Nunes

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http://www.politico.com/story/2017/...n-nunes-surveillance-white-house-trump-236577

[h=1]Swalwell on Nunes: ‘This is what a cover-up to a crime looks like’[/h]

 

[919]

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/...n-nunes-surveillance-white-house-trump-236577

Swalwell on Nunes: ‘This is what a cover-up to a crime looks like’

In the wake of Monday’s revelation regarding Nunes’ White House visit, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, has called on Nunes to recuse himself from the committee’s investigation into ties between the Russian government and the 2016 election. Swalwell echoed that call and, without naming specific lawmakers, said he’s heard frustration from Republicans that Nunes has at least created the perception of a compromised investigation.

“A lot of them have said that we don’t need an independent commission because we’re doing the work in the House committee, on the intelligence committee, and so that’s always been the out for not having an independent commission,” Swalwell said. “So I’ve heard frustration that they don’t have that out anymore. So where do we go now?”

 

[919]

[h=1].@SenJohnMcCain on Nunes: "A lot of explaining to do. I've been around for quite a while & I've never heard of any such thing." (CBS)[/h]

 

[919]

38mPeter Alexander‏
@PeterAlexander
[h=1]BREAKING: Chairman Nunes has scrapped all House Intelligence Cmte meetings this week, per source close to cmte member.[/h]

 

[919]

[h=1]Committee's two closed-door meetings this week, set for Monday and Thurs, were both canceled, as was a Wednesday open hearing. [/h]Jennifer Epstein‏
@jeneps"Not only has this investigation sort of had a shadow cast on it, but the committee's been put into suspended animation." -@jahimes on MSNBC

 

[boss415]

:nohead:

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/...n-nunes-surveillance-white-house-trump-236577

[h=1]Swalwell on Nunes: ‘This is what a cover-up to a crime looks like’[/h]

The global politico ?

 

[919]

:nohead:

The global politico ?

Do you have mental problems? Yes, the story is from politico, I will try and find you something with pictures

 

[919]

When Sid Holt, chief executive of the American Society of Magazine Editors, looked at the list of finalists in this year’s National Magazine Awards, something stuck out: Politico Magazine, which launched in late 2013, is up for honors in two big categories, for general excellence for general interest magazines and for website. “That’s unusual,” says Holt, who couldn’t say how often magazines in their first year of publication make such a splash. (Notably, one other 2013 launch, Nautilus, bagged two finalist nods in this go-round.) To appreciate the company that Politico Magazine is keeping, here are other contenders for the general excellence prize: GQ, the New York Times Magazine, the New Yorker and Wired. The magazine awards, shorthanded as the “Ellies,” are among the industry’s most-watched annual confabs.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wa...o-magazine-is-a-finalist-for-two-asme-awards/

 

[Willie99]

 

[Willie99]

 

[919]

Nunes is way out of his league here...keep covering for Trump and let's see what happens with you

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/adam-schiff-sally-yates-michael-flynn-testimony-236585

[h=1]Schiff: Yates would have testified on Flynn ‘cover-up’[/h]
Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, says a hearing set for Tuesday with former acting Attorney General Sally Yates — which was canceled by Republicans — would have featured explosive testimony on Michael Flynn’s efforts to "cover up" his conversations with Russia’s ambassador.


The intelligence panel was scheduled to hold a public hearing with members of the Obama administration, including Yates, but Republicans nixed the session last week after the Trump administration raised concerns about Yates' possible testimony.

 

[ScottL]

F-f-f-fuck da wife!

 

[919]

​

[h=1]White House denies it sought to prevent Yates' testimony[/h]By Jeremy Diamond, CNN
Updated 12:37 PM ET, Tue March 28, 2017

​

• [h=3][/h][h=2][/h]

[h=4][/h]

​

Nunes: Why should I not continue with probe? 04:45




[h=3]Story highlights[/h]

• A spokeswoman said the White House took no action to prevent the testimony
• Sally Yates served as the acting attorney general

​

Washington (CNN)The White House on Tuesday rejected allegations that it sought to prevent former acting Attorney General Sally Yates from testifying before Congress in the House Intelligence Committee's investigation of ties between Russian agents and Trump campaign officials.



"The White House has taken no action to prevent Sally Yates from testifying and the Department of Justice, specifically told her that it would not stop her and to suggest otherwise is completely irresponsible," deputy press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement to CNN.


The statement came after The Washington Post reported that the Trump administration sought to block Yates' testimony before Congress, citing a Justice Department letter to Yates' attorney that said Yates' communications with the White House counsel "are likely covered by the presidential communications privilege."

​

White House evasive as House Intelligence Committee grinds to a halt


The letter was sent on the same day that House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes canceled a previously scheduled hearing where Yates was scheduled to testify about ties between Trump advisers and Russian officials. Yates briefed Trump's White House counsel on former national security adviser Michael Flynn's meeting with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak.


The White House Counsel's office did not weigh in on the matter of Yates' testimony, a White House official said.


"There is no letter from the White House because Yates attorney's letter clearly states a non-response will be seen as the White Housenot asserting executive privilege," the official said. "So our non-response clearly allows her to freely move forward with testifying."


Yates' attorney David O'Neil said in a letter Friday to White House Counsel Don McGahn that Yates would go forward with her testimony and "conclude that the White House does not assert executive privilege" if he did not receive a response by Monday.


Nunes declined to answer whether the White House had asked him to cancel the hearing and insisted Tuesday that "nothing has been canceled," even though the top Democrat on the committee said Friday that Nunes had just canceled the hearing scheduled for Tuesday.


O'Neil, Yates' attorney, declined to comment or provide the letter he sent to the White House Counsel's office when contacted by CNN Tuesday.


Yates served as acting attorney general in the early days of the Trump administration until she was fired for refusing to implement President Donald Trump's order barring travelers form seven Muslim-majority countries.


Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said he was "aware that former AG Yates intended to speak on these matters and sought permission to testify from the White House."


"Whether the White House's desire to avoid a public claim of executive privilege to keep her from providing the full truth on what happened contributed to the decision to cancel today's hearing, we do not know," Schiff said in statement Tuesday morning. "But we would urge that the open hearing be rescheduled without further delay and that Ms. Yates be permitted to testify freely and openly."

 

[919]

Another liberal rag

http://www.nationalreview.com/

Nunes’s unforced errors have undermined public faith.

Let’s begin with two assertions, both of which should be inarguable. First, no one in Washington is entitled to any position of power or responsibility. Second, the greater the power or responsibility, the more integrity, character, and — crucially — competence we should expect from our public officials. Or, to put it plainly, to whom much is given, much is required.

By that standard, why is Devin Nunes still chairman of the House Intelligence Committee?

Let’s backtrack and briefly review the utterly bizarre events of the last month. Let’s start with this tweet, from President Trump:

Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my “wires tapped” in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017​

While there had long been reports that the intelligence community had intercepted communications between Russian officials and members of the Trump team, this tweet raised the stakes. Previously, it was understood that the intelligence community had been monitoring Russians, and it picked up communications with Trump officials only when they communicated with Russians already under surveillance. Trump’s tweets, by contrast, indicated that he’d discovered that Obama personally ordered surveillance of the incoming GOP president.

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To call that claim “explosive” is an understatement. Indeed, Trump himself understood the stakes and tweeted this:

Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my “wires tapped” in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 4, 2017​

There was just one problem: Trump made the claim without providing any evidence to support it. Indeed, as FBI director James Comey pointed out, the president doesn’t even possess the legal authority to unilaterally order wiretaps on American citizens. Yet that didn’t stop the now-familiar partisan Republican scramble to find something, anything that could make Trump’s tweet look “truthy” or perhaps “truthish.”


Enter Devin Nunes. After first saying that he believed Trump’s tweeted allegations were “wrong” on March 22, he conducted a short press conference on White House grounds to declare that he’d obtained documents indicating that White House officials (and maybe even the president) had been monitored as part of relatively routine surveillance of foreign officials.

Oddly, however, he’d apparently rushed to the White House to present this evidence without sharing it with members of his own committee. This was a breach of protocol, but not on its face a firing offense. Nunes apologized, and the storm seemed set to pass.


Then the story got stranger still. Yesterday Nunes acknowledged that he traveled to the White House before his March 22 press conference to review secret documents in the White House’s possession, then used the contents of those documents to “brief” the president and the press. In other words, the White House appeared to be using Nunes to brief itself. Rather than state its own case with its own evidence, it used Nunes to make it appear as if external investigation had at least partially validated Trump’s tweets.

Just at the time when the nation desperately needs adults to step forward who can give the public confidence that they not only understand the stakes of the Russia investigation, they also can be entrusted to conduct that investigation in good faith, Nunes unnecessarily poured gasoline on an already-raging fire. The American body politic is awash in conspiracy theories, mistrust, and wild claims of espionage and criminality. It needs leaders. It needs competence. It needs integrity.

Nunes isn’t Donald Trump’s lawyer. He’s not Trump’s spokesperson. It’s not his job to clean up Trump’s Twitter mess. The House Intelligence Committee faces the challenge of conducting an investigation that has at least some degree of bipartisan credibility. It’s not “success” for Nunes to produce a report that plays great on Fox News while his Democratic counterpart, Adam Schiff, writes a dissenting document for Rachel Maddow.


Are you unconvinced? Let’s indulge in the simplest exercise in political integrity. If the roles were reversed, what would you argue? If Adam Schiff was the chairman, Hillary Clinton was president, and Schiff was secretly meeting at the White House for solo briefings then presenting that same “evidence” to the press as if he’d discovered it, you’d want him to step down. And you’d be right.
*
Months into the Russia controversy, we still don’t know if there was any collusion at all between Russian officials and members of Trump’s team. We still don’t know the full extent of Russian efforts to have an impact on the election. And we still don’t know the identities of government officials who seem to be leaking classified information to any reporter who will listen. But we do know that partisans on both sides are utterly shameless in their double standards. Leaks are terrible if the information is damaging for their side, and they’re vital to democracy if the information is good. The Clinton Foundation’s ties to Russia are overblown, but Trump’s the Manchurian Candidate. Or, if you’re a Republican, Hillary Clinton sold out American national security, and Trump is the victim of a witch hunt. Public discourse is becoming a sad joke.


If Nunes steps down as chairman, he can quickly transition from part of the problem to part of the solution. He can make a powerful statement that mistakes have consequences, and public officials still have the integrity to acknowledge their own shortcomings. He can clear the way for an investigation untainted by his own errors. His own power and his own position are not worth the ongoing loss in public confidence. It’s time for Nunes to go.

— David French is a staff writer for National Review, a senior fellow at the National Review Institute, and an attorney.

 

[919]

Jack Goldsmith‏
@jacklgoldsmith
[h=1]8/ Unfortunately, Nunes appears to be an uninformed hack in the bag for POTUS. He has destroyed his credibility and, for now, HPSCI's,[/h]

 

[919]

http://thehill.com/homenews/house/326184-first-gop-lawmaker-calls-for-nunes-to-recuse-himself

[h=1]First GOP lawmaker calls for Nunes to recuse himself[/h]
[h=1]Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.) on Tuesday told The Hill that House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) should "absolutely" recuse himself from his panel's investigation into Russia's meddling in last year’s election.

Jones, a member of the House Armed Services Committee who frequently bucks leadership, is the first Republican in Congress to call on Nunes to step aside.

"How can you be chairman of a major committee and do all these things behind the scenes and keep your credibility? You can't keep your credibility," Jones said just off the House floor.
[/h]


“If anything has shown that we need a commission, this has done it by the way he has acted. That's the only way you can bring integrity to the process. The integrity of the committee looking into this has been tainted."

Jones is the only Republican co-sponsor on a measure from Reps. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) and Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) that would establish an independent commission to probe Russian interference in the U.S. election.

 

[919]

http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/326081-graham-nunes-should-reveal-surveillance-source

[h=1]Graham: Nunes should reveal surveillance source[/h]
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Tuesday that if Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) does not disclose the source behind his claim that the Obama administration inadvertently collected surveillance on members of President Trump's transition team, then he is unfit to chair the House Intelligence Committee.

“If he’s not willing to tell the Democrats and Republicans on the committee who he met with and what he was told, then I think he's lost his ability to lead,” Graham said on NBC’s “Today” show.

 

[919]

.

 

[919]

Reuters: House Intelligence Cmte Chm Nunes says he will not share his intelligence sources with other members of cmte

 

[SgtLanquel]

Reuters: House Intelligence Cmte Chm Nunes says he will not share his intelligence sources with other members of cmte

WH insiders suggesting that in fact, there was (is) no "Inside Source". Nunes just created an utter falsehood and attributes it to "unnamed source(s)".....a method heartly endorsed by Donnie since that has pretty much been his own game going back a decade or more