Man Tasked With Investigating Trump’s Ties To Russia Makes Friendly Visit To White House
Rep. Devin Nunes’ bombshell disclosures about surveillance on Trump associates raise more questions than they answer.
WASHINGTON ― Investigators don’t normally brief the people they’re investigating. But on Wednesday afternoon, Rep.
Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), the Republican who’s leading a
congressional investigation into whether President
Donald Trump’s team colluded with Russia to interfere in the 2016 election, went to the White House to talk to the president.
U.S. intelligence agencies had intercepted Trump associates’ communications ― and perhaps those of Trump himself ― in the final three months of the Obama administration, Nunes said he told Trump.
Nunes, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and a close Trump ally, said the intercepted communications didn’t mention Russia and were therefore unrelated to his investigation. But the subject matter ― the intelligence community’s investigation of Trump and his associates’ connections to foreign powers ― overlapped. And Nunes’ objective appeared political: Deflect attention from Trump and his associates’ ties to Russia, and back up Trump’s claim that he is a victim of “deep state” loyal to former President Barack Obama.
Nunes’ gambit failed. In attempting to put out the Trump-Russia fire, he made much of it worse: In two press conferences on Wednesday, he confirmed that Trump’s surrogates ― and maybe the president himself ― were subjects of legal surveillance, implied that they may have had suspicious contact with agents from a country other than Russia, and potentially disclosed classified information.
And by choosing to brief the president, who’s so closely tied to the investigation, before sharing his new information with his Democratic counterpart, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Nunes also raised doubts about his own ability to lead his committee’s probe.
More: HOUSE INTEL CHIEF TIPS OFF TRUMP!
OMG, this is unbelievable! Nunes must be removed from the House Intelligence Committee and prosecuted.