The ranking member of the House Oversight Committee asked two senior White House officials on Friday when they became aware that sources within the White House shared classified surveillance information with the chair of the House Intelligence Committee.
“Over the past two days, press accounts have reported that staff who work directly for you contacted Rep. Devin Nunes, the Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, secured his entry into the White House complex on March 21, 2017, and provided him with access to classified information, which he then conveyed to the President the following day,” Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) wrote in a letter to National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster and White House Counsel Don McGahn.
“I am writing to request information about whether you both were aware of these actions,” he wrote.
Nunes, who on March 22 announced that he had seen information from a secret source that indicated President Donald Trump and his affiliates were incidentally identified during legal surveillance operations, admitted Monday that he had met with a secret source the night prior to his announcement on White House grounds.
On Thursday, the New York Times identified two White House officials it claimed were Nunes’ sources. Later, the Washington Post identified a third. Nunes had originally claimed his source was an intelligence official, not a White House staffer. However, all officials named by the Times and Post work in the Trump administration.
Minutes after the New York Times’ report Thursday, White House press secretary Sean Spicer announced that, “in the ordinary course of business,” national security staff had come across new documents relevant to the House Intelligence Committee’s letter concerning the unmasking of Americans in surveillance reports.
Cummings pointed out in his letter that Spicer said on March 23 “it doesn’t really pass the smell test” that Nunes would brief the White House on information he had been given by White House officials.
“I am sure you agree that statements issued by the White House should be accurate and that any statements issued in error must be corrected as soon as possible,” he wrote. “I do not know if these press accounts are accurate, but if they are, they raise serious questions in light of previous denials by the White House and the fact that these White House officials report to you.”
He then asked McMaster and McGahn what they knew, and when they knew, about Nunes’ contacts with White House officials. Or, if they hadn’t known about it, how the “breach of the chain of command” had occurred. Cummings also asked about potential disciplinary action, and if anyone else at the White House was involved in the transmission of the classified information.
Though it should be fairly simple for the White House to check visitor logs to confirm who let Nunes onto White House grounds on March 21, it has so far not done so.
On Friday, Spicer said of Nunes behavior: “What he did, what he saw and who he met with, is 100 percent proper.”
Read Cummings’ letter to McMaster and McGahn below:
