The House Intelligence chief just tossed a huge wrench into Trump-related investigations
Allan Smith
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But Nunes, in his White House press conference, said he found nothing wrong with briefing the president on information that could be related to an ongoing investigation into members of his administration and campaign team.
"Because what I saw had nothing to do with Russia and the Russian investigation," Nunes said. "It has everything to do with possible surveillance activities, and the president needs to know these intelligence reports are out there, and I have a duty to tell him that."
Many others didn't see it this way.
Luke Russert, a former Capitol Hill reporter for NBC, said the episode was "insane" and that in seven years covering Congress, he "never saw something like this from" an intelligence chair.
"This is very dangerous. I have trouble seeing somebody like Mike Rogers doing this," Russert tweeted, referring to the former chairman of that committee. "Intel Chairmen don't act like this."
Evan McMullin, a former CIA operative who ran an independent presidential campaign in 2016, said that with Nunes saying the communications were "incidentally collected," the real question was: "Who was Trump talking to?"
"If what Devin Nunes says is true, Trump was communicating with persons of intelligence or criminal interest," he tweeted. "This is Devin Nunes doing President Trump and Congressional Republicans a favor by muddying the waters on the Trump/Russia investigation."
Joe Scarborough, the host of MSNBC's "Morning Joe" and an ex-Republican congressman, tweeted that Nunes' actions were cause for him to be removed as chair of the committee. And David Jolly, a fellow ex-Republican congressman who has been fiercely critical of Trump in recent days, tweeted that Nunes and the entirety of the House GOP has "zero credibility now."
"Blew it," he wrote. "[Rep. Adam Schiff of California] now the cerebral hero of this investigation."
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Trump's allies took the Wednesday news as word that the president was vindicated for his earlier assertion about Obama, which earned him scorn across the political spectrum and led to the sitting FBI director having to publicly rebuke the claims.
Fox News host Sean Hannity took to Twitter after the Nunes episode to declare victory over the "destroy Trump media" and asked if anyone doubted whether American journalism was "dead."
"Devin Nunes confirms SURVEILLANCE VS POTUS," he wrote. "Sara Carter, John Solomon, Sean Hannity right again. Destroy Trump media wrong again. ... Any doubts journalism in America is DEAD? Alt left propaganda destroy @realDonaldTrump media is the opposition party. Bannon correct."
Asked about the Nunes revelations after meeting with the intelligence chair, Trump expressed his appreciation for the California Republican rushing to tell him what he found.
Did he feel vindicated for his widely panned claims?
"I somewhat do," he said.
http://www.businessinsider.com/devin-nunes-trump-investigation-wiretap-2017-3
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