Local political expert talks about latest controversy involving Rep. Devin Nunes

But that same day, the hearing, which also would have included former CIA director John Brennan and former director of national intelligence James Clapper, was canceled by the House Intelligence Committee’s chairman, Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., and any White House decision on Yates’s testimony became moot. “I think that’s the only committee that’s going to be able to bring us a report at this point”. “That hearing was tentatively planned for today”.

Nunes has come under increasing fire after he said Monday that he met a source on White House grounds where he was shown in a secure setting intelligence documents, which last week he cited in a news conference as some support for Trump’s claim that the Obama administration surveilled him. Smith duly noted the Trump administration’s denial: “The White House calls The Washington Post’s reporting ‘entirely false.’ It also says it has no problems with her testifying”.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer told reporters that he hopes former acting Attorney General Sally Yates testifies before the House Intell…

The Justice Department also informed her that her testimony might be barred.

But the White House denied pressuring Yates against testifying.

However, on December 9, 2015, then-candidate Trump called for a “total and complete shutdown” of all Muslim entry into the USA, and the day after, Nunes told reporters that he wasn’t going to involve himself in the presidential race, but added, “I don’t think that ISIS has any trouble recruiting, but the comments clearly are not helpful”. But after Nunes announced late last week that he had been shown intercepted communications involving members of the Trump transition team, the Tuesday’s session was canceled. “I mean, they know we’re doing an investigation, and that will continue”, he said.

Rep. Devin Nunes speaks to CNN on Tuesday about his role in the Russian inquiry.

“Right now, our investigation is stalled”, Swalwel said.

The Senate Intelligence Committee will hold its first hearing into Russian interference Thursday. The fact that it had yet to be reset or that the secret round of testimony from Comey and Rogers hadn’t been scheduled made Nunes’ leadership suspect.

“I’ve been around for quite a while, and I’ve never heard of any such thing”, he said on CBS “This Morning”. “But we would urge that the open hearing be rescheduled without further delay and that Ms. Yates be permitted to testify freely and openly”. The typically bipartisan panel has been torn by disputes over Nunes’ ties to President Donald’s Trump’s campaign and questions about whether he can lead a probe independent of White House influence. Such “hot spots meetings”, which normally take place on Mondays and Thursdays, are not exclusively dedicated to the Russian Federation investigation, but any matters that come under the committee’s purview.

Republicans on the committee publicly continued to back him.

Nunes, who was a member of Trump’s transition team after the November 8 election, told reporters on Tuesday that the House panel’s investigation was moving forward. “There was no sneaking around”, Nunes told Bill O’Reilly.

“Oh, that is brilliant detective work”, the host said. “It’s backdoor surveillance where it’s not just incidental, it’s systematic”, the White House official said.

One Republican lawmaker, representative Walter Jones of North Carolina, went so far as to join Democrats in demanding a special committee to investigate the Russian Federation probe, telling Fox News on Tuesday that Nunes was now “tainted”.

What triggered Democratic calls for Committee Chairman Nunes to step down – House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said he had “tarnished” the committee – was Mr. Nunes’ partial defense of President Trump’s controversial claim that he or his campaign had been “wiretapped”.

Top Democrats say the House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes can not be trusted with the investigation of Russian interference in the e…