James Rosen of Fox News says that potential "smoking gun" evidence might be presented to the House Intelligence Committee proving that the Obama administration definitively spied on the Trump campaign, and possibly Trump himself.
Capitol Hill sources told Fox News that the revelation from Rep. Nunes (R-Ca.) of the "incidental surveillance" on then President-elect Trump came from multiple sources and it corroborated what Nunes knew about the matter even before Trump made the accusations.
Nunes said that the surveillance he saw from a source not revealed to the House Intelligence Committee as of yet, showed that Trump's team members were targeted without any reasonable relationship to investigating Russians.
The key to that conclusion is the unmasking of selected U.S. persons whose names appeared in the intelligence, the sources said, adding that the paper trail leaves no other plausible purpose for the unmasking other than to damage the incoming Trump administration.
The NSA intelligence requested from the intel committee is expected by Friday, and would contain the "smoking gun" information according to a source to Fox News.
Nunes has been criticized heavily from both the right and left for taking the information he knows directly to President Trump before he informed the House Intelligence Committee. He defended his actions by saying it was a judgement call, and that he stands by his decision.
"We have to keep our sources and methods here very very quiet," Nunes explained. "I have told the American public several times that we want people to come to us, to bring us information if they have it."
.@DevinNunes defends sources that alerted him to reports of "incidental collection." #SpecialReport pic.twitter.com/sqhhQ2mPPD
— Fox News (@FoxNews) March 23, 2017
President Trump said he felt "vindicated somewhat" by the information revealed by Rep. Nunes, while his detractors point out that Nunes admitte the surveillance he saw was legal, but "troubling."
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Before the Nunes revelation, Fox News' Brit Hume had said the story was a "continuing embarrassment" to the president, while Bill O'Reilly said it was turning on Trump and hurting his presidency.
Trump had also told Tucker Carlson in recent weeks that he was going to present his evidence of the wiretapping or surveillance before the committee himself.
Carlos Garcia
Staff Writer