CBS: House Intel Republicans Plan to Partition Aides From Dems

Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee are planning to wall off their aides — literally — from panel Democrats by erecting a partition in the chamber, CBS News is reporting.

"The level of trust and the level of everything down there is  — it's poison. It's absolute poison down there," Republican Rep. Tom Rooney told CBS.

Whose idea was it to build a wall? All signs point to committee chairman Rep. Devin Nunes, CBS reports.

"I'm not part of that decision," Rep. Mike Conaway told CBS. "You've got to talk to Devin. I don't know what they're trying to do one way or the other."

In addition to the committee's turmoil playing out publicly over dueling memos — Nunes' and the Dems' impending response — regarding the FBI and Justice Department's Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) practices, Rooney told CBS the distrust on the panel is exacerbated by an ethics investigation into the "entire Republican staff."

Including "the woman up front that answers the phone" over alleged leaks, Rooney told CBS.

Bipartisanship "is gone. It's gone from that committee," Rooney told CBS.

• Rep. Adam Schiff Concerned About 'Political Redactions' on Dem Memo
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