The Republican chairman of the House intelligence committee met on the White House grounds with the source of the claim that communications involving President Donald Trump's associates were caught up in "incidental" surveillance, the congressman's spokesman said today.
The meeting occurred before Rep. Devin Nunes disclosed at a news conference last Wednesday that US spy agencies may have inadvertently captured Trump and his associates in routine targeting of foreigners' communications.
"Chairman Nunes met with his source at the White House grounds in order to have proximity to a secure location where he could view the information provided by the source," Nunes spokesman Jack Langer said.
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Previously, Nunes, R-Calif., would not say where he met his secret source. He has still not revealed who it might be.
White House spokesman Sean Spicer today said he doesn't know anything about this secret meeting beyond what Nunes has said publicly about it.
"I'm not going to get into who he met with or why he met with them," Spicer said. He added later, "I don't know what he found."
Nunes' connection to the White House has raised concerns that his committee's investigation is not a bipartisan, independent probe. He was a member of Trump's presidential transition team, as well.
The top Democrat on the committee, Rep. Adam Schiff of California, said Nunes' meeting with his source appeared to have been "a dead-of-night excursion."
Yesterday, Schiff said on CBS' "Face the Nation," ''I think the chairman has to make a decision whether to act as a surrogate of the White House -- as he did during the campaign and the transition -- or to lead an independent and credible investigation."
Nunes' office did not immediately say what time the chairman met his source. Many White House staffers can sign off on someone coming to the grounds.
The disclosure about the intelligence reports brought criticism from Democrats, especially those who sit on Nunes' committee and are working with him on an investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 election.
That investigation is also looking into possible ties between Trump associates and the Kremlin. Nunes said the intelligence reports were not related to Russia.
The Senate intelligence committee, too, is conducting an investigation into Russia's interference in the election and any possible ties with the Trump campaign.
Today, the White House confirmed that Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, has volunteered to be interviewed by the Senate committee about arranging meetings with the Russian ambassador and other officials.
Kushner is the fourth Trump associate to offer to be interviewed by the congressional committees looking into the murky Russia ties.
Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, Trump adviser Carter Page and Trump associate Roger Stone last week volunteered to speak as well.
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