House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., said Tuesday he hasn’t yet seen any evidence to back up President Trump’s claim that President Obama authorized a wiretap on Trump’s phone.
“At this point, we don’t have any evidence of that,” he told reporters.
As part of its overall investigation into Russia’s interference in the election, Nunes’ committee will investigate Trump’s claim, which he and the White House have declined to explain further, including how Trump knows the wiretapping happened.
Nunes announced that the first hearing on the numerous issues concerning Russia and the presidential election will be held on March 20. Nunes noted it was rare for the intelligence committee to hold a meeting such as this in the open, but “because of the seriousness of the accusations involved on all sides of this issue, I want to make sure that we hold as many of these hearings out in public so that the American people” can have direct access to the information.
Additionally, Nunes announced that seven people were being invited — not subpoenaed — and the list was an “initial” one, meaning more people could be invited later.
Those invited include FBI Director James Comey; Mike Rogers, Director of the National Security Agency; John Brennan, former director of the Central Intelligence Agency; James Clapper, former director of National Intelligence; Sally Yates, former acting attorney general; Dmitri Alperovich, Co-Founder and chief technology officer of CrowdStrike; and Shawn Henry, president of CrowdStrike.
Nunes backed the idea that Trump has a valid question about whether Obama authorized any surveillance, but he also seemed unclear whether Trump was asserting it happened, or whether Trump was only asking if it happened.
“I think it’s a valid question, if indeed it was a question,” he said.
Nunes declined to say whether Trump owed Obama an apology, and he also defended Trump’s tweeting. He said it’s refreshing to have a president who isn’t “completely lawyered up” but also said Trump should be “clear” about what he is discussing.
Nunes said the multiple tweets by the president were a little “strung together,” but added, “I think the bigger question that needs to be answered is, whether or not Mr. Trump or any of his associates were in fact targeted by any of the intelligence agencies or law enforcement authorities.”
He added, “I don’t think we should attack the president for Tweeting.”
Besides the questions about potential election interference by the Russian government, Nunes also discussed the issue of FISA warrants, which are obtained from a secret court and are used to wiretap people generally suspected of terrorism or persons suspected of being an agent of a foreign power. It’s generally thought that if the Obama administration had indeed wiretapped any portion of the Trump campaign, a FISA warrant may have been obtained.
“Typically, we’ve had great trust with our intelligence agencies, and I continue to have that trust. But we have to verify the fact that all of the tools that are in place that we oversee are being used … are being used ethically, responsibly, and by the law. And if anyone’s abused those [tools], we want to know that,” Nunes said.
FBI Director Comey was the first person listed as an invitee to the March 20th hearing. Recently, Comey has asked his superiors at the Department of Justice to refute the claims of wiretapping the Trump campaign in 2016. Just five days ago, Nunes’ counterpart in the intelligence committee, Adam Schiff, D-Calif., accused Comey of stonewalling the committee. Nunes said he still has full confidence in the FBI director but said he shares Schiff’s concern about the “timeliness” of receiving information from Comey.
