Nunes welcomes DOJ watchdog probe into FISA abuse claims after Trump criticism

Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) broke with President Trump on Saturday and welcomed Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s decision to ask the Justice Department’s inspector general to investigate alleged abuses of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

Nunes, who chairs the House Intelligence Committee that is investigating Russian interference in the election, told Fox News that he welcomed Sessions’s announcement that his department’s internal watchdog, Michael Horowitz, would investigate alleged improper surveillance of the Trump campaign.

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“I welcome anybody to help come investigate because so far it’s only the House Intelligence Committee Republicans who are actually doing anything to get to the bottom of who was colluding with Russia,” Nunes said.

“I was happy to see Attorney General Jeff Sessions appoint Mr. Horowitz, because we welcome more people investigating these serious issues that we’re working on.”

Nunes, whose staff authored a controversial memo alleging surveillance abuses, claimed that Republicans on the committee have uncovered “clear evidence” of collusion between the Hillary Clinton campaign, the Democratic National Committee and Russia during the 2016 campaign.

“The more we pull this back, we have clear evidence of collusion, but it’s not between the Trump campaign, it’s between the Democratic Party and the Hillary campaign and the Russians,” Nunes asserted.

Nunes’s comments follow a tweet from the president attacking his own attorney general for asking Horowitz to handle the investigation of the alleged FISA abuses detailed in the memo issued earlier this year by Republicans on the Intelligence Committee.

“Why is A.G. Jeff Sessions asking the Inspector General to investigate potentially massive FISA abuse,” Trump tweeted earlier this week. “Will take forever, has no prosecutorial power and already late with reports on Comey etc. Isn’t the I.G. an Obama guy? Why not use Justice Department lawyers? DISGRACEFUL!”

The chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), also defended Horowitz this week, saying he had “complete confidence” in the DOJ watchdog.

“He was confirmed by the U.S. Senate without a single dissent. I have complete confidence in him,” Gowdy said.