House Intelligence Committee Chair Devin Nunes said Thursday he’s recusing himself from an investigation into Russia’s alleged ties to Trump associates and Russia’s role in the 2016 U.S. election. Nunes’s announcement came shortly before the House Ethics Committee said it was investigating whether Nunes illegally made classified information public. Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan said Thursday that Nunes had done nothing wrong, but said he welcomed Nunes’s decision to step aside.

Speaker Paul Ryan: “It is clear this process would be a distraction to the House Intelligence Committee’s investigation into Russian interference in our election. So Chairman Nunes has offered to step aside as the lead Republican on this particular probe, and I fully support his decision.”

Last week, The New York Times revealed White House officials met secretly with Nunes to show him classified U.S. intelligence reports detailing how Trump associates were “incidentally” swept up in surveillance carried out by American spy agencies as they conducted foreign surveillance. On the day after the secret meeting, Nunes, who served on Trump’s transition team, held a press conference and then traveled back to the White House to supposedly brief the president about the documents the president’s own staff had given him.