Nunes sends eight criminal cases to the DOJ regarding leaks and a plot during an investigation into Russia

Devin Nunes, a member of the Intelligence Committee of the House of Representatives of Intelligence, declared exclusively at "Sunday morning to term" that he was preparing to send eight criminal cases to the Justice Department this week regarding allegations of conduct. reprehensible on the part of "wattabees of Watergate" during the Trump-Russia investigation, whose leaks of "highly classified material" and plotting to lie in Congress and the court of the law on the surveillance of foreign intelligence (FISA).

The decisive step comes as Republicans have called for the publication of key documents to reveal the origins of the now discredited story that the Trump campaign was brought into collusion with the Russian government. President Trump recently announced to Fox News that he would publish the entire FISA applications used to monitor one of his key collaborators, as well as other related documents.

Nunes said he had been working on removals for over two years and that he wanted to wait for confirmation from Attorney General Bill Barr.

"We are ready this week to inform the Attorney General that we are ready to send these referrals," said Nunes. "First of all, all of this is classified or sensitive." Five of them are what I would call direct referrals – so, just referrals that name someone and name the crimes. specific, "Nunes told Maria Bartiromo. "These crimes lie in Congress, mislead Congress, reveal confidential information, five of them are of this type."

FOX NEWS EXCLUSIVE: FBI INTERNAL TEXTS REVEAL FBI AND DOJ SPLIT ON "BIAS" IN KEY SOURCE USED FOR TRUMP TEAM SURVEILLANCE

It was not clear immediately to whom Nunes would specifically refer. Democrats and Republicans have said Trump's former repairman, Michael Cohen, is expected to face fresh accusations of lying to Congress as a result of his recent explosive testimony, which seemed to contradict his earlier statements on various questions, especially if he had looked for a job. in the White House Trump.

And House Freedom caucus chair Mark Meadows, CR-NC, unleashed a firestorm this past August after saying on Twitter that his office had "hard evidence" suggesting that the FBI had leaked information to the press and used the resulting articles to obtain monitoring mandates. The claim stems in part from Friday's testimony by FBI intelligence analyst Jonathan Moffa in camera before the House's judicial and oversight committees.

Nunes added, "There are three [referrals] that I think are more complicated. … Thus, the first concerns the abuse of FISA and other issues. We believe that it was a plot to lie to the court of FISA, to mislead the FISA court by many people who all need to be studied and examined, and we think that [relevant] status is the conspiracy status. The second conspiracy deals with the manipulation of information that could also envelop many Americans. "

THE FBI BLAMES & # 39; GLITCH & # 39; LARGE SOFTWARE 'TO MISS STRZOK, PAGE TEXT, — STRZOK'S MUELLER PHONE IS TOTALLY DELETED

Nunes claimed that "we had a lot of problems with the way the information was used" during the Trump-Russia investigation.

Just nine days before the FBI asked for a FISA warrant to monitor Carter Page, who was then a Trump campaign assistant, the bureau's officials were fighting a top justice official who had "maintained his concerns" about the "possible bias" of an essential source to the application, according to the internal text messages obtained by Fox News in March.

Redacted versions of previously published FISA documents revealed that the FBI relied heavily on documents produced by Christopher Steele, a former British anti-Trump spy working for a Hillary Clinton-funded firm and the Democratic National Committee (DNC). ), to watch Trump help Carter Page. The FISA application did not make it clear that the company was funded by the Clinton team and DNC.

The leak of the file and the related surveillance of the FBI triggered a media frenzy over a so-called Russia-Trump collusion that ended with a groan last month, when it was revealed that the investigation Special adviser Robert Mueller had concluded that there was no evidence of such a conspiracy, despite several offers submitted by Russians. to help the Trump campaign. Page has never been accused of wrongdoing and he is currently suing the DNC for defamation.

The DOJ guidelines prevent the FBI from forgetting exculpatory evidence, or distorting sources, in FISA applications. The reports said – and the Republicans have accused – that the FBI had improperly withheld evidence that would have suggested that their surveillance targets during the Trump investigation were actually innocent.

THE FBI SECURED A FISA TRIBUNAL AT FOUR OCCASSIONS THAT THE ARTICLE YAHOO NEWS WAS INDEPENDENT OF TRUMP'S SUPPORT FROM THE SPY

"The third is what I would call a global benchmark for leakage," Nunes said. "So, there are about a dozen leaks of highly sensitive confidential information that have been given to a few reporters over the past two years and more, so you know we do not know if there are had actually leaked investigations that was open, but we think we have a pretty good information and a pretty good idea of ​​who might be behind these leaks. "

Nunes specifically named a series of known "horrible" leaks, including the leak of conversations between Trump and Australian and Mexican leaders, and the transcripts of appeals by former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.

Nunes noted that the eight criminal referral cases could involve more than eight people and that a referral for conspiracy could involve "a dozen, two dozen people." He added that other referrals could arrive.

"I think it's impossible to ignore," Nunes said. "If Mueller's team has criticized people for lying to the FBI, there are fairly simple moments when people have lied to Congress for the sole purpose of impeding our investigation."

Reports that the FBI was covertly monitoring Flynn's communications with the Russians were published in the Washington Post in January and forwarded to anonymous "American officials." Flynn met with FBI officials shortly after the publication of this article and eventually pleaded guilty to lying to investigators to find out if he had spoken to the Russian ambassador about 39, an imminent United States resolution on Israel, and sanctions by the Obama administration against Russia.

At the same time, Donald Trump Jr. told Fox News in January that "there is 99.9% chance [House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff is] the guy "who leaked the private testimony he gave in 2017 before the House's intelligence committee to discuss the meeting of the Trump Tower with a Russian who offered dirt to Hillary Clinton.

"I came out of my testimony at night and CNN publishes at noon quotes on my testimony, you know, in the House's intelligence committee," said Trump Jr. "I mean, that must mean something about what's going on and who they are. Since [Schiff has] never met a camera he did not like, I'd bet it's him. "

Federal prosecutors have instructed a grand jury to investigate former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe following the IG's report alleging that he had approved a disclosure in the media to defend his personal interests. McCabe was later fired for lying to investigators and former FBI director James Comey about the leaks.

Last year, Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, two FBI supporters, announced that government employees "were leaking mad" in the run-up to the collusion investigation in Russia.

Strzok and Page traded many anti-Trump text messages, while Strzok was a high-level investigator looking at the Clinton and Trump campaigns. The Inspector General (IG) of the DOJ found that the texts violated the policy and undermined the appearance of impartiality of the office.

CLICK TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

"I want to believe the path you've laid out to be seen in Andy's office – that he has no way to get elected – but I'm afraid we can not take the risk. It's like an insurance policy in the unlikely event that you die before turning 40, "wrote Strzok Page before polling day. Strzok also assured Page that Trump would not become president because "we are going to stop him".

"The American people have only seen declassified parts so far," Nunes said. "There is even more information.It was their insurance policy.Many people think that the insurance policy was just a comprehensive survey of the Trump campaign.C & # 39; is actually much more conspirator than that, there was exculpatory information. "