Day 137.
About three weeks ago, trump went on one of his tweet rants. In those rants he accused the prior President, President Obama, of “tapping my wires”. There was no evidence offered, and the White House said it should be investigated. Things simmered for quite a while.
The House Intelligence Committee started an investigation into the hacking of our election process by Russia, and decided to include this accusation as part of their inquiries. The Chair of this Committee is Devin Nunes.
Last week, the committee held an open hearing with Director Comey and Adm. Rogers testifying. Both men said they had “no evidence nor have I seen anything that shows that Trump Tower had been wiretapped or surveilled”. They were both emphatic about that.
Then the bombshell came falling down out of the blue sky. Comey said that the FBI had been investigating the trump campaign for possible colluding with Russia and their hacking into our election. He said the investigation had been going on since last June, months before the election. He called it a “counter intelligence” investigation. That kind of investigation is usually reserved for espionage.
There was an almost deafening hush fall over the room with that announcement. And from there, to coin the phrase, the shit really hit the fan. The media went nuts, as you could imagine. Nunes almost seemed stunned at the announcement.
But things got even crazier after that. According to a report, and confirmed by Nunes spokesperson, Nunes was traveling in an Uber cab one night with staff and got a message. He immediately left the cab without telling his staff what was going on or where he was going. He basically disappeared.
The next morning, Nunes held a news conference and announced that he had been shown information that said that some of trump’s transition team had been incidentally been picked in recordings under FISA warrant. He also said he would inform the president, and then got in a car and headed down to the White House.
After briefing the president, he held another press conference to discuss what he told the president. The real problem is that he never shared this information with anyone on the committee. He never informed Rep. Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the committee of the information or that he intended to tell the president. He just hopped in his car and did his worst.
Then on Friday, he held another press conference to announce that he wanted to speak to Director Comey and Adm. Rogers again in a closed-door session. As a result an open hearing scheduled for tomorrow would be postponed for another day. Today we learned that the closed-door session has also been postponed.
The last bit dropped today. It was discovered, and confirmed by Nunes himself, that the night he disappeared, he went to the White House to meet with his “source” to get this information. He claims there is nothing special about this because he goes there all of the time.
But, I know something about how the White House works. You do not get into the White House, or even on the grounds without prior approval from someone inside the White House. It doesn’t matter if you are a member of Congress either. This is especially true at night.
Once you are signed in, you are normally escorted to where you are going. That is standard operating policy. So, his other claim that “I could have sneaked in and no one would have even known” is a lie. If he had sneaked in, he just might have been shot. Especially considering the fence jumper the past weekend.
As a result of all of this, it is clear that Nunes is hiding something. I don’t buy his story about his belief that the president deserved to know the details he saw in the information he got at the White House. Nor, do I believe his statement that it does not involve the Russia investigation. If it didn’t have anything to do with the investigation, why was it so important to brief the president?
Additionally, this is a man who is supposed to be conducting an investigation into this White House and their ties to Russia. His briefing the president on anything he discovers is like the FBI briefing a Mafia Head about an investigation into their family’s criminal activities. You just don’t do that if you are seriously trying to get to the bottom of a real investigation, regardless of where the evidence leads you.
This all brings me to the one question that not one of our marvelous journalists have asked. Nunes claims he is “concerned” about U.S. citizen names being unmasked. So, I would ask him if his name was on that list of people who were legally incidentally surveilled in FISA warrants of foreigners.
That question is not unreasonable. Nunes himself said this was done during the transition. Nunes was a Senior Advisor to the trump transition team. As a result, it would not be impossible for him to call someone maybe he shouldn’t. Is that what he is afraid of coming out? Why else would he not share the information with anyone else on the committee?
Maybe, just maybe, Nunes isn’t just a shill for trump. Maybe, just maybe, Nunes is complicit in what is being investigated. So, the question should be asked. Obviously, he will either outright deny his name is on the list, or he will obfuscate and just not answer the question.
Democrats are calling on Nunes to recuse himself from the investigation. He says he will not step down. But, as things keep dripping out in this case, Nunes’ integrity will be questioned as things move along. And, if it turns out he lied about his “briefing of the president” and what was covered, and/or his name is on the list, he could be in much more serious trouble.
This whole thing is getting crazier and crazier. Nunes seems to be way over his head in this investigation. He is acting more like an informant for the president than the one who is supposed to oversee the president’s actions. He has no one to blame for his hell hole but himself.
I dare someone in the journalistic world to ask the question if he, Nunes, was one of those picked up. Nunes always appears to me as looking like a deer in the headlights. It would be interesting to see how he reacts to this one reasonable question. So, someone with guts, please ask it!
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