Radio Sputnik discussed the issue with Dr. Jeanne Zaino, American political analyst and professor of political science at Iona College.
Talking about the source of this information the analyst said that it’s very unclear where this information came from.
“Normally, if there was information from the intelligence community released to a congressional committee it would go both to the chair and to the ranking member. In this case however, he came out and the other members of the committee did not have the information which leads us to believe that it came from another source which is likely a whistleblower. In that case we don’t know who the whistleblower was and under what circumstances they got this information,” Zaino said.
“People have been unmasked and that’s a huge concern, moreover, that information has been spread apparently to the congressional leader and also to the White House. This starts to look like a political show rather than a serious exchange of information between a leader of the congressional committee and the president who is also caught up in the investigation,” the analyst said.
She further spoke about whether this was a violation of the espionage act or not and how the future investigation may include setting up a new committee because many people, even Senator McCain, have expressed concern regarding the extent to which such a committee could be trusted.
“It is a time to review FISA because if this was reviewed innocently and if it was done according to the regulation it’s time to review because not only how this information was captured but why people were unmasked and also why this information is coming to lay in this very political environment,” Zaino said.
Looking at the reaction of the Democrats it is seen that they have a political motivation for calling out representative Nunes, but he is well open to those kinds of charges.
Speaking at a press conference Wednesday, Nunes said that the officials' handling of communications in the waning days of the Obama administration considered him.
According to him, the data was gathered during November, December and January.
Nunes said that surveillance reports included the names of some individuals on Trump's team, which is "perhaps legal." He quickly followed up by saying, "but I don't know if it's right."
"I think the President is concerned and he should be," Nunes added. The committee still needs more time to investigate, but some of the espionage activity "seems to be inappropriate."
The news came two days after FBI Director James Comey rejected Trump's claims that President Barack Obama wiretapped him before his inauguration. This week Comey also confirmed the bureau's investigation into the Trump campaign's connections with Russia.
However, the House Intelligence Committee chairman said he has not seen any information that has anything to do with Russia or the Russian investigation.
On March 4, Trump took to Twitter to accuse Obama of having his Trump Tower headquarters' "wire tapped" prior to the 2016 presidential election, describing this as the former administration's "new low.” The president went on to compare the alleged surveillance to McCarthyism and the Watergate scandal. The claims have been rejected by Obama's representatives.
