Democrats cry foul as House intelligence chairman issues ‘unmasking’ subpoenas

The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee issued subpoenas Wednesday for documents related to his allegations that Trump transition team members’ identities were improperly unveiled in intelligence reports, inspiring Democrats to accuse him of trying to distract from their accelerating probe into Trump associates’ alleged Kremlin ties.

According to a senior GOP House aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity, the subpoenas from committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) were issued on the same day as the panel’s Russia probe leaders announced that they had filed the committee’s first subpoenas for documents, records and testimony from Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, President Trump’s former national security adviser, Trump lawyer Michael Cohen and two of their businesses.

“I think they’re part of the White House desire to shift attention away from the Russia probe and on to the issue of unmasking,” the panel’s ranking member, Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.), said on MSNBC on Thursday, stressing that Nunes issued the agency subpoenas “unilaterally” and without consultation or buy-in from panel Democrats. “But Mr. Conaway and I are determined not to lose our focus on the Russian investigation, and so we plod on, keeping our eyes on what has to be done, and unwilling to let this other stuff distract us,” Schiff added, referring to Rep. Michael K. Conaway (R-Tex.), who is leading the Russia investigation after Nunes offered to recuse himself from it.

Schiff also suggested that in issuing the subpoenas, Nunes was in “violation” of a promise to recuse himself from the Russia probe. Republicans pushed back against that assertion, arguing that Nunes never fully recused himself from the Russia investigation. His subpoenas address an issue that “is much broader than the question of Russia’s attempts to interfere in the election,” the senior GOP House aide said.

Nunes’s subpoenas focus on the FBI, the CIA and the National Security Agency — the same three agencies he and Schiff contacted in March to ask for an accounting of which U.S. residents’ identities normally obfuscated in foreign surveillance reports had been disclosed, and why. They sent the letter after reports revealed that Flynn’s undisclosed contacts with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak were established after he appeared — and was then identified, or “unmasked” — during surveillance of Russian officials.

But Democrats and outside watchdog groups accused him of collaborating with the White House to use the issue of “unmasking” as a way to steer the committee’s focus away from its probe of alleged ties between the Trump team and Kremlin officials, eventually inspiring the House Ethics Committee to take up the issue. Under fire, Nunes announced in early April that he would hand over the leadership of the panel’s Russia probe to Conaway, with assistance from Reps. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) and Thomas J. Rooney (R-Fla.) — though he did not recuse himself from the chairmanship.

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