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Washington • After taking heat for sharing surveillance information with President Donald Trump, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes stepped down Thursday from leading an investigation into Russia's influence on the presidential election. Utah Republican Rep. Chris Stewart, who sits on the panel, said that action was unwarranted.
"I'm frustrated by this," Stewart said. "There's no reason at all — [Nunes] hasn't done anything inappropriate, and the ethics complaint against him is frankly absurd."
Though he maintained that the accusations against him are false, Nunes, a California Republican, announced that he would temporarily recuse himself after the House Committee on Ethics said it would investigate whether the congressman "made unauthorized disclosures of classified information."
Stewart defended Nunes and suggested the allegations will be dismissed "in a few days."
"Once he's been cleared of that — and I completely expect that he will be — then he'll step back in" to lead the probe, Stewart assured.
Nunes went to the White House complex in March to view documents that he later said showed the U.S. intelligence community collected information, including communications, from Trump officials through incidental surveillance.
Trump has claimed, without evidence, that then-President Barack Obama illegally wiretapped Trump Tower last year, and alleged that then-National Security Adviser Susan Rice may be criminally charged for her part in "unmasking" names of U.S. citizens in intelligence reports. Names of U.S. citizens are usually blacked out in such reports unless a request is made to identify them.
Before sharing the intelligence with his own committee members, Nunes briefed Trump on what he said he found — though he noted the surveillance was legal — prompting Trump to claim he was "somewhat" vindicated by Nunes' findings.
Stewart, who held a security clearance as a former Air Force major, said Nunes didn't offer a "thoughtless response" by briefing Trump and knew that he would eventually talk to the full committee.
"He felt like the proper thing to do at the time was to handle it the way he did," Stewart said. "And I don't disagree with him."
The New York Times, though, reported March 30 that it was two White House officials — the senior director for intelligence at the National Security Council and a lawyer for the White House Counsel's Office — who helped provide Nunes with information about the incidental surveillance. Stewart said he hadn't read that report.
"Those who are looking for criticism are straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel," Stewart said, citing a Bible verse that means to focus on the small things rather than worry about something more major.
Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, had called for Nunes to step away from the investigation into Russia's attempt to help Trump in the election. He told reporters Thursday that it "will allow us to have a fresh start moving forward." The probe will now be led by Rep. Mike Conaway, R-Texas, and the second-ranking Republican on the committee.
Stewart says there clearly was incidental surveillance of Trump officials — likely captured during conversations with foreign officials that the intelligence community was monitoring — but the more pressing concern was that some of those names of U.S. persons were unmasked and "widely disseminated."
Still, Stewart says he doesn't know if any laws were broken and the committee needs to continue to investigate.
Asked if Trump was right that Rice may have committed a crime, Stewart said he wasn't drawing conclusions yet.
"I wouldn't say that at all at this point," he said. "It's way too early."
For his part, Stewart says that the Nunes controversy is overhyped — "he has not done anything that would require him to step aside" — and that the focus needs to remain on Russia's meddling in the election and how to learn from that to thwart such attempts in the future, not only for the United States but foreign allies.
Twitter: @thomaswburr
@CourtneyLTanner