Spicer: ‘Doesn’t pass the smell test’ that WH gave info to intel chairman
The White House on Thursday said the notion that it leaked information on surveillance involving Trump transition officials to House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) “doesn’t pass the smell test.”
“I don’t know why he would come in to brief the president on something that we gave him,” White House press secretary Sean Spicer said during the daily briefing.
“It doesn’t really seem to make a ton of sense. So I’m not aware of it, but it doesn’t really pass the smell test.”
{mosads}The comments came after Nunes expressed regret for informing President Trump on Wednesday that the U.S. intelligence community had incidentally collected material on members of his campaign and transition teams before he told members of his own panel, a decision that Democrats slammed while expressing suspicions about his motives.
Nunes on Thursday would not disclose the identity of his source when asked if it was the White House.
Spicer said the GOP lawmaker “didn’t give us a heads up” before announcing his plan to brief Trump on his findings.
After meeting with Nunes on Wednesday, Trump said he felt “somewhat” vindicated about his unfounded claim that former President Obama wiretapped Trump Tower during the 2016 election.
The chairman earlier in the day said the U.S. intelligence community collected the information and then distributed it widely in intelligence reports.
But he said the information was not related to the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
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