Definition: In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.
Input: CLOSE The White House says the chairman of the House intelligence committee will brief President Donald Trump on the possible monitoring of Trump associates. (March 22) AP 
  
 House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif, speaks with reporters outside the White House in Washington, March 22, 2017, following a meeting with President Donald Trump. (Photo: Pablo Martinez Monsivais, AP) 
  
 WASHINGTON — The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee said Wednesday that communications involving members of President Trump's transition group — possibly including the president's — were "incidentally collected'' by U.S. intelligence officials following the November election. 
  
 Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., did not identify other transition members swept up in the surveillance, adding that he has viewed "dozens'' of such intelligence reports that appeared "legal'' but perhaps "inappropriate.'' 
  
 “What I’ve read bothers me, and I think it should bother the president himself and his team, because some of it appears to be inappropriate,'' Nunes told reporters at the White House after briefing the president on the findings. 
  
 The chairman said the intelligence reports were not part of a criminal investigation or the FBI's ongoing investigation into Russia interference in the 2016 election. Rather, he said the collection was related to broader intelligence gathering activities. 
  
 Nunes made the announcement without consulting with the House panel's ranking Democrat Rep. Adam Schiff, R-Calif., who angrily asserted Wednesday that the information should have been shared with other committee members, who are engaged in a review of Russia's election interference. 
  
 "The chairman also shared this information with the White House before providing it to the committee, another profound irregularity, given that the matter is currently under investigation,'' Schiff said, adding that Nunes' actions cast doubt on the committee's ability to conduct an impartial investigation. 
  
 He said the chairman's actions support the formation of an "independent commission'' to conduct the inquiry into Russian intervention into the American political system. 
  
 CLOSE The top Democrat on the House intelligence committee is accusing the Republican committee leader of creating doubt about the committee's ability to conduct an independent investigation about Russia and President Trump's campaign. (March 22) AP 
  
 .Extraordinary hearing 
  
 Nunes' disclosure comes two days after an extraordinary House hearing where FBI Director James Comey rejected Trump's prior claims that the Obama administration had wiretapped the president's New York offices in advance of the 2016 election. 
  
 At the same hearing, Comey confirmed for the first time publicly that the FBI is in the midst of an investigation into Russia's interference in the election, including whether any activities were coordinated by Trump associates and Russian officials. 
  
 Nunes also has rejected the president's claims that Trump Tower had been wiretapped. And he said "none'' of the newly disclosed surveillance was related to "any investigation of Russian activities or of the Trump team.'' 
  
 Nevertheless, Trump, while meeting Wednesday with members of the Congressional Black Caucus, told reporters that he felt “somewhat” vindicated by Nunes’ statements. 
  
 "I must tell, you I somewhat do,'' the president said. "I very much appreciated the fact that they found what they found, I somewhat do." 
  
 Before briefing the president, Nunes said he also notified House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., of the information. 
  
 "Details about U.S. persons associated with the incoming administration — details with little or no apparent foreign intelligence value — were widely disseminated in intelligence community reporting,'' Nunes told reporters Wednesday. 
  
 Proper channels 
  
 Nunes suggested that the information came from one or more whistle-blowers. 
  
 “It came through the proper channels and the proper clearances,” Nunes said. “This was information that was brought to me that I thought the president needed to see.” He said the National Security Agency has been cooperative, but the FBI so far has not. 
  
 Nunes said the surveillance itself appeared to be legal — presumably through a warrant from Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court — but that the concern was what intelligence agencies did with that information. 
  
 He would not rule out that senior Obama administration officials received the intelligence or that they were involved in the “unmasking” of the citizens identified in the reports. 
  
 But he also re-stated his belief that Obama did not order the wiretapping of Trump Tower, as Trump himself has suggested in a series of March 4 tweets and subsequent public remarks. 
  
 “From what I’ve read, there seems to be some level of surveillance action — perhaps legal, but I don’t know that it’s right,'' he said. 
  
 Nunes said nothing he shared with the president was within the scope of the FBI’s investigation into ties between Russia and Trump associates. 
  
 "The reports I was able to see did not have anything to do with the Russia investigation,'' the congressman said. “The president needs to know that these intelligence reports are out there, and I have a duty to tell him that.” 
  
 Nunes said the new intelligence reports go "beyond'' U.S. intercepts of pre-inaugural conversations between former Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak. 
  
 Flynn who repeatedly denied raising the issue of sanctions imposed against Russia during his conversations with Kislyak, was forced to resign last month after intercepts of his conversations with the ambassador were presented to the White House, indicating that sanctions were discussed. 
  
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 Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/2nDkSB7 ||||| (CNN) House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes set off a stunning new political controversy Wednesday by revealing that communications of President Donald Trump and associates may have been picked up after the election by intelligence agencies conducting surveillance of foreign targets. 
  
 Nunes hurried to the White House to personally brief Trump on the revelations, after talking to the press but without sharing the information with Democrats. His Democratic counterpart on the committee -- Rep. Adam Schiff of California -- warned that his colleague had cast a "profound cloud" over their effort to investigate Russian attempts to interfere in the election. 
  
 A Republican source with knowledge of the situation claimed the information that Nunes talked about was from the intelligence community and not the White House. The source said Nunes was "steaming" about what he read. 
  
 That source said Nunes met with Republican members of the Intelligence Committee before his news conference, and several tried to convince him not to do it before he spoke with Schiff. But Nunes didn't take the advice, with the news conference already called by the time he met with the GOP committee members. Nunes was too mad, the source said. 
  
 The comments by Nunes do not appear to support Trump's claims, debunked by FBI Director James Comey , that he was wiretapped by his predecessor President Barack Obama. Rather, they appear to relate to conversations between Trump or associates and people who were targeted by FISA warrants -- that Nunes said did not appear to be illegal. 
  
 But the President was asked by reporters if he feels vindicated by the visit from Nunes and answered: "I somewhat do. I must tell you I somewhat do, I very much appreciated the fact that they found what they found." 
  
 Another day of shocking drama intensified the intrigue and uncertainty sparked by Trump's feud with intelligence agencies, his accusations of shady practices by his predecessor and the wider question of the Trump campaign's links with Russia that are currently the focus of an investigation by the FBI. 
  
 Nunes told reporters the conversations were "incidentally" collected as part of intelligence sweeps focusing on other people and implied that Trump was not the target of the surveillance operation. 
  
 He said he discovered accounts of conversations related to Trump and his associates when he was reviewing intelligence reports brought to him by an unidentified person -- and said the information was not related to Russia. 
  
 "This is a normal, incidental collection, based on what I could collect," Nunes said. "This appears to be all legally collected foreign intelligence under" the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. 
  
 Nevertheless, Nunes said he alerted House Speaker Paul Ryan about the collection before he headed to the White House, adding: "I'm actually alarmed by it." Democrats on the committee said they were not informed of Nunes' finding before he spoke with the media. 
  
 Generally, American citizens who are caught up in surveillance of foreign targets are not identified by name in intelligence reports. But Nunes' announcement raises the question of whether the President-elect or associates were identified in intelligence reports circulating in the covert community. 
  
 A House member on the Intelligence Committee told CNN the communications in question were senior-level people talking about Trump, not Trump himself. 
  
 Nunes later told CNN's "The Lead with Jake Tapper" that "President-elect Trump and his team were put into intelligence reports." 
  
 "Clearly there is a lot of information in the reports that I've seen, which were dozens, that would lead me to believe that the last administration and numerous agencies had a pretty good idea of what President-elect Trump was up to and what his transition team was up to and who they were meeting with," Nunes told Tapper. 
  
 Democrats in the dark 
  
 In a news conference, Schiff expressed deep concern that committee members were not told by Nunes about the revelations before he briefed the press or went to the White House. 
  
 "If the chairman is going to continue to go to the White House instead of his own committee, there is no way we can continue to conduct this investigation," he said. 
  
 "It does underscore the importance of establishing an independent commission," Schiff said. 
  
 Schiff said that he and other members of the committee had still not seen the documents that Nunes was referring to. He also said from a conversation with Nunes that there did not appear to have been any "unmasking" of any of the US people mentioned in the intercepts. 
  
 "All of us are in the dark." 
  
 Nunes defended rushing to brief the President because the reports he read have nothing to do with Russia, but he said the investigation he is conducting into Russian interference in the election would look at how Trump's name got into the intelligence reports. 
  
 "Because what I saw has nothing to do with Russia and has nothing to do with the Russian investigations, (and) has everything to do with possible surveillance activities ... the President needs to know these intelligence reports are out there and I have a duty to tell him that," Nunes said. 
  
 But in an interview with CNN's Kate Bolduan on "Erin Burnett OutFront," Democratic Rep. Jackie Speier slammed Nunes as a "presidential whisperer" undermining the committee's investigation and accused the White House of planning the day's events. 
  
 "This was pure theater," Speier said. "I think in many respects it was probably orchestrated by the White House." 
  
 Still no sign of wiretapping 
  
 Two weeks ago, Trump asked Congress to investigate whether Trump Tower was wiretapped by his predecessor. 
  
 On Monday, Nunes' committee held a hearing featuring Comey and National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers. At that hearing, Comey confirmed for the first time that his agency is investigating possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign and whether any crimes may have been committed during last year's election campaign as part of a wider probe into the hacking of Democratic servers and the Clinton campaign. 
  
 Also at that hearing, Comey said he had seen no evidence so far of the specific allegation of wiretapping Trump Tower. 
  
 Nunes at his news conference said he did not know whether the "incidental collection" happened at Trump Tower, and could not say for certain whether Trump's communications were directly collected. He said the collection included Trump transition officials and that it happened after the election. 
  
 UPDATED CORRECTION: A previous version of this story misstated whom Nunes met with before his news conference. He met Republican members of the House Intelligence Committee. ||||| For example, Nunes said that all of the information that was collected legally, as part of “incidental collection” that occurs when U.S. citizens are captured speaking with lawful non-U.S. targets of surveillance under FISA orders. Nunes also reiterated that there had been no “wiretap” on Trump Tower, as the president has alleged and continued to assert, despite disavowals by top Republicans in Congress and the intelligence community. 
  
 Yet Nunes’s announcement offered Trump a lifeline, presenting him—intentionally or not—with a way to claim he really had been surveilled. Trump quickly seized it, saying he felt “somewhat” vindicated during a brief pool spray at the White House. 
  
 Nunes charged that while the collection was entirely legal, the fact that Trump team staffers’ names were unmasked and information was shared is “inappropriate.” 
  
 “It looks like it was legal, incidental collection that then made its way into intelligence report,” Nunes said. “Nothing criminal at all involved.” 
  
 The problem is that there’s no way to assess the truth of Nunes’s claims. He says he has full faith in his source, suggesting it’s someone within the intelligence community, but it’s not clear that anyone besides Nunes has seen the “reports” to which he referred: Adam Schiff, the Democratic ranking member on the committee, has not, and while Nunes briefed both Trump and Speaker Paul Ryan, there’s no indication he showed them the report. 
  
 This is troubling because, as my colleague Conor Friedersdorf reported Wednesday morning, Nunes’s statements so far in the investigation make it difficult to give him the benefit of the doubt on truthfulness. The Washington Post also previously reported that the White House had asked Nunes to help tamp down stories about Trump team ties to Russia. 
  
 Moreover, Nunes repeatedly said he did not have all the information he needed, raising the question of why he felt it was worthwhile to go public immediately. As Republicans including Nunes complain about unauthorized leaks of classified information to the press, he has come forward to publicize anonymously obtained intelligence community materials. 
  
 His choice to take it to the White House is even more perplexing, especially without having discussed the matter with Schiff. Trump accused Obama of having surveilled him despite offering no evidence for the claim. No evidence has appeared since. Pressed to explain why it can’t simply provide the proof, the White House—rather than admit, as appears indisputable, that it has no evidence—has claimed that because of “separation of powers,” Congress should investigate without executive-branch interference. By taking his information to Trump on Wednesday, Nunes has driven a bulldozer through that wall of separation. 
  
 In leaving Schiff out of the process, meanwhile, he has blithely poisoned his cooperation with the Democratic member on the committee. Monday’s committee hearings with FBI Director James Comey and NSA Director Mike Rogers showed that there were already effectively two separate House intelligence committees, a Democratic one worried about Russian meddling in the election and a Republican one worried about leaks about Michael Flynn. Nunes’s sidestepping of Schiff, though, could doom any remaining prospects for cooperation on the committee. |||||
Output:
On Wednesday, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee dropped the kind of bombshell that raises more questions than it answers. USA Today reports Rep. Devin Nunes says he's seen intelligence reports that show communications between President Trump's team and unnamed others were "incidentally collected" by US intelligence officials. Incidental collection is what happens when US citizens happen to be recorded talking to foreign targets of surveillance, according to the Atlantic. Nunes says the surveillance in the reports, which were apparently brought to him by an unnamed source, was not directed at Trump or his team and was both normal and completely legal, CNN reports. "Nothing criminal at all involved," Nunes says. But that didn't stop Nunes from immediately informing the White House and holding a press conference, saying he was "actually alarmed by" the reports. Democrats immediately accused Nunes of blowing "what little credibility he had left" by going to the White House before sharing the reports with the rest of the House Intelligence Committee. In fact, it's unclear if anyone besides Nunes has even seen the reports. Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the committee, says Nunes' actions represent a "profound irregularity" and questions whether Nunes is working for the Trump administration. And while Nunes himself reiterates there was no wiretapping of Trump Tower—by Barack Obama or anybody else—Trump says he now feels "somewhat" vindicated.