Jackson Lee: “Absolute shock surged through Congress and around Washington D.C. over the actions of the Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee in going to the White House alone and disclosing classified intelligence to persons allegedly under investigation. What will he do next?”

Washington, DC – Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, a senior member of the House Committees on Judiciary and Homeland Security, Ranking Member of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Investigations, and a Member of the House Budget Committee released the following statement:

“New information has just been released that Trump associates may have coordinated with the Russians in the campaign against Hillary Clinton in 2016.  Today an enormous breach took place when the Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence violated all protocols and maybe even the law by reporting classified information to persons who may be under active investigation.

“On Monday, March 21, FBI Director James Comey appeared before the House Intelligence Committee and testified that there was no substance and no truth to the representations of Donald Trump that President Obama had “wiretapped” Donald Trump. And today, the Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee may have figuratively blew up his bipartisan committee’s investigation of Trump’s accusation that he had been wiretapped by order of President Obama and undermined the credibility of the committee’s inquiry into the activities of the Russian Government to influence the outcome of the 2016 Presidential election and the possible collusion of Trump campaign associates in those Russian activities.

“It is clear that confidence in the government must be restored, and that an independent investigation into these matters must go forward. Whether Chairman Nunes should continue to lead that investigation, however, should be conditioned on his providing a satisfactory explanation of his conduct to the members of the Intelligence Committee and to the House of Representatives.

“The allegations under investigation by the Intelligence Committee may bear upon high crimes and misdemeanors and should be taken extremely seriously. The investigation must be factual, impartial, thorough, and unbiased.  The American people deserve the truth.”