Nunes backs away from claim

Intel panel head partially walks back surveillance charge

WASHINGTON — The head of the House Intelligence Committee partially backed away from his dramatic claim that officials of President Donald Trump’s transition had been subjects of surveillance by U.S. intelligence agencies, with an aide saying that Chairman Devin Nunes did not know “for sure.”

On Wednesday, Nunes, R-Calif., said that names of transition team members had come up in conversations that were referred to in U.S. intelligence documents that summarized surveillance. But until Nunes sees the actual documents, he does not know if any of the transition officials were actually part of the surveilled conversations or were just talked about by others, spokesman Jack Langer said Thursday.

“He’ll have to get all the documents he requested from the (intelligence community) about this before he knows for sure,” Langer said.

The partial walkback of Nunes’ claim came as lawmakers stepped up calls for a new, independent investigation of possible links between Donald Trump’s campaign and Russia. Nunes’ decision to brief Trump about his surveillance claims before sharing them with other members of his committee had put the House investigation under a cloud, Democrats, and some Republicans, said.

Nunes apologized to members of the committee at a closed-door meeting Thursday for having described the documents to Trump before sharing them with the panel. Democrats said, however, that he had not yet shown them any of the new evidence.

In a statement to reporters Wednesday and later at the White House, Nunes said that he had learned of “dozens” of classified reports that recounted communications between members of Trump’s transition team — and possibly the then-president-elect himself — and individuals who were legally targeted for government eavesdropping for counter-intelligence.

He said that the reports were widely shared within the U.S. government and that the identities of at least some Trump associates had been included in the reports, despite rules requiring that the names of Americans picked up by communications intercepts be kept confidential unless criminal activity is discussed or disclosure of the name is necessary to understand the intelligence.

Numerous transition officials could have communicated with foreign ambassadors or others in the United States who were under court-authorized surveillance for counter-intelligence purposes. If so, they could have inadvertently, but legally, been monitored by U.S. intelligence. White House Chief of Staff Reince Preibus, White House aide Stephen Miller, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and Trump’s adult children all played formal roles in Trump’s transition, along with many other Trump associates and former government officials. Nunes himself was a member of the transition executive committee.

It’s also possible that Trump transition officials were mentioned in U.S. intelligence reports even if no phone conversations, email or other communications involving those officials were actually intercepted by U.S. intelligence.

Foreign officials under surveillance might have mentioned the names of Trump aides or claimed to have had conversations with them. A claim of that sort might have been considered important enough to be included in an intelligence report, a former intelligence official said.

Senior intelligence officials can decide to include names or other identifying information of Americans in classified foreign intelligence reports if they believe that doing so is important for understanding the intelligence, or if it shows clear evidence of a potential crime.

This process, known as unmasking, could have happened with the Trump transition team. It’s unclear whether any names of Trump transition officials were unmasked in the documents Nunes referred to or whether their identities were masked, but obvious from how they were described.

Critics said Nunes’ actions had called into question his ability to run a fair, thorough investigation.