Gowdy: Nunes briefed president on matters ‘unrelated’ to Russia probe

Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) on Sunday defended House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) after Nunes bypassed his own committee to brief the president on information related to U.S. surveillance of his transition team.

“My understanding is Chairman Nunes briefed the commander in chief on matters unrelated to the Russian investigation,” Gowdy said on CBS’s “Face The Nation.”

“So if that’s a big deal in Washington, then we’ve sunk to a new low.”

When pressed, Gowdy reiterated that Nunes briefed the president on “something that has nothing to do with the Russia investigation.”

“So if the commander in chief cannot be briefed by the chairperson of the House Intel Committee on a matter that has nothing to do with the FBI investigation, then I don’t know what they can talk about.”

“He’s the commander in chief.”

{mosads}Nunes last week said that he had learned from a source that the U.S. intelligence community incidentally collected information on members of Trump’s transition team and then “widely disseminated” the information internally.

The news blindsided Democrats on the committee, as well as many Republicans.

Gowdy, a former prosecutor, on Sunday also dismissed the idea of establishing an independent commission to investigate the Russian interference.

“Thank goodness we have one. It’s called the FBI. The FBI has counterintelligence jurisdiction and they have criminal jurisdiction,” he said.

“And what we learned on Monday, and it’s about the only thing we learned on Monday, was that the FBI is investigating both.”

He added that he knows incidental collection in the country happens, but he hopes people will focus on the unmasking.

“The felonious dissemination of classified information is the only thing we know for sure is a crime, and it would be nice if we showed the same level of interest in that,” he said.