Report: Nunes says Democrats are focusing on Russia as an "excuse" for election loss
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Devin Nunes told hundreds of Republicans at a private fundraiser in California that Democrats in Congress are investigating Russian election meddling to justify Hillary Clinton's loss, according to the Los Angeles Times.
"The Democrats don't want an investigation on Russia," Nunes said at an April 7 dinner, according to a recording of the event sent to the Los Angeles Times. "They want an independent commission. Why do they want an independent commission? Because they want to continue the narrative that Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump are best friends, and that's the reason that he won, because Hillary Clinton would have never lost on her own; it had to be someone else's fault."
The day before making those comments, Nunes recused himself from his committee's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, as the House Ethics Committee announced it had decided to investigate allegations that Nunes possibly made unauthorized disclosures of classified information.
Nunes was under scrutiny for weeks after he reviewed documents on White House grounds, which he said indicated that it's possible that President Trump's personal communications were picked up by the intelligence community.
Nunes made those comments before Mr. Trump's May 9 firing of FBI Director James Comey -- a dismissal the White House initially blamed on Comey's mishandling of the Clinton email investigation. But later that week, Mr. Trump told NBC he thought of the "made-up" connections between Russia and his campaign when he fired Comey. And the day after firing Comey, Mr. Trump told Russian diplomats firing that "nut job" Comey relieved pressure on him.
Since then, it has also emerged that senior White House adviser Jared Kushner is a person of interest in the FBI's Russia probe. Kushner, Mr. Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, wanted to set up a secret communication channel with the Kremlin.
The Russia-related revelations of recent weeks have forced Republicans to take a more skeptical stance of the president's administration.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz, Republican chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has asked the Department of Justice inspector general to look into Comey's firing. Meanwhile, multiple Republican-led congressional committees have asked for Comey to testify, and asked for a memo Comey wrote describing Mr. Trump's alleged request to drop an investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn.