Jack Langer

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes received vital information about incidental collection related to President-elect Donald Trump and his associates.

To protect the privacy and constitutional rights of U.S. citizens, the intelligence community has very strict procedures on how information gained through incidental collection of those citizens can be handled and disseminated.

Because of his concern that these procedures may have been violated, and that Americans’ identities may have been impermissibly identified and their information improperly disseminated for political purposes, Chairman Nunes directly informed key leaders about this information, including directors of U.S. intelligence agencies and the speaker of the House. He also viewed it as his duty to inform President Trump, since this sort of information rightly should be furnished to the president.

As Chairman Nunes repeatedly said in his public comments on this issue, the information he received did not pertain to a criminal investigation or to Russia, which is the subject of the Intelligence Committee’s investigation. Therefore, sharing this information did not affect the credibility of our investigation, which is ongoing.

The committee has repeatedly stated it is running a full, fair and bipartisan investigation into the measures taken by Russia during the 2016 election campaign, and it will follow the evidence wherever it leads.

Take Devin Nunes off Russian case: Our view

We have held classified briefings as well as an open hearing, and we are closely examining reams of documents related to our investigation. We intend to pursue this matter until we have a clear picture of exactly what happened with regard to Russian measures against the U.S. election, and we aim to make our findings as public as possible while still protecting classified information.

Jack Langer is communications director for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.