House Speaker Ryan ordered Trey Gowdy to babysit Devin Nunes when he met with DOJ officials: report

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) has been waging such a public war against the Department of Justice that Speaker Paul Ryan arranged a congressional escort for his latest meeting, The New York Timesreported Saturday.

"The relationship between the Justice Department and Mr. Nunes has so eroded that when he trekked down Pennsylvania Avenue on Thursday from the Capitol to the department to discuss his latest request, Representative Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, a Republican colleague and former federal prosecutor, tagged along at the encouragement of the House speaker to help keep the meeting civil," The Times reported.

Speaker Ryan's supervision strategy may have been effective, following the meeting Rep. Nunes and Rep. Gowdy issued a positive, joint statement.

“We had a productive discussion today with officials from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Department of Justice, and FBI in which we raised questions related to information requested from the Intelligence Community,” the statement said. “The officials committed to holding further discussions of these matters, and we look forward to continuing our dialogue next week to satisfy the Committee’s request.”

Democrats, however, believe that the information request is just a smokescreen to obstruct the investigations into President Donald Trump.

“The goal is not the information, the goal is the fight," Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA). "And the ultimate objective is to undermine the Justice Department, undermine Bob Mueller and give the president a pretext to fire people.”