Rep. Devin Nunes is being called on by Democrats to recuse himself from an investigation conducted by the House Intelligence Committee over activity that puts his objectivity to the investigation into question. The Republican Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee apologized to the committee on Thursday, March 23, for the controversial announcement he made the previous Wednesday which Democrats say was giving President Trump, the person being investigated, cover.
The investigation is over Trump's connections to the Russian government that has followed the President since his 2016 campaign when it was learned that Russians had hacked into the Democratic National Committee servers to steal damaging emails on the Clinton campaign.
Since then, more information has come out that questions the connection between Donald Trump and his team which the committee was updated on during a hearing on March 20. It's now been reported that Devin Nunes met with someone in secret on the White House grounds Tuesday night March 21, before he made his announcement Wednesday morning. Nunes told CNN on Monday, March 27 that he was on the White House grounds without the West Wing or the President knowing he was there.
Someone knew he was there
In an article by CNN titled: "Who cleared Devin Nunes into the White House?" Jake Tapper writes that a former intelligence official told them that no one can be on the White House grounds without someone knowing it and that it would have to be cleared by a White House staffer.
He said that just like a regular person, members of Congress would also need to be escorted by someone. Blasting News reported on his whereabouts which say that according to Nunes' staffers, he left an Uber ride Tuesday night leaving his staffer behind and did not return. It was then on Wednesday morning when he his staffers would see him again where he made his spontaneous announcement with no indication as to what he would talk about.
The Daily Beast originally reported this account which Devin Nunes disputes saying that he dropped his staffer off and left in a cab adding that everything after that is made up.
The CNN article also says that a government official claims to have spotted Nunes Tuesday night in the Eisenhower building where the National Security Council offices are.
Other than the situation room, this is where classified information can be seen. The same official said that Nunes arrived alone and left alone. But Nunes also says that he was also at the White House to confirm some of the information he already had from the investigation being conducted on the Trump and Russian officials. Nunes reportedly also said the information he received had nothing to do with Russia. His spokeman Jack Langer said that Nunes' concerns are with the information he received which claims to have "unmasked" names of people being surveilled, which Blasting News more thoroughly explains.
New Information 'legitimizes' Trump's wiretapping claims
The reason many Democrats feel that this new information provides cover for Trump is because it further attempts to establish that people under the Trump campaign were being surveilled which appears to legitimize a view of Trump's claim that Trump Tower was wiretapped by the Obama administration.
Even Nunes has said prior to this that there is no evidence to show that this was the case. But he did so in such a way that it leaves doubt as to whether he can be swayed to believe the conspiracy or not. More specifically, the information he claimed to have has names "unmasked" meaning that it would be damaging to reveal them. Likewise, Nunes said that he would not comment any more in order to protect sources.
