Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) accused Rep. Devin Nunes (D-Calif.) and other Republicans on Tuesday of making the U.S. "profoundly less safe" by pressing the Justice Department for access to highly classified information related to a top-secret FBI informant.
"What Devin Nunes is doing and what a couple of my Republicans are doing is they are sending a signal around the world that quirky, completely fact-less investigation may cause you as an informant or you as a CIA asset to be exposed," Himes, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said on CNN's "New Day."
Rep. Jim Himes: Rep. Devin Nunes is "sending a signal around the world that some quirky, completely factless investigation may cause you as an informant or you as a CIA asset to be exposed, and that is going to make us profoundly less safe" https://t.co/pPBHWCAFHI pic.twitter.com/yQNsyEBZ7x
— New Day (@NewDay) May 22, 2018
"That is going to make us profoundly less safe abroad and at home," he added.
Himes' comments came a day after the White House reached a deal with top intelligence and law enforcement officials to allow a group of lawmakers to review some of the most highly classified information in the investigation into Russia's role in the 2016 election.
The agreement allowed the Justice Department's Office of the Inspector General to "expand its current investigation to include any irregularities with the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s or the Department of Justice’s tactics concerning the Trump Campaign," White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement on Monday.
Some congressional Republicans, including Nunes, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, have pressed for information about the use of a top-secret FBI informant, who reportedly met with three Trump campaign advisers during the 2016 election.
Some Republicans, including President Trump, have suggested recently that the FBI and Justice Department may have improperly spied on the real estate mogul's campaign, though no evidence has come to light that that was the case.
Nunes previously subpoenaed the Justice Department for all documents related to the FBI informant. That request was initially rejected, because the Justice Department feared that it could endanger the source and his associates.