Lawmakers Say Intelligence Documents Don't Back Up Nunes's Surveillance Claims

Lawmakers and aides on both sides of the aisle have concluded—once again—that the Obama administration did not engage in illegal surveillance on Trump, CNN reports.

The politicians reportedly reviewed the same intelligence reports that led Republican representative Devin Nunes to claim some Trump campaign associates had been swept up in "incidental" surveillance during the 2016 election. The documents apparently cast doubt on Trump's explosive, unverified claim that the Obama administration had tapped his phones during the election and engaged in illegal surveillance on him and his campaign associates before he took office.

Members of the House and Senate intelligence committees—which are currently running an investigation into Russia's alleged meddling in the 2016 election—also reviewed various NSA requests last week. According to one source, those NSA reports suggest Susan Rice, a former National Security Council adviser under Obama, acted "normal and appropriate" in her requests to "unmask" the names of some US citizens who were caught up in surveillance on foreign officials. In many cases, Rice had requested to uncover the redacted names of people mentioned in intelligence reports that involved contact between Trump's team and foreign officials who were being monitored.

"I think the Susan Rice thing is a massive story. I think it's a massive, massive story. All over the world," Mr. Trump recently told the New York Times, suggesting Rice may have committed a crime with her unmasking requests. "The Russia story is a total hoax. There has been absolutely nothing coming out of that," he added.

Last week, Nunes, the House Intelligence Committee Chairman, announced he would be stepping aside from the committee's Russia investigation after people complained to the House Ethics Committee about how he had handled it thus far. After first going against Trump's wiretap accusation, Nunes then said Trump and his associates had been "incidentally" surveilled, thanks to the reports that he ended up getting from the White House.