As threatened last week, Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee have declared themselves to be done with the pretense that they’re conducting an investigation into the Trump campaign’s conspiracy with the Russian government.
The Republican-run committee is now preparing to write a report based on the testimony of dozens of witnesses and thousands of pages of documents. Republicans and Democrats on the panel are unlikely to come to a bipartisan conclusion on some of the central questions in the probe, including whether anyone from President Donald Trump’s campaign worked with Russians to help tip the election in his favor, according to interviews with multiple lawmakers and aides on both sides.
Democrats would like to interview some of the figures that continue to emerge as important players in the still-unfolding scandal—like Roger Stone protege Sam Nunberg, foreign lobbyist George Nader, or GOP fundraiser Elliott Broidy. Democrats would also like to bring back witnesses such as Hope Hicks, Corey Lewandoski, and Steve Bannon, who refused to answer many questions based on the ludicrous idea that Donald Trump can exert executive privilege without actually exerting privilege.
But Rep. Devin Nunes and crew are putting an end to that. Having dragged their feet, derailed the investigation, and refused to issue subpoenas and contempt citations that might get Trump’s staff to talk, the Republicans are packing it in and preparing to put some fresh updates on the “nothing to see here” report that Nunes likely wrote before the first witness appeared.
In March 2017, he said at a news conferences on Capitol Hill that secret documents he had viewed confirmed U.S. intelligence officials had collected information about Trump transition aides while spying on foreign officials, and had improperly disseminated details about the Americans.
It was later revealed that Mr. Nunes got that information from the White House.
That was just one round of Nunes’ effective scheme in keeping the committee from doing anything substantial. And now Republicans have decided they need to stop, before they risk running into actual information.
Monday, Mar 12, 2018 · 10:13:33 PM +00:00
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Kerry Eleveld
It's official: House GOP sides with Trump—Russia interfered but not on his behalf. NYT story here.
“The bottom line: The Russians did commit active measures against our election in ’16, and we think they will do that in the future,” Mr. Conaway said. But, he added, “We disagree with the narrative that they were trying to help Trump.”
Nunes’ hijinks sidelined the committee after only a few interviews, delaying action and throwing the schedule months behind. Then he launched on his “unmasking” scheme where he worked with sources within the White House while pretending to be “briefing” the White House on something told to him by a “whistle-blower.” Nunes then semi-recused himself from the committee, without actually recusing himself from the committee. He maintained control over subpoenas, routinely denying Democratic requests for documents or witnesses. And then he initiated the “release the memo” nonsense, in which he deliberately misconstrued the means by which the FBI had obtained a FISA warrant against Carter Page in another effort to simply halt the investigation by planting false information.
But now Nunes believes he has sufficiently run out the clock. The investigation has officially been underway for more than a year, and although much of that time has been spent extracting the process from whatever ditch Nunes drove it into, Republicans feel that they can now safely exit the field.
And of course, they’ll release a report—one that Trump will use to demand the end to both the Senate investigation and the investigation by the special counsel. Because throwing a monkey wrench into the investigation is Nunes’ primary task.
It’s almost as if Devin Nunes, head of the executive committee on Donald Trump’s transition team, has something to hide.