Republicans haven’t stopped at just calling an end to Robert Mueller’s investigation or complaining about the lack of a second special counsel to interfere with the first. According to Politico, for weeks Republicans have been carrying out their own secret investigation of the FBI and Justice Department. And the leader of this Star Chamber panel is no surprise at all.
A subset of the Republican members of the House intelligence committee, led by Chairman Devin Nunes of California, has been quietly working parallel to the committee's high-profile inquiry into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. They haven't informed Democrats about their plans, but they have consulted with the House's general counsel.
Devin Nunes has repeatedly demonstrated that he is the least believable, most deeply partisan, and most utterly ridiculous figure in a town where that’s a highly fought-over title. Earlier, on Devin Nunes, Superspy, and the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee took a phone call from a Trump-friendly “intelligence” resource so incompetent that Trump’s own team had been trying to fire him. Nunes then hopped out of his Uber at a stoplight and went missing for hours. When he surfaced again, he appeared at Paul Ryan’s office with a tale of horrible “unmasking.” Then he hurried back the White House to report to Trump. Then he did what every good spy does … he held a press conference. And everything he put forward—everything—turned out to be absolutely without merit.
Now Nunes is clutching at his dime store cloak and dagger again, determined to uncover the deep state’s deep concern with things like following the law.
The people familiar with Nunes' plans said the goal is to highlight what some committee Republicans see as corruption and conspiracy in the upper ranks of federal law enforcement. The group hopes to release a report early next year detailing their concerns about the DOJ and FBI, and they might seek congressional votes to declassify elements of their evidence.
Devin Nunes investigating FBI agents adds a whole new level of absurdity.
There’s little doubt about the goal of Nunes and friends playing investigators.
That final product could ultimately be used by Republicans to discredit special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into whether any Trump aides colluded with Russia during the 2016 campaign — or possibly even to justify his dismissal, as some rank-and-file Republicans and Trump allies have demanded. (The president has said he is not currently considering firing Mueller.)
Unfortunately, Nunes’ last farce was treated seriously by the media, and Nunes himself was supported by the Trump White House.
… Sean Spicer repeatedly attacked reporters who asked about Devin Nunes’ manic trip to the White House, his flight to Paul Ryan, and his return to “brief” Donald Trump (complete with bracketing “I’m going” and “I’m back” press conferences).
Team Trump continued to support Nunes even though his source on this unmasking un-scandal turned out to be Ezra Cohen-Watnick, who owed his role in the intelligence apparatus to Michael Flynn, and who everyone—including H. R. McMaster—had been aching to fire. Only Steve Bannon, Jared Kushner and Donald Trump personally intervened to save Flynn’s protege.
Why is Nunes so desperate to find a reason, any reason, to stop an investigation that has increasingly focused on activities of Trump’s transition team? That’s a mystery anyone can solve.
California's Rep. Devin Nunes will be a member of the executive committee leading President-elect Donald Trump's Presidential Transition Team, according to the campaign.
Nunes is a subject of the investigation. It was his deep involvement with the transition team—which included making hiring decisions over positions like that of Cohen-Watnick—that caused him to finally make his non-recusal recusal from the Trump–Russia investigation of the House Intelligence Committee.
But Nunes doesn’t find a problem at all in attacking the people who are investigating the transition, where he was a major player. Which makes him a role model for the whole Trump team.
