House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes To Step Aside From Russia Probe

Burr says he thinks Rep. Devin Nunes’ move to temporarily step aside will help minimize the politicization of the probes. At a news conference last month, Nunes said that communications involving associates of President Donald Trump had been swept up by USA spy agencies and, he suggested, mishandled by the Obama administration.

The ethics probe came just weeks after Nunes and other House Intelligence Republicans used a public hearing with FBI Director James Comey to decry leaks of classified intelligence that have fueled concern about Trump’s ties to Russian Federation and led to the ouster of former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

It marked a stunning change for the former cattle rancher from Central California who drew as much heat himself as the Russian Federation probe itself.

Lawmakers “take an oath that they will not disclose classified information”, said Fred Wertheimer, president of Democracy 21, a nonprofit that promotes government accountability and transparency. It is not clear whether Trump authorized Nunes to discuss the foreign surveillance.

Mr Trump sparked controversy in early March when he tweeted, without offering evidence, that Mr Obama had wiretapped him during the 2016 presidential race.

Trump elevated Nunes’ clandestine White House visit this week by painting a target on former national security adviser Susan Rice and saying the evidence he has seen proves former President Barack Obama was spying on him.

He later backed down from the explosive claim, saying he could not be sure that Trump and his associates were “monitored”.

Jordan Libowitz is spokesman for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. “I am confident that Ranking Member Schiff and I will be able to work together to conduct an effective, bipartisan investigation”.

During the intelligence committee’s first hearing on the Russian Federation probe last month, Conaway questioned FBI Director James Comey on how intelligence agencies prove who is behind a hack and what a foreign leader’s “intent” is.

Conaway is a seven-term term member who represents the sprawling 11th district in West Texas.

A Republican aide said Nunes and Ryan met Wednesday night to discuss stepping aside from the Russian Federation probe.

Devin Nunes (R-CA) talks with a reporter as he leaves the House floor on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, US March 29, 2017.

But Nunes had refused to step aside even as the committee’s top Democrat, Rep. Adam Schiff, said it would be hard, if not impossible, to conduct a “credible investigation” as long as Nunes refused to share the information he had obtained with the rest of the committee.

The California Republican’s decision comes amid partisan turmoil on the committee.

Democrats have alleged that Nunes, who was on President Donald Trump’s transition team, is too close to the White House and can not lead an impartial inquiry.

Last week, watchdog groups asked the Office of Congressional Ethics to investigate whether Mr Nunes potentially broke House ethics rules and revealed classified information related to the probe, the CNBC reported. But it was actually the House Ethics Committee, a more powerful and selective body that requires a complaint from a House member to initiate an investigation, that declared that there needed to be a probe in to what Nunes knew and when he knew it.

The Office of Congressional Ethics, or OCE, would not comment on whether it was pursing an investigation.

Trump has repeatedly called that charge “fake news“.

The groups say Nunes publicly disclosed information he learned by viewing classified material. It was not just he was close to this White House because he went to the White House and got these classified documents.