Nunes: Criminal Referrals On Russiagate For Lying To FISA Courts, Conspiracy, Leaks

Nunes: Ready To Make Criminal Referrals On Russiagate For Lying To FISA Courts, Conspiracy, Leaks

Posted By Tim Hains
On Date April 7, 2019

Rep. Devin Nunes said Sunday that after more than two years of investigation, he is ready to send eight criminal referrals to the Department of Justice this week regarding leaks, FISA abuse, and lying to Congress related to the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation. He did not name names but said: "people who have followed 'Russiagate' for a long time know a lot of the names."

"We're prepared this week to notify the attorney general that we're prepared to send those referrals over and brief him if he wishes to be briefed," Nunes said on FNC's "Sunday Morning Futures" with Maria Bartiromo.

"Five of them are what I would call straight up referrals, so just referrals that name someone and name the specific crimes.

Those crimes are lying to Congress, misleading Congress, and leaking classified information," Nunes said.

"There are three that are more complicated... So the question on conspiracy is what, there's the conspiracy statute, and then what do they need to look at under that statute. So on the first one, is FISA abuse and other matters we believe there is a conspiracy to lie to the FISA Court, mislead the FISA court by numerous individuals that all need to be investigative and looked at," Nunes said.

"The second conspiracy one is involving manipulation of intelligence. That also could involve many Americans and we are, so that's kind of the second one. As you know, we've had a lot of concerns with the way intelligence was used."

The third referral Nunes called a "global leak referral," regarding the leaks in 2017 of President Trump's private phone call transcripts with the leaders of Australia and Mexico.

"There are about a dozen highly sensitive classified information leaks that were given to only a few reporters over the last two and a half-plus years, so we don't know if there's actually been any leak investigations that have been open, but we do believe that we've got pretty good information and a pretty good idea of who could be behind these leaks," Nunes said. "Doesn't mean we know all the people behind the leaks because when you read these a lot of these they're always anonymous sources, and they always say something to the effect of current and former senior officials."

"We think there's only a few people behind these leaks but there could be multiple people, so on the global leak referral, there could be several individuals," Nunes said. "When you look at the conspiracy that could get up to a dozen, two dozen people."

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