3/30/2017

2016 ELECTION/INTELLIGENCE/RUSSIA/WIRETAPPING: “The White House said Thursday [3-30-17] that members of its staff had uncovered materials regarding surveillance in the 2016 election, raising questions about whether President Donald Trump’s own aides had shared classified information with the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee in an attempt to bolster Trump’s claims he was wiretapped.
In a letter sent Thursday, Trump’s top White House lawyer invited the highest-ranking lawmakers on the House and Senate intelligence committees to view classified materials, which it said had been uncovered in the ‘ordinary course of business.’
‘Our view was that the smart move was to make all the materials available to the chairman and the ranking member of the relevant committees,’ Press Secretary Sean Spicer said during the White House briefing Thursday. ‘We are focused on the substance of it and I think the goal is to make sure people have the substance that are looking into this.’
Spicer said the information being made available to lawmakers was uncovered by the National Security Council. In the letter, White House Counsel Don McGhan wrote the material related to whether ‘information collected on US persons was mishandled and leaked.’
That closely maps with how Rep. Devin Nunes described the information he viewed at the White House last week, and subsequently briefed Trump on during a hastily arranged session.”

-Jeremy Herb and Kevin Liptak, “White House invites Congress investigation leaders to view documents,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, March 30, 2017