Trump Claims He Feels 'Somewhat' Vindicated After Nunes' White House-Linked Wiretap Claim

On March 22, 2017, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes told reporters that intelligence agencies had 'incidentally' collected communications involving Trump transition officials after the election, saying the information came from a source he met at the White House complex. Nunes briefed Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan on the material before briefing his own committee's Democrats, and subsequent reporting identified National Security Council staffers Ezra Cohen-Watnick and Michael Ellis as sources of the documents, raising questions about coordination between Trump's own staff and the nominally independent congressional oversight of the Russia investigation. Asked by a reporter that day whether he felt vindicated, Trump said: 'I somewhat do. I must tell you, I somewhat do. I very much appreciated the fact that they found what they found, but I somewhat do.' The claim came two days after FBI Director James Comey testified to the same committee that neither the FBI nor the Justice Department had any information supporting Trump's original allegation that Obama ordered Trump Tower wiretapped, and Nunes's own disclosure described surveillance that was legal and incidental rather than the deliberate wiretap Trump had alleged. Nunes later recused himself from the committee's Russia inquiry amid ethics complaints connected to the episode.

“I somewhat do. I must tell you, I somewhat do. I very much appreciated the fact that they found what they found, but I somewhat do.” Quote verified against source