Speaker 1: Now it's time for our daily Bloomberg Law Brief, exploring
Speaker 1: legal issues in the news. Today, Bloomberg Law host June
Speaker 1: Grasso and Michael Best discussed claims from House Intelligence Committee
Speaker 1: Chairman Devin Nounez that he has evidence supporting President Trump's
Speaker 1: claims of wire tapping during the campaign. They speak to
Speaker 1: Fordham University professor Andrew Kent and Liza Gaytene, co director
Speaker 1: for the Liberty and National Security Program at Brennan Center. Andrew,
Speaker 1: this is a somewhat confusing and seemingly strange situation here
Speaker 1: where you have the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee
Speaker 1: having gone to the White House with information when it's
Speaker 1: possible the committee is going to be investigating the president.
Speaker 1: How unusual is this situation in your view? I think
Speaker 1: it's extremely unusual. And uh, you know, a number of
Speaker 1: folks on the Republican side, including John McCain, have said
Speaker 1: as much. Um, you know, obviously there are you know,
Speaker 1: close political links between a president and members of his
Speaker 1: party in the Congress. But when the president's own conduct
Speaker 1: and the conduct of his campaign and close to him
Speaker 1: are as the subject of such an incredibly important and
Speaker 1: sensitive investigation that the House Intelligence Committee is undergoing. Uh.
Speaker 1: You know, this behavior by by the chairman is really
Speaker 1: extraordinary and quite inappropriate, Liza. It's still unclear because Nunaz
Speaker 1: has refused to say where he got these documents from
Speaker 1: their supposedly classified documents. If they are really classified documents
Speaker 1: and he showed them or told the press about them,
Speaker 1: is that a prosecutable offense? Well, certainly knew this himself,
Speaker 1: and many others on his committee have really made a
Speaker 1: point of underscoring how dangerous it is to leak classified
Speaker 1: information and have emphasized that people who do leak such
Speaker 1: information should be prosecuted. So if they are to be believed,
Speaker 1: it absolutely is a prosecutable offense. And it does appear
Speaker 1: that some of what uh Mr Nunez was saying in
Speaker 1: his press conferences was classified information. Now the president is
Speaker 1: able to be classify information uh quickly and easily. And
Speaker 1: there is a question in this case about whether there
Speaker 1: was coordination between the White House and and Neoness in
Speaker 1: his announcements. And recently we learned that Newness was actually
Speaker 1: at the White House the day before he gave his
Speaker 1: press conference, using some secure compartment and facilities there. That's
Speaker 1: a place where you go to look at classified information,
Speaker 1: So you know, there's some real questions here about where
Speaker 1: this information came from. And and frankly, you know, if
Speaker 1: the president did de classified information so he could reveal it,
Speaker 1: I think that's more disturbing than than it is reassuring.
Speaker 1: And that is Liza Gautene, co director for the Liberty
Speaker 1: and National Security Program at the Brennan Center and Fordham
Speaker 1: University professor Andrew Kent speaking to Bloomberg Law hosts June
Speaker 1: Grosso and Michael Best. You can listen to Bloomberg Law
Speaker 1: weekdays at one pm Wall Street Time right here on
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Radio. And that's this morning's Bloomberg Law Brief. You
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Speaker 1: more information