Rep. Devin Nunes has suggested in recent days that the leaks came from career government intelligence employees who are either loyal to former President Barack Obama or opposed to Trump. | AP Photo Nunes asks FBI to investigate Trump leaks The House intelligence chairman has said the president is being targeted by the intelligence community.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes on Friday sent a letter to the Federal Bureau of Investigation asking it to investigate the leaks of classified information that have produced a series of damaging media reports on President Donald Trump’s administration, according to three sources familiar with the letter.

Nunes has suggested in recent days that the leaks came from career government intelligence employees who are either loyal to former President Barack Obama or opposed to Trump. And Nunes’ letter gives Trump a key Capitol Hill bulkhead in his war on leaks.


According to the sources familiar with Nunes’ letter, it asks FBI Director James Comey to investigate and report back to the intelligence committee on the circumstances behind the leaking of details from Trump’s phone calls with foreign leaders, as well as from communications between his former National Security Adviser Mike Flynn and the Russian Ambassador to the U.S.

Nunes’s letter also asks Comey to look into leaks related to the Central Intelligence Agency’s rejection of an elite-level security clearance for one of Flynn’s closest deputies on the National Security Council, senior director for Africa Robin Townley.

It’s unclear if Nunes’s letter asks the FBI to investigate other leaks as well, and the California congressman’s office did not comment. Neither did Townley, the FBI or the CIA.

But someone who has discussed the matter with Nunes says the congressman, who served on Trump’s transition team, “believes that Trump is being targeted by the intelligence community. It’s an abuse of authority.”

Nunes in a Wednesday interview on Fox News called the leaks “totally unacceptable.” And, he added, “I think most of this is probably from people who were in the old administration, but there still could be some people that have burrowed in and are providing classified information to the media.”

Trump also has talked to the Justice Department about an investigation into the leaks, tweeting on Thursday morning that “leaking, and even illegal classified leaking, has been a big problem in Washington for years.” Picking up the theme during a rambling press conference later that day, Trump blamed the intelligence community for leaking damaging information about his administration.

The leaks have taken a toll on Trump’s administration. In early February, it was reported that Trump had abruptly ended a phone call with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull after a heated exchange over an Obama-era agreement to accept 1,250 refugees from an Australian detention center.

The incident sparked an outcry from some fellow Republicans and drove fears that a diplomatic rift may emerge between the long-standing allies.

That same day, the leaked transcript of Trump’s phone call with Mexican President Enrique Nieto revealed Trump had complained about Mexico’s “handling” of “tough hombres.”

Then earlier this week, Flynn was forced to resign after the Washington Post, citing nine top current and former officials at multiple agencies, reported that Flynn — despite his assertions to the contrary — had discussed U.S. sanctions against Russia during December communications with the country’s ambassador to the U.S., Sergey Kislyak.

And the CIA’s rejection of Townley’s request for a so-called “Sensitive Compartmented Information” clearance, which was first reported by POLITICO, forced Townley, a former Marine intelligence officer who had long maintained a top secret-level security clearance, off the NSC.

The move, which came despite pleas from top Trump White House officials to clear Townley, was seen by some Trump loyalists as a shot across the bow of the new president’s administration by the intelligence community. It’s unclear why Townley’s clearance was rejected.

But Flynn and his allies believed the move was motivated by Townley’s skepticism for the intelligence community’s techniques — sentiments shared by Flynn and by Trump.

During his campaign and transition period, Trump repeatedly lashed out at the intelligence community, arguing that its investigation into Russia’s alleged digital meddling during election — which concluded the Kremlin was trying to help Trump win — was a “political witch hunt.”

That tense relationship has spilled over into Trump’s first month in office. Earlier this week, Trump likened the intelligence community to Russia as he has blamed it for doling out the information that felled Flynn.

But with Nunes’ request for an FBI probe into the leaks, the president is gaining Capitol Hill allies in his push to root out the source of the disclosures.

Earlier this week, House Oversight Chairman Jason Chaffetz asked the Justice Department to launch its own examination of the leaks regarding Flynn. “We have serious concerns about the potential inadequate protection of classified information here," Chaffetz wrote in a letter to the agency’s inspector general.