House Intelligence Committee chairman Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) met with a source on White House grounds last Tuesday -- the day before he held a press conference announcing that members of Pres. Donald Trump's transition team were caught up in "incidental surveillance" of foreign operatives.
According to USA Today, not only was Nunes on the White House grounds, he met with "the source of documents detailing the intelligence community's incidental collection of communications involving associates of President Trump, the chairman's top aide confirmed Monday."
The identity of that source has not been made public.
"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," said Nunes' spokesman Jack Langer. "The chairman is extremely concerned by the possible improper unmasking of names of U.S. citizens, and he began looking into this issue even before President Trump tweeted his assertion that Trump Tower had been wiretapped."
Furthermore, according to MSNBC, Nunes was on the White House grounds to make use of a SCIF -- a sensitive compartmented information facility -- where he could meet his source and review the documents in question.
"There are sensitive facilities on Capitol Hill in the Capitol," said NBC political reporter Ken Dilanian, "where lawmakers regularly review information, so there was no need for him to go to the White House. The fact that he was at the White House indicates that he might have gotten this information from the White House."
This leads to questions, Dilanian said, that Nunes' revelations last Wednesday were "just a stunt."
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