House Intelligence Committee Chair Devin Nunes went to the White House on Wednesday afternoon to personally brief President Trump about intelligence he says he has seen regarding surveillance of foreign nationals during the presidential transition.
The surveillance could have inadvertently picked up the president or members of his transition team, the chairman said.
“What I’ve read seems to me to be some level of surveillance activity, perhaps legal. I don’t know that it’s right,” Nunes said to reporters outside the White House. “I don’t know that the American people would be comfortable with what I’ve read.”
“The president needs to know these intelligence reports are out there,” Nunes added. “I think the president is concerned, and he should be.”
President Trump was asked if he felt vindicated after Nunes’s visit in his claims that he was wiretapped during the campaign at his Trump Tower headquarters by President Obama’s administration. That claim has been roundly rejected by members of the intelligence community, including FBI Director James B. Comey and even Nunes himself, who again rejected the wiretapping allegation on Wednesday outside of the White House.
Nunes’ behavior seems unprecedented Is it his place to go call on the President to alert him to irregularities? Why didn’t someone from the FBI, CIA, or NSA go inform the President if it was appropriate? Why is a congressman doing this?
Furthermore, what the hell is he talking about? I listened to his press conference and it sounded like a bunch of mumbo-jumbo. What intelligence reports? Why aren’t the FBI and NSA aware of these reports?
I smell a huge, giant rat, once again. It sounds like Nunes is providing one big cover-up. Surely not. Maybe he just wanted to be on TV. His press conference told me nothing.
Is this guy going to lead the committee investigation or the defense of the Trump team? There’s a conflict of interest by attempting to do both.
It’s difficult to trust people who want to take sides and sit in judgment at the same time. Rather than interfere with the investigation he ought to let it proceed. Now we have to deal with suspicion that he’s afraid of the result.
I thought it was just me when I first heard Nunes. Then I realized no one else seemed to know what he had said either—people with a lot more political savvy than I have. I think he was tipping Trump off since none of his other committee members had been informed. Very irregular behavior and yes, definitely a conflict of interest.
Trump’s tweet said he was wiretapped before the election but Nunes said some on his team were picked up in intelligence gathered after the election. They think we’re as stupid as they are!
When I heard Nunes’ press conference I thought…WTF is h talking about. I have never heard more words used to say nothing in my life. All I got out of it was he was covering for Trump.
Notice none of the regulars (conservative regulars) have commented since Nunes spilled his non-guts. Its difficult to defend the indefensible.
Crickets……
We now know for sure that intelligence was collected against Trump and/or his team. Whether it was before or after the election is immaterial. It is thought that the collection was inadvertent, but the strict rules designed to protect the identities of American citizens subjected to inadvertent collections were not followed. If it turns out that these identity protection rules were deliberately violated for political purposes by someone in the Obama Administration, then it was criminal activity.
Bill Gertz is known for his huge network of intelligence sources and for getting the story right:
http://freebeacon.com/national-security/intelligence-reports-reveal-improper-political-surveillance-trump-transition-team/
I can see confidentiality is alive and well. NOT!
Are you more concerned that people in leadership positions are cavorting with thugs or that perhaps they weren’t “masked” correctly when caught in the act?
Are you concerned that Nunes violated every procedure for chairing his committee by running to Trump instead of sharing his “secret information” with Daddy Trump? I sure am. He should be removed from his chairmanship and he should be censured by the house.
I grew up in an era when the Russians were bad guys who wanted to take over our country.Nothing currently has changed my opinion. I am appalled by the lack of judgement used by selected and elected officials regarding these people.
Do you like Trump this much that you are willing to overlook all the screaming radars out there that something is horribly wrong?
Free Beacon seems to be sort of far right. Does the far right now like Russians?
They are still the evil empire in my world.
MoonHowler,
Your dislike of Trump has clouded your judgement.
The narrative of collusion between the Trump team and the Russians has quietly fallen apart. The narrative was based on little more than Trump’s positive comments about Putin, which while worrisome, are less so than a SecState that approved the Russians to acquire the rights to part of U.S. uranium reserves.
If there was any real evidence of collusion, it would have been leaked and then plastered across the front page of the Washington Post.
The only evidence that I have seen of collusion between an American president and the Russians was Obama’s live-mic moment when he asked Medvedev to let Putin know that he would have more flexibility after the election.
Aren’t you listening? The narrative of collusion absolutely has not fallen apart. In fact, it has taken root and gone even further.
How is my judgement clouded?
I find Trump to be a thug, a bully, and morally reprehensible. He is unfit for office. My dislike is no secret.
You need to move past your dislike of Obama and Hillary and look at what is going on in general with the Russians. They invaded an independent country, have carried out multiple assassinations, poisonings etc. Putin is a KGB thug. Perhaps Russia had a chance at one time of joining the world as a democracy. They blew it.
There is all sorts of evidence that Trump and the Trump folks have way more to do with Russia, the Oligarch, and Putin than is prudent.
Obama is no longer in office. The Obama statement is small potatoes compared to what is going on now. Stay tuned.
MoonHowler,
I grew up in an era when the Russians were bad guys who wanted to take over our country. Nothing currently has changed my opinion. I am appalled by the lack of judgement used by selected and elected officials regarding these people… They are still the evil empire in my world.
Moon, the 80s are calling to ask for their foreign policy back… you seem to want to import the foreign policies of the 1980s… 🙂 I don’t recall you being appalled at that line for the lack of judgement used by President Obama.
Don’t recall you being appalled by lack of judgement of Hillary Clinton for her Russia “reset” in an attempt to cozy up to Russia. Don’t recall you being appalled at the constant downplaying of Russia as a threat of any kind by the Obama administration from 2008 to 2015.
Don’t recall you being appalled at the lack of judgement for President Obama getting caught on a hot mike telling Dmitri Medvedev This is my last election. After my election I have more flexibility so that he could transmit it to Putin.
Come to think of it I don’t remember you being appalled about anything having to do with Russia, Putin or these ‘thugs’ you speak of from 2008 until this past election cycle.
The 80’s? Bwahahahahahahaha…go back a little further. Why are you deflecting to Hillary? She isn’t in office. Obama isn’t in office now either.
Russians are bad mofo’s who kill, assassinate, invade, and poison. We don’t want them meddling in our elections. We don’t want our officials cozying up to dictators. You can try to excuse behavior all you want. You can blame Obama and Hillary. They aren’t in office. Deal with the reality of the current situation. You have an ill-prepared president who is a bully, morally defective, and simply doesn’t understand how Washington works. He has been involved in nepotism and cronyism.
I have been on this earth a long time. I have never seen it worse. W looks real good in contrast.
MoonHowler,
The 80’s? Bwahahahahahahaha…
Sooo…. you think that Obama was full of shit when he said that as well? I’m not quite sure what you’re saying… If that is what you’re saying you never said it before. If that isn’t what you’re saying then what the hell are you saying?
She isn’t in office. Obama isn’t in office now either.
I know, I thank God every single day she isn’t in office. I also agree that Obama isn’t in office anymore, thanks be unto him. However, President Obama may go down in history as the first sitting President to have shady (and on some levels illegal) surveillance on an opposition candidate post election.
Is there/was there reason to listen in on conversations between some in his transition team? Sure I suppose, but I have yet to see any solid evidence specifying a law that was broken or ‘collusion’ took place to undermine an election. Not a shred. Could some be exposed? Sure, it’s possible and I would expect it to be dealt with harshly.
Russians are bad mofo’s who kill, assassinate, invade, and poison. We don’t want them meddling in our elections. We don’t want our officials cozying up to dictators.
Bad wording maybe but NO, Russians are NOT “bad mofo’s who kill, assassinate, invade, and poison.”. I’ve worked in the IT field with many people from Russia. For the most part I have found them to be non-political and somewhat aloof of world politics. There was one issue where one of my Russian coworkers was shunned by another coworker that was from Ukraine but that was about it. How many people from Russia do you actually know? Are they all “bad mofo’s who kill”?
We don’t want our officials cozying up to dictators
Again…. what do you call this?
You can blame Obama and Hillary. They aren’t in office. Deal with the reality of the current situation
Since when has pointing out fact, video evidence and absolute truth turned into blame? I’m not blaming them of anything but simply pointing out their actions… documented and on camera. I’m simply asking you why now are you so concerned with Russia? You didn’t seem concerned enough to voice your displeasure about President Obama cozying up to a dictator when he promised Medvedev and Putin that he would have more flexibility AFTER his election. Why?
The only reason why Democrats have recently discovered Russia as a threat is because Hillary lost. If Hillary didn’t lose how many of you think we would even be talking about Russia? Republicans and Romney have said Russia was a threat for years. Democrats have only recently discovered this in the past year and a half because they lost to Trump. full stop.
The FBI and other intelligence agencies knew about the Russians long before Hillary lost. Your logic is flawed.
I don’t want Russians or any other country meddling in our elections.
Your partisanship is so overpowering that you have lost your perception of time.
I have known a few Russians in my day. Some were nice, some weren’t. However….and you knew this…I wasn’t speaking of individuals. I was speaking of the government of Russia. I don’t know about you but those who poison, assassinate, and injure those perceived to be enemies of the state to me are bad mofos.
However, I understand we have different values so perhaps you don’t perceive that behavior as deplorable. I do. You voted for someone I consider morally reprehensible on all levels. Perhaps that is why you seem to think political enemies are disposable.
Who was the target of the investigation? It very likely could have been Guccifer – and if you are investigating Guccifer and it leads you back to Roger Stone – what should an investigator do – stop because he is advising Trump, or follow the trail?
We do not know the details of the investigation – but there is something there. Sad that Trump’s administration is starting off (even before in the office) with such distracting, self inflicted events.
Also sad that there is so much Republican denial. I am just amazed that now the Republicans are at least giving the appearance that they are cozying up to Russians.
MoonHowler,
and so much deflection – but look here, under this rock. Here is Hillary, look what she did 5 years ago.
People like Chaffetz – who still wants to investigate Clinton – are crickets on the issue, but big spokespeople on the deception
I’m too old to chase all of the rabbits these Trump defenders let loose. When I was a debater in high school and at the University the longwinded response was a favorite trick to waste time and divert discussion during cross-examination. Kellyanne Conway has worn out her welcome on TV news shows with this practice and Sean Spicer does something similar as well.
Trump’s tweet doesn’t match the timeline Nunes gave. Dismissing facts such as that indicates belief in what you want to believe. You’d have a hard time getting a judge or jury to accept it.
The reality of what’s happening now must be so unbearable to Trump supporters that they have to bring up Clinton, Obama and the Cold War. What a waste of time!
The Bill O’Reilly interview with Trump on Super Bowl Sunday illustrates the real problem. When O’Reilly called Putin a killer Trump made excuses for him. Furthermore,Trump used WikiLeaks when it suited him. This is worthy of investigation.
Nunes announced the next steps this morning. He seems to be back on track and less partisan today. Paul Manafort agreed to meet with the House committee. Let the House and Senate committees do their work to defend our country, unless you have something to hide.
Well put!
KellyAnn just makes us want to punch her in the face. I feel sorry for poor Sean. You can just see him squirm every time he lies.
Nunes should be removed from airing that committee, in my opinion.