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House
intel
chairman
met
source
on White
House
grounds
By
EILEEN
SULLIVAN
ap.org
WASHINGTON
- House
intelligence
chairman
Devin
Nunes
met on
the
White
House
grounds
with the
source
of the
claim
that
communications
involving
President
Donald
Trump's
associates
were
caught
up in
"incidental"
surveillance,
the
congressman's
spokesman
said
Monday.
The
meeting
occurred
before
Nunes
disclosed
at a
news
conference
that
U.S. spy
agencies
may have
inadvertently
captured
Trump
and his
associates
in
routine
targeting
of
foreigners'
communications.
"Chairman
Nunes
met with
his
source
at the
White
House
grounds
in order
to have
proximity
to a
secure
location
where he
could
view the
information
provided
by the
source,"
Nunes
spokesman
Jack
Langer
said.
Previously,
Nunes,
R-Calif.,
would
not say
where he
met his
secret
source.
He has
still
not
revealed
who that
source
is.
Nunes'
connection
to the
White
House
has
raised
concerns
that his
committee's
investigation
is not a
bipartisan,
independent
probe.
He was a
member
of
Trump's
transition
team, as
well.
The
White
House
was
asked
repeatedly
last
week
about
whether
it was
the
source
of
Nunes'
information.
On
Thursday,
White
House
spokesman
Sean
Spicer
mocked
the
idea,
suggesting
it
didn't
pass
"the
smell
test."
"I don't
know why
he was
coming
up to
brief
the
president
on
something
that we
gave
him,"
Spicer
told
reporters,
adding:
"It
doesn't
really
seem to
make a
ton of
sense."
Nunes'
office
said the
information
provided
to the
chairman
came
from
"executive
branch
documents
that
have not
been
provided
to
Congress."
"Because
of
classification
rules,
the
source
could
not
simply
put the
documents
in a
backpack
and walk
them
over to
the
House
Intelligence
Committee
space,"
Langer
said.
"The
White
House
grounds
was the
best
location
to
safeguard
the
proper
chain of
custody
and
classification
of these
documents,
so the
chairman
could
view
them in
a legal
way."
The
bizarre
disclosure
about
the
intelligence
reports
brought
criticism
from
Democrats,
especially
those
who sit
on his
committee
and are
working
with him
on an
investigation
into
Russia's
interference
in the
2016
election.
That
investigation
is also
looking
into
possible
ties
between
Trump
associates
and the
Kremlin.
Nunes
said the
intelligence
reports
were not
related
to
Russia.
"The
chairman
is
extremely
concerned
by the
possible
improper
unmasking
of names
of U.S.
citizens,
and he
began
looking
into
this
issue
even
before
President
Trump
tweeted
his
assertion
that
Trump
Tower
had been
wiretapped,"
Langer
said.
The top
Democrat
on the
House
intelligence
committee,
Rep.
Adam
Schiff
of
California,
said
Nunes'
meeting
with his
source
appeared
to have
been "a
dead-of-night
excursion."
On
Sunday,
Schiff
said on
CBS'
"Face
the
Nation,"
''I
think
the
chairman
has to
make a
decision
whether
to act
as a
surrogate
of the
White
House -
as he
did
during
the
campaign
and the
transition
- or to
lead an
independent
and
credible
investigation."
Nunes'
office
did not
immediately
say what
time the
chairman
met his
source
on White
House
grounds.
Any
White
House
staffer
can sign
off on
someone
coming
to the
White
House
campus.
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