Pelosi: Nunes violating recusal in Russia probe

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) is violating his own recusal amid the panel’s investigation into Russia’s 2016 election meddling, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) charged Friday. 

“If he recused himself on subject Russia, then he shouldn’t be having access to documents relating to subject Russia. And he shouldn’t be issuing separate subpoenas, attaching them to bipartisan subpoenas that were issued this week,” Pelosi told reporters in the Capitol. 

Pelosi was responding to the news that Nunes had issued three subpoenas on Wednesday, unilaterally, seeking evidence of his own claims that Obama-era intelligence officials had improperly “unmasked” members of President Trump’s inner circle during the Justice Department’s probe into the Russia inquiry.

{mosads}Nunes had recused himself from the House investigation in early April, after the Ethics Committee opened an examination into whether he’d disclosed classified information in the course of the Intelligence probe. 

Nunes’s subpoenas were not endorsed by Democrats on the Intelligence Committee, and Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), ranking member of the panel, said Wednesday that the chairman was in “violation of the recusal.”

Pelosi agreed, citing the “special status” of the Intelligence Committee among the other panels in the chamber.

“We deputize people to serve in the interest of our national security and to do so with integrity, patriotism, in the most apolitical way possible,” said Pelosi, who has served on the committee longer than any other House member. 

“The behavior of Nunes … is beneath the dignity of being a chairman of the Intelligence Committee.”

Pelosi said she’s spoken more than once to Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) to voice her concerns about Nunes. She didn’t reveal Ryan’s response, but “my dismay — my objection — has been conveyed to the Speaker on more than one occasion,” she said.

“You’ll have to ask him,” Pelosi said of Ryan. “But it all comes back to him, because this is his appointment. And his appointment acted in a way that was weird. 

“It was irresponsible, but it was weird.”