The House intelligence committee chairman privately apologized to his Democratic colleagues on Thursday, yet publicly defended his decision to openly discuss and brief President Donald Trump on typically secret intercepts that he says swept up communications of the president’s transition team in the final days of the Obama administration.
GOP Rep. Devin Nunes’s decision to disclose the information before talking to committee members outraged Democrats and raised questions about the independence of the panel’s probe of Russian interference into the 2016 election and possible contacts between Trump associates and Russia.
“It was a judgment call on my part,” Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., told reporters Thursday morning. “Sometimes you make the right decision, sometimes you make wrong decision.”
A congressional aide familiar with Nunes’ meeting said the chairman apologized to Democrats and pledged to work with them and share information related to the investigation.
“A credible investigation cannot be conducted this way,” said Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House panel.
The White House quickly embraced Nunes’ revelations and the president said they “somewhat” validated his wiretapping allegations.
Nunes’ critics also questioned whether the California congressman was coordinating with the White House in order to give the president cover for his explosive claims that Barack Obama wire tapped Trump’s New York skyscraper.
Nunes, who served on Trump’s transition team, ducked questions about whether he was parroting information given to him by the White House, saying only that he was “not going to ever reveal sources.” He maintained that Trump’s explosive wiretapping allegations against Obama were false.
Trump spokesman Sean Spicer dismissed questions about whether the White House planted information with Nunes, saying “I believe that the information he shared with the president was new.”