A Brief Thought: High Nunes

NinaIllingworth March 30, 2017November 17, 2022 A Brief Thought, Bill Clinton, blog, CIA, Clinton email server investigation, Clinton Email Server Scandal, cold war, collusion, Congressman, Democratic Party, Democrats, Devin Nunes, Devin Nunes is a liar, Devin Nunes is incompetent, Devin Nunes should resign, Donald Trump, FA1, Fantastic Lies, FBI, Giant Russia Theory, GOP, government lies, Hillary Clinton, House Intelligence Committee, House Russia investigation, it's not the crime it's the cover-up, James Comey, John McCain, Justice, Justice Department, lie, Loretta Lynch, Manchurian Candidate, McCarthyism, Media, Meme, MP6, Nancy Pelosi, new cold war, News, Nina Illingworth, Nixon, obstruction of Congress, obstruction of justice, Op-Ed, Opinion, Paul Ryan, Politics, protecting power, Rec Reads, Recommended Reading, Republican, resign, resignation letter, Russia, Russia Probe, Russiagate, Sally Yates, Six Things I Think, transparency, Trump Administration, Trump Russia Scandal, Trump-Russia conspiracy, two-track Justice system, US Intel, US Intelligence, Watergate, White House

Editor’s Note: after a surprisingly pleasant birthday, I’m back to tie off one of the remaining loose threads in my ongoing, somewhat involuntary review of the shamefully dishonest Trump-Russia conspiracy theory.

We’ve already talked about why Russiagate is almost certainly a lie (or at least a shocking overreaction to thin evidence that’s based on false premises) and we’ve also examined why elite, establishment Democrats are so vigorously promoting a scandal that even they’ve admitted still hasn’t proven the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government to influence the 2016 US election.

In today’s Brief Thought however, we’re going to talk about why brazen fuckery by partisan pinhead congressman Devin Nunes has threatened to turn an open investigation about a politicized conspiracy theory into an entirely separate and very real collusion scandal that could haunt the Trump administration for the rest of the swine emperor’s term:

Note: if you’re having trouble reading the above info-graphic, just right click on it and select “view this image” to pop out a larger version. Please also note that a number of the sources below have been linked entirely for their discussion of Devin Nunes and including them here does not by any stretch of the imagination mean I support whatever mad Manchurian Candidate theory Vox or the NY Times are pushing at any given time; the Russiagate conspiracy theory doesn’t have to be true for the congressman’s actions to be unethical and require his immediate resignation from the House Intelligence Committee.

Sources:

Russia-Trump probe is in chaos & Rep. Devin Nunes is to blame

Nunes’s botched effort to scuttle the Trump/Russia investigation, explained

What we don’t know about Nunes’ White House grounds visit

How the White House & Republicans Blew Up the Russia Investigation

Rep. Nunes Is a Lapdog in a Watchdog Role

How Devin Nunes Is Threatening the Constitution

How Trump’s Stooge in Congress Fucked Up His Wiretapping Investigation

It looks like Devin Nunes messed up

What The Heck Is Devin Nunes Talking About? A Guide for the Perplexed

Unfortunately, I think there is a very real danger that some on the far left are missing the forest for the trees in regards to Nunes behavior because of the massive amount of disinformation & even outright lies involved in other aspects of the Trump-Russia “collusion” scandal. The important thing to understand is that his position as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee requires Nunes to uncover the truth about what has become known as Russiagate and eventually present those findings in an official, public setting – regardless of what that truth might be and even if the investigation fails to turn up conclusive proof that the Trump campaign worked with the Russian government in any way at all.

While Nunes can (and has) expressed skepticism that the investigation will find any such evidence, the Committee itself cannot be seen to be biased towards (or against) a given side. Furthermore, it isn’t Nunes job to decide if the probe is going to find anything before the investigation has finished and it sure as shit isn’t his job to muddy the waters around Trump’s controversial statements by actively misleading the public in hastily scheduled press conferences. Finally, as head of the committee Nunes certainly cannot give even the goddamn appearance that he’s acting on behalf of the President to deflect criticism of the administration by actively impeding his own bloody investigation.

We’re talking about an official government probe into whether or not the sitting President colluded with a foreign, nuclear power to “rig” an American election and this jackanape is cab-hopping like this is a fucking le Carré novel on his way to secret White House meetings with sources he can’t disclose, before privately briefing one of the subjects of his own investigation on whether or not Trump is also being investigated by the FBI?! How can Nunes justify continuing to cancel scheduled hearings until Comey testifies in a closed briefing when Comey denies that he’s ever been invited to do so? Are the GOP and the Justice Department trying to stop former acting Attorney General Sally Yates from testifying or does it just look like it and does it really even matter when this committee should be going out of its way to promote transparency during this sensitive investigation with potentially catastrophic diplomatic consequences?

Are Nunes and Republicans who’re defending his conduct kidding me when they say they can see no reason why he should step down as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, let alone this absurd but extremely delicate Russia probe? At this point I’m not even sure Devin Nunes should be trusted to manage a fucking Footlocker, let alone run a congressional committee that demands the implicit trust of the American people because it oversees US intelligence agencies and regularly interacts with classified material.

Frankly, it doesn’t matter what I think of John McCain or Nancy Pelosi and it doesn’t matter whether or not I believe anyone will ever be able to prove the Trump campaign colluded with the Russian government or Vladimir Putin. Anyone who understands why Attorney General Loretta Lynch shouldn’t have met privately with former President Bill Clinton during the Hillary Clinton private email server investigation simply has to understand why Nunes should not have met with Trump (or Ryan) to privately discuss information he had not revealed to the rest of the committee. In light of this embarrassing blunder alone, the integrity of both the House Intelligence Committee and the “Russia probe” have been publicly tarnished and everyday Americans no longer have any reason whatsoever to trust the findings of this investigation or any other inquiry the committee undertakes during the Trump administration – unless of course, Devin Nunes resigns.

Unless the Trump administration wants to find itself battling allegations it rigged the Russia probe to protect the President, the White House should demand to see Nunes resignation letter by lunchtime tomorrow; the longer Trump waits, the less likely it is the government will survive the former transition team member’s clumsily attempts to obstruct his own investigation into a criminal conspiracy that probably isn’t even real. As in the case of Watergate, the White House would be wise to remember that it wasn’t the crime, so much as the cover-up that ultimately brought down Nixon – but something tells me that an assclown like Donald Trump hasn’t read all that much history.