Tag: Devin Nunes

The Memo: Russia finds weapon in US divisions

The following article by Niall Stanage was posted on the Hill website February 25, 2018:

Credit: Alexei Druzhinin/Associated Press

Growing political polarization in the United States is a vulnerability that foreign adversaries are exploiting — and experts worry the trend will accelerate.

The threat was brought into sharp relief by the indictment of 13 Russians as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into allegations of collusion between Moscow and the 2016 Trump campaign.

The Russian efforts, according to the indictment, were part of a broader effort “to sow discord in the U.S. political system,” achieved mostly by fanning the flames of divisive debates already raging in the country. Continue reading “The Memo: Russia finds weapon in US divisions”

House Democrats’ Memo Rebutting Nunes Memo

After weeks of delay by the Trump White House, the House Democrats’ memo written to clarify and rebut the attempts to smear the federal law enforcement agencies was finally released last week.

If you haven’t had a chance to review it, you can view the PDF below:

Democrats-memo-rebutting-Republican-claims-of

Schiff: Trump doesn’t want to release Dem memo because it ‘undermines his claim of vindication’

The following article by Mallory Shelbourne was posted on the Hill website February 11, 2018:

Credit: John Shinkle/POLITICO

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) on Sunday said President Trump doesn’t want the public to see the “underlying facts” in the Democratic countermemo because they would undercut his “claim of vindication” in the Russia probe.

“The president doesn’t want you to see these facts from the FISA application because it completely undermines his claim of vindication,” Schiff told CBS’s “Face the Nation,” referring to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court application used to obtain a warrant to spy on a former Trump campaign aide. Continue reading “Schiff: Trump doesn’t want to release Dem memo because it ‘undermines his claim of vindication’”

Trump Blocks Release of Democrats’ Intelligence Memo

The following article by John T. Bennett was posted on the Roll Call website February 9, 2018:

Pelosi sees a ‘desperate pattern of cover-up on the part of the president’

Credit: Mark Wilson/Getty Images

Updated 6:47 a.m., Feb. 10 | Despite his commitment earlier Friday, President Donald Trump is blocking release of a Democratic House Intelligence Committee memo rebutting one from the Republican side, and senior Democrats are now accusing him of a “cover up.”

The Russia matter took an incredible new turn Friday night when Trump’s top White House lawyer informed the House Intelligence Committee that the president could not allow the Democrats’ document to be made public “because the memorandum contains numerous properly classified and especially sensitive passages.” Continue reading “Trump Blocks Release of Democrats’ Intelligence Memo”

How Partisan Has House Intelligence Panel Become? It’s Building a Wall

The following article by Sharon LaFraniere and Nicholas Fandos was posted on the New York Times website February 8, 2018:

Democrats accuse House Intelligence Committee’s chair, Rep. Nunes of using the position’s coveted access to classified information for the nakedly political purpose of bolstering President Trump. Credit Erin Schaff, The New York Times

WASHINGTON — Beneath the Capitol, in a secured room where the House Intelligence Committee is supposed to be pressing its inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, two dozen staff members await a construction crew.

The workers will be erecting a physical barrier to separate the cubicles of aides who serve Republican members of the committee from those who serve Democrats.

To committee members of both parties, the planned division of one room into two is emblematic of how far the panel, a longtime oasis of country-first comity in a bitterly divided Congress, has fallen since it began its Russia inquiry last year. Any pretense that committee members will come together to get to the bottom of that matter — or any other — has disappeared. Continue reading “How Partisan Has House Intelligence Panel Become? It’s Building a Wall”

Devin Nunes Is the Problem

The following commentary by Liz Mair was posted on the U.S. News and World Report website February 9, 2018:

One of President Trump’s closest allies has poisoned what could have been a productive civil liberties discussion.

Credit: Mark Wilson/Getty

Last week, a now infamous memo authored by Rep. Devin Nunes, probably President Trump’s closest congressional ally when it comes to trying to taint efforts to scrutinize alleged links between Trump’s presidential campaign and Russia, was released, drawing into political debate once again the question of whether the U.S. government has been over-aggressive in surveilling American citizens.

The memo furthered the narrative that excessive spying has been going on, and specifically that in this instance, our government was spying on people for purely political purposes. Continue reading “Devin Nunes Is the Problem”

Did Hillary Clinton collude with the Russians to get ‘dirt’ on Trump to feed it to the FBI?

The following article by Glenn Kessler was posted on the Washington Post website February 9, 2018:

Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) makes a startling claim about the Russian investigation. But there’s no evidence to back it up. (Meg Kelly/The Washington Post)

“The truth is that they [Democrats] are covering up that Hillary Clinton colluded with the Russians to get dirt on Trump to feed it to the FBI to open up an investigation into the other campaign.”
—Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, in an interview on the Hugh Hewitt Show, Feb. 7, 2018

During the probe of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election — and possible collusion by members of the Trump campaign — defenders of the president have often sought to turn the tables on Democrats. A perfect summing-up of this approach can be found in the statement above by Nunes, who described it as “a massive coverup of a major scandal that reached the highest levels of our government.” Continue reading “Did Hillary Clinton collude with the Russians to get ‘dirt’ on Trump to feed it to the FBI?”

House GOP gives Trump leeway over whether to block Schiff memo

The following article by Manu Raju and Jeremy Herb was posted on the CNN website February 6, 2018:

CNN — House Republicans, who lobbied President Donald Trump to release a GOP memo alleging FBI misconduct, are now mum on whether the White House should let the public review the Democratic rebuttal.

Republican leaders and members of the House Intelligence Committee are saying the issue is squarely in the hands of Trump and the Justice Department about whether the Democratic memo should be released over any national security concerns. Continue reading “House GOP gives Trump leeway over whether to block Schiff memo”

Nunes Tells Hannity: Clinton Collaborated With Russia to Frame Trump

The following article by Maxwell Tani was posted on the Daily Beast website February 5, 2018:

The House intelligence panel chair said “it’s scary” what people can see if they just stare deeply enough into his memo.

In a remarkable interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity, House Intelligence Chair Devin Nunes on Monday night claimed it was the Hillary Clinton campaign that had been the real Russian collaborator, and had effectively weaponized the FBI against Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential election.

“It’s what happens in banana republics. It’s scary,” said the California Republican, who claimed that the controversial memo released by the House intel panel last week on a party-line vote showed a “clear link” between the Clinton campaign and Russia. Continue reading “Nunes Tells Hannity: Clinton Collaborated With Russia to Frame Trump”

The ‘Deep State’ Conspiracy Is How Fascists Discredit Democracy

The following article by Glenn Carle was posted on the Daily Beast website February 6, 2018:

The efforts to call into question the motivations of top officials at the FBI are creating a constitutional crisis.

Credit: Sarah Rogers, the Daily Beast

The memorandum put together by Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), alleging partisan behavior by the FBI and the Department of Justice in a “Deep State” conspiracy against Donald Trump is, what we would call in the CIA, “disinformation.”

Tougher words could be used. But let’s put it simply at this: It is a deliberate diversion from the hard facts that the FBI and CIA have been amassing of Russian espionage activity with members of Donald Trump’s entourage.

And it presents FBI and CIA officers with a progressively grave constitutional crisis. The Nunes memo makes it difficult for those officers to serve an executive who—evidence increasingly indicates—has betrayed his oath to the Constitution. It also makes it hard for them to serve a legislative oversight committee that is distorting its functions so as to protect that executive. Continue reading “The ‘Deep State’ Conspiracy Is How Fascists Discredit Democracy”