Intel Chair Wants Comey, Rogers to Return in Closed Session

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) said he intends to bring FBI Director James Comey and National Security Council Director Mike Rogers back to the committee for closed-door testimony next week.

In a news conference announcing that President Donald Trump’s former campaign chief, Paul Manafort, had volunteered to talk to the committee about his alleged ties to Russia, Nunes also said he wants Comey and Rogers to answer more questions. He said those questions are not related to documents he uncovered suggesting intelligence community officials may have improperly “unmasked” the names of Trump and his associates in surveillance reports.

“There are just questions that we have for Director Comey and Adm. Rogers, probably that they couldn’t answer in a public setting,” said Nunes. “But it’s necessary to get them both back down here before we can move on to other matters.”

“There are just questions that we have for Director Comey and Adm. Rogers, probably that they couldn’t answer in a public setting.”

Nunes said he hopes to schedule that testimony for Tuesday.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the ranking minority member of the committee, complained in his own news conference that Nunes has canceled a public hearing that had been scheduled for Tuesday to question former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former CIA Director John Brennan, and former Assistant Attorney General Sally Yates. He said there is no reason some testimony cannot be heard in private session and some in public. And he accused Republicans of trying to “choke off” information vital to the investigation.

“This is a serous mistake,” said Schiff. “I don’t think anyone should have any question about what is going on here … That is at most a dodge.”

Nunes reiterated his concerns about unmasking. He does not know how many names had been uncovered.

“I knew about the unmasking before I read the documents, and I’ll just leave it at that,” he told reporters Friday.

Nunes said that he and the White House did not orchestrate his public announcement Wednesday about the unmasking. He also said he still is seeking documents from the National Security Agency and other agencies that were due March 15.

[lz_related_box id=”524075″]

“I was hoping to get the documents today,” he said. “It doesn’t sound like we’ll get a full accounting of those, but hopefully they’ll come in either today or over the weekend, or early in the week.”

There are valid reasons for unmasking the names of Americans in surveillance reports, said Nunes. But he added, “At least some of what I’ve seen — I don’t know what that reason would be.”

In terms of Paul Manafort, who has been under increased scrutiny following an Associated Press report that he worked in 2005 for Russian President Vladimir Putin to improve his image in the West, Nunes praised Manafort’s decision to come forward and encouraged others to do so as well.

“We will allow people to come forward in any manner that they want to come forward … especially if they’re willing to come in freely,” said Nunes. “We’re not gonna get into a neo-McCarthyism era here where we just start bringing in Americans because they were mentioned in a press story.”