US House: Trump’s team monitored by US intelligence

Revelations of “incidental” surveillance of Trump’s transition team were made as a Congressional probe is conducted into Obama’s alleged wiretapping of Trump. 

The US intelligence community apparently had their eyes on members of President Trump’s transition team, according to the US House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes.

“I recently confirmed that on numerous occasions, the intelligence community collected information on US individuals involved in the Trump transition,” Nunes told reporters on Wednesday.

“Details about US persons involved in the incoming administration with little or no apparent foreign intelligence value were widely disseminated in intelligence community reports,” he added.

The new findings come after the launch of a Congressional probe into President Donald Trump’s claim that his predecessor Obama wiretapped him during the 2016 presidential campaign.

The chairman, a Republican congressman from California, who referred to the surveillance activity as “incidental” but “inappropriate,” also said that “none of this surveillance was related to Russia or the investigation of Russian activities or of the Trump team.”

The ranking member of the Intelligence Committee, Adam Schiff, a Democratic Congressman from California, protested Nunes’ decision to go to the press and the White House before discussing the findings with the rest of the committee.

“I have expressed my grave concerns with the chairman that a credible investigation cannot be conducted this way,” Schiff stated. “Because the committee has still not been provided the intercepts in the possession of the Chairman, it is impossible to evaluate the Chairman’s claims.”

“It certainly does not suggest in any way that the president was wiretapped by his predecessor,” he added.

By: Jonathan Benedek, World Israel News

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