Spicer: 'Anything Is Possible' About Nunes' Surveillance Sources

Press secretary Sean Spicer Monday would not confirm why House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes was on the grounds of the White House the day before he made his announcement about captured communications involving the president's transition team, or if he'd received documents concerning surveillance activities from White House staff members.

"I know that Chairman Nunes has confirmed he was on White House grounds Tuesday, and frankly any questions regarding who he met with or why he was here should be referred to him," Spicer said during Monday's daily press briefing, later commenting that "anything is possible"

Nunes told Bloomberg reporter Eli Lake on Monday that he had gone to the White House to view intelligence reports including accounts of some meetings involving President Donald Trump's advisers.

The chairman said he met his source on the White House grounds last Tuesday because it was a convenient, secure location where he could view the reports, which are only distributed in the executive branch, on a computer.

"We don't have networked access to these kinds of reports in Congress," Nunes told Lake, insisting his source was an intelligence official and not a member of Trump's White House staff.

Nunes told Lake that he'd been hearing about the intelligence reports for more than a month, and when he saw them in the White House, he wrote down the numbers so he could request them formally for the remainder of the committee.

Spicer on Monday said Nunes is the person who has publicly discussed what he's reviewing, and that he was not going to get in the middle of the issue.

However, the press secretary said the White House is not concerned about materials being leaked from the executive branch itself

"Everything I know about what he has done is through public reports that he's made on the record to different folks," said Spicer. "He said he has multiple sources, that he had met with different folks to gather things as part of his review of the situation. And so all I know, and what I'm willing to communicate, is what has been made available through on-the-record comments he has made."

Further, he does not think Nunes' comments need to be cleared up.

"He's doing a review and it's not necessarily something we're going to get in the way of," said Spicer. "It's something to let him review and have conversations and look at things that he thinks are relevant."

He also said he does not know who signed Nunes in, but at this time, the review of Nunes' actions are proceeding, "and we can address this after he decides to be clear about that."

Spicer also denied that providing Nunes with reports can't be considered a leak.

"There is a difference in a leak, leaking out to reporters to take classified information and share it with people who aren't cleared," said Spicer. "Chairman Nunes is cleared as chairman of the Intelligence Committee."

Nunes has said he went to the White House to brief the Trump administration on what he reviewed, but Spicer said the chairman had "multiple sources and multiple topics," so it's "irresponsible" to jump to the conclusion that Nunes had briefed the president on the same material he reviewed."

"What I can tell you through his public comments is that he has said he had multiple sources that he came to a conclusion on," said Spicer. "There is a degree at which any of those sources weighed on the outcome that he came to a decision on. I don't know, and frankly I don't know if he even talked to the president."