House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes speaks to reporters during a press conference at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday.
Conservative Wall Street Journal Officially Just Called Trump A “Fake President” For What He Did while Republican Congressman Leading Russia Probe, Devin Nunes claims he's unfamiliar with Roger Stone and Carter Page and then set off a stunning new political controversy Wednesday by revealing that communications of President Donald Trump and associates may have been picked up after the election by intelligence agencies conducting surveillance of foreign targets.
Nunes, according to CNN, hurried to the White House to personally brief Trump on the revelations, after talking to the press but without sharing the information with Democrats. His Democratic counterpart on the committee -- Rep. Adam Schiff of California -- warned that his colleague had cast a "profound cloud" over their effort to investigate Russian attempts to interfere in the election.
The comments by Nunes do not appear to support Trump's claims, debunked by FBI Director James Comey, that he was wiretapped by his predecessor President Barack Obama. Rather, they appear to relate to conversations between Trump or associates and people who were targeted by FISA warrants -- that Nunes said did not appear to be illegal.
But the President was asked by reporters if he feels vindicated by the visit from Nunes and answered: "I somewhat do. I must tell you I somewhat do, I very much appreciated the fact that they found what they found."
Another day of shocking drama intensified the intrigue and uncertainty sparked by Trump's feud with intelligence agencies, his accusations of shady practices by his predecessor and the wider question of the Trump campaign's links with Russia that are currently the focus of an investigation by the FBI.
Nunes told reporters the conversations were "incidentally" collected as part of intelligence sweeps focusing on other people and implied that Trump was not the target of the surveillance operation.
He said he discovered accounts of conversations related to Trump and his associates when he was reviewing intelligence reports brought to him by an unidentified person -- and said the information was not related to Russia.
"This is a normal, incidental collection, based on what I could collect," Nunes said. "This appears to be all legally collected foreign intelligence under" the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
Nevertheless, Nunes said he alerted House Speaker Paul Ryan about the collection before he headed to the White House, adding: "I'm actually alarmed by it." Democrats on the committee said they were not informed of Nunes' finding before he spoke with the media.
Generally, American citizens who are caught up in surveillance of foreign targets are not identified by name in intelligence reports. But Nunes' announcement raises the question of whether the President-elect or associates were identified in intelligence reports circulating in the covert community.
A House member on the Intelligence Committee told CNN the communications in question were senior-level people talking about Trump, not Trump himself.
Nunes later told CNN's "The Lead with Jake Tapper" that "President-elect Trump and his team were put into intelligence reports."
"Clearly there is a lot of information in the reports that I've seen, which were dozens, that would lead me to believe that the last administration and numerous agencies had a pretty good idea of what President-elect Trump was up to and what his transition team was up to and who they were meeting with," Nunes told Tapper.
Democrats in the dark
In a news conference, Schiff expressed deep concern that committee members were not told by Nunes about the revelations before he briefed the press or went to the White House."If the chairman is going to continue to go to the White House instead of his own committee, there is no way we can continue to conduct this investigation," he said.
"It does underscore the importance of establishing an independent commission," Schiff said.
Schiff said that he and other members of the committee had still not seen the documents that Nunes was referring to. He also said from a conversation with Nunes that there did not appear to have been any "unmasking" of any of the US people mentioned in the intercepts.
"All of us are in the dark."
Nunes defended rushing to brief the President because the reports he read have nothing to do with Russia, but he said the investigation he is conducting into Russian interference in the election would look at how Trump's name got into the intelligence reports.
"Because what I saw has nothing to do with Russia and has nothing to do with the Russian investigations, (and) has everything to do with possible surveillance activities ... the President needs to know these intelligence reports are out there and I have a duty to tell him that," Nunes said.
But in an interview with CNN's Kate Bolduan on "Erin Burnett OutFront," Democratic Rep. Jackie Speier slammed Nunes as a "presidential whisperer" undermining the committee's investigation and accused the White House of planning the day's events.
"This was pure theater," Speier said. "I think in many respects it was probably orchestrated by the White House."
Still no sign of wiretapping
Two weeks ago, Trump asked Congress to investigate whether Trump Tower was wiretapped by his predecessor.On Monday, Nunes' committee held a hearing featuring Comey and National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers. At that hearing, Comey confirmed for the first time that his agency is investigating possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign and whether any crimes may have been committed during last year's election campaign as part of a wider probe into the hacking of Democratic servers and the Clinton campaign.
Also at that hearing, Comey said he had seen no evidence so far of the specific allegation of wiretapping Trump Tower.
RELATED: Actually, Mr. President, wiretapping doesn't cover a lot of things
Nunes at his news conference said he did not know whether the "incidental collection" happened at Trump Tower, and could not say for certain whether Trump's communications were directly collected. He said the collection included Trump transition officials and that it happened after the election.
CNN's Eli Watkins contributed to this report.
Conservative Wall Street Journal Officially Just Called Trump A “Fake President” For What He Did
Republican presidents have almost always enjoyed the support of the distinctly right-leaning Wall Street Journal, and have taken full advantage of its clout and credibility.
However, all the normal rules are out the window in the Age of Trump. The Wall Street Journal has been restrained in their criticism of Trump compared to other blue-chip newspapers such as the Washington Post or the New York Times, but they clearly reached their breaking point with Trump, and just shredded them in an uncharacteristically vicious write-up.
The editors of the Journal stated that Trump is in the process of becoming a “fake president,” saying, “If President Trump announces that North Korea launched a missile that landed within 100 miles of Hawaii, would most Americans believe him? Would the rest of the world? We’re not sure, which speaks to the damage that Mr. Trump is doing to his Presidency with his seemingly endless stream of exaggerations, evidence-free accusations, implausible denials and other falsehoods.” They went on to say how Trump’s promotion of “fake news” is damaging his surrogates’ credibility, explaining, “Yet the President clings to his assertion like a drunk to an empty gin bottle, rolling out his press spokesman to make more dubious claims. Sean Spicer—who doesn’t deserve this treatment—was dispatched last week to repeat an assertion by a Fox News commentator that perhaps the Obama Administration had subcontracted the wiretap to British intelligence.”
They added, “All of this continues the pattern from the campaign that Mr. Trump is his own worst political enemy. He survived his many false claims as a candidate because his core supporters treated it as mere hyperbole and his opponent was untrustworthy Hillary Clinton. But now he’s President, and he needs support beyond the Breitbart cheering section that will excuse anything. As he is learning with the health-care bill, Mr. Trump needs partners in his own party to pass his agenda. He also needs friends abroad who are willing to trust him when he asks for support, not least in a crisis. Two months into his Presidency, Gallup has Mr. Trump’s approval rating at 39%. No doubt Mr. Trump considers that fake news, but if he doesn’t show more respect for the truth most Americans may conclude he’s a fake President.” Do you agree?
What the Hell Did Devin Nunes Just Say About Trump and Surveillance?
Republican Rep. Devin Nunes, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, made a somewhat confusing statement to reporters on Capitol Hill on Wednesday afternoon, the headline being that communications by the Trump campaign were “incidentally” monitored by the intelligence community. But beyond that, a lot of things are unclear. Here’s what Nunes said: "First, I recently confirmed that on numerous occasions, the intelligence community incidentally collected information about U.S. citizens involved in the Trump transition.
Details about U.S. persons associated with the incoming administration, details with little or no apparent foreign intelligence value, were widely disseminated in intelligence community reporting.
Third, I have confirmed that additional names of Trump transition team members were unmasked.
Fourth and finally, I want to be clear. None of this surveillance was related to Russia, or the investigation of Russian activities or of the Trump team."
Nunes initially said “yes,” when asked by a reporter if President Trump’s own communications were part of that surveillance, but when he was asked that same question again later, he said “it’s possible.” Elaborating but not clarifying, Nunes said, ”I know there was incidental collection regarding the president-elect and his team. I don’t know if it was physically a phone call.” He said he could not say if the communications had taken place in Trump Tower.
Nunes said that the information was collected in November, December, and January—the transition period after the election. He said he had seen “dozens” of reports involving Trump and his team, which were brought to his attention by a concerned but unidentified party. The information was collected, according to Nunes, as part of “normal foreign surveillance” and not related to any criminal investigation. “I believe it was all done legally,” he said. While he said repeatedly that the surveillance had nothing to do with the investigation of ties between the Trump campaign and Russia, he wouldn’t say what countries were involved.
Nunes was asked point blank, “Do you think right now that the NSA or a member of the intelligence community was spying on Trump during the transition period?”
He replied, “Well, I guess it all depends on one’s definitions of spying.“ (Nunes is fond of suggesting that definable words are open to interpretation.) He declared himself “alarmed” by what he had learned and is demanding more information from intelligence agencies. He said he was headed to the White House later Wednesday to brief the administration.
There was some master-level word salad–speak going on here. Nunes may be intimating that Trump and his team were victims of “reverse targeting,” in which surveillance of foreigners is used as a pretext for the surveillance of Americans. Intelligence agencies like the NSA and CIA are prohibited by law from spying on Americans but can collect “incidental information” if those Americans are in communication with foreigners. Reverse targeting is illegal, but privacy advocates, including Edward Snowden, say the law provides a loophole for it to continue. Sen. Rand Paul recently brought up reverse targeting when asked on Face the Nation about President Trump’s claims that President Obama had tapped his phones. To be clear: Nunes’ statement definitely did not confirm that this was going on.
Nunes is also suggesting that names of Trump associates collected in this surveillance were improperly “unmasked” and information about their activities shared within the intelligence community. He had previously raised this concern over the information that led to the discovery that former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn had been in touch with the Russian ambassador, but that apparently has nothing to do with the surveillance he’s talking about now. It’s also not really clear what “normal” surveillance is, or what was being investigated here if it wasn’t Russia.
The Democrats on the committee, including ranking member Adam Schiff, were apparently unaware of the evidence Nunes was citing. Democrats are also criticizing Nunes for briefing the White House on his findings:
Investigators are not supposed to "brief" the folks being investigated. twitter.com/ap_politics/st…
Nunes’ statement is extremely frustrating. Trump’s defenders would love to shift attention from the Russia investigation to claims that Trump was under improper surveillance, and these vague remarks give them just enough ammunition to keep the claim going, without any way of assessing if this surveillance was actually improper or not. Press secretary Sean Spicer read from Nunes' statement during his press briefing Wednesday and Trump told reporters Wednesday that he feels “somewhat” vindicated by Nunes’ comments.
I don’t know why he would. What Nunes definitively did not say was that President Obama had ordered Trump’s phones tapped, which, it bears repeating, is the only logical way of interpreting the president’s claim.
By Joshua Keating
Republican Congressman Leading Russia Probe Says He's Never Heard of Key Figures in the Scandal
Devin Nunes claims he's unfamiliar with Roger Stone and Carter Page. Huh?
There were many intriguing and surprising moments at the House intelligence committee's hearing on Monday on Russia's election season hacks. FBI Director James Comey exploded not one but two bombshells, noting that there was no evidence to back up President Donald Trump's claim that he had been wiretapped last year by President Barack Obama and revealing for the first time that the FBI has been conducting a counterintelligence investigation since last July of contacts between Trump associates and Russia. Meanwhile, the Republicans on the committee ignored both of these matters—and the overarching issue of Moscow waging political warfare against the United States—and instead fixated on one thing: the leak that revealed that recently ousted national security adviser Michael Flynn had apparently lied to Vice President Mike Pence about his transition-period chats with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Yes, the GOPers were more outraged about an unauthorized release of classified information showing that a top White House aide had deceived the veep than about Vladimir Putin mounting a covert operation against the United States to help Trump become president.
After the hearings, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), the chair of the committee, sort of shrugged when asked why the Republicans had zeroed in on this leak and said almost nothing about Putin's assault on American democracy. Maybe it was "overemphasized," he said. But he contended the Flynn leak was the only crime involved in this widening scandal. When a reporter noted that hacking a political party, stealing its documents, and leaking them would qualify as a crime, Nunes grinned and said: maybe it was, but that was done by a foreign actor.
When I asked Nunes whether he agreed with Trump's recent tweet that the "Russia story" was "fake news" cooked up by Democrats, he wouldn't provide a straight answer. What part of the Russia story was Trump referring to? he asked. I countered: Is this all made up by Democrats? Nunes replied that he didn't know. He was, though, quick to say he has seen no evidence of any coordination between the Trump camp and the Russians during the campaign. But, as another reporter pointed out, the committee has just started its investigation. Oh yeah, Nunes said.
Here's the video: House Intel Chmn Nunes tells @DavidCornDC he's never heard of Carter Page or Roger Stone —via @MSNBC
Reporters were shaking their heads. It seemed that Nunes didn't care that much about the hacking and didn't realize the hearing had produced historic revelations.
Then came perhaps the weirdest moment of all. Asked whether the committee would investigate the Trump associates mentioned by Democrats during the hearing, Nunes went on about all the "names" the Democrats had mentioned. He remarked that the committee couldn't base its investigations on media reports. He said he didn't bother to read all the stories out there and didn't even recognize the "names" the Democrats had tossed out.
"Really?" I asked, noting the Democrats had referred to only about five Trump associates. Oh, Nunes, said, there was much more than that. And, he reiterated that he was unfamiliar with the people who had been brought up. What about Carter Page or Roger Stone? I asked, referring to two Trump associates raised by the Democrats. (Trump identified Page during the election as a foreign policy adviser, and Page met with Russians during the campaign. Stone, a longtime Trump adviser and self-proclaimed dirty trickster, was in contact with Guccifer 2.0 and WikiLeaks, entities that released emails stolen by the Russians from the Democratic Party and John Podesta, the Clinton campaign's chairman.)
Nunes told me he didn't know who they were. Huh? Page and Stone—key players in the Trump-Russia scandal who appeared in many media accounts—you don't know who they are? No, he said. Other reporters shook their heads in disbelief. Nunes was either lying or displaying reckless ignorance.
This is the guy in charge of one of the two congressional investigations probing the Trump-Russia scandal. His staff might want to send him a few clips.
GET THE SCOOP, STRAIGHT FROM MOTHER JONES.
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