By Chuck Ross
California Rep. Devin Nunes said Sunday he plans to submit eight criminal referrals to the Justice Department this week related to the Obama administration’s handling of the Trump-Russia investigation.
Nunes said on Fox’s “Sunday Morning Futures” that the referrals will be made for alleged leaks of classified information to the media, for manipulating intelligence and for misleading foreign intelligence surveillance court judges regarding the infamous Steele dossier.
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Nunes declined to identify the Obama officials who will be subject to the referrals. He said that five of the referrals name specific government officials he believes have lied to Congress, misled Congress or leaked classified information.
“We believe there is a conspiracy to lie to the FISA [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] court, mislead the FISA court, by numerous individuals that all need to be investigated and looked at,” said Nunes, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee.
“The second conspiracy one is involving manipulation of intelligence,” said Nunes, adding that “we’ve had a lot of concerns with the way intelligence was used.”
Nunes is also making what he calls a “global leak referral.”
“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,” he said.
“We do believe that we’ve got pretty good information and a pretty good idea of who could be behind these leaks,” Nunes continued.
The Justice Department is not required to open investigations based on congressional referrals, but Nunes said he is willing to meet with Attorney General William Barr to discuss the matter.
Nunes has led investigations into the FBI’s handling of the Steele dossier, as well as efforts by Obama administration officials to unmask the identities of Trump associates in surveillance reports.
The FBI relied on the Democrat-funded dossier to obtain four surveillance warrants against Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. Nunes and other Republicans have asserted the FBI misled surveillance court judges by failing to disclose that the dossier was unverified and that it was opposition research funded by the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign.
Nunes has also investigated the Obama administration’s role in unmasking the identities of Trump associates in classified surveillance reports. Republicans have investigated whether any Obama administration holdovers leaked information from those reports to the media.
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