House intelligence chairman Devin Nunes met on the White House grounds with the source of the claim that communications involving President Donald Trump’s associates were caught up in “incidental” surveillance, the congressman’s spokesman said Monday.
The meeting occurred before Nunes disclosed at a news conference that U.S. spy agencies may have inadvertently captured Trump and his associates in routine targeting of foreigners’ communications.
“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.
Previously, Nunes, R-Calif., would not say where he met his secret source. He has still not revealed who that source is.
Nunes’ connection to the White House has raised concerns that his committee’s investigation is not a bipartisan, independent probe. He was a member of Trump’s transition team, as well.
The White House was asked repeatedly last week about whether it was the source of Nunes’ information.
On Thursday, White House spokesman Sean Spicer mocked the idea, suggesting it didn’t pass “the smell test.”
“I don’t know why he was coming up to brief the president on something that we gave him,” Spicer told reporters, adding: “It doesn’t really seem to make a ton of sense.”
Nunes’ office said the information provided to the chairman came from “executive branch documents that have not been provided to Congress.”
“Because of classification rules, the source could not simply put the documents in a backpack and walk them over to the House Intelligence Committee space,” Langer said. “The White House grounds was the best location to safeguard the proper chain of custody and classification of these documents, so the chairman could view them in a legal way.”
The bizarre disclosure about the intelligence reports brought criticism from Democrats, especially those who sit on his committee and are working with him on an investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. That investigation is also looking into possible ties between Trump associates and the Kremlin. Nunes said the intelligence reports were not related to Russia.
“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 that Trump Tower had been wiretapped,” Langer said.
The top Democrat on the House intelligence committee, Rep. Adam Schiff of California, said Nunes’ meeting with his source appeared to have been “a dead-of-night excursion.”
On Sunday, Schiff said on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” ”I think the chairman has to make a decision whether to act as a surrogate of the White House — as he did during the campaign and the transition — or to lead an independent and credible investigation.”
Nunes’ office did not immediately say what time the chairman met his source on White House grounds.
Any White House staffer can sign off on someone coming to the White House campus.
The day before he announced to reporters that Donald Trump may have been incidentally monitored by U.S. intelligence agencies during the transition, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes met with the source of that information at the White House, a Nunes spokesman told NBC News.
“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,” said his spokesman, Jack Langer. “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 that (Trump Tower) had been wiretapped.”
Related: Nunes Backs Down From Assertion Trump Was Monitored
Nunes has declined to say who provided the intelligence reports he referenced, but his admission that he met with his source at the White House is fueling suspicions among Democrats that his source was someone close to Trump.
Play Rep. Devin Nunes backs off monitoring claims, under fire for briefing Trump Facebook Twitter Embed
Rep. Devin Nunes backs off monitoring claims, under fire for briefing Trump 2:05
It’s unclear why Nunes would have to go to the White House to seek a secure location to view classified material, since his own committee has a secure room in the Capitol where Nunes and his aides review secret documents on a daily basis.
Democrats believe the president wanted to release the information as a way of buttressing Trump’s discredited claim that President Obama “wiretapped” him at Trump Tower during the transition. Moments after Nunes first made the announcement, Trump said he felt “somewhat” vindicated.
Related: What Does It Mean That Trump Was Incidentally Surveilled?
After saying the reports he saw suggested Trump and his team had been “monitored,” Nunes on Friday backtracked, and acknowledged that he couldn’t be sure of that. Nunes has made clear that much of what he saw involved foreigner-to-foreigner conversations about Trump and his associates, and Nunes is raising questions about whether those reports were improperly distributed around the government.
Nunes has said he would share the information he reviewed with committee Democrats as early as Monday. The House intelligence committee is slated to meet at 7 pm, according to a Democratic aide, and Democrats are hoping to review some of the intelligence reports referencing Trump and his aides in their sensitive facility in the Capitol.
Now I see that Nunes is uneasy, he dont know what to do with himself..Who next?
Down the rabbit hole wid dah one yah…me be back likkle more lololol
The whitehouse turn swamp now…lol
Met (live yu but) me nah siddung and read that abg a crap. A Nunes same one say him go white house go brief president because him information was that urgent. Now, a meet him go meet de source de then see cheetho after? :ngakak :ngakak :ngakak :ngakak :ngakak yeah and the world really FLAT.
Met yu did hear nasty mullvaney pon Meet the Nation? Dese joncrows are filthy!
We need an independent investigation it’s getting out of hand nunes is a piece of shit but I wish someone would just leak it to the press and blow the lid off them all crooked and look like them tek dark money from russia
who next?
*sebastian gorka*
dump’s counter-terrorism advisor and white supremacist nazi member
everybody miss this one also because of the current russian fiasco
not to stray from the real topic but sebastian gorka “technically” should not have been in the US let alone serving in dump’s cabinet because he pledge an allegiance to a white supremacist nazi organization in europe where he is from(and there is hard evidence to back it up including testimony and confirmation from members), all those hate groups and controversial groups around the world are “addmisible” to the US under US immigration laws, he lied on his applications for residency and citizenship just like the mail order russian mole, just wait until dump make the first attempt on his mass roundup/crackdown on so called illegal immigrants, he can empower ICE with executive orders all he wants, that scandal is soon to blow up, you heard it at pinkwall first :travel
Inadmissible. That page cannot be missed in the residence/citizenship package and its what they use to send/expel ole nazis to Nuremberg up to today day.
“*inadmissible*” ….. typo
Guliani name a call oo
It fi call. That is a genuine new york sewer rat!
See say jared true to him father criminal ways, hence, him causing christie fi get ditched.
Mi want a big truck go pick up everybaddie when time come o
Please check out Seth Abramson on Twitter and his threads about trumpgate. Even more eye opening.