Nunes:
Trump transition members were under
surveillance during Obama administration
By Austin Wright
March 22, 2017 "Information
Clearing House"
- "Politico"
- Members of the Donald Trump transition
team, possibly including Trump himself,
were under U.S. government surveillance
following November’s presidential
election, House Intelligence Chairman
Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) told reporters
Wednesday.
Nunes said the surveillance appeared to
be legal but that he was concerned
because it was not related to the FBI’s
investigation into Russia’s meddling in
the election and was widely disseminated
across the intelligence community.
“I
have seen intelligence reports that
clearly show that the president-elect
and his team were, I guess, at least
monitored,” Nunes told reporters. “It
looks to me like it was all legally
collected, but it was essentially a lot
of information on the president-elect
and his transition team and what they
were doing.”
Nunes said he is heading to the White
House later Wednesday to brief Trump on
what he has learned, which he said came
from “sources who thought that we should
know it.” He said he was trying to get
more information by Friday from the FBI,
CIA and NSA.
Nunes described the surveillance as most
likely being “incidental collection.”
This can occur when a person inside the
United States communicates with a
foreign target of U.S. surveillance. In
such cases, the identities of U.S.
citizens are supposed to be kept secret
— but can be “unmasked” by intelligence
officials under certain circumstances.
Nunes said his new information appears
to show that additional members of the
Trump transition team — beyond former
National Security Adviser Michael Flynn
— were unmasked. This means they were
identified in U.S. intelligence reports.
He
said the information that he had seen
and was disseminated across the
intelligence community appeared to him
to have "little or no apparent
intelligence value."
He
also said he did not know yet whether
the Trump transition team members who
were unmasked were communicating from
Trump Tower. Earlier this month, Trump
claimed in a series of Tweets that
former President Barack Obama ordered a
wiretap of the phones at Trump Tower —
something Nunes reiterated on Wednesday
he had no evidence of.
Nunes said he briefed House Speaker Paul
Ryan (R-Wis.) on the information on
Wednesday morning.
White House press secretary Sean Spicer
read from Nunes' statement during his
opening remarks at a press briefing
Wednesday, showing how eager Trump's
team was to amplify the remarks.
Rep. Adam Schiff of California, Nunes’
Democratic counterpart on the
intelligence panel, was not informed of
the news ahead of Nunes’ press
conference on Wednesday, according to a
Schiff spokesman.
The Intelligence panel is set to hold a
public hearing next Tuesday with members
of the Obama administration, including
former Director of National Intelligence
James Clapper, former CIA Director John
Brennan and former acting Attorney
General Sally Yates, who was fired by
Trump in January after refusing to
defend his first travel ban executive
order in court.
They are almost certain to face
questions on the matter.
FBI Director James Comey appeared before
the panel on Monday and confirmed that
the FBI launched a counterintelligence
investigation in July into Russia’s
election meddling, including possible
coordination with the Trump campaign.
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2017 POLITICO LLC
