House Intel Dem: GOP chairman’s revelations ‘trumped up’

A Democratic member of the House Intelligence Committee on Wednesday pushed back on revelations from the panel’s Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), saying his claims of incidental U.S. surveillance of members of President Trump’s transition team were “trumped up.”

“If, in fact, this took place, it was incidental and it was done through what is legally allowed by the CIA when they are surveilling foreign persons,” Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) said during an appearance on MSNBC.

“This could be a lot of theater – it looks very trumped up to me – but we’ll have to wait and see,” she added.

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Speier slammed Nunes for apparently routing Democratic members of the committee on Wednesday when he revealed that he had evidence that the intelligence community collected information on members of the Trump transition team.

Nunes said the information was incidentally collected amid routine surveillance of foreign targets.

The Intelligence panel chairman broke the news at a press conference earlier in the day and said he briefed Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) before meeting with Trump at the White House.

The GOP chairman never discussed the revelations with the rest of the intelligence panel, Speier said, and Rep. Adam Schiff (Calif.), the top Democrat on the panel, expressed “grave concerns” about the chairman’s handling of the investigation Wednesday.

“It’s not a good visual for what is supposed to be an independent commission, so to speak, an independent investigation being undertaken by the intelligence committee to have that kind of contact going on,” Speier said.

“I’m deeply troubled by it. I think all my colleagues on the Democratic side are, and I think there will be a discussion had in our committee hearing tomorrow.”