House Intelligence chairman deviated from ‘collusion’ narrative, exposed scandal

by WorldTribune Staff, February 14, 2018

The Republican chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence has singlehandedly blown the lid off abuses in the investigation of alleged Trump-Russia collusion.

Rep. Devin Nunes has been so effective, it seems, that one liberal pundit actually accused him of being a Russian spy.

House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes. / AP

“Is it possible that we actually have a Russian agent running the House intel committee on the Republican side?” John Heilemann said on MSNBC. “He’s behaving like someone who’s been compromised, and there are people in the intelligence community and others with great expertise in this area who look at him and say, ‘That guy’s been compromised.’ ”

It is Nunes who, “through targeted subpoenas and threatening letters” has “forced into the open a fuller story of how the Obama administration investigated suspected Russian ties to the Trump campaign and monitored people connected to the presidential candidate,” security correspondent Rowan Scarborough wrote for The Washington Times.

In revealing the scandal behind the alleged scandal, Nunes has come under fire from the mainstream media and Democrats who are outraged that the intel chairman deviated from the Trump-Russia collusion script they are so heavily invested in.

California Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the intel panel, “has relied heavily on the unverified Russia-sourced dossier to frame the investigation and interrogate witnesses,” Scarborough wrote. “He has resisted all of Nunes’ efforts to find out who paid for the dossier, who read it during the campaign or how the FBI relied on it to open its investigation.”

“Whether it was how the FBI used a Democrat-financed dossier or why the special counsel fired his top FBI agent or how many Trump associates were ‘unmasked’ in wiretap spying, Nunes has unearthed facts that otherwise likely would have remained hidden,” Scarborough wrote.

Among Nunes’ discoveries, Scarborough noted:

  • The dossier: Nunes subpoenaed the bank records of investigative firm Fusion GPS, which paid dossier writer Christopher Steele, a former British spy. Fusion went to U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to block the move. The court battle flushed out D.C. law firm Perkins Coie LLP, which filed a letter disclosing it had financed Fusion’s work with money from the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee.
  • Peter Strzok: FBI agent Strzok and his lover, agent Lisa Page, texted each other about an “insurance policy” against Trump and the activation of a “secret society” after his election victory. After the texts were revealed, Strzok was removed from special counsel Robert Mueller’s team.
  • Bruce and Nellie Ohr: Nunes’ inquiry dug up the fact that Bruce Ohr, a senior Justice Department official, met with Steele during the presidential campaign. At the same time, Nellie Ohr, a Russian scholar, worked for Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson. It is presumed she worked on the firm’s opposition research to bring down candidate Trump. After the election, Bruce Ohr met with Simpson, though Ohr was not assigned to the Russia probe. Since the Fusion-Ohr disclosures, Fox News reported that he has been demoted for failing to disclose the meetings.
  • Unmasking: Nunes discovered that Obama administration national security adviser Susan Rice and UN Ambassador Samantha Power made hundreds of unmasking requests, some of which pertained to Trump associates. Republicans say Nunes’ investigation led directly to reforms in how officials can request identities of citizens unintentionally collected in foreign surveillance.

One Trump campaign volunteer who was surveilled under FISA was Carter Page.

“The Steele dossier accuses Page of a series of collusion crimes, all of which he denies,” Scarborough wrote, adding Page has filed a libel lawsuit against media outlets that reported the unconfirmed claims.

Page said in a statement to The Washington Times: “The unfortunate attacks against Chairman Nunes represent the essence of the McCarthyism that has recently re-emerged. For those who try accusing the chairman of partisanship, at least his investigation’s recent conclusions in the forthcoming memo allegedly focus on hard facts. In doing so, the House Intelligence Committee’s findings should finally help America make a giant leap forward beyond the DNC-funded propaganda that has deceptively dominated the news for over a year already.”


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