House Intelligence chair Rep. Devin Nunes—who completely ignored the warnings of FBI and Justice Department officials not to release a misleading memo last year—is fuming over the two agencies’ refusal to supply him with the document that set the entire Russia probe in motion. Gee, Dev, can't imagine why FBI director Christopher Wray and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein aren't interested in feeding your conspiracy theories. Anyway, Trump's errand boy had harsh warnings for Wray-Rod (who are both Trump appointees, by the way). Politico writes:
“We’re not going to just hold in contempt, we will have a plan to hold in contempt and impeach,” Nunes said on Fox News.
Nunes is furious with the agencies over attempts to obtain the two-page document the FBI used to initiate its probe of the Trump campaign’s Russia contacts. That document, which The New York Times reported on in December, revealed that the probe was launched because of an intelligence tip that George Papadopoulos, a campaign foreign policy aide, had revealed to an Australian diplomat that Russia had obtained dirt on Hillary Clinton.
That reporting really irks Nunes because it destroys the harebrained claim by Trump loyalists that the dossier compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele was the catalyst for the FBI's Russia investigation. In fact, Nunes' own memo served up confirmation that the Papadopoulos intel launched the probe, not the dossier.
But Nunes says the FBI has refused to turn over an unredacted version of the Papadopoulos document, despite a subpoena and demands dating back to August. He set a new deadline for Wednesday and told Fox’s Laura Ingraham that the decision on contempt and impeachment would depend on whether Wray and Rosenstein met the new deadline.
That's the head of the House Intelligence Committee threatening to remove two of the nation's top law enforcement officials from their posts over a their noncompliance after he completely defied their warnings not to release an unsupported memo revealing sensitive information.
Removing Wray-Rod would take a sign-off from House Speaker Paul Ryan, but in the ongoing Nunes vs. FBI/DOJ showdown, Ryan has effectively sided with Nunes every time.
Following his Fox appearance, Nunes was more evasive about removing the two officials—but did continue to reveal how looney tunes he really is.
Nunes on Tuesday refused to tell reporters at the Capitol whether he intended to seek to hold the two senior DOJ officials in contempt, saying a reporter should have asked him why he wants the Papadopoulos document in the first place. Nunes declined to answer that question as well.
“I’m just trying to coach you on how to get out of the fake news realm,” he said, adding, “I’ll answer the question all day long but you don’t ask real questions.”
Yeah, that’s it—suggest a question, then decline to answer it, then claim you'll answer questions "all day long." Genius.