The counter-investigation into Russiagate’s origins is underway.
Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) told Fox’s Maria Bartiromo on Sunday that he is sending eight criminal referrals to Attorney General William Barr alleging crimes by individuals involved in Russiagate. Republicans have charged that individuals lied to Congress, misled the FISA courts, and leaked highly classified information as part of a conspiracy to spy on the Trump campaign.
Russiagate referrals
Nunes, who has been a key player in Republican-led efforts to uncover anti-Trump bias in the intelligence community, did not name names, but said that five of the referrals are “straight up” and name individuals for specific crimes including lying to Congress and leaking information.
“We’re prepared this week to notify the attorney general that we’re prepared to send those referrals over,” Nunes said, noting that they are all labeled either classified or sensitive. “Five of them are what I would call straight up referrals — so just referrals that name someone and name the specific crimes. Those crimes are lying to Congress, misleading Congress, leaking classified information.”
The other three referrals, Nunes said, “are more complicated.” The first two allege conspiracy by FBI and DOJ officials to lie to the FISA court and “manipulate intelligence.” Republicans have long alleged that the Justice Department did not disclose to the FISA court that it relied extensively on political opposition research paid for by the Democrats to obtain spy warrants for Trump campaign aide Carter Page.
“So on the first one is FISA abuse and other matters. We believe there was a conspiracy to lie to the FISA court, mislead the FISA court by numerous individuals that all need to be investigated and looked at that, and we believe the [relevant] statute is the conspiracy statute. The second conspiracy one is involving manipulation of intelligence that also could ensnarl many Americans,” he said. “We’ve had a lot of concerns with the way intelligence was used.”
The third referral is a “global leak referral” that alleges leaking by intelligence officials to journalists. Nunes spoke specifically of leaks of President Trump’s phone calls with the Australian prime minister and the president of Mexico, as well as a phone call between former national security adviser Michael Flynn and a Russian ambassador.
“There are about a dozen highly-sensitive classified information leaks that were given to only a few reporters over the last two and a half-plus years,” he said. “So we don’t know if there’s actually been any leak investigations that have been opened, but we do believe that we’ve got pretty good information and a pretty good idea of who could be behind these leaks.”
Facing justice
When he was chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Nunes played a leading role in congressional investigations of the Christopher Steele dossier and the Obama Justice Department’s alleged spying on the Trump campaign. Republicans on his committee last year drafted a memo that accused the FBI and DOJ of lying to the FISA court about the Steele dossier — specifically, Republicans allege that the agencies did not disclose that the opposition research was paid for in part by the Democrats and the Hillary Clinton campaign.
The Democrats’ takeover of the House shuttered the Republicans’ investigation, which Nunes, who is now ranking member, is hoping to punt to Barr. Nunes said he has been working on the referrals for more than two years, but that he was waiting for Barr’s confirmation to go ahead with them.
Nunes demurred from naming names, but hinted that “people that have followed Russiagate for a long time, they know a lot of [them]” and that a conspiracy referral could name as many as two dozen individuals.
“The American people have only seen the pieces that have been declassified so far,” Nunes said. “There’s still more information. This was their insurance policy. A lot of people think the insurance policy was just the overall investigation of the Trump campaign. It’s actually much more conspiratorial than that. There was exculpatory information,” Nunes said, referring to information that many Republicans have alleged would have shown that Page and other surveillance targets were innocent.
Nunes has long been disparaged by Democrats as a crackpot for alleging a conspiracy by the DOJ and FBI to spy on the Trump campaign and sabotage the president’s candidacy and administration. But Robert Mueller’s finding of no collusion last month exposed the Democrats as having sold a hoax to the public for nearly two years, prompting anger from Republicans like Nunes and swift calls for punishment for those involved in what the president described as an “illegal takeover” that failed.
For his part, President Trump has said that he will declassify FISA warrants and other documents related to the spying in hopes of getting to the bottom of how Russiagate started.
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