Rep. Devin Nunes, California Republican, said Saturday that he will pursue legal action over his phone records being exposed by the House Intelligence Committee he sits on.
Mr. Nunes, the committee’s ranking member and former chairman, threatened the litigation in light of records of his phone calls appearing in a recent congressional report issued as part of the ongoing impeachment inquiry into President Trump.
“I believe I am the first member of Congress, and I believe my staff and former staff are the first ones ever to have their phone records exposed like this,” Mr. Nunes said on Fox News.
“We’re definitely going to take legal action,” Mr. Nunes said on the “Fox & Friends: Weekend” program.
Released on Tuesday, the intelligence committee’s report contains its findings thus far with respect to the ongoing impeachment inquiry triggered by Mr. Trump withholding hundreds of millions of dollars in military assistance to Ukraine amid pursuing a favor from his counterpart in Kyiv.
Among the report’s 300-pages are phone records indicating Mr. Nunes and his staff was in contact earlier this year with individuals including Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani and Lev Parnas, a Ukrainian businessman associated with Mr. Giuliani who has since been indicted on campaign finance law violations, among others.
Patrick Boland, a spokesman for Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam B. Schiff, California Democrat, said on Thursday that investigators “did not subpoena call records for any member of Congress or their staff” and instead suggested that Mr. Nunes and his team had been in touch with others under scrutiny.
“Any questions about the fact that Members, congressional staff or journalists appear in call records released by the Committee should be directed at those individuals, who were in contact with individuals of investigative interest to the impeachment inquiry,” Mr. Boland said.
Mr. Boland did not immediately return a message seeking his reaction to the ranking member’s legal threat.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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