Very dangerous person. Why is he doing this . What is the connection to the russians that is making him do this . You can see this Health Care Forum with house leader nancy pelosi in the entirety in the cspan library, and go to cspan. Org and type nancy pelosi in the search tab. We are going to leaf this program here for a live briefing by the house intelligence chair, congressman devin nunes over the russian developments. I want to for mallize the process more, and i know that we had several press scrums that a lot of you attended and i wanted to attend it and make it a press availability, and i dont know if you want the do it every week or this week, but i am looking forward to taking your questions and i will open it up for you. And can you say categorically, that there were no contacts whatsoever between any official affiliated with the russian government and the Trump Campaign . Not that i am aware of. We have not seen any evidence of anybody from the Trump Campaign or any other campaign for that matter that has communicated with the russian government. And also, why would you agree to talk to reporters at the behest of the white house knowing that you are still looking into this matter . Yeah. So, that is a story that is odd, i thought. Because if you are asking me to contact the white house and say, hey, can you set me up with somebody at d. O. D. Or the intelligence agencies i would say sure. So it is a kind of an odd story, i thought. And it is compromised in any way or the fact that you have already made the decision how is that compromised if im trying to be transparent with the press, and if the white house asks me to talk to a reporter which by the way it was one, one reporter. I dont know if the white house asked me to talk to you, and you would think that is okay or not okay . What is your response to that . Well, what is your response . Well, you are investigating this matter, and the white house is urging you to knock down these stories that are no, no. That did not happen. That absolutely did not happen. And the russian government, and is there anything that you have learned in the course of this investigation that really conflicts with the public reporting . Well, if you are looking at what has happened, theres been major crimes that have been committed. What i am concerned about is this no one is focusing on major leaks that have occurred here, and so, you know, right after the leak of the transcript that President Trump had with the australian ambassador, i mean, the australian Prime Minister and i was in contact with the australian ambassador and the white house, and the appropriate agenci agencies, because we cant run a government like this. A government cannot function with massive leaks at the hi highest level of our president talking to foreign leaders. And that is what i think is one of the focuses that you all should be concerned about, because these are high level leaks. How big is the circle of individuals who have access to those transcripts . Well, this is out of, you know, i didnt realize this, but evidently, the way i understand the process is that the last administration had it set up to go down to the state department and the ic, and perhaps any other stakeholders within the ns are c or a nsc or other people in the white house, and that clear ly got ou, but how are foreign leaders going to talk to president if they dont believe that in is not leaked to the press. And just a follow up on the question, because you said no contacts with the russian government and as i am assure, there are many russian businessmen and ole gashg oliga report back to the kremlin, and have you eliminated that posability that the people that the trump advisers were speaking with have connections with the russian government even if they are not officially working with the russian government. Let me make it clear that we have not eliminated anything. What i want to do is before we go after american citizens and bring them before the legislative branch of government, it is not because they appeared in a news story somewhere, but as of you are still investigating then communications between Trump Campaign advisers and russian, and u. S. Intelligence i would not limit it to trump only or trump officials, and i would say that it is also any contacts with any political candidates anywhere at any level include ing ing in the united s or in foreign, in other foreign countries. Are you saying that there were clinton advisers speaking to russians no, no, no. Well, lets discuss that. Sgllt no evidence of that and nor any evidence that i have been presented of trump advisers speaking of the russians and we do know for a long time that the russians have been very interested in manipulate ing in election, and manipulating the press and very good at the propaganda and so that is what caused me a year ago to come out and criticize the intelligence agencies for the largest intelligence failure since 9 11 because of the lack of good intelligence that we were getting on putins plans and intentions. And so, i am, that is why i really appreciate the amount of press that showed up here today, because, you know, we do need to have some scrutiny put on to the russian government, and we do need to know if there are any americans who are talking to the russians, and anybody connected to the russian government or russian agents, but at this time, i want to be very careful that we cant just go on a witch hunt against americans because they have appeared in a news story somewhere. By americans do you mean Michael Flynn of the nsa. Any american . Well, are you referring specifically to director flynn . Well, there were three americans of which only name i know is man na forafort and the two i dont know but they appeared in a news story, and the questions that we had ten days ago when that story broke for many of you who attended the different press availabilities that i had, is the question of whether or not we were going to investigate those americans, and at this point, here at the committee, we still dont have any evidence of them talking to russians. And do you have all of the evidence at this point that you expect to receive or that you are are still in the preliminary stages of receiving and reviewing the evidence . Well, we are working on, and we have the scoping of our investigation finished. And then we are going to move into actually receiving the evidence, but as of right now, the initial inquiries that i have made to the appropriate agencies, i dont have any evidence. I want to be clear here so that the fbi specifically told you that they have found no contacts between the Trump Associates and russian officials. And okay. We are not going to be saving the whole i. C. Here, and get specific to one agency here, but as of right now i dont have any evidence that would of any phone calls, and it does not mean they dont exist, but dont have that, and what i have been told by many folks is that theres nothing there. But you are still look into it. Absolutely, and we want the information, but i cant call in american it citizens with no information. And are you saying that there is no contact with the russians and are you referring to contacts with manafort and contact with the ukrainians and other [ inaudible ]. Yeah, i think that specifically, this is going to be on the contacts with any association whatsoever to any anyone even with within the realm of the russianle inth realm of the russianle inte rus intelligence apparatus. And you said many people, and can you tell us who no sh, i will not get into specific conversations that i i have had with the executive branch. And the appropriate agencies, but i will say that we have long had a very good process the congress here where we have the gang of eight. When Counter Intelligence issues arise, they brief us on those cou Counter Intelligence issues, and we keep them, because they are oftentimes involve american citizen, and i believe it is important to keep that it way when those investigations are ongoing, but many this cain thi relates to campaign oischials s if Campaign Officials dealing with the russians, we dont have anything. And why are you told specifically to investigate whether there are any links between the campaigns and are russia. Well, unlike what has been reported, we have a had a long Ongoing Investigation into russian activities. I would have preferred for that not to be out and talked about in public, but you may have remembered from the last several years, we are concerned about the russian cyber activities and remain kenned about those activities. Since the election, we have bro broadened the scope of the investigation to include any involvement in this elections here, and of course, any ties that there might be to any government officials at any level so it ist not just here in washington, but governors and others. If there is anything out, there and any american it citizens fr the political campaigns coordinating with the russian government, we clearly would want to know that and we want to investiga investigate. And a followup. Have you seen the transcripts of the phone calls with the russians . No, i have been briefed on them, and it would be unusual and unprecedented for us to have get transcripts that were illegally leaked out, and discussed for us to have those here in congress. I this they we have to be very careful about the legislative branch of government getting fisawarranted communications and that we start combing through private conversations on american it citizens having, ane have to be very careful where we go with this. And is there any concern that you were [ inaudible ]. No, i think that what it appears to me like is that there seems to be a difference of the russian sanctions are to people like myself and when i think of russian sanctions, i think of dealing with crimea, and dealing with the invasion of ukraine by the russians and the sanctions that we have put into place working with the allies of the eu and others and then what happened right at the time the after christmas when president obama kicked some Russian Diplomats out, and i dont consider that to be sanctions. [ inaudible ]. Russian sanctions on the global stage and most of the meetings that i have with foreign leaders and they revolve around russian sanctions that is what we are e fering to. And when president obama kicked out a few diplomats and number one, it was way too late, and number two, it was extremely weak, and number three, the russian government did not respond to it, because it was so ridiculous. And when the white house asked you about talking to the reporter, did you know that they had also asked senator burr to do the same thing and that it appeared to you as some sort of a coordinated effort to push back . No, i mean, if anything, if anything it was the opposite. Many of you who were around ten days ago, you know that i took your questions as it related to the New York Times piece as related to three americans and whether or not we had information or not. So i had already talked to many of you about that several times, both in press scrums and also on the individual interviews. And so, by the time all it was was a White House Communications person passing a number and name of a reporter over for me to talk to them following up on what i had already told all of you in the days before that. So i am not sure how you generate a press story out of that, but i cannot control what you write. And as a fbi, are you saying they have not supplied you with the evidence or that you have no eviden evidence. It is not important which agency, but the intelligence agencies have not provided me any information about the three americans communicating with the russians. And so they have not told you and it does not exist is a difference there . It sounds like to me that it has been looked into, and there is knotting of evidence there, and obviously, we would like to know if there is, and then it is pretty serious, and then it would be the intelligence agencies then misleading congress. Which opens up a whole another problem. And what about the named special pros ecutor to take it away of a politics anyway . Well, we are the legislative branch of government, and elected and the history of the special prosecutors is mixed and at this point, what are we going the appoint a special prosecutor to do exactly . To chase stories of american citizens that end up in newspaper articles . I mean, that is right now, look, if at some point we have serious crimes that have been committed, it would be something that we could consider, but at this point, we dont have, that and the only serious crimes we have are leaks that have come out of our government to the press and others. Yes . Can you give us an update on what and the fbi and well, i wrote the letter, and obviously, it is a classified letter, and there is classified version and unclassified version, and we are expecting answers to that. We will have briefings this week and next week, and those briefings will continue. Is your committee committing resources to investigate the leaks . Well, as anything, we cant, and it is just like similar to us not having any evidence of who of these american citizen s that were allegedly talking to the russian, we also dont know exactly who would have known about general flynn. And now, the good thing about fisa and the way it works is that there should be a record of who in the government knew about general flynn talking to the Russian Ambassador, and from there we should be able to know who is in the realm of the possible of who we need to talk to. And can i ask you, who the decision of the last administration would have unmasked flynn and was it appropriate . We dont know yet, and that is a very good question, and some of the, i think that that we should be able to find. We should find out who within the executive branch knew about the initial conversation, and then who went to who to get flynns name unmasked, and that should be a realtive hly small number of people. And please. And when the Intelligence Community begins presenting evidence to you, is that evidence to be turned over to the committee or continue to be housed in the Intelligence Committee . Well, that is one of the contentious issues of where the ininformation is housed. Some here, and some apt the agencies. Have you heard anything about anyone in the white house directing mr. Poin to discuss with the russian am bbassadors . Look, the whole issue is general flynn is an american war hero and put together one of the greatest military machines in the history and providing the intelligence to basically eliminate al qaeda from iraq, and he was the National Security adviser designee, and taking multiple calls a day from ambassadors from foreign leaders and look, i nknow this, because the foreign leaders were contacting me trying to get in touch with the transition team, and folks that wanted to meet with President Trump or president elect trump and Vice President elect pence. Did the prkt trump at the time tell flynn to talk about i find it hard to believe, because they were so busy. And these conversations were very short and yes, sir. And can you finalize and release the scope of the investigation, and also, do you plan to coordinate with the senate side to have joint well, we are separate bodies, but we will, so we will have a scoping document that we have that should bep approved and i believe it is finished now. And then probably just have some brief outlines of what we are looking at. And look, you guys all know what we are going to be looking at. It is not rocket science. And so would you coordinate with the senate to look up the records i would not rule it out. I would not rule it out, but we will try to work with the senate where possible, but i view this as a two separate branchs of the legislative branch of government. Yes . Is there a difference between the white house asking you to call a reporter, and asking the fbi to knock down a particular story . Well, look, i dont believe that the first of all, i believe that the white house talking to, and having a reporter, and if the Reporter Asks the white house, and whatever the story is about, and as it relates to the fbi, i believe what happened with the white house as i understand it in my limited conversations that i have had i think it is an obvious question that one would ask, if there is no evidence here, can krou talk about it . And the fbi of course normally does not talk about leaks, and whether or not they are investigating or not, and other issues of who is under investigation, and it is pretty standard for the fbi not to comment on this. That is pretty unusual if they do comment, and so, obviously, when so i dont know how true that story is. I would go to the white house, and ask what conversations actually occurred, but i dont believe very many and they were simple. And to give us an idea of how far along you are in starting this investigation. And just to make sure that you understand what caused me to go out a year ago to say that the biggest intelligence failure since 9 11 is the failure to understand putins plans and intentions and what caused that is that we were constantly investigating the russian problems. So we are adding additional things that we are looking at which include, which will include the election issues. And how many people were when you say that there is no evidence right now of the russian contacts with the campaign official, and you also say that you are in the scope gathering process of the investigation well, no, we are putting together a scope to working bipartisan with my counter part mr. Shif to make sure that we are on the election as it relates to the election, but look, we have always been very, very interested in what the russian s as are up to, and so is basically part of the Ongoing Investigation, they was hopeful that never would have been out in the press like it s but now it is, and now we are expanding the scope of the investigation to include what we will look at in terms of the election, but in eterms of the evidence, some wev and some evidence we do have, and obviously looking to the more evidence, but most importantly as it relates to the american citizens, and if you have neamerican citizens who ar talking to the russian agenciea, and you know the names and you want to be a whistle blower yourself, then come to my office. And you would have more e