Representative Devin Nunes looked uneasy. Mr. Nunes, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, was struggling on Monday to elicit details
from James Comey, the F.B.I. director, about his explosive revelation
that the bureau is investigating whether Russia and the Trump
administration colluded to sabotage Hillary Clinton’s presidential
candidacy. That disclosure, Mr. Nunes said, had put “a big, gray cloud”
over the White House.
On
Wednesday, Mr. Nunes tried to replace that cloud with a smoke screen.
In a possible violation of the law, Mr. Nunes described intelligence
reports that he said had suggested that American intelligence agencies
incidentally intercepted communications of then President-elect Trump
and people close to him, and then disseminated the information widely
throughout the intelligence community. His disclosures, which have
destroyed the credibility of his committee in investigating Russian
interference in the election, make clear that he is unfit for the job
and should be replaced.
Mr. Nunes’s remarks, which appeared to be deliberately vague, gave President Trump cover for his baseless claim that President Barack Obama had illegally wiretapped his phones. After making his disclosures during a news conference
on Wednesday, Mr. Nunes went to the White House to brief the president.
In a startling break with tradition, Mr. Nunes, a Republican, briefed
reporters before sharing his findings with fellow members of the
committee, who are from both parties. Mr. Trump portrayed the
congressman’s assertions as a vindication of his widely discredited
accusation. “I very much appreciated the fact that they found what they
found,” Mr. Trump said.[...]
Mr. Nunes unspooled his information on Wednesday over the course of two
news conferences that had a strikingly improvisational air. At one
point, he said he was referring to material that “appears to be all
legally collected foreign intelligence.” Soon afterward, he proclaimed
himself to be “actually alarmed by it.” It was hard to understand
exactly what Mr. Nunes was alleging, perhaps because he didn’t have any
truly alarming revelation to share.
Mr.
Nunes’s remarks left the impression that American intelligence
personnel may have been careless in redacting identifying information of
American citizens whose communications were intercepted as part of the
lawful monitoring of foreigners. He did not, however, claim that
intelligence personnel broke rules.
By
speaking expansively about intelligence gathering, Mr. Nunes may have
broken the law by disclosing classified information, however obliquely.
The congressman, who has assailed leaks to the press, said his
information came from unnamed “sources who thought that we should know
it.” That’s rich. [...]
But Mr. Nunes’s conduct stands out for his brazenness and heedlessness.
His role as a committee chairman is to carry out responsible oversight
of intelligence matters. Instead, he used his position to distract
attention from the crucial question of whether Mr. Trump’s election was
aided by collusion with an adversary.