Alex Wong/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer invited the chairmen and ranking members of the House and Senate Intelligence committees to the White House to view documents discovered by National Security Council staff, he announced at Thursday’s press briefing.
Spicer would not confirm whether the documents he’s referring to were the same ones that House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes viewed on White House grounds last Tuesday, saying the information could only be discussed in a classified setting.
“What I’m suggesting is that there has been information that has … come to light and we want to make sure that the people who are conducting the review have the information, have access to it,” said Spicer.
When asked by ABC News’ Cecilia Vega whether the materials validate President Donald Trump’s claim that he and his associates were wiretapped under order from former President Barack Obama, Spicer said he didn’t know.
“I have not seen the materials. It’s members of the National Security [Council] who have come across these documents that want to make them available to the members leading the review,” Spicer said.
The press secretary would neither confirm nor deny a report by the New York Times earlier in the day that two White House officials were the sources of the intelligence provided to Nunes on the White House grounds last week — information on which Nunes later returned to brief Trump.
A week ago Spicer questioned why Nunes “would come up to brief the President on something that we gave him” and said the situation “doesn’t really pass the smell test.” At Thursday’s briefing Spicer said he “can’t get into” the chairman’s sources and again said he didn’t know who let Nunes onto the White House grounds last Tuesday.
As he criticized the press for focusing on the “process” of the investigation rather than its “substance,” Spicer maintained that the inquiry into Russia is being carried out in a “responsible way.”
“I think this is being done in a responsible way where people are discussing what they know at an appropriate classification level and information is being shared,” Spicer said.
Asked whether Trump had been briefed on the intelligence to be provided to the committee leaders, Spicer said he didn’t know.
Shortly after the White House briefing, Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, expressed his “profound concern with how these materials are being made available to the committee.”
He said that he had questions about the “circuitous route” that the individuals appear to have taken in sharing documents with Nunes.
“This issue is not going to distract us from doing our Russia investigation. If that’s the object here, it’s not going to be successful,” Schiff said.
“There’s no question that there is a cloud over the investigation as a result of the way the materials were provided,” he said.
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