The top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee is pointing to President Trump and his allies in Congress for potentially breaking a federal law in connection to the media’s disclosure of information about an FBI informant who made contact with Trump’s 2016 campaign.
In a letter sent Thursday to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and FBI Director Christopher Wray, Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., took a page from Trump’s playbook in expressing his misgivings about a possible plot to gain political leverage.
“President Trump, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, and other House Republicans have information about a confidential human source … Somehow, that same information, including his identity, was conveyed to the media,” Nadler said. “The president and his accomplices in Congress have featured the resulting press in yet another attempt to derail Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.”
Nadler demanded an investigation into whether someone violated the Intelligence Identities Protection Act, along with other statutes and DOJ guidelines, and asked for the DOJ and FBI to brief his committee on the topic.
A deliberate decision to expose the identity of a confidential source is reckless and dangerous. Moreover, the decision to out this operative may be a crime. Today, I wrote to the DOJ and FBI to investigate the source of this disclosure and hold the perpetrators accountable. pic.twitter.com/E7uO2cuUA2
— (((Rep. Nadler))) (@RepJerryNadler) May 24, 2018
Disclosures about the informant have emerged over the past week, though the sources of those leaks have not been publicly pinpointed.
Weeks ago, Nunes subpoenaed the Justice Department for documents concerning the intelligence source for Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. But the DOJ, backed by the White House, did not provide the documents, informing Nunes earlier this month that providing the information would put human lives at risk and possibly hurt national security.
Instead, he got a briefing with government officials, along with Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., the chairman of the House Oversight Committee. DOJ said it offered the congressmen a follow-up Friday, but Nunes ignored the invitation, explaining last weekend it was because he was sure someone at the agency was leaking.
That interview followed two reports published Friday evening, one by the New York Times and the other by the Washington Post, which did not name but described the informant in question as an American academic who teaches in the United Kingdom and met with up to three members of the Trump campaign to look into their ties to Russia. Follow-up media reports have identified confidential source as Stefan Halper, a former University of Cambridge professor who also had contracts with the Defense Department for research.
Trump and his allies have since alleged that a “spy” — which by definition is different than a confidential source — was improperly sent to scope out his campaign for political purposes.
The Justice Department convened back-to-back meetings Thursday to brief Nunes and a bipartisan group of lawmakers, as well as representatives from the White House, on the informant.
Democrats, led by House Intelligence Committee ranking member Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said after the meetings that they were shown “no evidence” of a spy in the Trump campaign.
Republicans involved in the meetings have largely refrained from commenting about the meetings, though Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., did note during a Fox News interview that there was “nothing particularly surprising” in what he learned.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated with a quote from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
