Nunes: ‘If I Really Wanted To I Could Have Snuck’ Onto White House Grounds

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., left, speaks to reporters in the Capitol in Washington, Friday, March 24, 2017.  (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., left, speaks to reporters in the Capitol in Washington, Friday, March 24, 2017. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
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House Intelligence Committee chair Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) on Monday said that he “wasn’t trying to hide” his meeting with a secret source on White House grounds a day before he made vague, charged allegations that members of President Donald Trump’s transition were picked up by incidental collection.

“Look, if I really wanted to, I could have snuck onto the grounds late at night and probably nobody would have seen me,” Nunes said on CNN. “In fact, I stopped to talk to several people along the way.”

Nunes on Monday confirmed to CNN that he visited White House grounds to view classified information in a secure area, but said he did not visit the White House itself.

He later told Bloomberg that his source was an intelligence official, not a White House staffer, and said they chose the location for their meeting out of convenience.

Nunes told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Monday evening that “nobody was sneaking around” and “there was nothing clandestine about it.”

“I wasn’t sneaking on, it wasn’t at night,” Nunes said. “It was in the middle of the, you know, the sun was out.”

Nunes said that he did not meet with Trump or any of the President’s aides while on the grounds.

“I’m quite sure people in the West Wing had no idea that I was there,” he said. “It wasn’t actually that exciting.”

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