Rep. Devin Nunes, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, said the New York Times' bombshell report on a counterintelligence investigation into President Trump's ties to Russia only strengthens the argument that the FBI has no evidence of collusion against the Trump team.

"This is yet more evidence that FBI leaders actually had no real evidence against the Trump team," Nunes said in a statement obtained by the Washington Examiner's Byron York. "Instead, they were simply trying to undermine a president they didn't like and avenge Comey's firing. By relying on the Steele dossier — a fraudulent document funded by Democrats and based on Russia sources — FBI leaders were either complicit or too oblivious to notice they were being used in a disinformation operation by the Democratic Party and Russian operatives."

On Friday, the New York Times reported the FBI opened a counterintelligence investigation into Trump the day after he fired FBI Director James Comey in the spring of 2017. The counterintelligence inquiry was later wrapped into the FBI's broader Russia collusion investigation, which special counsel Robert Mueller was appointed to lead after Comey's ouster. That inquiry is still ongoing.

In a follow-up, the Washington Post reported the president took steps to try to protect his conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, including pressuring a translator to withhold information on discussions between the two leaders from administration officials.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders has called the Times report "absurd," and when he was asked about whether he has ever worked for the Russians during an interview with Fox News' Jeanine Pirro late Saturday, Trump said it was "t he most insulting thing I’ve ever been asked."

Similar to Nunes, Trump also argued on Twitter that the Times story showed "the corrupt former leaders of the FBI, almost all fired or forced to leave the agency for some very bad reasons, opened up an investigation on me, for no reason & with no proof, after I fired Lyin’ James Comey, a total sleaze!"

Nunes' brief comment on the Times report is his first major public statement he's made since abdicating the chairmanship of the House Intelligence Committee to Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who is a vocal critic of Trump. As chairman, Nunes led the committee's investigation into Russian meddling, which ultimately found no evidence of collusion. Schiff and his fellow Democrats complained that the inquiry ended prematurely. With a new majority in the lower chamber, Trump is in their crosshairs on a number of fronts, including the Russia question.

In his own statement reacting to the Times report, Schiff said, "The House Intelligence Committee has a responsibility to the American people to ensure that the President is working in our national interest and is not motivated by any other factor, and we are pressing forward with that work."

Although Schiff and his Democratic counterparts have been quick to raise the alarm, they have neglected to comment on whether they had been briefed by federal officials about the reported counterintelligence operation.