Devin Nunes Could Be Facing an Ethics Probe for Spilling Secrets

[SirLinksALot]

SOURCE: DAILY BEAST

URL: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/03/28/devin-nunes-could-be-facing-an-ethics-probe-for-spilling-secrets.html

by Tim Mak


House rules compel Congress to ‘investigate any unauthorized disclosure of intelligence.’ That’s what the intel chair seems to have done when he talked about Team Trump and foreign surveillance.

The controversy surrounding House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes may just be getting started. Nunes could soon be staring down the barrel of a House Ethics Committee investigation, lawyers familiar with the House’s rules tell The Daily Beast.

A few Republicans have already joined Democrats in calling for Nunes to either recuse himself from his committee’s probe into Russian influence—or to step down as chairman.

To add to this pressure, it appears that the chairman may have opened himself up to an ethics investigation by apparently disclosing the existence of a foreign surveillance warrant during a press conference last Tuesday.

Nunes’s problem lies in the arcane rules of the House of Representatives. Buried in the rules regarding the House Intelligence Committee is a section that triggers a mandatory investigation into an allegation of spilling classified information.

“The Committee on Ethics shall investigate any unauthorized disclosure of intelligence or intelligence-related information,” reads the rule. The key to this rule is the phrase, “shall investigate”—a command, rather than a mere suggestion.

“The plain wording of the rule is that the ethics committee is required to conduct such an investigation,” said Brett Kappel, an attorney that specializes in political law.

The trigger could be as simple as a complaint from a single member of the House of Representatives.

“If another member of Congress were to raise a written complaint about the actions of chairman Nunes, specifically his decision to disclose to the public information that is classified… the ethics committee would be required to conduct an inquiry,” explained Bradley Moss, a lawyer that specializes classification issues.

(Excerpt) Read more at the above link....

[skeeter]

More pathetic mewling from the left.

[SirLinksALot]

More pathetic mewling from the left.

NOTE: Nunes has clearance and Trump has clearance.

IMHO, Nunes didn’t disclose any intelligence.

He disclosed that a whistleblower showed him intelligence info indicating federal laws may have been broken with respect to intelligence on Trump and his team.

Nunes did the proper thing in bringing it to the attention of the President, who is charged with enforcing violations of federal law.