April 8 (UPI) — Rep. Devin Nunes, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, plans to send eight criminal referrals to Attorney General William Barr this week.
Appearing on Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures, Nunes said five of the referrals involved lying to Congress, misleading Congress and leaking classified information in relation to accusations of FBi and Department of Justice abuse during investigations into whether President Donald Trump and his campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 presidential election.
He added the other three referrals are “more complicated” and involve attempts to abuse and mislead the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court.
“So on the first one, is FISA abuse and other matters. We believe there was a conspiracy to lie to the FISA Court, mislead the FISA court by numerous individuals that all need to be investigated and looked at, and we believe the [relevant] statute is the conspiracy statute. The second conspiracy one is involving manipulation of intelligence that also could ensnarl many Americans,” said Nunes.
Such criminal referrals to the Department of Justice by Congress represent requests for a criminal investigation by the Justice Department and FBI
Nunes did not clarify who would be referred but said more referrals could be coming and a conspiracy referral could involve “a dozen, two dozen people.”
Nunes also told Fox News that he had been working on the referrals for two years and was waiting for Barr’s confirmation to send them in.
“We think they’re pretty clear, but as of right now … this may not be all of them, but this cleans up quite a bit,” he said.
