Rep. Devin Nunes Backs Down From Claim Regarding Trump Being Monitored
Devin Nunes, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, told the world that President Trump’s aides were monitored by U.S. spies recently, but now he seems to be taking back those very claims. It was reported by Nunes recently that intelligence found aides for Trump were monitored before the election, but many felt that something was up regarding the claims and that the entire truth was not yet out regarding what Nunes claimed.
Nunes also never once claimed that Trump Tower was wiretapped or that former president Barack Obama was behind any of the things Trump alleged in his Twitter tirade earlier this month. Nunes then decided come out with more information backing down from his original claim. According to NBC News, he informed reporters on Friday that he could not be sure conversations among Trump or his aides were captured in the surveillance that Nunes claimed as the source in two news conferences this past week.
Jack Langer, a spokesman for Devin Nunes, Jack Langer, claimed the following.
“He said he’ll have to get all the documents he requested from the (intelligence community) about this before he knows for sure.”
Naturally, many wanted to know how Devin Nunes learned this information regarding the possible surveillance, but he has refused to disclose it. This was especially avoided when the question was asked about the source being the White House itself, where many assume Trump would be pulling the strings to get something together to make his allegation look credible.
Langer further spoke for Nunes and claimed that Devin did not exactly say that Trump himself was spied on when he spoke to reporters about the situation on Wednesday. He did say that he was “very concerned” that “the intelligence community incidentally collected information about American citizens involved in the Trump transition.” However, despite Trump claiming he feels vindicated over the original findings, he did not get the news he hoped for.
In fact, Nunes made sure to tell reporters “that didn’t happen” when asked about Trump Tower being wiretapped by the Obama administration. Whatever vindication Trump apparently is feeling is certainly not about his claims regarding the wiretap he spoke of on Twitter. Despite this, Nunes left the impression in his news conference on Wednesday that conversations of Trump and his aides were picked up by American spies.
“I have seen intelligence reports that clearly show the president-elect and his team were at least monitored and disseminated out.”
On Thursday, the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee sent out an email about what Nunes claimed with the subject line, “Confirmed: Obama Spied on Trump.” Obviously this was not what was said and completely wrong, and clearly propped up to seem as if Obama did illegally wiretap Trump Tower to somehow spy on Trump. However, Nunes made sure that this was put to rest as he came out and said that was not what he claimed at all.
He said that the surveillance that happened was legal and there was no wiretap of Trump Tower. Obviously if Obama did in fact wiretap, he would have committed a felony, as no judge gave him the ability to do so and none of the intelligence communities were privy to what went down, which would be odd. Of course, no one is being arrested and no one is going to court over a spying confirmation, which usually means in this case that the wiretap did not occur.
It is widely assumed that Nunes’ claims were used to coverup the very discredited wiretap allegation to help make President Trump look a bit better for making the claim. This, in spite of the fact that most see this for what it was: a lot of nothing. Obviously, Trump did try to call this a win. However, nothing was really proven with Nunes’ claims and he is even backing off the words he originally said. It could be interesting to find out what the truth of the matter ends up being.
[Featured Image By J. Scott Applewhite/AP Images]
