(CNSNews.com) - House intelligence committee chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) told Fox News on Tuesday that he has "ten simple questions" to ask Obama administration official relating to the Steele dossier, a salacious and unsubstantiated opposition research document paid for by the Democrat Party and the Clinton campaign.
"We sent out a questionnaire today," Nunes told Fox News's Tucker Carlson Tuesday night. "And we're asking several former and current officials to answer ten simple questions.
"And these are questions that the public not only should know and have a right to know, but I think they want to know -- and that is, simple questions like, when did you learn about the dossier? When did you learn that it was paid for by the Democrats? When did you learn that this was a political piece?
"I mean, these are all questions that we should be able to get answers to, and we will. So part of what we sent out today with the questionnaire, with ten questions on it, also was a cover letter that says if you do not answer this -- we're giving them a couple of weeks to answer it -- you will be subpoenaed and you will come before Congress to tell us when you knew about this."
Nunes did not name the current and former officials who are getting the questionnaire.
The ten questions, obtained by Fox News, include the following:
- When and how did you first become aware of any of the information contained in the Steele dossier?
- In what form(s) was the information in the Steele dossier presented to you? By whom? (Please describe each instance)
- Who did you share this information with? When? In what form? (Please describe each instance)
- What official actions did you take as a result of receiving the information contained in the Steele dossier?
- Did you convene any meetings with the intelligence community and/or law enforcement communities as a result of the information contained in the Steele dossier?
- When did you first learn or come to believe that the Steele dossier was funded by a Democrat-aligned entity?
- When did you first learn or come to believe that the Steele dossier was funded by the Democrat National Committee (DNC) and/or Hillary for America (Clinton campaign)?
- When did you first become aware that the Steele dossier was used to obtain a FISA order on Carter Page?
- Was President Obama briefed on any information contained in the dossier prior to January 5, 2017?
- Did you discuss the information contained in the Steele dossier with any reporters or other representatives of the media? If so, who and when?
In his cover letter, Nunes told the unnamed officials they have until March 2 to provide answers, or else the committee will “initiate compulsory process.”
Nunes told Tucker Carlson on Tuesday that the House committee has found "collusion" all right:
"We have found collusion -- we've found collusion between the Democrats, specifically the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee and the Russians. However, it doesn't seem to be that -- nobody's interested in that collusion. We've also found to felony leaks -- nobody seems to be interested in getting to the bottom of the felony leaks.
"So it's part of what the House intelligence committee, led by the Republicans, are trying to get to the bottom of despite what we're up against...We're not getting help from the Democrats in the House and we're also not getting any help from the mainstream media," Nunes said.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump tweeted on Wednesday about his attorney general's failure to investigate the Obama administration response to Russian meddling:
"Question: If all of the Russian meddling took place during the Obama Administration, right up to January 20th, why aren’t they the subject of the investigation? Why didn’t Obama do something about the meddling? Why aren’t Dem crimes under investigation? Ask Jeff Sessions!" Trump tweeted.