Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., said the public may never know who is mentioned in criminal referrals he plans to submit to the Justice Department in the coming days.
The House Intelligence Committee ranking member appeared on Fox News hours after he sent a brief letter to Attorney General William Barr that said his team “identified several potential violations of the law” as part of an investigation into origins of the Trump-Russia investigation.
“We don’t know if you’ll ever know who” is named, Nunes told Fox News host Sean Hannity. “But I can tell you that if you follow the Russia hoax closely, if I gave you seven guesses, you’d probably get the five people that we have referred.”
He also added a little more clarity to what the referrals entail.
“So there’s five direct referrals based on lying, obstruction, congressional investigation, and leaking,” Nunes said. “We have a global leaks referral, which involves just a few reporters but could involve multiple people. I don’t think it’s that many people because I think they probably only have a few sources within these agencies. And then you have conspiracy referrals. One is based on the manipulation of intelligence. The second one is based on FISA abuse and other matters. So that’s where we stand.”
In the notification he sent to Barr earlier in the day, Nunes said he and Rep. John Ratcliffe, R-Texas, a member of the House Intelligence Committee and former U.S. attorney, want to meet to discuss eight criminal referrals and that his staff would reach out to the Justice Department to set up a meeting.
Nunes’ letter did not identify who was subject to the referral, nor did it identify the specific alleged crimes.
Barr is putting together a team to examine the FBI’s initial investigation into President Trump’s campaign in the summer of 2016. Asked about Nunes’ criminal referrals during a congressional hearing this week, Barr testified, “Obviously, if there is a predicate for investigation, it will be conducted.”
Barr also testified this week “spying” occurred on the Trump campaign, but later clarified that he has no proof of wrongdoing.
Nunes said all of this “spying” was used to “create a narrative that Donald Trump shouldn’t have been president, that he’s a Russian asset” and the “ultimate spying” was performed by former FBI Director James Comey by taking notes of his meetings with Trump and then leaking them out to the press after getting fired in May 2017.
[Opinion: Byron York: Barr is right, spying on Trump campaign did occur]
