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The Wall Street Journal did not immediately respond to requests

June 6, 2017 by Lena Webb

The Wall Street Journal did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Washington Post.The House Intelligence Committee has asked the Department of Justice to investigate whether NSA officials illegally gained access to U.S. phone records before a congressional committee.

The report by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence is expected to determine whether the National Security Agency had been "systematically spying on American citizens" and what role the program played in the 2016 presidential election.

The agency and the Justice Department have not commented on the matter.

A spokesperson for House Intel Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) said Tuesday the committee is investigating the claims on the House Intelligence Committee website, but declined to answer how the committee might assess whether the surveillance was lawful.

"We have not been asked to respond," the spokesperson said. "It depends on what we know about this matter and what we are hearing about."

The report comes after Nunes last month asked the NSA to turn over documents that could show whether the agency has been collecting data on American citizens.

Nunes has said that he hopes the Senate Intelligence Committee's work will help determine if the agency had any role in a June 2016 request for records related to the US election.

"We think we do need to get to some kind of conclusion in terms of the question of whether the government has an obligation to this committee or if it has an obligation to the committee to get to that conclusion," Nunes said.

Nunes added that the committee should "make sure those questions are being considered, and not just in the House."

He said the committee is going to look at the reports of the intelligence committee and the Justice department "so that we can determine the extent of the agency's surveillance activities."

The NSA, the Justice Department and the NSA's National Security Agency declined to comment on the report.

On Tuesday Nunes wrote a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder asking him to investigate the matter.

Nunes, who leads the committee, said he is "deeply troubled" by the leak of documents that he says would shed light on NSA actions.

"I am deeply troubled by the NSA's surveillance operations, and it should be a wake-up call for our Congress to be more open and accountable about their actions," Nunes wrote.

Nunes said he is open to having the NSA take responsibility for what he describes as "the most egregious and egregious misuse of power in the history of the US government by a foreign power