Devin Nunes likely under federal investigation over foreign contacts after Parnas phone call revelation: ex-FBI official

On MSNBC's "AM Joy," former FBI Assistant Director for Counterintelligence Frank Figliuzzi speculated that Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) may already be under FBI investigation for his secret calls with indicted Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas.

"What do you make of the fact that the ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee, who participated in the Adam Schiff portion of the impeachment hearings, never said anything to anybody about the fact that he was not just the guy who's sitting on the dais, he was involved in some way with one of the players?" asked host Joy Reid.

"Well, it says a lot on two levels," said Figliuzzi. "It says a lot about Devin Nunes as an individual, his ethics, his integrity, and what he's all about. And then on a larger level, it's just a huge, ironic development that we're hearing all of this about — the Republicans are defending allegations that the president lacks integrity and ethics, and they're sitting there overseeing this and they're not recusing themselves, and they're not saying anything about their colleague, Devin Nunes. So, you know, the hypocrisy is loud and clear here. And eventually when the dust clears, Joy, I wouldn't be surprised if ethics investigations and perhaps even criminal investigations really point the finger at Nunes as someone who should have recused himself and is much deeper into this than we know now."

"He's been weirdly involved for a long time, like sneaky meetings with the White House and being their advocate in this weirdly aggressive way," said Reid. "Now we find out he's on the phone with Lev Parnas. There's a lot. If you were in counterintel and dealing with a case like this, would you want the FBI to interview Nunes?"

"Well, I wouldn't be surprised, Joy," said Figliuzzi. "And again, I have no particular knowledge on this. I want to be sure to say that. But when you look at this new evidence revolving around phone calls, then you look at Devin Nunes' travels and who he's associating with, and the fact that he's kind of backchannel, backdoor information to the White House that he's gleaning from committees in the past, I wouldn't be surprised if there already isn't some inquiry into his activities related to foreign contacts. And I think this is only going to continue to grow."

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