Aide: Nunes met source at White House
Dems: House intel chair is trying to give cover to Trump
WASHINGTON The chairman of the House intelligence committee met at the White House complex with the source of documents detailing the intelligence community’s incidental collection of communications involving associates of President Donald Trump, the chairman’s top aide confirmed Monday.
The source of the intelligence reports cited by Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., has been a matter of increasing speculation, as the chairman declined to inform Democratic members of the existence of intelligence reports before briefing reporters and the president the day after his mysterious White House meeting.
Democrats, including the panel’s ranking member, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., have asserted that Nunes sought to provide political cover to the president, who falsely claimed that the Obama administration wiretapped his New York offices ahead of the 2016 election.
“Chairman Nunes met with his source at the White House grounds in order to have proximity to a secure location where he could view the information provided by the source,” Nunes spokesman Jack Langer said. “The chairman is extremely concerned by the possible improper unmasking of names of U.S. citizens, and he began looking into this issue even before President Trump tweeted his assertion Trump Tower had wiretapped.”
Langer declined to identify the source of the documents.
“To protect his source, the chairman has repeatedly said he will not reveal any information at all about the source,” he said.
Last week, White House spokesman Sean Spicer said that been Trump did not give Nunes the information.
“I don’t know what he (Nunes) briefed the president on, but I don’t know why he would brief the president on something that he gave him,” he said. “It doesn’t seem to make a ton of sense.”
Monday’s disclosure, though, only raised more questions about Nunes’ actions last week and his committee’s ability to conduct an impartial investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.
Schiff and some Republicans, including Arizona Sen. John McCain, have said the chairman’s recent actions highlighted the need for an independent commission to oversee an inquiry that has engulfed the new Trump administration.