Spying claim by Intel chair renews fight over Russia probe

The disclosure came two days after FBI Director James Comey publicly confirmed the bureau's own investigation into the Trump campaign's connections with Russia and rejected Trump's explosive claims that President Barack Obama wiretapped his New York skyscraper during the election. Comey's comments came during the intelligence committee's first public hearing on Russia's election interference, an investigation being overseen by Nunes.

Nunes briefed reporters on the new information without consulting with Schiff, and that did not sit well with the top Democrat on the committee.

Schiff declared he now has "profound doubt" about the integrity and independence of the committee's probe. He said that "a credible investigation cannot be conducted this way."Later, in an interview with MSNBC, Schiff said evidence "that is not circumstantial and is very much worthy of an investigation" exists of Trump associates colluding with Russia as it interfered in last year's election. He did not outline that evidence.

Nunes said he believed the Trump team's communications were caught "incidentally." But he suggested the contents may have been inappropriately disseminated in intelligence reports. He left open the possibility the communications were spread for political reasons. Nunes would not disclose how he received the new information.

It was unclear whether Trump's own communications were monitored. Nunes initially said "yes" when asked if Trump was among those swept up in the intelligence monitoring, but then said it was only "possible."It's common for Americans to get caught up in US surveillance of foreigners, such as foreign diplomats in the US talking to an American. Typically, the American's name would not be revealed in a report about the intercepted communications. However, if there is a foreign intelligence value to revealing the American's name, it is "unmasked" and shared with other intelligence analysts who are working on related foreign intelligence surveillance.

Schiff disputed Nunes' suggestions that there was improper "unmasking." He said that after speaking with Nunes, it appeared that the names of Americans were still guarded in the intercepts though their identities could be gleaned from the materials.

Obama administration officials disputed the suggestion that the outgoing administration was improperly monitoring its successors. Ned Price, who served as spokesman for Obama's National Security Council, said Nunes' assertions "were nothing more than an attempt to offer a lifeline to a White House caught in its own netting following President Trump's baseless tweets."Matthew Waxman, a national security law professor at Columbia University, said Nunes' actions "in this case are contributing to, rather than alleviating concerns, about politicization of intelligence."Nunes said the information on the Trump team was collected in November, December and January, the period after the election when Trump was holding calls with foreign leaders, interviewing potential Cabinet secretaries and beginning to sketch out administration policy. He said the monitored material was "widely disseminated" in intelligence reports.

Asked whether he believed the transition team had been spied on, Nunes said: "It all depends on one's definition of spying."Nunes did not identify any of the Trump associates he said were "unmasked," but they are believed to include Michael Flynn, who was fired as White House national security adviser after misleading Vice President Mike Pence and other top officials about his contacts with Russia's ambassador to the United States.

AP