The House Ethics Committee announced Thursday it has concluded its investigation into whether Representative Devin Nunes (R-CA) leaked classified information when he spoke publicly about documents he viewed during an unusual late night trip to the White House on March 21, 2017.
The committee cleared Nunes of any wrongdoing:
"In the course of this investigation, the Committee sought the analysis of Representative Nunes's statements by classification experts in the intelligence community," the Ethics Committee said in a statement. "Based solely on the conclusion of these classification experts that the information that Representative Nunes disclosed was not classified, the Committee will take no further action and considers this matter closed."
Nunes released a statement in response:
...Nunes thanked the panel “for completely clearing me today of the cloud that was created by this investigation, and for determining that I committed no violation of anything — no violation of House Rules, law, regulations, or any other standards of conduct.”
“While I appreciate the Ethics Committee’s work, I need to reiterate that the allegations against me were obviously frivolous and were rooted in politically motivated complaints filed against me by left-wing activist groups,” he said.
Rep. Nunes, a strong Trump supporter and former member of the transition team, had gone to the White House that evening as part of an effort to substantiate President Trump's false claim he had been wiretapped by the Obama administration. After viewing classified documents, Nunes held a press conference to announce that Trump associates had been caught up in routine surveillance of foreign entities.
On April 6th, Nunes, who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, said he would recuse himself from leading the Russia inquiry until the ethics investigation was complete. However, he has failed to remove himself from participating and continues to attempt to divert attention away from the investigation by introducing alternative investigations into matters such as "unmasking" and Uranium One.
Thursday's end to the ethics matter allows Nunes to step back into a leadership role on the intelligence committee's Russia investigation in an official capacity.
Ethics Committee clears Rep. Devin Nunes (Politico)
Ethics Committee clears Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes (CNN)