Campaign for Accountability Files Second Ethics Complaint Against House Intel Chair Nunes for Leaking Confidential Information
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 1, 2018
Contact: Daniel Stevens, dstevens@campaignforaccountability.org, 202.780.5750
WASHINGTON – Today, Campaign for Accountability (“CfA”), a nonpartisan, nonprofit watchdog group focused on public accountability, renewed its request to the Office of Congressional Ethics (“OCE”) to investigate whether Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) and/or staff of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (“HPSCI”), acting at his direction violated House ethics rules by leaking confidential information, following a report in the New York Times that the committee leaked text messages between Senator Mark Warner and a Washington lawyer.
CfA Executive Director Daniel E. Stevens stated, “Time and time again, Rep. Nunes and his staff leak confidential information without consequence. What will it take for the House to step in and stop this clear abuse of authority?”
Today, the New York Times reported that a House staff member working for Rep. Nunes asked the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) for copies of text messages regarding Senator Mark Warner’s attempts to arrange a meeting with Christopher Steele, which had been submitted to the SSCI by Adam Waldman, a lawyer who knows Mr. Steele. A few days later, the text messages were leaked via a secure messaging application to Fox News, which published them on February 8, 2018.
In January, CfA filed a complaint with the OCE regarding HPSCI leaks of confidential information it had received from partners in Fusion, a research firm that had commissioned the so-called “Steele Dossier.”
Read CfA’s previous complaint here.
HPSCI rules specifically prohibit members of the committee and committee staff from discussing, disclosing, or causing to be discussed or disclosed “the substance of any hearing that was closed to the public . . .”
Stevens continued, “Committee members and staff are abusing their positions of public trust in an effort to create a false narrative aimed at discrediting their political enemies. This is the epitome of unethical conduct, and the House must take action to end it immediately.”
Campaign for Accountability is a nonpartisan, nonprofit watchdog organization that uses research, litigation, and aggressive communications to expose misconduct and malfeasance in public life and hold those who act at the expense of the public good accountable for their actions.