BREAKING: Devin Nunes Sending 8 Criminal Referrals To AG Barr; “Conspiracy To Lie To Congress”!

Our friends over at Fox News had more details:

House Intelligence Committee ranking member Devin Nunes exclusively told Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures" that he is preparing to send eight criminal referrals to the Department of Justice this week concerning alleged misconduct from "Watergate wannabes" during the Trump-Russia investigation, including the leaks of "highly classified material" and conspiracies to lie to Congress and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court.

The dramatic step comes as Republicans have pushed for the release of key documentsto uncover the origins of the now-discredited narrative that the Trump campaign colluded improperly with the Russian government. President Trump recently told Fox News he would release the entirety of the FISA applications used to surveil one of his top aides, and other related documents.

Nunes said he has been working on the referrals for more than two years, and wanted to wait until the confirmation of Attorney General Bill Barr.

"We're prepared this week to notify the attorney general that we're prepared to send those referrals over," Nunes said. "First of all, all of these are classified or sensitive. ... Five of them are what I would call straight up referrals -- so just referrals that name someone and name the specific crimes," Nunes told Maria Bartiromo. "Those crimes are lying to Congress, misleading Congress, leaking classified information. So five of them are those types."

It was not immediately clear whom Nunes would specifically refer. Both Democrats and Republicans have said former Trump fixer Michael Cohen is likely to face new charges of lying to Congress in the wake of his recent explosive testimony, which seemed to contradict his previous statements on a variety of matters, including whether he had sought a job in the Trump White House.

The memo pointed out that in December 2017, then FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe testified that “no surveillance warrant would have been sought” from the FISA court “without the Steele dossier information.”

And House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows, R-N.C., touched off a firestorm last August after claiming on Twitter that his office had "hard evidence" suggesting the FBI leaked information to the press and used the resulting articles to help obtain surveillance warrants. The claim stemmed in part from FBI intelligence analyst Jonathan Moffa’s Friday testimony behind closed doors before the House Judiciary and Oversight committees.

Nunes added: "There are three [referrals] that I think are more complicated. ... So on the first one, is FISA abuse and other matters. We believe there was a conspiracy to lie to the FISA court, mislead the FISA court by numerous individuals that all need to be investigated and looked at that, and we believe the [relevant] statute is the conspiracy statute. The second conspiracy one is involving manipulation of intelligence that also could ensnarl many Americans."

Nunes asserted that "we've had a lot of concerns with the way intelligence was used" during the Trump-Russia probe.

Just nine days before the FBI applied for a FISA warrant to surveil Carter Page, then a Trump campaign aide, bureau officials were battling with a senior Justice Department official who had "continued concerns" about the "possible bias" of a source pivotal to the application, according to internal text messages obtained by Fox News in March.

And from the Washington Examiner:

Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., announced on Sunday he is ready to send eight criminal referrals to the Justice Department next week related to the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation.

"We're prepared this week to notify the attorney general that we're prepared to send those referrals over and brief him if he wishes to be briefed," Nunes said on Fox News.

The ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee has been teasing a referral of Justice Department and FBI officials for months and previously predicted its delivery by the end of last week.

However, Nunes backed away from that deadline, hinting that his team of investigators found more people, potentially up to two dozen, who could be connected to a criminal referral. Nunes said on "Sunday Morning Futures" that the people ensnared in his eight-person referral "may not be all of them."

Nunes did not disclose any names, but he did break down three categories in which they fall.

"Five of them are what I would call straight up referrals so just referrals that are, that name someone and name the specific crimes. Those crimes are lying to Congress, misleading Congress, leaking classified information," Nunes said.

The other three, he said are more complicated, related to charges of conspiracy to lie to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

"There are three that I think are more complicated so you mentioned conspiracy. So the question on conspiracy is what, there's the conspiracy statute, and then what do they need to look at under that statute. So on the first one, is FISA abuse and other matters we believe there is a conspiracy to lie to the FISA Court, mislead the FISA court by numerous individuals that all need to be investigative and looked at," Nunes said. "The second conspiracy one is involving manipulation of intelligence. That also could [involve many] many Americans and we are, so that's kind of the second one. As you know, we've had a lot of concerns with the way intelligence was used."

The third referral Nunes called a "global leak referral."

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