Rep. Devin Nunes, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, was on the White House grounds the day before he announced he had seen information that President Trump and some of his associates may have been accidentally spied on.
CNN reported Monday that Nunes said he went to the White House complex for meetings and to go into a sensitive compartmented information facility, or SCIF, to view the information he later alluded to publicly.
The SCIF is a facility that allows people to securely speak about and view sensitive information without being overheard or spied on by others.
The day after the meeting, Nunes held a press conference on March 22 announcing he had seen information from sources that showed Trump and some associates may have been caught up in surveillance of foreign targets during the transition. While Trump said he felt that finding “somewhat vindicated” his tweets that President Obama ordered him to be spied on during the campaign, Nunes said his information did not justify Trump’s claim. He then left the cameras and went to the White House to brief administration officials.
Democrats have criticized Nunes because he held the press conference and then went to the White House to brief Trump about his findings before ever talking to the rest of the committee. Many Democrats criticized Nunes for possibly compromising the committee’s investigation into Russian influence on the 2016 presidential election and whether Trump and his associates played any role in coordinating with the Russians.
Others have accused him of being fed information from the White House and then releasing that information publicly to justify Trump’s claims about Obama.
Nunes said no one at the White House knew he was on the grounds viewing information and that he had been working on confirming information that Trump and his associates may have been spied on before Trump claimed Obama ordered him spied on during the campaign.
Nunes added that he did not go to the White House itself.
