Trump transition officials were caught in incidental surveillance before the inauguration, the chairman of the House Intelligence committee told reporters Wednesday. These individuals had their communications circulated within the intelligence community and their identities revealed internally, despite their minimal worth to U.S. intelligence, he said.
The remarks from California congressman Devin Nunes come as his committee conducts an investigation into Russian election interference. The probe includes the leaks that precipitated the February resignation of former national security adviser Mike Flynn.
Nunes told reporters Wednesday that in November, December, and January, a number of Trump associates’ communications were picked up during the legal surveillance of a foreign target. These communications were then shared in intelligence reports despite an apparent lack of foreign intelligence value, he said.
“On numerous occasions, the intelligence community incidentally collected information about U.S. citizens involved in the Trump transition,” Nunes said. “Details about U.S. persons associated with the incoming administration, details with little or no apparent foreign intelligence value, were widely disseminated in intelligence community reports.”
The communications were swept up under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act via incidental collection, he said. Incidental collection occurs when the intelligence community targets an approved foreign entity, and the foreign entity communicates with a U.S. person. Those communications are then collected and sometimes distributed within the intelligence community.
The names of U.S. persons caught in such collection are typically redacted, or “masked,” and only revealed under certain circumstances. A number of Trump associates outside of Flynn had their identities revealed, he said.
“Additional names of Trump transition team members were unmasked,” Nunes said.
He stressed that the surveillance was not related to Russia or an investigation of illicit Russian activities.
FBI director James Comey revealed Monday that his agency has been conducting an investigation into Russian election interference since late July, including potential coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia.
The California congressman did not know whether the communications were collected inside Trump Tower. He said it was “possible” that Trump’s communications were swept up as well.
In a letter last week, the House Intelligence Committee asked the FBI, CIA, and NSA to provide the names of all U.S. persons subject to unmasking between June 2016 and January 2017.
Nunes told reporters Wednesday that the committee would seek to determine those who authorized the unmasking and “whether anyone directed the intelligence community to focus on Trump associates.”
Nunes briefed House speaker Paul Ryan on the matter this morning. He said he would brief the White House later Wednesday.
