Nunes

Did Nunes’ Disclosure Of Secret Intelligence Data Violate The Law

... secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants was worthy of criminal charges under the Espionage Act. “Did he violate the Espionage Act? I don’t know enough to make that determination right now,” said Sen. Claire Mc Caskill, a Missouri Democrat and a former prosecutor. “But even without knowing all the facts, it’s pretty obvious that he was perilously close.”. If it was declassified and then discussed in a judicial proceeding or congressional hearing. Something like that FBI Director James Comey on how information from classified material can legitimately make it’s way into the public reporting. Jack Langer, a spokesman for Nunes on the intelligence commitee, said Nunes had not violated the law, which could carry a penalty of 10 years in prison. “The chairman did not identify the targets of the surveillance and only spoke in general terms about the content,” ...

Devin Nunes's Curiously Selective Memory

... into ties between the Russian government and the Trump campaign. Carter Page was a foreign-policy adviser to Trump when he was a candidate. My colleague Julia Ioffe probed the weird nature of his position in the campaign. The New York Times reported that he traveled to Moscow to speak at a Russian university prior to the election. And he met with the Russian ambassador during the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, despite previously claiming on TV that he had no such meetings. Neither act is a smoking gun proving that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia. But anyone investigating the possibility would be incompetent or dishonest if they insisted that they’d never even heard of the man. (The Senate intelligence committee has heard of him.). It seems even less likely that Nunes has never heard of Roger Stone, given ...

Kushner Offers To Meet With Senate Intel Committee Over Russia Meetings

... the members, indeed the chairman, takes only information he has seen to the White House and doesn't share it with his own committee," ranking Democratic member Adam Schiff said Sunday on CBS "Face the Nation," showing the weekend did little cool relations between Nunes and the Democrats on the committee. Can Senate investigators make headway with less drama. While the House Intelligence Committee is pulling apart at the seams, Senate investigators appear to be on solid ground. Two members on that investigation - Sen. James Lankford, an Oklahoma Republican, and Sen. Angus King, a Maine independent who caucuses with the Democrats - said as much at a joint news conference last week. One thing that appears to be helping Senate Intelligence Committee has been a low-key approach so far, interviewing witnesses quietly in private. And Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr, a North Carolina Republican, has shied away from the cameras for the past two months, leaving his House counterparts to dominate the airwaves. Some of that will change Thursday, when the Senate ...

The Dual Roles Of Devin Nunes Raise Questions About House Investigation

... his panel to focus on lines of inquiry — including hunting the sources of damaging news leaks — that seem more favorable to Trump. Nunes’s latest move came Friday, when he made a flurry of announcements that on the surface signaled promising new investigative paths, including an agreement to hear testimony from Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort. But to Democrats, Nunes’s actions again seemed to show the hidden agenda of the White House. Most immediately, Nunes canceled an open hearing that had been scheduled for Tuesday with former senior officials who have battled Trump. Among them is former acting attorney general Sally Q. Yates, who was fired by Trump; former director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr., who publicly disputed Trump’s wiretapping claim; and former CIA director John Brennan, who has said that Trump should “be ashamed of himself” over his behavior toward U. S. spy agencies. When Nunes announced the hearing, it appeared that Republicans would use the session to confront the former Obama administration officials over a raft of news leaks. But after the five-hour performance by FBI ...

Harsh Portrayal Of Their Hometown Congressman Devin Nunes Riles His Neighbors And Friends

... other dairy breeds, making the milk worth more. But a detail like that is easy to lose sight of, and the image of cows with huge udders ready for milking makes it easy for the national media to portray the leader of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence as, well, maybe not up to the task when the controversy involved alleged Russian attempts to disrupt an American presidential contest. That’s a view that plain annoys farmer Brian Watte of Tulare. He grows cotton, alfalfa, black-eyed peas and pistachio trees, and has known Nunes well before he was elected to Congress more than 14 years ago. “This B. S. that he milks cows from Podunk and shouldn’t be on the intelligence committee – c’mon,” Watte said. “It’s just a continuation of, I guess, Trump’s election. They need to get over it.”. In the agricultural community of Tulare, the Nunes family is known for working hard and speaking plainly, Watte said: “There’s no beating around the bush. They are straight ahead. What ...

Through The Looking Glass With Trump And Nunes

... and curiouser, to quote “Alice in Wonderland.”. The Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Representative Devin Nunes, tried damage control for Trump on Wednesday, holding a press conference to describe US surveillance of foreigners that “incidentally” swept up conversations involving Trump’s transition team, and briefing the president on the congressional probe he’s leading. Speaking separately to reporters, the president said he felt “ somewhat” vindicated for insisting Obama wiretapped him, and told Time magazine that what Nunes said “means I’m right,” a canard now refuted under oath by intelligence chiefs and clung to only by those who believe microwave ovens are spying on us. Now Nunes, who was himself a member of Trump’s transition team, discovered that when you throw a lifeline to ...

Adam Schiff Calls On Devin Nunes To Remove Himself From Russia Investigation

... They have held the top positions on the House Intelligence Committee for two years, and have served in Congress together for more than a decade. "This is not a recommendation I make lightly, as the Chairman and I have worked together well for several years; and I take this step with the knowledge of the solemn responsibility we have on the Intelligence Committee to provide oversight on all  intelligence matters, not just to conduct the investigation," Schiff said in a statement. A spokesman for Nunes, who was a member of Trump's transition team, said Monday  he obtained the information from a source on White House grounds , which raised even more questions.  Nearly a week after Nunes' announcement, committee members still haven't seen the evidence, Schiff said. "There was no legitimate justification for bringing that information to the White House instead of the committee. That it was also obtained at the White House makes this departure all the more concerning," Schiff said. Nunes' spokesman would not comment on calls for ...

Trump Surveillance Claim May Hurt Nunes Despite Apology 1

... Chasm’. The incident is raising questions among Democrats, and even a few Republicans, of whether Nunes can remain in his post, and whether he can preside over a nonpartisan inquiry into Russian efforts to influence the U. S. election and related leaks of intelligence. “This just shows a tremendous chasm between the two senior members of the House Intelligence Committee,” Republican Senator John Mc Cain said Wednesday night on MSNBC. “What we need is a select committee.”. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat from California, told reporters Thursday that Nunes went “outside the circle of respect” for his committee and the House with his decision to immediately brief the White House. She called him a “stooge of the president.”. “I think he has demonstrated very clearly that there is no way there can be an ...

Trump Son-in-law Met Executives Of Sanctioned Russian Bank, Will Testify

... Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, have urged Nunes to recuse himself from the Russia probe. Nunes told CNN on Monday that he went to the White House grounds because the intelligence information was not available to Congress. He said he did not meet with Trump or his aides at that time and did not coordinate the release of information with the Trump administration. Nunes spokesman Jack Langer said in a statement that Nunes "met with his source at the White House grounds in order to have proximity to a secure location where he could view the information provided by the source.". White House spokesman Spicer did not shed any light on who at the White House helped Nunes gain access to a secure location. It was the latest twist in a saga that began on March 4 when Trump said on Twitter without providing evidence that he "just found out that Obama had my 'wires tapped' in Trump Tower ...

Devin Nunes Sees The Headlights

... for public works because they benefit the whole public. So why are this state’s House Republicans undercutting one of the most important rail projects in Northern California. Schiff rises, Nunes falters in Russia investigation: There could not be a clearer contrast between the two California congressmen at the center of a political hurricane. Rep. Adam Schiff is a calm and smart voice. Rep. Devin Nunes is first and foremost an apologist for President Donald Trump. Dan Walters: California legislators have introduced bills to put nearly $12 billion in new state bonds on the 2018 ballot, but they’ll have to get Gov. Jerry Brown’s approval, and he’s become skeptical about adding more debt to the state’s balance sheet. Ben Boychuk: In the hearing for Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch, Sen. Dianne Feinstein illustrated why the charge of originalism is hardly a condemnation and certainly not a reason to keep Gorsuch off the court. Gregory Favre: We are experiencing a leadership by threats ...