Top Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee spurned a request from the panel’s Democratic ranking member Monday night to have chairman Devin Nunes recuse himself from an investigation into Russia and intelligence gathering related to the Trump transition.
In making his recommendation, Rep. Adam Schiff cited Nunes’s meeting with a source on White House grounds the night before the Republican made allegations about the incidental collection on the Trump team after Election Day. Schiff also pointed to Nunes’s decision to brief the White House before committee Democrats last Wednesday on the intelligence he had seen.
“[M]uch in the same way that [Attorney General Jeff Sessions] was forced to recuse himself from the Russia investigation after failing to inform the Senate of his meetings with Russian officials,” Schiff said, “I believe the public cannot have the necessary confidence that matters involving the President’s campaign or transition team can be objectively investigated or overseen by the Chairman.” Nunes was a member of Trump’s transition team.
He brushed off Schiff’s statement shortly after he made it Monday.
“People say a lot of things around here, and it’s fine. It’s politics,” Nunes told THE WEEKLY STANDARD.
Asked whether he was considering Schiff’s request, which was later echoed by Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, Nunes said “no.”
Some of his fellow committee Republicans were more colorful in their rejection of calls for his recusal.
“Jesus would not be a satisfactory chairperson to some of my Democratic colleagues,” South Carolina representative Trey Gowdy told TWS. “They would complain about his hair.
“I did this for 20 years. I’ve never met a defense attorney who didn’t complain about the prosecutor, usually when they don’t have good facts,” Gowdy continued. “This is a factual investigation.”
The committee’s probe of Russian election interference includes the leaks that precipitated the February resignation of former national security adviser Mike Flynn, as well as potential collusion between Trump associates and Russia.
Nunes drew fire from Democrats after CNN reported Monday that he visited a building on White House grounds last Tuesday, the day before he made his allegations, to meet with a source, whom he later identified to Bloomberg News as an intelligence official. There, Nunes viewed multiple intelligence reports, which he told reporters Wednesday contained details about Trump transition members that had “little or no apparent foreign intelligence value.”
These details were picked up during pre-inaugural incidental collection, Nunes said Wednesday, and were then included in the intelligence reports. Incidental collection can occur when a foreign target under legal surveillance communicates with or mentions a U.S. person.
Nunes said Monday that he used a building on White House grounds because the documents fall under the purview of the executive branch and Congress had not yet received the reports.
Gowdy defended Nunes’s visit.
“What was wrong with going to the White House?” he told TWS. “If that’s where the information is, and the information is relevant, and it’s authentic, and it’s reliable, wouldn’t you go where the information was?”
New York congressman Peter King told reporters minutes before Schiff released his statement that Democrats were waging a campaign to sabotage Nunes.
“There really is a concerted effort out to undermine him,” he said.
“This was executive branch material. Following legal advice, that’s the only place you would look at it,” King continued. “He was not in the White House. He was not with the president.”
Schiff criticized Nunes Wednesday for not briefing him on the intelligence prior to holding a press conference announcing his allegations and briefing the president. The California Democrat said Monday that no committee members have seen the relevant documents yet.
Schiff and Nunes have suggested that the documents could be included in the scope of the committee’s March 15 request to the NSA for documents related to the unmasking, or exposure, of U.S. persons’ identities between June 2016 and January 2017. The names of U.S. persons caught in incidental collection are typically redacted, or “masked,” and only revealed under certain circumstances.
