House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., blamed the Obama administration for not heeding his committee’s warnings of Russian election meddling after special counsel Robert Mueller announced an indictment against 13 Russian nationals and three Russian entities for interfering in the 2016 presidential contest.
In Mueller’s indictment, unveiled Friday, it said the attempt to interfere with the 2016 election began in May 2014 with the stated goal of “spreading distrust towards candidates and the political system in general.”
In a statement Friday afternoon, Nunes said the Obama administration “failed to act on the Committee’s warnings,” but offered a congratulatory nod to Mueller’s efforts.
“Although the Obama Administration failed to act on the Committee’s warnings, it’s gratifying to see that Russian agents involved in these operations have now been identified and indicted,” Nunes said.
Nunes wasn’t the only top Republican Friday to point a finger at the Obama administration.
Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel accused them of losing “sight of Russia during their tenure.” She also noted how during the 2012 campaign when Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, her uncle, said, that Russia was the U.S.’ “number one geopolitical foe” and that former President Obama “laughed at him.”
Nunes, who has been the head of House Intelligence since 2015, temporarily stepped aside from his panel’s Russia probe as the House Ethics Committee investigated allegations that he mishandled classified information when he disclosed that a Trump transition team member had their communications monitored by the U.S. intelligence community. He was cleared in December.
Nunes’ ties to the White House – he was also a member of Trump’s transition team – has drawn intense scrutiny in recent months, especially in light of a controversial House Intelligence memo on alleged surveillance abuses, and has pushed some Democrats to call for his removal as chairman.
In his statement Friday, Nunes described himself as a long-time watchdog against Russian influence efforts.
He wrote that the Russian government led by Russian President Vladimir Putin is a “pressing threat to American interests” and pointed to an op-ed he wrote in April 2014, a month prior to when Mueller said Russia began its 2016 election interference campaign, in which he warned of the danger of Russian “influence operations” around the world following a trip to Eastern Europe and Ukraine following the seizure of Crimea.
“The House Intelligence Committee has been investigating these threats for many years: in 2014 – the year the Russians began their operation targeting the 2016 elections – I warned about Russia’s worldwide influence operations,” he wrote.
Further, he noted that he said in April 2016 during a CNN interview, in the midst of the 2016 primary season, that the U.S.’ failure to predict Putin’s strategy is “the biggest intelligence failure that we’ve had since 9/11.”
