Responding to reports that he visited the White House just one day before releasing bombshell revelations about Trump campaigners being caught up in surveillance activity, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes defended his actions, saying there was nothing clandestine about his activity.
“By holding the meeting on the White House grounds, it makes it appear that someone in the administration was coordinating the release of this information to you. Is that not the case?” asked CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.
“No, it’s not the case,” Nunes responded. “Like I said, this is something I’ve been working for a long time. And I had to find a way for me to have access to this because we couldn’t get the information down to the committee. And this was, this was a way I could facilitate me getting that information.”
On Wednesday, March 22, Nunes revealed that he had reviewed raw intelligence information that showed members of the Trump transition team being incidentally caught in legal surveillance of foreign agents. Shortly after making that revelation, Nunes then went to the White House to brief members of the administration on what he had seen, saying that he was concerned and bothered by some people having their names “unmasked” in reports in which their identity should have remained anonymous.
Today, CNN reported that Nunes was on the White House grounds the day before making any of his reports to the press, or making his briefing to members of the administration. Nunes was meeting his source – someone he calls a whistleblower – to review the intelligence documents while on the White House grounds.
“I know that it’s all Washington intrigue to find out about the source and methods. I’ll say the same thing I said to every else and that is just look, we’re not going to get into discussing sources and methods,” and was then cut off by CNN’s Blitzer for another question.
