Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee believe there was never any "credible evidence or intelligence" explaining why the FBI opened an investigation into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia in May 2016, Chairman Devin Nunes said Tuesday on 'Fox & Friends.'



"Let’s talk about how did this get started? You had Fusion GPS that was hired by the Democratic Party and the Clinton campaign to draw up a dossier on the president — or as the president was running for president," Nunes said. What happened with that is that in [Glen Simpson’s] testimony he mentioned that there was a source within the campaign."



"Glenn Simpson said that in what was closed testimony. Then it became public. Now he’s confirmed that he was telling Congress the truth, which is probably a good idea,” Nunes continued. “We believe he was telling the truth. And what we’re trying to do is get the documents to figure out — did they actually have, what methods were used to open this counterintelligence investigation?”











About Glenn Simpson, he said: "We don't normally believe he is telling the truth, but this time... It makes it look like it happened."



"I think what it really means, I think it will look badly on the Department of Justice and the FBI on how they conducted this investigation," Nunes speculated. "We are trying to put clarity and sunlight for the American people so they know everything that happened on how this investigation began... I think if the campaign was somehow set up, I think that would be a problem, right? If there were somehow meetings that occurred and all of this was a setup. Because we have yet to see any credible evidence or intelligence that led to the opening of this investigation."



"First of all, I believe they never should have opened a counterintelligence investigation into a political party," said Nunes. "Counterintelligence investigations are very rarely done, but they happen, and when they do happen, you have to be very careful because you're using the tools of our intelligence services and relationships with other countries in order to spy on a political campaign. That's probably not a good idea."



"Nobody is asking for sources, right?" he said about the investigation. "Nobody is asking for sources. Nobody is asking for methods. Let's lay all the cards out on the table. Here is what happened and how this counterintelligence investigation was opened."



"If they never had any evidence of colluding with Russians, you have to ask yourself why did they open this investigation?"



"Let’s talk about how did this get started? You had Fusion GPS that was hired by the Democratic Party and the Clinton campaign to draw up a dossier on the president — or as the president was running for president,” Nunes said Tuesday on “Fox & Friends.” “What happened with that is that in [Glen Simpson’s] testimony he mentioned that there was a source within the campaign.”



"Glenn Simpson said that in what was closed testimony. Then it became public. Now he’s confirmed that he was telling Congress the truth, which is probably a good idea,” Nunes continued. “We believe he was telling the truth. And what we’re trying to do is get the documents to figure out — did they actually have, what methods were used to open this counterintelligence investigation?"



"I think what it really means, I think it will look badly on the Department of Justice and the FBI on how they conducted this investigation," Nunes concluded.