FROM EIR DAILY ALERT
‘Never Any Evidence’ of Russian Collusion, Intelligence Chair Nunes Assures Sharyl Attkisson
Feb. 19, 2018 (EIRNS)—House Intelligence Committee Chair Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) was interviewed yesterday by investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson on the weekly syndicated broadcast “Full Measure,” which she hosts. Titled “Russia Probe,” Nunes started the segment by telling her,
“We have a Russian investigation going on whether or not there was collusion between any campaign and the Russians. That’s coming to a close. We’ve never had any evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians.”
Attkisson then asked, “So, you’re comfortable with saying at this point, you don’t see anything there?” Nunes replied, “No, there’s nothing there.” He continued,
“So in that investigation, we’ve unearthed things that are very concerning. We know that there are un-maskings that occurred and probably were leaked to the media.... What we found was happening is, in the last [Obama] administration, they were unmasking hundreds, and hundreds, and hundreds of Americans’ names. They were unmasking people for what I would say, for lack of a better definition, were for political purposes.”
Attkisson said,
“On the un-maskings, one very tangible bit of evidence that to me looks like a crime. Is the fact that the U.S. Ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power. It looked like she had made a masking request on a near-daily basis. Which is amazing in 2016. It’s pretty incredible. Yet she reportedly told Congress, most of those were not really her.... Wouldn’t that mean somebody committed a serious national security crime if they used her name to request un-maskings of U.S. citizens?”
“We don’t know what the truth is there,” Nunes replied. “I think it’s highly unlikely that she was not the one who was giving permission to make those unmasking requests.”
To Attkisson’s question, how could such information be used? Nunes said his committee now has no evidence as to who leaked the names, but knows that the names were unmasked, and were published in newspapers: “It’s like political dirt to create a narrative and a spin with the mainstream media.”
Nunes concluded that the Intelligence Committee could make criminal referrals, but they would go to the very individuals being referred!—high Justice Department and FBI officials. So, Nunes said, Congress has to “find a way to put them on trial.”
Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity founder Ray McGovern discusses the Attkisson interview in Consortium News.
