Politics

Devin Nunes Defends Briefing Reporters On Trump Surveillance Before Telling Intelligence Committee

(Photo: MSNBC screen grab)

Kaitlan Collins Contributor
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House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes said Thursday that he would not disclose who provided him with the intelligence reports that revealed the communications of Donald Trump and his associates may have been swept up in foreign surveillance.

“We have to keep our sources and methods here very, very quiet,” Nunes told reporters on Capitol Hill. “Over the course of this investigation, we have had many sources who have come to this committee, and as you can imagine, many of them don’t want you to know who they are. You guys in the press understand this.”

“We are not ever going to reveal sources.”

“Look, I came out here and briefed you guys yesterday, and said, ‘This is what I’m going to go do,’ so you knew. The president didn’t invite me over, I called down and there and invited myself because I thought he needed to understand what I saw. He has every right to see it.”

Nunes was then asked why he briefed Paul Ryan, reporters and the president, but bypassed the rest of the intelligence committee.

“It was a judgment call,” he said. “There was a lot going on yesterday. It was a judgment call on my part. Sometimes you make the right decision, and sometimes you make the wrong decision, but you’ve got to stick by the decisions you make.”