Tag: Rep. Nunes

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”

Paul Ryan was asked to defend his comments about the Nunes memo. It was a disaster.

The following article by Aaron Rupar was posted on the ThinkProgress website February 6, 2018:

Ryan ended the news conference within 20 seconds.

During a news conference on Tuesday, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) was asked to defend his own comments from last week about how he doesn’t think the Nunes memo has anything to do with President Trump’s efforts to undermine the Mueller investigation.

Ryan, however, wasn’t interested in talking about it. Continue reading “Paul Ryan was asked to defend his comments about the Nunes memo. It was a disaster.”

Trump Propagandist Devin Nunes May Release 5 More Memos Trying to Discredit Justice and State Departments

The following article by the AlterNet staff was posted on their website February 4, 2018:

The chilling plan plays right into the president’s authoritarian hands.

© Getty Images

According to a new Axios report, the propagandistic memo from Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) is just the beginning of Republicans’ war on government agencies that don’t fall into line behind President Donald Trump’s authoritarian administration.

“The House Intelligence chair and his team have told members and associates they’ve found other examples of politically motivated ‘wrongdoing’ across various agencies, including the FBI, the broader Justice Department, and the State Department,” Swan writes.  Continue reading “Trump Propagandist Devin Nunes May Release 5 More Memos Trying to Discredit Justice and State Departments”

More memos are coming. Here are six questions about ‘Phase Two’ of the Nunes investigation.

The following article by James Hohmann with Breanne Deppisch and Joanie Greve was posted on the Washington Post website February 5, 2018:

Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, heads for the State of the Union last week. Credit: Joshua Roberts/Reuters

THE BIG IDEA: The memo published Friday may have been the most overhyped dud since Geraldo Rivera opened Al Capone’s empty vault in 1986. But House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, whose Republican staffers prepared the partisan document, promises that it was just the beginning.

He boasted on Friday that he now plans to train his fire on other targets. “We are in the middle of what I call ‘Phase Two’ of our investigation, which involves other departments, specifically the State Department and some of the involvement that they had in this,” the California congressman told Fox News.

“Republicans close to Nunes say there could be as many as five additional memos or reports of ‘wrongdoing,’” Axios reported Sunday night. “A Republican source briefed on Nunes’s investigation” told the site that one of the Democrats he plans to go after next is longtime Bill and Hillary Clinton associate Sid Blumenthal, who has been fending off inquiries from congressional investigators for more than two decades. Continue reading “More memos are coming. Here are six questions about ‘Phase Two’ of the Nunes investigation.”

3 questions about the FISA court answered

The following article by Lacy Wallace, Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice, Pennsylvania State University, was posted on the Conversation website February 5, 2018:

Credit: AgnosticPreachersKid-Own work, CC via Wikimedia.org

On Feb. 2, President Donald Trump allowed the release of the previously classified “Nunes memo.” The memo, written by Republican congressional aides, criticized information used as the basis for a FISA court surveillance application related to the Mueller probe into Russia’s possible involvement in the 2016 election.

But what exactly is the FISA court? And how does it work?

1. When was the FISA court established?

Congress passed FISA, or the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act in 1978. FISA was originally introduced by Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy. The act was largely a response to President Richard Nixon’s misuse of federal resources to investigate U.S. citizens. Continue reading “3 questions about the FISA court answered”

Lawmakers dispute ‘vindication’ for Trump in Intel memo

The following article by Mallory Shelbourne was posted on the Hill website February 4, 2018:

Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) said: “I think it is fair to ask the deputy attorney general, ‘What did you know at the time you signed one of the applications?'” Credit: AP Photo

Democrats on Sunday argued that the release of a controversial memo accusing the Justice Department of surveillance abuses does not vindicate President Trump in the Russia investigation — and Republicans are also avoiding declarations of Trump’s exoneration.

Trump made the claim that the memo “totally vindicates” him in the Russia investigation in a Saturday tweet following the memo’s release the day before.

But Rep. Will Hurd (R-Texas), a member of the House Intelligence Committee, told ABC on Sunday that he doesn’t believe the memo vindicates Trump. Several other Republicans argued that the memo was not about the ongoing investigation. Continue reading “Lawmakers dispute ‘vindication’ for Trump in Intel memo”

Nunes paves Trump’s road to autocracy

The following commentary by E.J. Dionne, Jr., was posted on the Washington Post website February 4, 2018:

The Nunes memo. Credit: Alex Wroblewski/Bloomberg

The autocratic leader lies and then falsely charges his opponents with lying. He politicizes institutions that are supposed to be free of politics by falsely accusing his foes of politicizing them. He victimizes others by falsely claiming they are victimizing him.

The autocrat also counts on spineless politicians to cave in to his demands. And as they destroy governmental institutions at his bidding, they insist they are defending them.

In her classic 1951 book, “The Origins of Totalitarianism,” the philosopher Hannah Arendt offered two observations that help us understand the assumptions and purposes behind the memo created by the staff of Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), the chair of the House Intelligence Committee turned propagandist for President Trump. Continue reading “Nunes paves Trump’s road to autocracy”

Republican lawmakers distance themselves from Trump on memo

The following article by Elise Viebeck and Shane Harris was posted on the Washington Post website February 4, 2018:

Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) said on Feb. 4 that the Republicans’ controversial Nunes memo won’t have an effect on the Russia investigation. (Reuters)

A fierce partisan battle over the Justice Department and its role in the Russia investigation moves into its second week Monday as Democrats try to persuade the House Intelligence Committee to release a 10-page rebuttal to a controversial Republican memo alleging surveillance abuse.

The panel’s top Democrat, Rep. Adam B. Schiff (Calif.), is expected to offer a motion to release his party’s response to the Republican document during a committee meeting scheduled for 5 p.m. Monday. It was not immediately clear whether Republicans would join Democrats in voting for the document’s release, as some members of the GOP have expressed concerns about its contents. Continue reading “Republican lawmakers distance themselves from Trump on memo”

Donald Trump Is Already Using The Nunes Memo To Undermine The Russia Investigation

The following article by Daniel Marans was posted on the Huffington Post website February 3, 2018:

Credit: Evan Vucci, AP

Just a day after the release of an underwhelming Republican-authored House Intelligence Committee memo alleging inappropriate law enforcement spying on Donald Trump’s campaign, President Donald Trumpis already using it to cast aspersions on the investigation into possible Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Trump’s pronouncement, issued in a Saturday morning tweet, supports the widely held view that the four-page partisan memo was designed to help Trump scuttle special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian interference and to cover up Trump campaign officials’ potential collusion with Russia. Continue reading “Donald Trump Is Already Using The Nunes Memo To Undermine The Russia Investigation”

Trump seized on what memo could mean even before reading it

The following article by Jonathan LeMire and Zeke Miller was posed on the Associated Press website February 3, 2018:

WASHINGTON (AP) — Even before he’d read the memo, President Donald Trump seized on what it could mean.

The president first learned of the House Intelligence Committee document last month from some Republican allies in Congress and he watched it take hold in the conservative media, including on some of his favorite Fox News programs, according to seven White House officials and outside advisers. Continue reading “Trump seized on what memo could mean even before reading it”