So over the last few weeks as the whole Devin Nunes stunt was playing itself out and then a few additional details came out about the timelines of the CIA and FBI probes, something finally dawned on me that put Paul Ryan and Devin Nunes in an even more despicable light if that is even possible. According to what we KNOW (not speculation but what has actually been confirmed) in August of last year the CIA Director briefed key members of Congress including Ryan and Nunes about the concerns over Russian meddling AND possible collusion with the Trump campaign.
The classified briefings that the C.I.A. held in August and September for the so-called Gang of Eight — the Republican and Democratic leaders of the House and the Senate and of the intelligence committees in each chamber — show deep concerns about the impact of the election meddling.
According to sources familiar with these briefings:
The officials said Mr. Brennan also indicated that unnamed advisers to Mr. Trump might be working with the Russians to interfere in the election.
This was in August. Paul Ryan and Devin Nunes were both aware of this threat. On to Nov 8 when Trump wins the election. What do you know but 3 days later (Nov 11) who is announced as a member of Trump’s transition team? Are they old friends? Was Nunes an early supporter? Is he a mover and a shaker with great political skills and influence on Capitol Hill? By all accounts none of the above. From the linked LA Times article, the reporter even seemed a bit at a loss to explain it.
Unlike possible Defense secretary pick Rep. Duncan Hunter, who was an early and vocal backer of Trump, Nunes stayed neutral during the primary and has said only that he supported the nominee of his party.
So Nunes is on the transition team — now what? As the Republicans were celebrating their surprise victory, what do Ryan and Nunes and others do with the troubling Russia interference information? Do they tell Trump what’s going on? Do they steer clear and let things play out on their own? Does Nunes go over to the transition team to figure out what is going on or “clean things up” to ensure the problem goes away? Seriously — what the hell is going on? To me, this entire thing has Republican complicity all over it and yet no one even seems to be asking the most obvious WTF questions!
And back to the NY Times article — there is another tidbit of information about what is in the CIA briefing that should be of great concern to everyone, even though I don’t see it raised anywhere in the media. Putin’s real coup may not just be that he helped Trump win. By compromising Republican leadership at multiple levels he may have also put things in motion to continue destabilizing our government for many years to come. Just the potential for the existence and possible release of damaging information from Republican breaches could be influencing actions and decisions of the White House and Congress right now.
One factor in the C.I.A. analysis last summer was that American intelligence agencies learned that Russia’s cyberattacks had breached Republican targets as well as Democrats. But virtually none of the hacked Republican material came out publicly, while the Russians, working through WikiLeaks and other public outlets, dumped substantial amounts of Democratic material damaging to Mrs. Clinton’s campaign.
