House Armed Services Committee chairman Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash) said on Saturday that Republican Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) is likely to face an ethics investigation over allegations he met with an ex-Ukrainian prosecutor at the center of the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump.
Asked by MSNBC’s Joy Reid whether Nunes the House Intelligence Committee’s top Republican and a longtime Trump ally, could be investigated, Smith said: “quite likely, without question.”
CNN reported Friday that Lev Parnas, an associate of Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, has information on meetings Nunes allegedly had with former Ukrainian prosecutor general Victor Shokin.
According to the report, Parnas put Nunes in touch with Shokin to help him gather damaging information on former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter’s dealings with Ukraine.
Shokin, who was ousted from his position for not pursuing corruption against Ukraine’s politicians, has been the subject of conservative conspiracy theories that claim Biden forced the country to fire him to stymie an investigation into Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company that his son sat on the board of.
“I understand a lot of this is about Joe Biden but the bigger thing is about what President Trump and the Russians and all these people have been doing … is a systematic problem that is a threat to the country because of what Russia is doing to democracy,” Smith said.
If the House Ethics Committee opens an investigation into the California Republican, it would be his second in two years.
In 2017, Nunes was under investigation over allegations that he disclosed classified information to the White House related to the House Intelligence Committee’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
