindication of his claim that then-President Barack Obama had wiretapped Trump Tower during the election. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., countered that Nunes had cost Congress “the credibility to handle this alone.”
King, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats, said that any credibility lost on the House side shouldn’t affect voters’ perception of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s investigation of Russia’s interference into the 2016 presidential election.
“This is a separate committee from the House and we are continuing now on our investigation and have confidence that we’re going to be able to pursue this investigation wherever it leads,” he said.
Nunes dropped the bombshell on Wednesday, before briefing Democratic members of his committee on the information he’d learned. “I have seen intelligence reports that clearly show that the President-elect and his team were, I guess at least monitored and disseminated out in intelligence,” the California Republican said Wednesday. “From what I know right now, it looks like incidental collection.”
“Incidental collection” refers to instances in which American intelligence officials are conducting legitimate surveillance of a foreign target, but they end up gathering “incidental” information on Americans who interact with that foreign target. On its own, that is no scandal if procedures for handling the information and protecting the privacy of the Americans are followed. But the circulation of that information and the names of the Americans it pertained to is a potential crime.
Still, Lankford welcomed reports that Nunes had apologized for his handling of the news. “I applaud Chairman Nunes’ apology,” he tweeted, following reports that Nunes had apologized to committee Democrats in a closed-door meeting Thursday. Intel Cmte investigation into #Russia is nonpartisan & thorough. We follow the evidence wherever it leads.”
Nunes denied making the apology, however. “Because it was going to be so politically charged, I just decided look, at the end of the day, I have a responsibility to inform the White House,” Nunes told the Washington Examiner. “We oversee the agencies, and what I saw in those reports concerned me enough that [the president] should be able to read those.”
