House
Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes says on 'Sunday Morning Futures'
that potential 'major irregularities' exist at the State Department.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes said
Sunday his review of FBI and Justice Department “electronic communication”
documents shows no intelligence was used to begin the investigation into
possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016
election.
“We now know that there was no official intelligence that
was used to start this investigation. We know that Sidney Blumenthal and others
were pushing information into the State Department. So we’re trying to piece
all that together and that’s why we continue to look at the State Department,”
Nunes told Maria Bartiromo on “Sunday Morning Futures.”
Nunes, R-Calif., cited the Five Eyes agreement as a way
of knowing no intel was used. The U.S., along with Canada, the U.K., Australia
and New Zealand, make up the “Five Eyes,” or countries that share intelligence
in a more-trusted fashion than other arrangements, like NATO, particularly due
to years of trust and a common language.
“We are not supposed to spy on each other’s citizens, and
it’s worked well,” he said. “And it continues to work well. And we know it’s
working well because there was no intelligence that passed through the Five
Eyes channels to our government. And that’s why we had to see that original
communication.”
The California Republican said he is now investigating
the State Department due to signs of “major irregularities,” in an effort to
figure out how information about former Trump campaign adviser George
Papadopoulos – who
reportedly met with a foreign policy expert and Cambridge professor with
connections to the CIA and Britain’s MI6 in London in 2016 – was obtained by
the FBI.
“We know a little bit about that because of what some of
the State Department officials themselves have said about that,” Nunes said,
adding that “We have to make sure that our agencies talk and they work out
problems. We have to make sure that they don’t spy on either
American citizens or that we’re not spying on British citizens.”
Still, Nunes doesn’t know whether the former secretary of
state and then-Democratic challenger to Trump in the election, Hillary
Clinton, was pulling the strings of the investigation launched against her
political opponent. However, he said it is known that two long-time Clinton
associates – including Sidney Blumenthal – were “actively” giving information
to the State Department, which “was somehow making its way to the FBI.”
Adam Schiff, a California Democrat and ranking member of
the House Intelligence Committee, responded to Nunes’ comments on Sunday,
calling the information regarding Papadopoulos which led to the initiation of
the investigation “well-founded.”
“The majority seems to believe that if it can discredit
the initiation of the investigation by attacking the FBI, Justice Department
and State Department, it can get the public to ignore the growing body of
evidence of illicit contacts between the Trump campaign and the Russians. This
approach is as disingenuous as it is destructive to our institutions,” Schiff
said in a statement to Fox News.
Fox News’ Ellison Barber contributed to this
report.
