Devin Nunes, chairman of the U.S. House intelligence committee, said on Friday that they found out from the judge that the Special Counsel investigation has gone off the rails. The FBI opened a secret counterintelligence investigation on an American citizen and they went to a secret court to get the warrant, Nunes explained.
The committee is investigating Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) abuse and claimed that they need certain information they are not getting. FISA is a United States federal law which establishes procedures for the physical and electronic surveillance and collection of “foreign intelligence information” between “foreign powers” and “agents of foreign powers” suspected of espionage or terrorism.
There is a very small apparatus that controls the checks and balances between the Executive Branch and Congress, Nunes said. Adding that the Obama administration moved ahead in a counterintelligence operation in a campaign of all things.
The committee said they sent a letter 2-weeks ago requesting information and it was ignored. They then sent a subpoena and were told they would not be given the information. The next step is to hold Sessions in contempt.
.@DevinNunes: We have to move quickly to hold AG Jeff Sessions in contempt, and that’s what I’m going to press for this week pic.twitter.com/QsPdcrVSwq
— FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) May 6, 2018
Sara A. Carter is an investigative reporter and contributor on Fox News based out of Washington D.C said in a tweet that the committee will go to court to force contempt subpoena against AG Sessions.
.@DevinNunes sent classified letter to AG Sessons asking for info/ AG Sessions DOJ ignored—-Move forward with contempt resolution against DOJ AG for refusal to comply with latest subpoena. They will go to court to force contemt subpoena against AG Sessions
— Sara A. Carter (@SaraCarterDC) May 6, 2018
Nunes said on Sunday that the Mueller indictment was a rewrite of the the House Intelligence Committee report and that it was turning out to be another fiasco like the Russian Troll farm case.
Three Russian companies and 13 Russian citizens were charged in the high-profile indictment in February alleging that they used social media and other means to foment strife among Americans in advance of the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Republicans in the House are reportedly preparing an effort to impeach deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein, the man overseeing the special counsel’s probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 US election.