House Intelligence Panel Launches Probe of President Trump Leaks

The House Intelligence Committee has taken the first public step in its investigation into intelligence community leaks involving aides to President Donald Trump, pressing three agencies to provide information on spying involving 2016 campaign associates. Committee heads Devin Nunes (R-CA) and Adam Schiff (D-CA) revealed that they are pressing the CIA, FBI and National Security Agency (NSA) on aides who may have been spied on through a loophole in US surveillance law and were then subsequently “unmasked” and exposed to the media. The demand formalizes Chairman Nunes’s promise to investigate media leaks of sensitive information, and his recently expressed concern over backdoor surveillance of US persons. Chairman Nunes pointed to former national security advisor Michael Flynn, who was forced to resign in Feb after leaked surveillance of his phone calls to Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak revealed that he had misled Vice President Pence about a discussion of U.S. sanctions.