WASHINGTON — Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., chairman of a House Intelligence Committee investigating Russian interference in the presidential election, may have dealt his own inquiry a fatal blow on Wednesday.
Armed with intelligence that some Republicans said bolstered President Donald Trump's widely disputed claim of being wiretapped by the Obama administration, Nunes bypassed Democrats and went directly to the White House. The new information, Nunes said, showed that U.S. intelligence agencies monitoring foreign officials may have "incidentally" picked up communications of Trump transition team members.
Nunes apologized Thursday to the panel for his handling of revelations, but the move angered Democrats who said that his attempt to buttress Trump's accusation raised questions about his ability to conduct an impartial bipartisan investigation.
The committee's top Democrat, Rep. Adam Schiff of California, issued a challenge, saying that Nunes had to decide whether he was chairman of an independent investigation or "is going to act as a surrogate of the White House, because he cannot do both."
Nunes's apology was "generic," committee member Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., said on CNN, adding that it was "not clear" which part of his actions for which he was sorry.
On Thursday, Nunes said it was a "judgment call" to first brief Trump.
White House spokesman Sean Spicer defended Nunes' decision, claiming the congressman was "vindicating" the president, even though Nunes specifically stated the new information he received did not support the president's wiretap allegations.
With the House investigation in question, Democrats will be forced to rely on an inquiry being led by the Senate Intelligence Committee, which is also controlled by Republicans. Ideally, Democrats want an independent commission created to investigate the matter. The White House vehemently opposes that idea and Republican lawmakers have dismissed it as unnecessary.
Here is where things stand, and how they may play out.
A House Inquiry Built on Trust
The House investigation has hinged on the mutual trust of its senior members, Nunes and Schiff.
Despite pursuing distinctly different goals — Schiff has been focused on Russian interference in the election while Nunes has railed against leaks of classified information — they united around a shared interest in conducting a credible, bipartisan investigation.
But expectations for their investigation plummeted Wednesday as Schiff questioned the independence of Nunes, a former member of Trump's transition team.
"It was my hope that our investigation could be conducted properly," Schiff said. "It's still my hope that this investigation should be conducted properly, but unfortunately the actions of the chair throw that very much in doubt."
The committee's Democrats have moved carefully so far, concerned that pushing too hard, too soon, to subpoena witnesses or documents like Trump's tax returns would rile Republicans. They even praised Nunes' openness to their requests, an indication that they had no incentive to scuttle their chances of advancing a serious investigation by scoring political points.
By late Wednesday, that tone had shifted.
"I guess this is going to help Donald Trump and his people sleep a little better tonight," Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, a Democrat on the committee, told CNN.
Attention Shifts to Senate Democrats
With confidence in the House investigation undermined, there is increased pressure on the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia.
Since January, Warner has tried to work with the committee's chairman, Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, to investigate the links between the Trump campaign and Russia. Warner needs Burr's support because the Democrats do not have power on their own to subpoena documents or witnesses.
Last month, that relationship appeared to deteriorate after it was reported that both Burr and Nunes had helped the administration push back on news stories about links between Trump's associates and Russia.
The Democratic leader, Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, publicly scolded Burr, saying that he was "very disappointed." The Republican's behavior, Schumer said, "certainly gives the appearance, if not the reality, of a lack of impartiality."
That rebuke aside, there is not much the Democrats can do to punish Burr. The committee's first public hearing is scheduled for next week.
In coming weeks, the Senate committee would need to issue subpoenas to the CIA and the FBI for documents related to the inquiry. If Burr declines to issue them, Democrats would likely portray that as a Republican refusal to conduct an independent investigation, and accelerate demands for an outside commission.
Calls for an Independent Commission
Since shortly after the election, Democrats have pushed for the creation of an independent inquiry similar to the Warren Commission, which investigated the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, or the commission formed after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., has introduced legislation to form the commission.
Under Swalwell's proposal, Congress would appoint 12 members to investigate whether there was interference in the election, who was behind it and how it could be prevented in the future. The members of the commission would be pulled from a pool of former senior national security, law enforcement and election officials who are respected by both parties.
Among the type of officials who could be appointed to such a panel are Robert M. Gates, the former secretary of defense under President Barack Obama and President George W. Bush; Colin Powell, the former secretary of state and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and Robert S. Mueller, the FBI director under Bush and Obama. The commission would have a full-time investigative staff and the power to review classified information, subpoena witnesses and issue a public report.
Democrats had toyed with the idea of asking for the creation of a select committee that would be made up just of members of Congress — similar to the committee that investigated the 2012 attacks on a diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya.
The Benghazi probe became highly politicized, and another select committee to investigate the election would likely turn just as partisan.
Republicans Dismiss Need For a Commission
For an independent commission to be created, legislation must be approved by both houses of Congress and signed by the president.
Congress can override a presidential veto. But, so far, Republicans who control the House and Senate have said they see no reason for such a body to be created when an investigation can be handled by the intelligence committees. Democrats have privately said that to pressure Republicans into creating such a commission likely would take some type of significant disclosure — like publicly released evidence of direct collusion between the Russians and the Trump campaign.
Swalwell said that he has met with Lee Hamilton — the vice chairman of the 9/11 Commission and a former Republican congressman from Indiana — about how to win Republican support for an independent body to investigate the election.
Hamilton told Swalwell to drop the word "Russia" from the name of the commission to show Republicans that there would be no predetermined beliefs about what had occurred. Swalwell followed that advice, proposing that the inquiry be named the "National Commission on Foreign Interference in the 2016 Election."
"He told me to do everything we could in how we wrote the bill to make Republicans comfortable as they can be to come on board," Swalwell said.
Every House Democrat is a co-sponsor of the measure. Just one House Republican has joined up.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.