The liberals are being disingenuous in trying to make Congressman Nunes trip to the White House a partisan affair. They are taking advantage of the fact that most people have no idea how classified information is stored and disseminated. The Federalist.com/2017/03/28/nunes-has-absolutely-no-reason-to-recuse-himself.
According to the Congressman, he met with a source who described what he had discovered. Since the information is classified, the source cannot provide the documents that support his position. Those documents can be accessed in a secure environment called a Secure Compartmentalized Information Facility (SCIF). Wikipedia, the lazy man’s reference provides further details:
Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility
A Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF; pronounced “skiff”) in United States military, national security/national defense and intelligence parlance, is an enclosed area within a building that is used to process Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI) types of classified information.
SCI is usually only briefed, discussed, and stored in an accredited SCIF.[citation needed]
Access
Access to SCIFs is normally limited to those individuals with appropriate security clearances.[1] Non-cleared personnel in SCIF must be under the constant oversight of cleared personnel and all classified information and material removed from view in order to prevent unauthorized access to said information and material;[2] as part of this process, non-cleared personnel are also typically required to surrender all recording, photographic and other electronic media devices.[3] All of the activity and conversation inside is presumed restricted from public disclosure.
Construction
Some entire buildings are SCIFs where all but the front foyer is secure. A SCIF can also be located in air, ground or maritime vehicle, or can be established on a temporary basis at a specific site. The physical construction, access control, and alarming of the facility has been defined by various directives, including Director of Central Intelligence Directives (DCIDs) 1/21 and 6/9, and most recently (2011) by Intelligence Community Directive (ICD) 705, signed by the Director of National Intelligence. ICD 705 is a three-page capstone document that implements Intelligence Community Standard (ICS) 705-1, ICS 705-2 and the TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS FOR CONSTRUCTION AND MANAGEMENT OF SENSITIVE COMPARTMENTED INFORMATION FACILITIES or “Tech Specs.” The latest version of the Tech Specs was published in September 2015 (Version 1.3).
Computers operating within such a facility must conform to rules established by ICD 503. Computers and telecommunication equipment within must conform to TEMPEST emanations specification as directed by a Certified TEMPEST Technical Authority (CTTA).
It was necessary to access a SCIF, to provide the Congressman with backup information. In all likelihood, the vast majority of White House denizens do not have access to the facility. They have the necessary clearances, however, they don’t have the “need to know,” which is the second half of the equation, to obtain access to certain classified information.
The alternative would have been to follow the lead of Obama and his cronies, take the necessary information out of the secure environment, head down to the local Starbucks, order a Latte and spread the documents out on one of the group tables for all to see.