Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., on Tuesday dismissed a report that said special counsel Robert Mueller is scrutinizing an event he attended with former national security adviser Michael Flynn and foreign officials days before President Trump’s inauguration as a “fake news” smear.
Asked to respond to the Daily Beast’s report, Nunes told Fox News, “These guys — it’s always another day, they do another fake news story.”
Not denying he was in attendance, Nunes explained that it was his job to meet with foreign officials as a member of Trump’s transition team and continues to be the case today as he is the top Republican of the House Intelligence Committee.
“I don’t even know what they’re talking about,” he said, casting doubt on the implications drawn in the article. “As chairman of the Intelligence Committee at the time, I’m now still Republican leader of the Intelligence Committee, my job is to meet with foreign dignitaries. So I do that on daily basis, multiple times per day. During inauguration week there were numerous events that I attended I continued to attend. I continue to meet foreigners all the time, especially working with the ambassadors here in Washington.”
Rep @DevinNunes downplays report Mueller is investigating a meeting he took with foreign ambassadors just before Trump’s inauguration: “Another day, another fake news story… I was meeting w/people on a daily basis… if they want to talk, we’re available.” pic.twitter.com/6C9Qz7IM1k
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 15, 2019
The breakfast event in question took place at Trump International Hotel in D.C. on Jan. 18, 2017, and included multiple foreign diplomats. The event has attracted the attention of federal investigators for multiple reasons, including whether foreign interests tried to buy influence via donations to Trump’s inaugural committee and a pro-Trump super PAC.
Flynn, who was pushed out as national security adviser in February 2017, has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with a Russian envoy and has been cooperating with Mueller’s Russia investigation.
Nunes has been a vocal defender of Trump amid the ongoing federal Russia investigation looking into potential ties between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin. Reacting to a New York Times report last week that said the FBI opened a counterintelligence inquiry into Trump after he fired FBI Director James Comey in May 2017 to examine whether he was a Russian asset, Nunes called the story “totally ridiculous” and conceded he didn’t know if it was “fake news,” but if it was true, “I think the Secret Service or someone would have known.”
