The chair of the House's intelligence committee wants to know why Michael Flynn's calls with the Russian ambassador were recorded in the first place and has demanded that the Federal Bureau of Investigation provide him with a response.

'I expect for the FBI to tell me what is going on, and they better have a good answer,' Rep. Devin Nunes told the Washington Post. 'The big problem I see here is that you have an American citizen who had his phone calls recorded.'

Flynn's conversations with Sergey Kislyak were reportedly intercepted by the federal agency in routine surveillance on Russian nationals. It is not known whether the FBI was otherwise conducting illegal, surveillance on the American.

Leakers within the agency shared details about the spying with reporters. The information contributed to Flynn's downfall.

The chair of the House's intelligence committee, Devin Nunes, wants to know why Michael Flynn's calls with the Russian ambassador were recorded in the first place and has demanded that the Federal Bureau of Investigation provide him with a response

Tapes of the Russia calls led agents to believe he many have been honest about the comments he made with regards to sanctions, which led to an interview with Flynn.

Acting DOJ head Sally Yates decided after the FBI's talk with him that she needed to loop in the White House. Trump subsequently fired Flynn.

Florida Congressman Ron DeSantis seconded Nunes' concerns about possible FBI overreach in a Wednesday morning appearance on MSNBC.

'If you're using this authority to put opposition research out on a citizens,' the Republican said, that is not the way this power is meant to be used.

DeSantis cautioned, 'If the American people see this being used in ways' that are abusive, 'you will probably see some of the authority curtailed.'

He said that would ultimately make the country 'less safe.'

Speaking to national security columnist Eli Lake of Bloomberg View this week Nunes suggested that Flynn may be just be the beginning of Trump's inner circle fallen by enemies within the U.S. government.

'First it's Flynn, next it will be Kellyanne Conway, then it will be Steve Bannon, then it will be Reince Priebus,' Nunes said.

At the time of the call in question, Flynn was the incoming National Security Advisor.

'It's very rare that reporters are ever told about government-monitored communications of U.S. citizens, let alone senior U.S. officials,' Lake wrote.

President Donald Trump, shown speaking with Russian President Vladimir Putin last month, attacked his own intelligence agencies on Wednesday, blaming malicious leakers for the scandal that toppled his national security advisor

Later he added, 'Normally intercepts of U.S. officials and citizens are some of the most tightly held government secrets.'

Not in this case, however, which caused Nunes to suggest that something really didn't smell right.

'There does appear to be a well orchestrated effort to attack Flynn and others in the administration,' Nunes told the Bloomberg View columnist.

'From the leaking of phone calls between the president and foreign leaders to what appears to be high-level FISA Court information, to the leaking of American citizens being denied security clearances, it looks like a pattern,' Nunes said.

President Donald Trump chimed in today on Twitter, saying malicious actors inside the U.S. Intelligence Community touched off the Flynn scandal.

'The real scandal here is that classified information is illegally given out by "intelligence" like candy. Very un-American!' he tweeted.

The president faces accusations that he was needlessly sympathetic to Moscow, along with renewed suspicions that his foreign policy was informed by threats of blackmail from Vladimir Putin's government.

'The real scandal here is that classified information is illegally given out by "intelligence" like candy. Very un-American!' Trump tweeted

He claimed Wednesday morning on Twitter that the firestorm surrounding Flynn's ouster is a media conspiracy fueled by vengeful partisans inside U.S. intelligence agencies, and that the Obama administration – not his own – was 'soft on Russia.'

'Information is being illegally given to the failing @nytimes & @washingtonpost by the intelligence community (NSA and FBI?),' Trump tweeted. 'Just like Russia.'

He claimed that '[t]his Russian connection non-sense [sic] is merely an attempt to cover-up the many mistakes made in Hillary Clinton's losing campaign.'

And in a jab at his predecessor, Trump wrote: 'Crimea was TAKEN by Russia during the Obama Administration. Was Obama too soft on Russia?'

The president hat-tipped reporter Eli Lake, who told a Fox News Channel audience about banana republic'-type leaks from inside the Intelligence Community

Former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn resigned Monday night following a steady media drumbeat that Trump says was fueled by selective leaks from inside the FBI and NSA

Trump singled Lake for praise.

'Thank you to Eli Lake of The Bloomberg View - "The NSA & FBI...should not interfere in our politics...and is" Very serious situation for USA,' he tweeted.

Lake appeared Tuesday night on the Fox News 'Hannity' show. 'Fox & Friends' replayed a clip on Wednesday morning that included the quotes in Trump's tweet.

He argued on the show, as he did in his column, that Trump is the victim of malicious leaks from inside the U.S. Intelligence Community, and suggested that partisan Obama administration holdovers are to blame.

The president praised one Bloomberg reporter and suggested that the Obama administration, not his own, was 'too soft on Russia'

'This is the kind of thing that happens in banana republics, when the national police will go after a political leader that they don't like, and using these extraordinary powers,' Lake said.

'We trust the NSA and the FBI to use these powers to catch criminals and terrorists, but that should not interfere in our politics. And that stuff is interfering right now in our politics.'

Trump may not have read Lake's column that led Fox News to book him on the 'Hannity' program.

Lake wrote that he was skeptical of the White House's official explanation for Flynn's resignation – that he had lied to Vice President Mike Pence about conversations he had in December with Russia's ambassador to the U.S.

'[F]or a White House that has such a casual and opportunistic relationship with the truth, it's strange that Flynn's "lie" to Pence would get him fired. It doesn't add up,' he wrote.