Ethics Committee clears Rep. Devin Nunes
The House Ethics Committee on Thursday cleared Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, of allegations that he disclosed classified information earlier this year.
Nunes was forced to step aside from the helm of the committee’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, including alleged collusion with President Donald Trump’s allies, in the wake of his March statement that members of the Trump transition team had their communications legally monitored by the U.S. intelligence community.
The Ethics Committee, however, announced Thursday that it would close its investigation following consultation with experts in the classification process, a step that resulted in the conclusion that any information Nunes shared was not classified.
Nunesdenied coordinating his disclosure of the information with the Trump White House, but he ultimately bowed to political pressure over the flap andceded control of the intelligence panel’s Russia inquiry to Reps. Mike Conaway (R-Texas), Tom Rooney (R-Fla.) and Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.).
In a statement Thursday, Nunes thanked the panel “for completely clearing me today of the cloud that was created by this investigation, and for determining that I committed no violation of anything — no violation of House Rules, law, regulations, or any other standards of conduct.”
“While I appreciate the Ethics Committee’s work, I need to reiterate that the allegations against me were obviously frivolous and were rooted in politically motivated complaints filed against me by left-wing activist groups,” he said.
He also accused Democrats on the panel making statements “that appeared to prejudge this matter before they began investigating the complaint,” and called on the committee to release the transcripts related to his case as “an act of transparency and accountability to bolster confidence that partisanship does not infect the Ethics Committee’s investigations.”