Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Ca., chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, breathed new life into President Trump’s controversial claim that Barack Obama wiretapped his pre-inaugural communications by announcing his discovery of new information that at least partially supported the idea behind Trump’s allegation.
But Nunes also renewed Democrats’ calls for an independent committee to take responsibility for all Russia-related inquiries by hastily scheduling a visit to the White House on Wednesday and briefing the president on his findings before sharing them with committee Democrats.
And the publication late Wednesday evening of an anonymously-sourced report that suggested the FBI may have circumstantial evidence of cooperation between Trump campaign associates and Russian operatives is sure to inflame tensions among congressional Democrats who had already accused their Republican counterparts of doing too little to probe allegations of collusion.
“What I have read bothers me and I think it should bother the president himself and his team, because I think some of it seems to be inappropriate,” Nunes told reporters at the White House following his meeting with Trump. At the heart of Nunes’ concerns was newly-uncovered evidence that several members of the Trump transition team — and possibly the president himself — had their communications swept up through “incidental collection” and subsequently had their identities revealed in intelligence reports that were disseminated throughout the government.
When foreigners under surveillance by the U.S. government speak to Americans and those conversations are collected, the identities of the American participants are legally required to remain secret except under special circumstances.
However, at least one Trump associate was “unmasked” during the transition period. Gen. Mike Flynn, Trump’s former national security advisor, was identified in transcripts of his conversation with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, allowing government officials to leak the details of his sanctions-related discussion with Kislyak to the press. The disclosure ultimately resulted in Flynn’s ouster from the White House.
Nunes’ announcement Wednesday marked a turning point in a narrative that had slowly become a thorn in the Trump administration’s side. The president’s unsubstantiated claim earlier this month that Obama had “wiretapped” Trump Tower exposed him to withering attacks on his credibility and refocused attention on his campaign’s alleged ties to Russian officials.
The House Intelligence Committee chairman told reporters at the White House on Wednesday that the evidence his panel uncovered was not related to its investigation into Russian hacking or Trump campaign associates’ potential ties to Russian officials. Those issues are also the subjects of an FBI investigation.
“The reports that I was able to see did not have anything to do with Russia or the Russian investigation on any ties to the Trump team,” Nunes said. “What I saw has nothing to do with Russia and nothing to do with the Russia investigation, has everything to do with possible surveillance activities.”
None of the surveillance described to Trump and reporters on Wednesday appeared to be illegal, Nunes noted.
Rather, the potential impropriety was related to the fact that several Trump associates were named in the reports.
“It brings up a lot of concerns about whether things were properly minimized or not,” Nunes said at the White House. “We don’t have the full scope of all of the intelligence reports that were produced or who ordered the unmasking of additional names.”
Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said he had “grave concerns” about the integrity of his panel’s investigation into Russian activities after Nunes’ private meeting with Trump.
“The chairman will need to decide whether he is the chairman of an independent investigation into conduct which includes allegations of potential coordination between the Trump campaign and the Russians, or he is going to act as a surrogate of the White House because he cannot do both,” Schiff said. “And unfortunately, I think the actions of today throw great doubt into the ability of both the chairman and the committee to conduct the investigation the way it ought to be conducted.”
Nunes had defended his decision to speak directly with Trump during an FBI investigation into alleged Russian connections to his campaign because the reports his committee had received were unrelated to Russia. The California Republican declined to specify how he received the new information, noting only that it came from individuals with appropriate security clearances.
Trump said Wednesday that he felt “somewhat” vindicated by Nunes’ findings.
“I very much appreciated the fact that they found what they found,” he said.
The president’s victory may be short-lived, however. A fresh round of anonymous leaks from within the Trump administration turned attention back to the FBI investigation into four former campaign officials, although the CNN report in question did not provide any substantial new information.
