The Nunes story is quite an extraordinary study in utter foolishness. To fully appreciate it, let’s begin here:
Premise: Nunes’ priority objective as chairman of the HPSCI (House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence) was
- 1. to stifle any attempt to investigate Trump and associates for their ties to Russia.
When it was confirmed by then FBI Director Comey that there was such an investigation, his aim became
- 2. to interfere with that investigation in order to undermine it.
Then finally
- 3. to find out what evidence the investigating bodies had and pass it onto the White House.
Method 1:
Nunes refused to schedule any such investigation for his committee.
He would have found this plan a very easy one to carry out. After all, he was one of at least five republicans — Jason Chaffetz, Paul Ryan, Richard Burr and Mitch McConnell — who were ignoring all calls to probe Trump-Russia connections. Instead, their shared priority centered on discovering who the leakers were. After all, this was — and remains — of far more importance to Trump. Those leaking genuine information to the media were impeding his efforts to neutralize real facts with “alternate facts”.
Even after Mike Flynn’s compromised position was exposed and he was forced to resign as National Security Adviser, Nunes willingly consented to a White House scheme to shut down Russia stories in the media. He was one of three — Richard Burr and Mike Pompeo made up the trio — to agree to use his position to phone media contacts and assure them there was nothing to those persistent rumors of Russian ties. Sean Spicer coördinated the scheme, doling out contact names and numbers to all three men. But Nunes went above and beyond this particular call of duty by calling additional contacts to those provided. He inevitably conjured up a picture of the minion most eager to please the boss.
Denial, always a go-to position for the GOP, was working well so it wasn’t surprising for Nunes to use it again. After each of two top secret FBI briefings, Nunes confidently declared to the media that there was no evidence of collusion. He did look somewhat at sea when Vice Chair Adam Schiff contradicted him the second time but he stuck to his denial nevertheless. He obviously figured it was working for him and Nunes doesn’t come across as the kind of person who can change his mind once it’s found a convenient single track to follow.
Snafu 1: March 20, 2017, James Comey appears before an HPSCI hearing and confirms that the FBI are indeed investigating collusion with Russia by the Trump campaign and the transition team.
***
Method 2:
It must have come as a blow to realize the FBI’s investigation included the transition team — Nunes was one of the first to join them. That meant… did that mean… he was being investigated too?
It’s impossible to say when that penny dropped but it must have been a stomach-churning moment for Nunes. It’s possible that his financial position exacerbated his anxiety. All his money is invested in one place: a California-based winery which, it is rumored, was looking into Russian sales before sanctions choked off the Russian markets.
It may have been this connection which brought him to the attention of Trump’s transition team. If Nunes’ investment was faltering or inhibiting him financially in some way, it would’ve made him an easy target for some kind of trade-off arrangement. But it’s anyone’s guess how compromised Nunes actually is.
What we do know is that two days after Comey’s announcement, Nunes claimed to have an anonymous source provide him with top secret information that he felt needed to be taken to the White House immediately — immediately after the press conference he was holding to announce this publicly. It all becomes rather garbled after this as Nunes’ and Trump’s stories varied, the two versions obviously tailored to suit each man’s particular concerns.
The whole sorry episode reeked of a massive panic attack by Nunes who then outed himself as a White House informer. He seemed completely unable to grasp the concept that he works for the people, not the administration; that Congress and the Executive are two separate branches of government.
Nor did he seem in any way aware of the breach he committed by informing the subject of his committee’s probe — Trump & co — of details from that investigation. That alone succeeded in jeopardizing the HPSIC’s investigation while Nunes remained in the chair.
Snafu 2: April 6, 2017, the House Ethics Committee announces it is formerly investigating Nunes for disclosing classified information to the press, a violation of the Espionage Act. Nunes announces that he is recusing himself from the HPSCI Russia investigation 26 minutes before the Ethics Committee’s formal statement. There’s every indication that the Ethics Committee directed Nunes to step aside. The recusal was against Paul Ryan’s express wishes and Nunes had resisted all calls for recusal until the day the Ethics Committee became involved. The connection is inescapable.
***
Method 3:
Undeterred by his recusal and subsequent replacement in the HPSCI chair by Mike Conaway, Devin Nunes nevertheless continued to insinuate himself into the investigation. He no longer attended committee meetings — he has access to the minutes anyway — but he did use his Top Secret Security Clearance to quietly scrutinize all intelligence obtained by the committee.
Ethically that should have been disallowed by his recusal but the unfortunate fact of the matter is that, because he recused himself, he retains authority over the limits he chooses to set on his non-participation. It’s a House rule that needs to be amended, especially in light of Nunes’ abuse of its current leniency.
It was all new territory for the media and so it became news. From an interview with CNN came this obvious lie:
“I don’t talk about intelligence,” Nunes said on Thursday, after being asked why he was still involving himself in the inquiry
That certainly hadn’t been the case in the recent past so there’s no reason to believe Nunes-the-informer did not continue to pass onto the White House everything he saw in spite of his denial.
Without any apparent awareness that, as The New Yorker reported, he’d come to the notice of the Ethics watchdogs, Nunes blithely went a step further. On Wednesday, May 31, 2017, a furious argument erupted when it was discovered that Nunes had subpoenaed the CIA, FBI and NSA without telling the Democratic members of his committee. What was it he wanted to know so badly that he needed to subpoena it? From the SMH report via Reuters:
The subpoenas asked the spy agencies to provide details of any requests made by two top Obama administration aides and the former CIA director to "unmask" names of Trump campaign advisers inadvertently picked up in top-secret foreign communications intercepts, congressional sources said.
Why did Nunes want to hide these subpoenas from the Democrats? Good question but it’s one that is actually better answered by asking another question first: who else wanted this information?
One of Nunes’ subpoenas named former CIA director, John Brennan, who also happened to appear in a Trump tweet that same day:
[bla bla bla] "the false or misleading testimony by James Comey, John Brennan..." Witch Hunt!
That was followed up the next day, June 1st, by this tweet:
The big story is the "unmasking and surveillance" of people that took place during the Obama Administration.
The common elements here are surveillance, “unmasking” and John Brennan with a desire by one to keep Democrats in the dark because of an obsession by the other to desecrate a Democratic Administration’s record. This is not a coincidence.
Since we can be certain Nunes isn’t the decision-maker here, the obvious deduction is that the White House hierarchy instructed Nunes to use his clearance to subpoena the information they wanted. Why not send one of their own? Too likely to be noticed and questioned given the current furor over Kushner and Sessions, both of whom lied on their SF-86 forms. So they sent in Nunes instead. After all, he wasn’t doing much; recusing himself from the Russian probe had given him plenty of free time. They should’ve known better but they didn’t.
Snafu 3: It must have been the last straw for HPSCI Vice Chair Adam Schiff who had already requested that Nunes be stripped of his upper level security pass. The US Intelligence Community evidently agreed. News leaked out that same day that Nunes’ Top Secret Clearance had been revoked.
***
The Democrats, led by Adam Schiff, are winning this one but it’s come at a cost. The investigation they are working so hard to conduct has taken several body blows thanks to Nunes’ deliberate sabotage. It has to be deliberate because no-one could do as much damage to their own committee — and career — by sheer accident and ignorance alone. Each step has been planned with staging for effect; very badly planned and very bad theatre but there’s no missing the plotting that has underpinned each of his foolhardy moves.
Yet Nunes, for all his efforts, is the one failing and he’s brought it on himself. Too eager to please his masters, too naive to know his own limits, too inept and, quite probably, too compromised. It hasn’t helped that his bumbling incompetence is even more starkly evident when seen in contrast to Adam Schiff’s intelligence and cool demeanor.
***
Is Devin Nunes is the biggest damn fool in the RussiaGate scandal? He does have competition in the stupidity stakes.
There’s Carter Page who’s been in such a rush to trip over his own tongue, he barely avoided tripping over his own feet on his way to his next interview. But since lawyering up, he’s no longer seeking the limelight.
Then there’s Dana Rohrabacher who actually looks as daft as he is. But unlike his protege Devin Nunes, Paul Ryan had the sense to keep Rohrabacher in the dim recesses backstage, hidden amongst other nutjobs like Louie Gohmert, Ted Yoho and Steve King.
Nunes has pulled ahead of his rivals because, unlike the asinine Rohrabacher and ridiculous Page, he has not retreated out of sight but seems hellbent on piling as much guilt on himself as he can manage in as short a time as possible.
Conclusion: Devin Nunes really is the biggest damn fool in the RussiaGate scandal.
