Congressman Devin Nunes, Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, has told fellow Republicans that he has seen evidence of abuses by the FBI of government surveillance programs. The allegation came as Nunes was attempting to drum up support for the reauthorization of section 702 of the FISA Act this week, the provision that authorizes the U.S. intelligence community to collect conversations of foreigners on foreign soil.
Nunes said that the evidence he has seen doesn’t concern abuses in the surveillance of foreigners, but rather that other sections of the law were abused in the surveillance of Americans. Nunes said he would share the evidence he has seen with all 435 members of Congress “ASAP.”
Nunes, last month, was highly critical of Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein for failing to produce documents detailing the FBI’s handling of the Steele Dossier, the report that claims there was collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. He said at the time, “at this point it seems the DOJ and FBI need to be investigating themselves.”
It was reported that after much back and forth, members of congressional panels, including the House Intelligence Committee, were allowed to view some of the documents in question at the Department of Justice earlier this month.
Nunes said he will try to make the documents available to every member of the House and allow them to reach their own conclusions. Republicans believe that the Steele Dossier led to the issuance of FISA warrants that allowed the Trump campaign to be surveilled.