02 June, 2017
At a private event last month for Republicans in his home county, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) said that the investigations being held in Congress over Russia's election interference and potential collusion with Trump associates is all just about Democrats looking to justify Hillary Clinton's election loss.
Top House Democrats began calling for Nunes to recuse himself from the panel's investigation into Russian Federation in March, following the revelations that he had met on White House grounds with a source who showed him secret U.S. intelligence reports. She says she shared her objection with House Speaker Paul Ryan.
Two congressional sources says the three subpoenas for the unmasking investigation are for the FBI, CIA, and NSA in order to obtain information on unmasking requests made by former United Nations ambassador Samantha Power, former national security adviser Susan Rice and former CIA director John Brennan.
The embattled head of the House Intelligence Committee Wednesday appeared to have launched an investigation of his own, this one into allegations that senior Obama administration officials improperly "unmasked" the identities of Trump associates captured communicating with foreign officials.
Flynn had previously declined the committee's invitation to speak with them and provide documents on the issue.
"If the reports are accurate, subpoenas related to the "unmasking" issue would have been sent by Chairman Nunes acting separately from the committee's Russian Federation investigation", the senior aide wrote in an email.
The Senate Intelligence Committee voted unanimously on May 25 to authorise its chairman, Republican Senator Richard Burr, and its top-ranking Democratic, Mark Warner, to issue subpoenas that would force the attorney to respond to their demands.
This action would have been taken without the Minority's agreement.
That Nunes has launched a new investigation into a process called "unmasking" at this time is somewhat surprising.
During his confirmation hearing in January, Sessions testified that he "did not have any communications with the Russians" during the campaign and said in a written statement given to the Senate Judiciary Committee that he was not in contact with anyone linked to the Russian government during the campaign. The ethics panel said in a statement that it was trying to determine if Nunes had violated "House rules, law, regulations or other standards of conduct". Prior to his recusal, Nunes had come under fire for running to the White House with information about surveillance and "unmasking" he had apparently obtained from the White House, stating that he felt Trump needed to be briefed on it immediately. Those claims were widely dismissed, on both sides of the aisle. He said at the time that he had concerns about the way some people were dealt with in the intelligence reports.
The names of American citizens who are caught up in incidental surveillance are protected by law, with very few exceptions granted to unmask them, even within classified material. While Nunes has recused himself from the Russian Federation investigation due to his handling of classified information, he has not recused himself from the unmasking probe. "We will continue to pursue this investigation wherever the facts may lead".
