Despite admitting he had not read the intelligence his own disputed memo was based on, Rep. Devin Nunes promised he’s got more partisan tricks up his sleeve designed to undermine our institutions and put party and Donald Trump über alles.
During his Fox News interview with Bret Baier yesterday, Nunes, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said he sent member Trey Gowdy to see the intelligence behind his own memo because, supposedly, Gowdy was better suited to understand it.
BAIER: Did you write [the memo]?
NUNES: Myself, Trey Gowdy, our two investigators, and then obviously checked by the lawyers and the rest of our committee members.
BAIER: Did you read the actual FISA applications?
NUNES: No, I didn’t. This has been one of the bogus news stories that had been put out. So, the agreement we made with the Department of Justice was to create a reading room and allow one member and two investigators to go over and review the documents. I thought the best person on our committee will be the chairman of the Oversight Committee, Trey Gowdy, who has a long career as a federal prosecutor, to go and do this. And then they over a series of meetings would come back with their notes and brief the rest of the committee members –
That begs the question, if Nunes thought Gowdy the best person to view the FISA applications, why wasn’t he also the best person to write the memo about them? As Marcy Wheeler pointed out, the fact that “fire-breathing partisan hack” Gowdy suddenly decided to retire this week suggests a lack of comfort about where his party is going. Especially since he tweeted support for the FBI, the DOJ and the Mueller investigation yesterday. “I also remain 100 percent confident in Special Counsel Robert Mueller. The contents of this memo do not - in any way - discredit his investigation,” Gowdy made a point of announcing.
As I have said repeatedly, I also remain 100 percent confident in Special Counsel Robert Mueller. The contents of this memo do not - in any way - discredit his investigation.
— Trey Gowdy (@TGowdySC) February 2, 2018
As Gowdy well knows, discrediting Mueller's Russia investigation is what Nunes' stunt is all about.
And let's not forget that Nunes thinks this memo so important that he released its classified information while tossing aside pleas from the FBI not to do so.
Although Baier looked and sounded skeptical of Nunes during the interview, Nunes was never pressed about why he thought it necessary to write a memo summarizing intelligence he didn’t think it necessary to view.
Sadly, there seems to be lots more where this sleight-of-hand came from:
BAIER: Are there other memos that are going to come out? Are there other memos? You said this was phase one.
NUNES: Yes. So, this completes just the FISA abuse portion of our investigation. We are -- we are in the middle of like whole phase two of our investigation, which involves other departments, specifically the State Department and some of the involvement that they had in this. That investigation is ongoing and we continue to work towards finding answers and asking the right questions to try to get to the bottom of what exactly the State Department was up to in terms of this Russian investigation.
If you’d like to contribute to or volunteer for Andrew Janz’ campaign, Nunes’ 2018 Democratic challenger, here is the link.
Meanwhile, watch Nunes’ disturbing comments below, from the February 2, 2018 Special Report.
(Transcript excerpts via RealClear Politics with my emphases added)