House Dem ‘absolutely convinced’ storm around Nunes’s revelations started in Oval Office

A Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee says in a new interview that she is “absolutely convinced” that the White House is behind what she called a “wild goose chase” that led to the committee chairman’s revelations that President Trump’s transition team was incidentally surveilled.

“I am absolutely convinced it started in the Oval Office,” Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) told Politico on Saturday.

“There’s no question in my mind that the president, with the aid of his national security adviser staff, came up with some kind of a ruse to try and suggest there was some kind of validity” to Trump’s claims he had been wiretapped by former President Obama, Speier said.

{mosads}Speier’s comments follow a report in The New York Times last week that two White House officials helped Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) acquire the information that he said shows Trump’s team was incidentally surveilled.

The Democratic lawmaker said “the president clicked his fingers and Devin went running over” following Trump’s initial tweet claiming Trump Tower had been surveilled during the campaign.

Speier called for the chairman not only to recuse himself from any investigation into the president’s ties with Russia, but also to remove himself from the committee.

“I don’t believe he can remain on the committee,” she told Politico. “This wasn’t done to him … [Nunes] took an action that impeded his credibility.”