Two White House officials helped House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes get intelligence reports showing President Trump and members of his team may have been spied on during the transition.
The New York Times reported Thursday that multiple sources said Ezra Cohen-Warrick, senior director for intelligence at the National Security Council, and Michael Ellis, a lawyer who used to work for Nunes and is now in the White House Counsel’s Office, helped Nunes get the information.
Nunes revealed Trump associates, and possibly Trump himself, had been caught up in legal surveillance on other targets. The Obama administration had obtained a warrant to do the surveillance, according to Nunes.
Nunes denied working with the White House to get the intelligence reports and wouldn’t reveal his sources to the press. He had briefed the press on his findings and then told President Trump on March 22, one day after viewing the information on White House grounds.
Democrats have ripped Nunes for briefing the press and the president before telling the House Intelligence Committee about what he had seen. Many have called for him to recuse himself from the investigation or step down from the committee. Nunes has refused to do so.
Nunes said he went to the White House to view the information in a secure location. He did not consult with the president or anyone in the West Wing, he said.
Trump said he felt somewhat vindicated by Nunes’ findings after tweeting that President Obama ordered him to be spied on during the campaign. However, Nunes said his findings didn’t back up those claims because it was incidental surveillance collected during the transition.
Nunes said his main concern is that the information may have been leaked by the intelligence community and he could tell the identities of Trump associates from the information he viewed.
