republican claims of fbi abuse in last week's three and a half page memo. >> i know there's speculation. we're still going through the process that we went through with the republican memo. we'll continue to do that. once that's completed, we'll have something further to add. >> reporter: meanwhile the republican who spearheaded the initial memo, devin nunes, said he is moving into a new phase of his investigation. he said his probe involves the state department but wouldn't elaborate further. at issue, notes written by a colleague of long time hillary clinton friend sydney blumenthal. in those notes, uncollaborated claims about trump and russia with other reporters and sources that colleague of blumenthal's claimed with in russian intelligence and elsewhere. according to sources familiar with the matter, it was passed on to christopher steele by an official at the state department. >> mr. steele was more of a political operative than a reliable informant. even though he had been used in the past and was reliable in this case he had a political