Senate probing whether Sen Cruz leaked classified surveillance data during debate

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-NC) said he was investigating if Sen Ted Cruz (R-TX) released classified surveillance data at the Dec 15 GOP presidential debate. The probe concerns what Sen Cruz said during a back-and-forth talk with Sen Marco Rubio (R-FL) about the USA Freedom Act, which President Barack Obama signed in June. Sen Cruz said that, under that law, "nearly 100 percent" of phone calling metadata can be surveilled with the new spy program compared with "20 percent to 30 percent" under the Patriot Act provisions that the USA Freedom Act replaced. Chairman Burr said the committee's staff is looking into the statements. "The question had been raised. Therefore I asked them to look at it and see if there was any validity to it," Burr said. "It's not as clear as just reading what he said. We've got to search all sorts of media outlets to see if anyone had reported that number independently."