The Department of Justice is lining up another meeting so “Gang of Eight” lawmakers can peek at still more classified documents on how the FBI has conducted the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. As reported by CNN and Politico, more details on a confidential FBI source will be provided to lawmakers—including Devin Nunes, who earlier served the department with a subpoena, demanding to see the documents.
This acquiescence followed a day in which Republican leaders, including the regularly feckless Paul Ryan, spoke out to say that they saw no evidence that the FBI had done anything wrong in the investigation. But, just as Gretchen had her “fetch,” Trump will have his “spygate.” It doesn’t matter that not even congressional Republicans are falling in line behind this “the FBI investigating Russian interference equals planting so many spies in my campaign” meme. Trump is still struggling mightily, even bigly, to make it happen.
That includes a tweet that, as Axios details, made its way from an anonymous Twitter account, paused for a moment to get shined in Reddit’s acid bath, got a double sprinkle of Gateway Pundit’s special crazy, was vomited up by Lou Dobbs, and was then repeated by Trump.
This entire evening of nonsense originated with the misread of a single word in documents that were made public four months ago. Because that is how this country now operates: On a chain of innuendo and ignorance, carried on the shoulders of paranoia.
And just because even Paul Ryan and Trey Gowdy have been forced to admit that the FBI did “exactly” what they should, that has not quieted the voices of the most ardent congressional Trump fans. Florida Republican Matt Gaetz shot back that Ryan was “siding with the FBI and Department of Justice” and that there was “no excuse” for the Speaker’s actions. So now, it’s time for Revealing Classified FBI Sources, Part 2.
When applied to intelligence, the “Gang of Eight” means party leadership in both chambers, along with the leadership of the House and Senate select committees on intelligence. For those going to view the documents on Monday or Tuesday of next week, that means: Mitch McConnell, Chuck Schumer, Richard Burr, and Mark Warner on the Senate side, along with Paul Ryan, Nancy Pelosi, Devin Nunes, and Adam Schiff from the House.
Trump heavily played up an incident two weeks ago in which first a group of only Republicans and then the Gang of Eight were allowed to view classified documents revealing the name and background of an FBI source—despite warnings from both the FBI and DOJ that such a viewed set a terrible precedent, was a breach of every standard intelligence protocol, and put both the life and work of the asset (and others) at risk. The process was further politicized by not only having just Republicans in the first group to see the documents, but having one of Trump’s personal attorneys, along with Chief of Staff John Kelly, tag along.
The information revealed by those documents only demonstrated the hollowness of Trump’s “spygate” claims. There was so little to see that not even the partisan team sent in for the purpose of finding something to complain about could find a spin-worthy issue. After sitting silent for weeks, both Gowdy and Ryan eventually confessed that there were no there there in Trump’s claims of FBI spies. Ryan was so not taken with the documents on first viewing, that he didn’t even stick around for the Gang of Eight scanning.
The entire incident is only a fragment of Trump’s larger effort to flip the investigation on it’s head, turning the FBI into criminals and himself into the aggrieved party. To that end, Trump has constantly described Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation as being the product of “hardened” and “angry” Democrats, and both Trump and his most visible attorney, Rudy Giuliani, have begun talking about FBI operations as if the FBI itself were the mafia.
It seems extremely unlikely that the new set of documents will reveal anything more suspicious than the first. However, Devin Nunes will be along. And he’s always ready to fetch for Trump.