devin nunes 2 truth social

1119 bak

SEE TRUTH SOCIAL

SEE STEELE DOSSIER RUSSIA-GATE CHALUPA

It doesn’t matter that 73% of Steele’s findings have been completely or partially confirmed by press releases and the Mueller report

kash is demon spawn mueller collusion?

SEE FAIL DEFAM MADDOW

see ammon bundy

trump is using off brand twt wanna be

see derek harvey (Ginni)

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On Wednesday, following the GOP’s historic midterm bloodbath, President Donald Trump received another humiliation when the price of his signature DJT stock plunged to its lowest point ever. While investors were once paying $175 per share, it’s worth just over $5 as of this writing, or as the internet noted, “about as much as a Happy Meal.”

DJT is the stock ticker for Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. (TMTG), the parent company for Trump’s Truth Social social media platform. Launched in 2021, early investors paid as much as $175 per share, which plunged to about $13 per share within two years. After the company went public in 2024 amidst Trump’s presidential campaign, its value briefly jumped to $61.96 but has been falling off ever since, and has been in freefall since October. Then on Election Day, as it became clear that the Republicans had been decimated by the midterms, its price went over a cliff, plummeting from just under $6 to a record low of $5.05. The internet noticed and offered its thoughts on the matter.

“Trump Media stock is down,” Washington Post contributor Drew Harwell pointed out. “A share costs about as much as a Happy Meal. At its peak, investors paid $175 a share.” But as writer Amanda Knox noted, “With a Happy Meal, you get a toy that you can keep.”

“Do not buy the dip,” warned New Yorker staff writer Philip Gourevitch. “If you're baffled by Trump voters, consider Trump investors,” mused another comment.

“Chugging this stuff until my torso kerplodes,” admitted one reshare of the disastrous stock chart. And All In producer Adam Weinstein needed no words to express his sentiments, adding only a clip from Mad Men in which character Don Draper achieves a moment of zen.

This isn’t the first time Trump’s company has been hit by bad financial news. In 2025, Truth Social reported net losses of $712 million. At the same time, data suggests that its traffic has fallen by 30 percent year over year, while its users dropped from a peak of roughly 420,000 in June 2025 to about 260,000 in September 2026. In 2023, it was also reported that TMTG was under investigation for laundering money for Russian oligarchs. While TMTG sued the Guardian and Variety for reporting on the story, the suit was dismissed. According to the Washington Post, a federal probe found that one of the company’s wealthy investors was linked to efforts to move assets from Russia, Ukraine, and China to the Caribbean. Over the past two years, the company has been increasingly involved with various cryptocurrency ventures, and the Trump family’s crypto schemes have reportedly raked in roughly $2.3 billion since he reentered the White House.

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an 10 26?

Trump’s Truth Social hits rock bottom as users flee and stock crashes

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9 26 DAVID CORN HOW RUSSIA WON NUNES BIG BS PLAYER IN NARR 180

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an 12 25

President Donald Trump expanded his business activities with the launch of his tech company, Trump Media & Technology Group — which includes his social media platform Truth Social and is separate from the Trump Organization. Although the company increased the president's net worth, its publicly traded shares have been underperforming in the stock market recently.

But Trump Media shares rebounded on Thursday morning, December 18 with the announcement of a merger with the nuclear fusion company TAE Technologies.

According to CNN reporter Matt Egan, "The surprise merger drove shares of Trump Media 17 percent higher in premarket trading. The companies said the all-stock transaction is valued at more than $6 billion and will create one of the first publicly traded fusion companies. After the deal closes, shareholders of Trump Media and TAE would own about 50 percent of the combined entity."

Egan notes that the merger announcement "comes as Trump Media's share price has plunged this year."

"Truth Social has struggled to gain traction, remaining a far smaller player than rival social media platforms," Egan reports. "Trump Media has announced efforts to diversify into artificial intelligence, crypto and asset management."

FAIL

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former Rep. Devin Nunes (R-California) hasn't been shy about filing defamation lawsuits that many legal experts considered frivolous according to the standards outlined in U.S. Supreme Court's landmark 1964 ruling in New York Times v. Sullivan. In April 2023, U.S. District Court Judge C.J. Williams threw out a Nunes lawsuit against Esquire. And in 2020, Judge John Marshall ruled that Nunes couldn't sue two parody accounts on X, formerly Twitter (one of which was named Devin Nunes' Cow and mocked him from the perspective of a fictional cow).

Nunes also sued NBC/Universal in response to comments from top-rated host Rachel Maddow. But on Friday, August 1, U.S. District Judge Kevin Castel dismissed that lawsuit, ruling that Nunes failed to show actual malice.

In New York Times v. Sullivan, the Warren Court ruled that libel has to involve actual malice — a ruling that, 61 years ago, countless journalists and legal experts hailed as a major victory for the First Amendment and freedom of the press.

Castel's ruling is generating a lot of comments on X, formerly Twitter.

IFrame Content

Reuters Jonathan Landay noted that Nunes' lawsuit involved "a comment by Rachel Maddow about his dealings with a suspected Russian agent."

X user EJW commented, "Perpetual Loser Nunes — loses again."

Another X user, Sadie NYC, wrote, "Sucks to be you dude. Trump Media CEO Nunes loses defamation lawsuit over Rachel Maddow show."

Politico's Josh Gerstein observed, "BREAKING: Judge tosses fmr Rep. Nunes' libel suit re MSNBC report on handling of package from Russia-linked legislator. Maddow & producer said they relied on POLITICO report suggesting Nunes sat on package, didn't see later 1 saying he gave it to FBI."

X user Bill Thatcher wrote, "@DevinNunes Such an insecure little weenie. Did she hurt your little feelings?! Devin, the continuing poster boy for thin-skin, low IQ, politically deaf white boys."

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an 12 24

[QAnon-affiliated podcast airs Truth Social CEO Devin Nunes interview on same day Trump names him to chair President's Intelligence Advisory Board]

12/18/24 mma

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dmitri simes nunes bill clinton opp res kislyak butina

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During an appearance on MSNBC on Sunday morning, former U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade raised red flags over Donald Trump's appointment of Truth Social exec Devin Nunes as chairman of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board.

Speaking with MSNBC fill-in host Melissa Murray, the former prosecutor claimed that, with all of the president-elect's problematic nominations, allowing Nunes access to sensitive intel secrets may be the worst of all.

McQuade got right to the point, calling the appointment, "A shocking, astonishing, disturbing, and fill in your descriptor, conflict of interests."

ALSO READ:The reckoning: Plenty of hurts coming for the people who didn't care about their country

"As chairman, Devin Nunes will have access to all of the intelligence that is gathered by the intelligence community," she explained. "The idea is that he is supposed to be the president's eyes and ears over the intelligence community. With that information, and simultaneously serving as the head of Truth Social, it means he has the ability to post things he shouldn't know but also as Rick Wilson points out, the fact that Truth Social receives funding from foreign governments, while they are also targets of our intelligence come is deeply disturbing."

"If someone had to go through a routine background investigation, those conflicts would be flagged with screaming sirens and I would imagine that most presidents, most offices of personnel management would find him to be a nonstarter," she added.

"But here we have Donald Trump putting [him] in place, knowing about this conflicts," she suggested. "I think of all of the appointments, this conflict might be the most disturbing."

Watch below or at the link:

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1123an no lnx

'Completely unacceptable': Johnson gavels House out for 3-day weekend to attend far-right event in Paris

Carl Gibson

November 10, 2023

Even though a potential federal government shutdown is just eight days away, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) sent lawmakers home early for a long weekend to tend to a different priority: Catching a flight to Paris.

The New Republic reported Friday that Johnson — who still has yet to present a plan to fund the government before the November 18 deadline — gaveled the House of Representatives out of session on Thursday so he can make it to the Worldwide Freedom Initiative's (WFI) upcoming conference in Paris, France, where he's due to speak Friday night.

"We are just 8 days away from a devastating government shutdown — and instead of working in a bipartisan way to keep the government open, Speaker Johnson sent Congress home early for the weekend," tweeted Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Virginia). "This is completely unacceptable."

According to the New Republic, this weekend's WFI conference features an array of prominent far-right figures. In addition to Johnson, Governor Kristi Noem (R-South Dakota) will also be in attendance, along with her paramour Corey Lewandowski, who was found to have had a years-long affair with Noem earlier this year despite Noem still being legally married to her husband. A spokeswoman for far-right public education activist group Moms for Liberty — an anti-LGBTQ group whose school board candidates suffered multiple staggering losses in five different states Tuesday night — is also speaking. A promotional flyer for the event also teases appearances by Truth Social CEO (and former California Congressman) Devin Nunes, as well as former Trump campaign manager David Bossie.

Johnson will also be joined at the conference by various international far-right activists, including Brexit architect Nigel Farage, French politician Eric Zemmour — who has defended the Nazi Party's French collaborators — and Balázs Orbán, who serves as political director to extremist Hungarian leader Viktor Orbán (no relation).

This weekend isn't Johnson's first introduction to the WFI, with TNR reporting that the newly minted House speaker delivered the keynote speech at the group's launch event earlier on the 4th of July prior to his colleagues giving him the speaker's gavel. Johnson has also been making his rounds with right-wing media since becoming speaker, giving multiple interviews to Fox News, Newsmax and One America News Network.

https://www.mediamatters.org/eric-trump/hitler-promoting-antisemites-will-speak-trumps-miami-hotel-alongside-eric-trump-lara

ref mma 5 23

the Trump National Doral resort will host two antisemites who have promoted pro-Adolf Hitler propaganda and spread virulently antisemitic conspiracy theories. They will be speaking at an event in Miami alongside numerous Team Trump personalities, including Eric Trump, Lara Trump, and Devin Nunes.

Trump Doral speaker Scott McKay, who has a streaming show on Rumble, has claimed that Jewish people orchestrated 9/11 and were responsible for the assassinations of Presidents Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, and William McKinley. He has also said that Jewish people routinely torture children and eat their hearts.

He has praised Hitler for supposedly trying to take down a Jewish banking system and said, “Hitler was actually fighting the same people that we're trying to take down today.”

Trump Doral speaker Charlie Ward, who also streams a show on Rumble, has shared posts praising Hitler for supposedly “warning us” about Judaism; claiming that “VIRUSES are Man (JEW) made”; and attacking the alleged Jewish media for supposedly lying about the Holocaust.

The two are featured speakers in the “ReAwaken America” tour, which is set to stop at Trump’s Miami hotel on May 12 and 13. Scheduled to speak alongside McKay and Ward are numerous members of Trump’s orbit, including: Eric Trump, Lara Trump, former Trump economic adviser Peter Navarro, former national security adviser Michael Flynn, former senior Department of Defense official Kash Patel, former acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker, Truth Social CEO Devin Nunes, and Trump ally Roger Stone.

Numerous other far-right conspiracy theorists will be speaking, including Stella Immanuel, Mel K, Liz Crokin, Ann Vandersteel, Mike Lindell, and Patrick Byrne.

Media outlets have previously noted that the tour, which has been holding events across the country, has also featured QAnon supporters, conspiracy theories, and Christian nationalist rhetoric.

Michael Flynn co-founded the tour and also has a history of antisemitism.He stated on the tour that he wants the United States to “have one religion.” In 2016, he shared -- and then deleted -- a tweet stating “Not anymore, Jews. Not anymore.” And in 2021, he criticized Holocaust victims, stating: “Jesus, how could somebody stand there and just allow these people to do that to them? And then knowing what they knew, how could they get on that train? I would have rather attacked that machine gun nest.”

During a recent appearance on a QAnon program, tour co-founder Clay Clark told viewers that “Eric Trump is a good friend of mine” and said “it's exciting … that Trump's inner circle is now going, they're all reaching out to our tour, to the ReAwaken America tour, to Gen. Flynn, to myself, to Kash Patel. And they're all saying, hey, can we come to the tour?”

Team Trump is hosting and participating in the tour and associating with its Hitler-promoting speakers despite heavy criticism over Trump’s meeting last December with Ye and Nick Fuentes, who have similarly praised Hitler.

The Trump officials’ association with McKay and Ward is part of a larger Republican Party pattern, with numerous officials promoting or speaking alongside antisemites.

Scott McKay claimed Jewish people torture children and eat their hearts and “Hitler was actually fighting the same people that we're trying to take down today”

[pix]From antisemitic commentator Scott McKay's Telegram page.

McKay, who also goes by Patriot Streetfighter, is a speaker at the Trump Doral event. He frequently makes antisemitic comments. Among the many examples:

McKay claimed that Jewish people “built Hitler. … He was created by them” because they needed a catalyst to profit from a military conflict. He also praised Hitler for supposedly attempting to spurn his Jewish creators by trying to break “free of the Rothschilds’ corrupt money-magic fiat system” and create “a banking system for the people and the free world.”
McKay said: “Hitler was actually fighting the same people that we're trying to take down today.”
McKay claimed that 9/11 was perpetrated by “the same group of people that has done a very good job at hiding under the religion of Judaism."
McKay claimed that many Jewish people are hiding “under the cover of this religion called Judaism” so they can “murder children.”
McKay claimed that Jewish people practice “satanism, child sacrifice, bleeding them out, torturing them, consuming them, eating their heart.”
McKay claimed that Jewish people created a banking system “in exchange for the child blood sacrifices.”
McKay claimed that Jewish people were responsible for the Oklahoma City bombing and the assassinations of Presidents Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, and William McKinley.

For more on Scott McKay, go here.

Charlie Ward shared posts praising Hitler for “warning us” about Judaism, claiming “VIRUSES are Man (JEW) made”

[pix]

Ward is a speaker at the Trump Doral event. During a November ReAwaken America tour stop in Branson, Missouri, he said: “How many people in here know that more people have been killed by the jab than were killed in the Holocaust? And they're still doing it because nobody can stop them.”

He frequently promotes antisemitism and pro-Hitler content. Among the many examples:

Ward shared a post embedding a speech by Hitler and praising him for “warning us” about Judaism.
Ward promoted a book which claims to show “that the official narrative of the Holocaust cannot be sustained.”
Ward shared a post claiming that “VIRUSES are Man (JEW) made including influenza, Polio, Measles, AIDS so was Covid created as a 'excuse' to vaccinate (contaminate)... .”
Ward shared a post that referenced the antisemitic publication the Protocols of the Elders of Zion: “The vaxxx passports are for you the GOYIM not for the specially selected, some elites and the 33's and above - THE RULES DO NOT APPLY .. You are the EXPERIEMENT NOT THEM - Protocols of ZION.”
Ward shared a post that stated: “On this Memorial Day please remember the sacrifices our soldiers make so that JEWISH DRUG DEALERS can grow Poppy Plants in Afghanistan and control the worldwide Heroin supply.”

For more on Charlie Ward, go here.

https://www.mediamatters.org/truth-social/truth-social-ceo-devin-nunes-appears-qanon-show-and-praises-host-getting-truth-out

again?

https://www.alternet.org/2022/11/devin-nunes-sue-nbc-libel/

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Completely unhinged': Devin Nunes and Jim Jordan try to blame Nancy Pelosi for the Capitol attack

David Badash The New Civil Rights Movement

February 15, 2021

Four Republican members of Congress, including Ohio's **Jim Jordan** and California's **Devin Nunes**, on Presidents' Day sent Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi a three-page letter effectively blaming her for the deadly...

an 1 23 raw

Because major advertisers are avoiding Donald Trump's Truth Social, users are instead being exposed to a flood of ads from what the New York Times characterizes as "miracle cures, scams and fake merchandise," as the platform is forced to take what it can in an effort to survive.

That, in turn, has led to complaints aimed at the former president in his comment sections for allowing the forum to turn into a cesspool of ads from scam artists.

As the Times is reporting, Truth Social is almost devoid of ads from large corporations for a multitude of reasons that include the toxic rhetoric on the site, its small reach due to few users and the fact that the predominant demographic is not one that advertisers are trying to reach.

As the Times' Stuart Thompson wrote,"Ads from major brands are nonexistent on the site. Instead, the ads on Truth Social are for alternative medicine, diet pills, gun accessories and Trump-themed trinkets, according to an analysis of hundreds of ads on the social network by The New York Times," before adding, "The ads reflect the difficulty that several far-right platforms, including Rumble and Gab, have faced in courting large brands, preventing the sites from tapping into some of the world’s largest ad budgets."

As the report notes, Truth Social was initially financed with $37 million from GOP donors, and is currently estimated to be burning through $1.7 million per month and money is running out because of problems with the Security Exchange Commission.

Upon its launch, Devin Nunes, the chief executive of Trump Media, announced major advertisers would flock to the site — which has not happened — and the gap has been filled by companies that are much less desirable.

Add to that, according to one advertiser, the money he has spent on Truth Social has gone nowhere when it comes to sales.

"Maxwell Finn, an online marketer, said in a YouTube video that he was one of Truth Social’s top advertisers, spending more than, including those for Trump-themed hats, shirts, coins and novelty bills. In the video, he called the ad platform 'frustrating' and 'bare bones,' adding that it lacked even basic functionality, forcing his company to manually track ad performance— a method that would prove impossible for advertisers with larger budgets," the report states with Finn explaining, "Do I think this is a platform where you can be spending tens of thousands of dollars a day, especially if you only have a few products? No, probably. The audience is just too small.”

As for those who are still advertising on the site, fans of the former president are furious that advertisers are not being vetted.

"Over time, the low-quality ads on Truth Social have irritated its own users, who have complained to Mr. Trump after repeatedly seeing the same disturbing images or after falling for misleading gimmicks," the Times is reporting before adding an example of one user complaining directly to Trump, "Can you not vet the ads on Truth? I’ve been scammed more than once.”

You can read more here.

https://www.alternet.org/2022/06/fox-news/

post ukraine invasion

https://www.alternet.org/2022/03/trump-s-new-right-wing-social-media-app-tanks-with-93-decline-report/

omg

https://www:{.buzzfeed:(style="background-color:#ffff66;"):}:news.com/article/annehelenpetersen/forrest-lucas-hammond-pardon-bundy-trump-pence#.syD8RwE3w

no lnx many pix

the last call Oregon rancher Dwight Hammond Jr. made before heading to federal prison on two counts of arson in 2016 was to a man he hardly knew. Forrest Lucas, who made his fortune on oil engine additives, promised Hammond that he would do whatever he could to get him and his son, Steven, out of prison.

Early Tuesday morning aboard Air Force One, en route to the NATO summit, President Donald Trump signed an official clemency order pardoning the two men. Lucas — a 76-year-old Indiana self-made millionaire with tight ties to the Trump administration — had fulfilled his pledge.

For nearly two decades, the Hammonds had been engaged in skirmishes with the Bureau of Land Management, an agency that functions as a go-between for ranchers and the federal land they lease for grazing. They pushed back, often threateningly, on regulations regarding the Malheur Wildlife Refuge, which bordered the Hammonds’ grazing allotment, and they set unpermitted fires on BLM land. After a second fire in 2006, the pair were charged with 19 different crimes, but eventually arranged a plea deal for just two charges of arson on federal land, which carried a minimum of a five-year sentence. The judge declared that such lengthy jail time qualified as cruel and unusual punishment, instead sentencing Dwight to three months and Steven to one year and one day. The pair served their time and returned home. But the federal government successfully appealed the sentence, and on Jan. 4, 2016, the Hammonds were ordered to return to prison.

[US Department of Justice

Steven Hammond (left) and his father, Dwight Hammond, after their arrest.

The verdict brought Ammon and Ryan Bundy — who, along with their father, Cliven, had been involved in an armed confrontation with BLM officials over the management of their grazing allotment in Nevada — to Eastern Oregon. On Jan. 2, Ammon led several hundred people on a peaceful march through Burns, Oregon, in support of the Hammonds. At the end of the march, he made a declaration: Whoever wanted to take a “hard stand” against the government should follow him — thus launching what would become the 41-day armed standoff at the Malheur Wildlife Refuge.

The Hammonds, however, weren’t there. Nor did they condone what the Bundys and others had done in their name. When the occupation began, they were back on their ranch with Dave Duquette, Lucas’s close associate.When the Hammonds flew back to a hero’s welcome in Burns, Oregon, it was aboard Lucas’s private jet. Lucas, whose company, Lucas Oil, currently holds naming rights for the Indianapolis Colts’ stadium, has made a pro-agriculture, anti-regulation agenda his mission over the past eight years — and had decided that the Hammonds fit into his larger master plan.

To achieve his goals, Lucas has used a nonprofit he founded, Protect the Harvest — devoted to “working to protect your right to hunt, fish, farm, eat meat, and own pets” — as well as his close ties to Vice President Mike Pence, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, and Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, whose top adviser is a former employee of Lucas’s. As Duquette puts it, “the access is very good.”

“Most people wouldn’t get involved,” Duquette told BuzzFeed News in early June. “But thank god for Forrest Lucas, because he’s been willing to take on the hard issues.” Among those hard issues: fighting environmental activists, pushing back against regulation, and protecting farmers and ranchers from what they see as federal overreach. That’s why Lucas grew interested in the Hammonds in the first place. “We’re all about affordable food and land use and personal rights,” Duquette explained. The Hammond case “intersects perfectly with the Protect the Harvest mission.”

Protect the Harvest has built a positive rapport with the ag community by sponsoring scholarships and racetracks and film festivals. But the nonprofit has also benefited by inflaming the community’s anxieties that a time-honored way of life is coming to an end — while eliding the fact that its own lobbying on behalf of corporations and against regulations has hastened the destruction of that lifestyle.

For those active in the agricultural world, Lucas has primarily been known for his strong stance on animal regulation, actively opposing attempts to limit or monitor mistreatment of pets and livestock with laws that would, for example, establish minimum spacing for hen cages or veal calf pens, crack down on puppy mills, or prevent intentional mutilation of Tennessee walking horses. A particular target of his efforts has been the Humane Society of the United States — the national organization that has spearheaded the vast majority of initiatives related to animal regulation, and which Lucas has referred to as “terrorists.”

Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

Ammon Bundy (left), the leader of an anti-government militia, prepares to speak to members of the media in front of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters on Jan. 5, 2016, near Burns, Oregon.

But Lucas’s agenda is hardly limited to cage sizes and puppy mills, as reflected by his support of the Hammonds and, by extension, the Bundys and others opposed to federal control of public lands. And to get what he wants, Lucas has employed a highly sophisticated lobbying and messaging machine, which does everything from funding opposition to municipal spaying and neutering ordinances to orchestrating “range rights” conferences, streamed live on Facebook to an audience of thousands.

Protect the Harvest has spent millions producing web videos and memes that spread across the dozens of Bundy-adjacent Facebook pages that have popped up in the last decade. It also focuses on messaging to children: There are anti-regulatory Protect the Harvest coloring activity sheets, and a pro-ag Protect the Harvest–branded teaching curriculum available for download on their website.In 2015, Lucas began producing feature-length films — starring Hollywood actors like Sharon Stone, Jon Voight, and Jane Seymour — to promote his strongly anti-regulation agenda.

In 2015, Lucas began producing feature-length films — starring Hollywood actors like Sharon Stone, Jon Voight, and Jane Seymour — to promote his strongly anti-regulation agenda.

Lucas’s film and television production studio, the Corona, California–based ESX Entertainment, currently has five films in production — including Stand at Paxton County described as the story of a rancher and his daughter who “face off against state and local authorities who by questionable means relieve local ranchers of their livestock and way of life.”

After Trump took office, Lucas made the short list of potential appointees for interior secretary. Although Montana Rep. Ryan Zinke ultimately got the job, he has provided an open door to both Lucas and Protect the Harvest. Meanwhile, Brian Klippenstein, who is still listed as PTH’s executive director, now works as senior adviser to Perdue. Pence’s vice presidency has been a boon for Lucas, who, according to a Protect the Harvest spokesperson, has been friends[funder]with Pence since before he took the office of Indiana governor.

In addition to Lucas’s own role as one of Trump’s agricultural advisers, public records indicate that Lucas met with Zinke in April 2017 to discuss wild horses, grazing access issues, and national monument designations. In October, when Pence flew to attend an Indianapolis Colts game, abruptly leaving when players knelt during the national anthem, he first spent time posing for photos with Lucas and Duquette. Protect the Harvest also has ties to former EPA chief Scott Pruitt, who was a featured speaker at a Protect the Harvest event in Indianapolis on Jan. 26, 2016.

Protect the Harvest / Facebook

Lucas, the Hammonds, and Duquette on Lucas's private plane back to Burns.

Lucas’s investment in the Hammonds — and the Bundys, who’ve been invited to Protect the Harvest–sponsored forums — is a means to an end. They have become symbols of the way many rural Americans feel they’ve been wronged byfederal overreach, and Lucas, much like Trump, leverages those feelings to build support for one of his overriding goals: wide-scale deregulation of big business.

This is the story of how Forrest Lucas became the behind-the-scenes architect of a multipronged political and propaganda machine — unknown to most Americans, yet with an outsize influence on the current administration and the way millions think of their rural way of life, the industries that shape it, and the government’s role within it.

“This administration has been pretty good at asking for problems,” Duquette explained. “And then addressing them.” The Hammond pardon is the first such Protect the Harvest “problem” that’s been directly addressed on the national stage. But with Lucas’s direct access to multiple wings of the administration, it’s unlikely to be the last.

Dave Duquette /Facebook

Lucas, Duquette, and Ramona Hage Morrison at the Department of the Interior.

To understand why an incredibly wealthy man like Lucas would care about the fate of a pair of Oregon ranchers, you have to consider the concept of “the harvest” as Lucas is using it: a stand-in for everything from actual crop yields to what he views as the fundamental right to make a living as one sees fit off the land. In tax filings, Protect the Harvest describes its mission as educational: “to ensure accurate information is communicated to the general public with the rise of various groups threatening to end modern agriculture and hunting in the United States.”

In practice, this “accurate information” has centered on a cluster of issues that are closely tied to Big Ag’s priorities: portraying animal rights activists and environmentalists as out-of-touch liberals bent on ending the rural way of life; characterizing regulation and federal oversight, particularly on public lands, as a means of curtailing American liberty; and advocating for and providing platforms for public figures — such as the Hammonds — to function as symbols of widespread persecution of the ag community.

That this apparatus was built in just eight years, by a man with little in the way of a visible political profile, is a testament to what a few million dollars can do in our current American ideological landscape. And while Lucas may seem like an unlikely political figure, his “all-American” rise, and the obstacles that defined it, go a long way toward explaining the ardor and anger fueling his cause.

While Lucas may seem like an unlikely political figure, his “all-American” rise goes a long way toward explaining the ardor and anger fueling his cause.

At age 76, Lucas has deep brown hair that seems to belie the natural aging process. When he speaks with the press, he tends to wear shirts emblazoned with the Lucas Oil logo of his company, or a race car jersey. He’s the sort of man who’d commission a documentary about his own life — titledAmerican Real: The Forrest Lucas Story— show it at a film festival, and then make it nearly impossible for anyone to view it again. He considers himself an embodiment of the American dream: a boy who, as he tells it, grew up without electricity in rural Indiana but then, over decades of hard work and fair dealings, scraped his way to a multimillion-dollar company.

Born in 1942, Lucas grew up on a farm in Elkinsville, Indiana — living, as he put it, “pretty much like people lived in the 1800s.” “Most people now could only read about that,” he said, “but I got to see the tail end of it. Most people think it’s kind bucolic, but it’s actually a pretty hard way to go.” According to Lucas, when he was 9 years old, he got his start as an entrepreneur by going door-to-door, barefooted, selling a supposed miracle cure called Cloverine Salve.

Lucas was, in many ways, a typical farm kid. He’d wake in the morning to take care of the cows and pigs, go to school, and return home to care for them again. At age 15, he left home to work at a cattle ranch in Harrison County, near the Kentucky state line. He graduated high school, then, as he later put it, “went to a long college called hard knocks.” By age 18, Lucas was a married man with a child — and left the ranching life to make a living for his family, hauling dirt, finding odd construction jobs, selling Singer sewing machines, and working a muffler assembly line at night.

But what Lucas really wanted was a semi. “I’d see these guys going down the road,” he said, “and maybe they were going somewhere. I wanted to get into the truck and go somewhere.” At 21, he pulled together enough money to buy his first semi — the first in what would eventually become a fleet. Two years later, the creek that ran near his childhood farm would be dammed in order to power the nearby city of Bloomington. The entirety of Lucas’s hometown of Elkinton was acquired through eminent domain. His childhood farm was gone, superseded by the needs of those in the city nearby.

Lucas didn’t make his fortune on trucks. He made it on oil additives, created using a “secret formula” that Lucas claims to have discovered almost by accident and which, his company claims, has seemingly miraculous effects on the performance of engines: It reduces wear, lengthens engine life, improves gas mileage, and makes motors run quieter, among other things. Lucas Oil is marketed to car aficionados, gearheads, and truckers with aging rigs.

Getty Images; Alamy

In the ’80s, Lucas Oil began putting its logo on race cars as a means of advertising. The Lucases bought a cattle ranch in Cross Timbers, Missouri, that has grown to 15,000 acres, with over 3,000 cattle. They opened an oil processing plant in Corona, California, and a second one in Corydon, Indiana, where they also purchased the local railroad. In 2011, Lucas acquired a television channel, MAVTV, and filled it with races featuring cars emblazoned with the Lucas Oil logo. “I realized several years ago that people were starting to [skip] commercials,” Lucas told Autoweek. “We needed to be in the TV show itself, more so than just be on the car.”

Lucas began to acquire the entire means of production: He sponsored the cars, he built or bought the tracks, he owned the broadcasting network, and when the production company he’d employed to make commercials went bankrupt, he bought their gear and trained his loading dock employees to operate it, moving to a dilapidated Sunkist factory in Corona. By 2012, at least 700 different racing teams wore the Lucas Oil logo; today, many of those teams have transitioned to wearing the logo for Protect the Harvest. It’s vertical integration, done the Lucas way: first to promote his oil brand, now to promote his ideological one.

Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.

“The thing that’s interesting about Lucas — I don’t think anyone realizes what kind of reach he has,” a correspondent for Speed magazine said in 2012. Apart from the racing, Lucas’s name and brand is broadcast into millions of homes every week via nationally televised games at Lucas Oil Stadium. The $121.5 million gambit, which affixes the Lucas Oil name to the stadium where the Indianapolis Colts play until 2028, launched Lucas and his second wife, Charlotte, onto the radar of the Indiana elite. Suddenly, the farm boy was a person to know.

The Indianapolis elite began actively courting his full-time return from California, where he’d been running Lucas Oil for decades. “Forrest would be a big fish in this pond,” then-mayor Bart Peterson told Indianapolis Monthly in 2007. “He would be somebody who would be noticed, because of his roots, and the fact that he’s proud of those roots.” In 2010, the Lucases purchased a sprawling mansion, known as Le Chateau Renaissance, outside of Indianapolis, with the primary intention to use it for fundraisers and benefits. He added a 220,000-square-foot expansion to his Indiana plant, effectively making it the home base for Lucas Oil operations. Seven decades removed from an electricity-less farm in Elkinsville, Indiana, Forrest Lucas had arrived.

Like many who find their fortunes secure, Lucas decided to throw his newfound influence around. He began donating to political figures — to then-governor Pence, but also to multiple representatives in Missouri, where Lucas ran a cattle ranch. It was there, in 2010, that he took on his first major political fight against Missouri’s Proposition B, colloquially known as the “puppy mill bill.” The bill aimed to limit dog breeding facilities to 50 unspayed/unneutered animals, which would effectively eliminate the “puppy mill” industry in the states where such facilities are most concentrated.

“We’ve got to go on the offense. We’ve got to start staking out ag turf.”

For outsiders, regulating dog breeding and preventing abuses might seem like an easy call, but to dog breeders, it felt like a threat to their way of life. The fight over Proposition B became a proxy for a much larger battle, between animal rights activists — and HSUS in particular — and the agricultural industry writ large. Prop B ultimately passed with 51.59% of the vote — only to be overturned by the Missouri legislature. The struggle over Proposition B emboldened Lucas. Together with other ag producers, he constructed a blueprint for a larger organization that would promote the interests of agriculture. “We’ve got to go on the offense,” Erik Helland, then-majority whip of the Iowa House of Representatives, and one of early architects of this organization, said. “We’ve got to start staking out ag turf.”

In 2012, Protect the Harvest filed paperwork with the FEC to create a political action committee known as the Protect the Harvest Action Fund.Brian Klippenstein — the son of a longtime Missouri state senator, who’d spent the previous five years as then-senator Kit Bond’s chief of staff— became the group’s executive director. While Klippenstein comes from a long ranching heritage, he has the polish and hairstyle of someone who’s spent decades rubbing elbows in DC. According to his Protect the Harvest bio, Klippenstein has “completed over 50 marathons, including over a dozen 50-milers and four single-day 100-milers…all fueled by a high-protein diet centered around nutrient-dense red meat.”

Source: Pro Publica Nonprofit Explorer

Protect the Harvest expenditures 2012-2016

Between 2012 and 2016, the latest year for which tax returns are available, Protect the Harvest Action Fund has spent close to $4 million on influence and lobbying activities. (All tax filings are available here.) Since 2012, the vast majority of Protect the Harvest’s PAC money has been directed toward supporting “Right to Farm” legislation and combating initiatives, most of them spearheaded by the HSUS, that Lucas’s group sees as infringing upon agricultural liberty. The language of contemporary Right to Farm amendments guarantees farmers and ranchers the right to engage in their livelihoods and produce food for others. If that sounds vague, it’s purposeful: It’s less intended to address a current threat than future ones. In practice, it helps bolster the feeling that an industry is vulnerable.

You can get a sense of that perceived vulnerability in a post in ranching publication Drovers, written by cattle genetics specialist Jared Wareham: “Our industry has plead [sic] for a way to help block and then counterpunch anti-ag initiatives and the well-funded organizations that spearhead those efforts,” Wareham writes. “It is unnerving to know that if left unmonitored, these groups could lead initiatives to change the laws of a state or influence the language of those laws so something we have done for a living could be unlawful. If these organizations can win battles in one state, it could easily open the door to successes in other states.”

And who happens to be defending the industry from this alleged war? Protect the Harvest, which Wareham describes as “the shield of armor we’ve been looking for.”

Protect The Harvest / Facebook

Protect the Harvest’s first foray into the fray came in Missouri, where it offered broad media support for a 2014 Right to Farm amendment, copied from a 2012 version drafted in North Dakota. For that campaign, Lucas enlisted then–state senator Mike Parson, who is now governor, and to whom Lucas has given more than $175,000 in campaign donations. The two men first connected in 2010, during the campaign against Proposition B. After it passed, Parson, whose district included Lucas’s cattle ranch and one of his speedways, sponsored the legislation that effectively defanged the bill. From 2013 to 2015, Parson served as the treasurer of Protect the Harvest, and when Parson ran for lieutenant governor in 2016, Lucas and his wife campaigned alongside him; after he won, he framed a Protect the Harvest poster in his office.

In North Dakota, the Right to Farm amendment had sailed to an easy victory, winning two-thirds of the vote. But in Missouri, it was hotly contested. One public radio story framed it as pitting “farmer against farmer,” leaving little way for small producers to defend against the incursion and growth of larger ones. Protect the Harvest argued, “Our rights don’t come from government. They are God-given freedoms that come with our humanity. However, bureaucrats and activist judges have made it clear that they will not respect those rights unless they are codified in statutes or constitutions.” Together, both sides spent a total of $1.5 million on messaging. The amendment barely passed, eking out 50.12% of the final vote.

A version of the amendment then migrated to Oklahoma, where Protect the Harvest was joined in support by the Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Association, the Oklahoma Farm Bureau, and the Oklahoma Pork Council.Their opposition, led by HSUS, the Sierra Club, the ASPCA, and the Oklahoma Food Cooperative, argued that the bill, SQ 777, would make it impossible to act if and when ag polluted or otherwise threatened a water source or the land.

“I work with family farmers from all over the state,” said Adam Price, a representative of the Oklahoma Food Cooperative. “And I can say with absolute certainty that SQ 777 was not conceived with them in mind.” The “yes” argument was crystallized in a television ad created by Protect the Harvest: “Have you seen the ads attacking 777? ALL LIES. Paid for by the same out-of-state animal rights groups that oppose the right to hunt and fish.”

In the end, the Yes side lost by 20 points — the first major defeat for the new wave of Right to Farm legislation and Protect the Harvest.Brian Jones, an attorney who spent a year working for the “no” side, links the amendment’s failure to reactivated memory: “Most people in Oklahoma have an agricultural heritage, meaning their grandparents or parents were farmers,” he told BuzzFeed News. “One of the consequences of the industrialization of ag is that fewer and fewer people are involved in it. Most of what is out there, in the market right now, is Big Ag.”

During this same period in the ’90s, there was enormous consolidation in ag production — basically, big farms buying up smaller ones — that marked an end to many farming families’ way of life. “There were some fights about all this back then,” Jones said. “But 777 reraised all these questions: Where did the jobs go? What happened to the people?”

Protect The Harvest / Facebook

In Missouri, Protect the Harvest had effectively mobilized those rural anxieties, papering over the role of larger industrial and legislative forces that had ended that way of life years before. In Oklahoma, that project failed — but their defeat has only served to bolster Protect the Harvest’s argument that outsiders are determined to fight against one’s “right to farm.” (In an email to BuzzFeed News, a spokesman responded to a question about the effects of deregulation on small farms with the following statement: “Protect the Harvest supports all forms of agriculture. Our mission is to educate and inform the public about issues that impact our American traditions, heritage and way of life. There are many overreaching regulations that impact farms, both large and small which ultimately affect the American public as both large and small farms feed our nation.”)

Lucas’s design to “protect” the harvest has largely entailed fighting regulation. Like many conservative operatives, Protect the Harvest views any type of regulation, whether on the hours a long-haul trucker can legally drive or the conditions for raising chickens, as unnecessary and restrictive incursions on free enterprise, but one area of particular interest has been wild horses.

Back in 2012, Dave Duquette attempted to bring a horse slaughterhouse to his hometown of Hermiston, Oregon, promising much-needed economic stimulus to the area, but local leaders balked at the prospect of the town being equated with a taboo industry. Fast-forward six years, and Duquette is the “equine specialist” for Protect the Harvest.

Duquette, who is rarely without his cowboy hat and a cowboy shirt embroidered with the Protect the Harvest or Lucas Oil logo, has spearheaded Protect the Harvest’s efforts to change the messaging around wild horse management from cruelty to benevolence.

“It was really scary to be targeted by that machine.”

“American wild horses are suffering due to overcrowding, which has led to starvation and death,” the opening to a four-part series on Protect the Harvest’s homepage claims. “We have the opportunity and obligation to protect them from long and painful suffering by controlling their numbers.” A 15-minute PTH-produced video, titled “Horses in Crisis,” features an array of sick and starving horses, as well as ranchers and others condemning “horse advocates” for their lack of knowledge about horses on the range. “It’s time to bring facts, reason, and a special perspective to an issue dominated by emotion,” a solemn-voiced narrator says. The overarching message: Those who deal with wild horses on the land should dictate how to manage horses on the land, and not faraway regulators.

That was Duquette’s message in 2015, when he visited Nevada in support of a rancher named Kevin Borba, who had repeatedly and progressively flouted rules governing the treatment of wild horses on his grazing allotment. Duquette posted a picture of Borba in a Protect the Harvest–branded four-wheeler, out to “document” the “lies” spread by Laura Leigh, who was heading up an experimental fertility control program on the horses. Protect the Harvest created a series of videos framing Borba as a victim of the BLM, whose “mismanagement hurts both the horses and the ranchers whose livelihood are being taken away.” According to Leigh, an initial version of the video, later taken down, included her name, prompting immediate harassment. (Protect the Harvest disputes this claim.) “I was getting a dozen death threats with my morning coffee,” Leigh told BuzzFeed News. “It was really scary to be targeted by that machine.”

George Frey / Getty Images

Wild horses are held in a BLM holding/adoption facility after being rounded up from BLM land in the western United States on June 1, 2017, in Delta, Utah.

Lucas has repeatedly referred to HSUS and animal rights activists as “terrorists” intent on “passing laws to ruin America” that deliberately impugn the small-time farmer’s way of life. Lucas’s political donations and Protect the Harvest’s messaging around ballot initiatives underlined that ideology. But to make those ideologies even more robust and persuasive required something more effective than political ads. They needed propaganda.

Propaganda is anything from a pamphlet to a television program that attempts to make an argument for a particular political stance, whether on the right, left, or center — but much of it can be heavy-handed, simplistic, or misleading. When it comes to agriculture and animal rights issues, both sides of the issue produce propaganda. But only one side has its own film studio.

When Lucas first started producing television programming for his television channel, the focus was vehicles to broaden his company’s name recognition. “We got into the entertainment business to sell oil,” Lucas once said. “And nothing is more entertaining than fast cars, trucks, planes, and boats.” By 2015, his intentions had expanded. “For me, venturing into the film business is not about money, glamour or fun,” Lucas said. “It’s about being able to deliver messages and having a viable vehicle to do so.”

“For me, venturing into the film business is not about money, glamour, or fun. It’s about being able to deliver messages and having a viable vehicle to do so.”

But what sort of “messages” did Lucas want to transmit? Protect the Harvest messages.

Last year’s Pray for Rain, starring Jane Seymour, suggests that corrupt environmentalists, in league with shady gangsters, are prolonging the terrible drought afflicting Central California and threatening the livelihoods of desperate local farmers.Running Wild, also from 2017 and starring Sharon Stone — who also coproduced — depicts a wild horse advocate, whom Laura Leigh believes is loosely based on her, as an evil villain trying to shut down a horse rehabilitation program. The 2016 film The Dog Lover, featuring Lea Thompson, involves a young woman who volunteers with an animal protection group to go undercover at a puppy mill — only to discover that the organization is far more dangerous than the “mill” itself, which, turns out, is actually a kindhearted breeding operation.

ESX films are regularly panned by critics, do not receive theatrical releases, and go straight to video or VOD. But profits, according to Lucas, are secondary. They’re reaching an audience: ag families who don’t feel that their way of life is represented accurately onscreen, and those who may not know a thing about agriculture but will be called upon to vote or think about the issues represented in the films. Watch The Dog Lover, for example, without much understanding of the dog breeding industry, and it’s easy to believe that “puppy mills” are an idea concocted by manipulative animal rights activists who have no idea what they’re talking about.

ESX Entertainment

The feature films are only one arm of Protect the Harvest’s messaging apparatus. Back in 2014, Lucas commissioned a documentary about his life (produced by advertising company MARC USA), which screened at the Heartland Film Festival. (Earlier that month, Lucas’s wife, Charlotte, had drawn national attention for a Facebook post, later deleted, that declared, “I’m sick and tired of minorities running our country! As far as I’m concerned, I don’t think that atheists (minority), muslims (minority) or any other minority group has the right to tell the majority of people in the United States what they can and cannot do here. Is everyone so scared that they can’t fight for what’s right or wrong with this country?”)

The day after the Facebook post, Lucas — who has previously acknowledged that his workforce is largely composed of immigrants — issued a full-page apology in the Indianapolis Star for his wife’s post, explaining that it did not “reflect the feelings in her heart,” and underlining that Lucas Oil “is proud to have employees, friends, customers, and business partners reflecting ethnic and racial diversity.”

Apart from the films, Protect the Harvest maintains a robust Facebook presence: Its page currently has 258,000-plus followersand posts links, petitions, editorials, and memes five or six times a day. The Protect the Harvest website features links to civics workbooks that can be suggested as additions to local curriculum; at the bottom of the first page, a logo declares, “You could be forced to give up your freedom to hunt, fish, and own animals. Learn more at ProtectTheHarvest.com.” For class activities, the workbook suggests observing the judicial branch at work in movies like To Kill a Mockingbird, My Cousin Vinny, or Protect the Harvest’s own The Dog Lover. For kids, there’s a section of downloadable coloring sheets bordered with “PROTECT YOUR PET! PROTECT AMERICA! PROTECT THE HARVEST.COM!”

In Range magazine — an independently owned quarterly publication full of beautiful rural landscapes and essays about how “the U.S. government has inflicted 40 years of abuse on Nevada’s Hage family” — Protect the Harvest now occupies about half of the ad space, promoting Protect the Harvest films and the Hammond pardon. Partnering with Range, Protect the Harvest has helped fund three “Range Rights” conferences — in Layton, Utah; in Bellevue, Nebraska; and in Modesto, California.

The two-day conference was founded in 2015 as a way to harness the energy following the Bundys’ Malheur occupation; attendants include a mix of Malheur devotees and local ranchers. In Modesto this April, the attendance hovered around 40, and half the attendees were speakers themselves — but the real range rights audience was online, where each of the speeches was streamed in full. Rep. Devin Nunes, once part of the House Intelligence Committee’s Russia investigation, attacked the press; the local sheriff emphasized that his officers knew to look the other way when local ranchers had an unlicensed firearm. The daughter of LaVoy Finicum spoke about the legacy of her father, the rancher who was killed by Oregon State Police in what have become heavily contested circumstances, effectively rendering him a martyr for the Bundy movement. Finally,Ammon Bundy preached the latest chapter in the family’s gospel, emphasizing that environmentalists are “an enemy to humans” practicing their own heretical religion.

The entire event was hosted by Trent Loos, a Nebraska farmer, member of President Trump’s Agricultural Advisory Committee, and one of Protect the Harvest’s most visible activists, united with Lucas in his fierce opposition to HSUS. (When HSUS began using Michael Vick’s role in dogfighting and other forms of animal abuse to make the case for tougher legislation, Loos wrote that Vick was being persecuted for “not ... treating his dog like a kid.”) With his bushy mustache and ranching vest, Loos — who pleaded no contest in 2005 to charges of cattle fraud — looks the part of the cowboy, and will play one in a forthcoming PTH film.In Modesto, Loos took the stage with Nunes. “As a member of the ag committee, we have a certain level of frustration that we haven’t drained the swamp quicker, that we still have old-school bureaucrats in the positions of decision-making,” he said. “So how do we get that fixed? Because obviously there’s a bigger plug in the swamp than anticipated.”

Juice Images Ltd / Getty Images

At that point, Protect the Harvest had been working to “unplug” the swamp for well over a year. When journalist Michael Lewis began investigating the transition officials appointed by the Trump administration, he zeroed in on Brian Klippenstein’s USDA role. In an interview with Fresh Air, Lewis described Protect the Harvest as an organization that sees its job “as essentially trolling the Humane Society,” and is “hypersensitive to animal rights people and tries to respond to animal rights activists wherever it can.” USDA employees found Klippenstein’s appointment odd because, as Lewis put it, “one of the things the USDA does is stand up for the rights of animals in animal-people disputes.”

Dogfighting, circuses, animal slaughter, animal testing — the USDA is charged with documenting and monitoring those operations. In the subsequent weeks, Klippenstein alone took on the responsibilities of a transition team that usually would’ve been entrusted to a team of at least 20. Through his briefings, he became intent on figuring out which of the existing Department of Agriculture employees had been researching climate change and its ramifications.

The request was denied, but Klippenstein made his mark in other ways. He now serves as a senior adviser to Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue, who has overseen the removal of USDA documents detailing past animal inspections, enforcement actions, and annual reports on 7,800 different facilities. The removal was prompted by a lawsuit, filed during the Obama administration, alleging that a report identifying Tennessee walking horse owners as “violators” of anti-soring regulations impinged on their rights to due process and privacy. To address the suit, Perdue has removed all records.

According to Duquette, Lucas first brought up the idea of a pardon to then-governor Pence before Trump’s election.

The move was celebrated by Tennessee walking horse groups, but it has broader beneficiaries: practitioners of industrial agriculture, whose husbandry, living, and slaughter practices are also monitored by the USDA. The lack of publicly accessible monitoring records will make it increasingly difficult to prosecute, legislate, or otherwise regulate current agricultural practices.

“We’re lucky with the things this administration has been doing,” Duquette told BuzzFeed News. “It’s been really good to deal with, and find problems to fix. That’s probably been the best thing to happen for animal agriculture, the pet industry, and the food supply.”

This sort of access and influence helps explain how the Hammonds’ appeal made its way to President Trump’s desk. According to Duquette, Lucas first brought up the idea of a pardon to then-governor Pence before Trump’s election. When Lucas and Pence had dinner in May, Lucas brought up the case again, making the argument for a commuted sentence. Soon after, the case was moved to the office of Pence’s chief counsel.

“You know, it’s ‘a squeaky wheel gets the grease’ deal,” Duquette told BuzzFeed News. “And I know the president needs help from people to highlight injustices.” Since late May, Protect the Harvest’s social media accounts have been in overdrive eliciting popular support for the Hammonds’ cause. Protect the Harvest has also moved to distance itself and their cause from the Bundys, who’ve been grouped with the Hammonds since the days of the standoff.

Indeed, Duquette believes that if the Malheur occupation hadn’t happened, the Hammonds would’ve been pardoned long ago. “I don’t disagree with [the Bundys’] issues, but the tactics are...” he said, pausing for a moment. “I understand the tactics because of their frustration with what they’ve had to deal with over the years.”

During the occupation, Duquette and Trent Loos posed for a photo with Ammon Bundy;while a representative from Protect the Harvest has denied offering material support to the occupiers, Todd Macfarlane — a lawyer, Bundy supporter, and standoff spokesperson — blogged that Protect the Harvest had made “its people, resources and checkbook available.” Protect the Harvest counters that a representative “went to Malheur Refuge one week into the occupation to do an interview with Ammon Bundy.”

But as the Hammond petition made its way to the White House, Duquette told BuzzFeed News that he called Ammon Bundy to let him know that Protect the Harvest would be publicly distancing itself from the Bundy family. Still, the Bundys threw themselves behind the pardon petition, posting multiple links to it. When the news was announced, the Bundy Ranch Facebook page’s post alluded to the connection: “Thank you @POTUS for carrying out justice and pardoning Oregon ranchers Dwight & Steven Hammond. Many ranchers in the West have suffered under the heavy hand of the federal government. These men are great patriots.”

Pardoning the Hammonds suggests not only that this particular case was mistreated, but that fears of government are warranted.

Duquette acknowledges that a Hammond pardon will be treated as a win for the Bundys and their supporters. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing, he said. “The president would have an outpouring of support in the West, and throughout the Midwest, from all the people that are his base for doing this. It would show a good sign of goodwill for all the people out there.”

To pardon the Hammonds is to ratify that their case, like so much of what Protect the Harvest lobbies against, is an example of federal overreach — engineered by ignorant outsiders who resent and misunderstand the people who make American life possible. As Montana Rep. Greg Gianforte phrased it in a public statement, “President Trump’s decision to pardon Dwight and Steven Hammond is a win for property rights and our way of life.”

But like so many of the issues on which Protect the Harvest’s advocacy pivots, the reality is far less stark. The Hammonds were sentenced for committing arson on federal land. An appeals court vacated that sentence because it did not satisfy the mandatory minimum sentencing requirements, and resentenced them for the mandatory minimum for that crime. Apart from the back-burning, the Hammonds have a long history of taunting BLM management and flouting their regulation. Like the Bundys, the Hammonds have long believed that the federal, public land they pay pennies on the dollar to graze should be considered their own, to manage as they please — including setting fires. The federal government, at least for the time being, disagrees.

Pardoning the Hammonds suggests not only that this particular case was mistreated, but that fears of government overreach are warranted — and that Trump will continue to act in a way that acknowledges those fears.

[Protesters on horseback ride above a rally site in Bunkerville, Nevada, April 12, 2014.

All over ag country, Oregon to Arkansas, small schools are closing their doors. Part of the reason is that the consolidation of agriculture — larger farms gobbling up smaller ones to stay alive — has made it impossible for those onetime small farmers to remain. The population of the small town dwindles, and the schools close, which makes it even less desirable for others to move to that town, provide services, attract jobs, or maintain the “way of life” associated with rural America.

When you look at the Protect the Harvest logo, you don’t see a family. You don’t see a way of life. You don’t see a person at all. You see a combine harvester — one of the primary advances in farming technology that led the agricultural industry to the place it is today. “All of their imagery is of big, beautiful tractors churning through a commodity crop, essentially dripping Lucas Oil,” Ryan Bell, a journalist and close observer of fights around the agricultural way of life, told BuzzFeed News.

Protect the Harvest and Lucas Oil logos are displayed at Dover International Speedway on May 6, 2018, in Dover, Delaware.

“But that tractor, that’s what took the community away from ranching. It undercuts a long-term, sustainable agrarian society,” he said. “There’s no need for a big family to work the farm, and no need for the family you have to stick around. Today, a man might have a thousand acres of corn, and he’s tilling it all alone with a $250,000 combine. His kid’s gone. And oddly enough, this is exactly the type of person who’s pretty susceptible to Protect the Harvest rhetoric.”

There are dozens of intersecting reasons for the end of the agrarian way of life. Some of them stem from bad legislation, improper federal regulation, and advocacy from groups with little sense of the larger effects of a disruption in the food chain. There is an impending food crisis in the world’s future. To solve it, however — while also preserving the Earth long enough for our descendants to confront that crisis — all sides of the issue need to spend less time creating bogeymen of the others; less time on “offense” or “defense.”

The production of food may be an industry, but it’s not a game. Whether in the form of government subsidies or a vaunted position within the American imaginary, the harvest has been protected for centuries.

Taken separately, Protect the Harvest’s initiatives — the feature films, the fight against HSUS, the move to root out those studying global warming, the Right to Farm advocacy, the Hammond pardon — none of it seems, on its face, like a means of protecting business interests. It’s only when examined together, as part of a larger, motivating whole, that Lucas’s actual passion becomes clear. It’s not the small-time farmer. It’s certainly not the harvest. It’s not dogs, or hunting, or horses. Forrest Lucas prides himself on his identity as an all-American man. And nothing is more all-American than unfettered industry, and the profits that flow from it.

BuzzFeed News Reporter

Anne Helen Petersen is a senior culture writer for BuzzFeed News and is based in Missoula, Montana.

Contact Anne Helen Petersen at anne.helen.petersen@buzzfeed.com.

Ken Bensinger

BuzzFeed News Reporter

Contact Ken Bensinger at ken.bensinger@buzzfeed.com.

also hernandez

stole open src?

twit --> TRUTH no doubt fair and balanced

https://www.alternet.org/2022/02/trump-truth-social/

ruth Social, **Donald Trump**‘s new social media platform and mobile app launched just before midnight. It is not going well.

“Team Trump has been cooking up its own social network ever since the then-president was thrown off all major platforms for his posts inciting the Capitol riot—but, even though what they came up with is just a ripoff of Twitter, it seems a year wasn’t enough time to make a useable product,” The Daily Beast reports.

Amid reports of social media users not being able to create accounts, early users being waitlisted, there are even accusations the logo itself is a knockoff.

Numerous people took to Twitter to complain they could not create an account, or despite being among the first to try to create an account were immediately waitlisted.

The Daily Beast’s Roger Sollenberger documented his experience, mocking the Truth Social app:...

how Devin Nunes’ mother helped 'mangle' his accounting 'for 17 years': report

Alex Henderson

October 28, 2021

Much of the reporting on far-right Rep. Devin Nunes of California has focused on his frivolous lawsuits or his desire to promote Trumpian conspiracy theories, but in an article published by the Daily Beast on October 28...

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Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) suggested on Sunday that Joe Biden's administration may use "computer-generated graphics" to fake the president's speeches.

Nunes made the remarks during an appearance on Fox News after he was asked about Biden's performance at a recent CNN town hall event.

"You know it's getting bad when the propaganda machine that the Democratic socialists control in this country -- they control 95% of the media or so," he opined. "And then you take the big tech oligarchs that control and censor what we receive via social media. When that poison gets to the average independent American, that propaganda, you know it's bad when they can't even find a 15- or 30-second soundbite out of a full-hour town hall that they can plug into their own propaganda machine."

Nunes added: "I mean, it's getting really bad. It's not just the president. They can't get any soundbites from the vice president either."

The Republican lawmaker claimed that deep state actors are "almost to the point where they're going to have to start using computer-generated graphics in order to give to the propaganda machine because they can't get good clips to sell what they're trying to sell here in Washington, which are policies that are running the country into the ground."

Watch the video below from Fox News.

the talking cow?

https://www.alternet.org/2021/05/devin-nunes-bill-barr/

521

trump tried to install Devin Nunes lackey in top FBI job — until Bill Barr threat upended the scheme

Travis Gettys Raw Story May 20, 2021

Former president Donald Trump was fixated on firing the FBI director he appointed, Christopher Wray, but backed away from the brink of shaking up the bureau after then-attorney general William Barr threatened to quit rather than go along.

The twice-impeached one-term president got angry whenever Wray entered the news cycle, especially when he testified about the Russia investigation or knocked down Trump's lies about law enforcement or intelligence services, but he became fixated on ousting him in April 2020 -- when Barr was called to a White House meeting, reported Politico.

"What's this all about?" Barr asked, when he arrived in an empty Roosevelt Room before Trump loyalist John McEntee and counterintelligence head William Evanina arrived.

McEntee, head of the presidential personnel office, said they were waiting for others to arrive and looked at his phone, and an angry Barr barged into chief of staff Mark Meadows' office.

"What the f*ck is going on?" Barr said.

At the time, Politico reported, Trump intended to replace Wray with Evanina, director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center and a 24-year FBI veteran, and elevate Kash Patel, a former aide to Rep. Devin Nunes who was involved in several shady episodes with the ex-president, to the bureau's deputy director.

"They were hoping it would be a fait accompli," said one former administration official, saying Trump and his advisers hoped Barr would simply sign off on the president's desired change.

Another former administration official said Trump wanted Evanina and Patel at the FBI because he considered them "trusted people," but Barr told Meadows and White House counsel Pat Cipollone that he could not stay on as attorney general if they were installed over his objection.

Cipollone, who said he had not known about the scheme, agreed with Barr, and the White House eventually backed down from the plan -- although Trump continued to seethe against Wray.

"When you thought it had finally quieted down, the next thing you know, he would want to do it again," said one former Trump official.

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Nunes is caught up in Giuliani’s 'Russian mob' scandal: Trump impeachment prosecutor

Bob Brigham Raw Story

April 29, 2021

Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) has exposure in Rudy Giulian's legal scandal, according to former prosecutor Daniel Goldman, who served as majority counsel in Donald Trump's first impeachment trial.

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Devin Nunes is caught up in Giuliani’s 'Russian mob' scandal: Trump impeachment prosecutor

Bob Brigham and Raw Story April 29, 2021

Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) has exposure in Rudy Giulian's legal scandal, according to former prosecutor Daniel Goldman, who served as majority counsel in Donald Trump's first impeachment trial.

Goldman offered his analysis after The New York Times reported that FBI agents also executed a search warrant at the home of Giuliani ally Victoria Toensing.

"This makes sense because, during the Ukraine impeachment investigation, we obtained draft retainer agreements between a Ukrainian official and Toensing and diGenova that Giuliani brokered," Goldman tweeted.

Podcast host Eric Garland noticed Goldman's analysis and added his summary of the situation.

"UM. SO GIULIANI AND TOENSING AND DIGENOVA WERE SIMULTANEOUSLY UNREGISTERED AGENTS OF UKRAINE *WHILE ON THE PAYROLL OF RUSSIAN MOB BOSS DMITRO FIRTASH* - while working for Trump. When he was President. And they all were conspiring with Russian intelligence," he wrote.

"Correct," Goldman said.

"And don't forget Devin Nunes and his sidekick Derek Harvey were involved too," he added.

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Nunes faces most significant re-election fight yet as constituents turn on him: report

Matthew Chapman Raw Story

On Wednesday, The Guardian profiled the congressional race of Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), a longtime Central Valley representative who became a bogeyman of the left during hi

WHY DOES HE KEEP TALKING? WHO IS HIS AUDIENCE? WHEN IS NEXT ELECTION? JUST RED MEAT GENERATOR?

https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/devin-nunes-warns-of-zombie-apocalypse-from-homeless-people-in-his-state-we-let-our-criminals-out/

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Devin Nunes warns of ‘zombie apocalypse’ from homeless people in his state: ‘We let our criminals out’

Written by David Edwards / Raw Story April 5, 2020

Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) suggested on Sunday that homeless people are the “zombie apocalypse” even though they have not seen large numbers of infections during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The situation out here in California with the homeless population is quite dire and that was before the coronavirus,” Nunes explained to Fox News. “It’s almost like zombie apocalypse. You’ve seen the pictures.”

“I’ve got several thousand just in my district,” he continued. “It’s largely due because we let our criminals out. We pass laws that let multiple convicted drug abusers out. Now unfortunately, a lot of these people —I call it zombie apocalypse because a lot of these people have done drugs for a long period of time. You know, they’re just not well.”

According to Nunes, “one of the advantages” of the homeless population is that they live outside where it’s more difficult to become infected by COVID-19.

“One of the positive things in all this is if you’re outside in the outdoors, you’re social distancing, we haven’t seen it run through homeless population,” he explained. “At least, that we know of yet.”

Watch the video below from Fox News.

parnas has tapes?!

Devin Nunes once again questions social distancing measures despite repeated warnings from experts

Igor Derysh / Salon

Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., argued Tuesday that it was “way overkill” for California to keep schools closed for the rest of the academic year.

https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/maria-bartiromo-agrees-devin-nunes-now-great-time-people-go-out

https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/trump-installs-lawyer-who-worked-for-rep-nunes-and-don-mcgahn-in-key-nsc-role/

not vet no lnx twt

trump Installs Lawyer Who Worked for Rep. Nunes and Don McGahn in Key NSC Role

by Matt Naham | 10:53 am, March 3rd, 2020

President Donald Trump has continued to shuffle the deck at the National Security Council (NSC), where he installed a White House ally as senior director for intelligence.

Attorney Michael Ellis started his new job on Monday and his immediate superior is White House lawyer John Eisenberg, according to Politico. The development was described as latest instance of the Trump administration putting loyalists in key roles. Ellis will be privy to extremely sensitive information.

Indeed, the reassignment of the brothers Vindman now seems a distant memory, but Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman’s testimony about Ellis and Eisenberg is worth singling out here. Per Politico:

Ellis also featured in the Ukraine scandal, according to testimony heard by the House Intelligence Committee during the impeachment investigation.

Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a decorated Army officer who served as the National Security Council’s director for Ukraine, told lawmakers in October that Ellis and Eisenberg were the ones who decided to move the record of Trump’s phone call with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky into the NSC’s top-secret codeword system—a server normally used to store highly classified material that only a small group of officials can access.

In short: a person involved in limiting access to President Trump’s July 25 call with Volodymyr Zelensky was promoted. This is the call that sparked a whistleblower complaint and got the dominoes toppling toward impeachment. The people who testified about that call were reassigned.

What else do we know about Ellis? The White House included Ellis’s résumé when announcing his addition to the White House Counsel’s Office, when Don McGahn was running the show as of March 7, 2017:

Michael Ellis serves as Special Assistant to the President, Senior Associate Counsel to the President, and Deputy National Security Council Legal Advisor. Most recently, Mr. Ellis served as General Counsel of the U.S. House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Prior to joining the U.S. House of Representatives, Mr. Ellis was a Law Clerk to Judge Jeffrey Sutton of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals and to Judge Amul Thapar of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky. Earlier in his career, Mr. Ellis served as an Associate Director in the White House Office of Strategic Initiatives. Mr. Ellis is also an intelligence officer in the United States Navy Reserve. Mr. Ellis earned his bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College and his J.D. from Yale Law School.

Some things to point out about this: 1) Ellis has intelligence experience; 2) he has experience working for Trump; 3) he was General Counsel for the House Intelligence Committee when it was chaired by Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.).

Mike Sacks

@MikeSacksEsq

REMINDER: Devin Nunes's committee counsel Michael Ellis went to work for Flynn at the NSC, and then invited Nunes to the White House to see "evidence" of Obama admin "unmaskings" so to distract from the early pressure of the Russia investigation https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/30/us/politics/devin-nunes-intelligence-reports.html …

Representative Devin Nunes of California, a Republican and the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, arrived for a meeting Tuesday on Capitol Hill.

2 White House Officials Helped Give Nunes Intelligence Reports

The revelation fueled criticism that Representative Devin Nunes has been too eager to do the White House’s bidding, not run an independent investigation

nytimes.com

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On that last point, the New York Times once identified Ellis as one of two White House officials who provided Nunes with “the intelligence reports that showed that President Trump and his associates were incidentally swept up in foreign surveillance by American spy agencies.” That was reported on March 30, 2017. Notably, these Nunes sources were described as “whistleblowers”:

Since disclosing the existence of the intelligence reports, Mr. Nunes has refused to identify his sources, saying he needed to protect them so others would feel safe going to the committee with sensitive information. In his public comments, he has described his sources as whistle-blowers trying to expose wrongdoing at great risk to themselves.

That does not appear to be the case. Several current American officials identified the White House officials as Ezra Cohen-Watnick, the senior director for intelligence at the National Security Council, and Michael Ellis, a lawyer who works on national security issues at the White House Counsel’s Office and was previously counsel to Mr. Nunes’s committee. Though neither has been accused of breaking any laws, they do appear to have sought to use intelligence to advance the political goals of the Trump administration.

Then-House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) repeated the “whistleblower” description during an interview.

“[Nunes] had told me that like a whistle blower-type person had given him some information that was new that spoke to the last administration and part of this investigation,” Ryan said.

During his time at Dartmouth, Ellis was the editor-in-chief of The Dartmouth Review. After graduating, he actually appeared on Jeopardy! as a contestant. Several years ago, Ellis spoke about that experience during an interview with the publication he used to run. He also discussed how he came to advance Republican causes.

Ellis said that when he was a college freshman, he volunteered for the George W. Bush–Dick Cheney campaign, ascended pretty quickly and ended up getting a job in the Bush White House after he graduated.

“My experience working on the Bush campaign in ’04 led to a position at the White House right after my graduation from Dartmouth. From March 2006 to February 2007, I worked in the Office of Strategic Initiatives, an office that actually no longer exists,” he said. “Obama shut it down once he took office, perhaps because he thought it was closely associated with Karl Rove. While I was working at the White House, I was involved in polling. It wasn’t the best year of President Bush’s administration, and especially since I was tracking public opinion, it was certainly a very humbling experience. But nonetheless, it was a great opportunity, especially for someone straight out of college, and I’m thankful that I was able to serve.”

https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/trumps-on-a-mission-to-corrupt-the-nations-intelligence-for-his-own-political-benefit

wa mo

no lnx

Trump’s on a mission to corrupt the nation’s intelligence for his own political benefit

Written by The Washington Monthly March 7, 2020

Flush with his impeachment acquittal victory, President Donald Trump has resurrected his nomination of Texas Congressman John Ratcliffe to become Director of National Intelligence. Ratcliffe’s initial nomination sank in July after it was revealed he had embellished his record as a U.S. Attorney by lying that he fought terrorism and rounded up hundreds of undocumented immigrants.

So, what motivates Trump to trot out the same damaged goods to head U.S. intelligence? This is, after all, a man whom former acting CIA director Mike Morell described as having “the least national security experience and the most partisan political experience of any previous director of national intelligence,” Even worse, Ratcliffe has peddled the conspiracy theory that “there may have been a secret society of folks within the Department of Justice and the FBI” in 2016 who were working to prevent Trump from becoming president.

It’s not complicated. Trump prizes slavishness and intellectual dishonesty, or flat out derangement. All the qualities Ratcliffe seems to possess in abundance. Post-impeachment, Trump feels empowered to push the envelope even further than he already has to corrupt and subjugate the government apparatus to his own ends, with a key focus on the intelligence community.

Ratcliffe would succeed Vice Admiral Joseph Maguire, who was recently ousted as acting DNI by Trump after Maguire’s staff briefed the House Intelligence Committee on ongoing Russian election interference. To fill the gap, Trump has named one of his biggest loyalists, U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell, as acting DNI.

Grenell’s Trumpist antics as U.S. envoy have already made him a pariah in Berlin. But now, he has gotten the ball rolling in doing his master’s bidding and cleaning house: In just two weeks on the job, he has fired DNI principal executive and veteran CIA officer Andrew Hallman and hiredKash Patel as “senior advisor.” Patel is an NSC staffer and former Devon Nunes aidewith little grounding in the intelligence community. Worse yet, Patel has already played a disgraced role in American history. He presented himself, falsely, as a Ukraine expert to the president and fed him disinformation that led to Trump’s impeachment-prompting attempt to extort Ukrainian president Zelensky. Grennell also dismissed chief of staff Viraj Mirani, continuing Trump’s purge of qualified and experienced IC officials.

Topping off Trump’s appointments of credentials-lite “yes-men,” is that of Michael Ellis, another Nunes acolyte, as the NSC’s director for intelligence. Ellis was behind the decision to bury the transcript of Trump’s infamous July 25, 2019 call to President Zelensky in a super-secret code word server. At the same time, Trump has imposed McCarthy-like loyalty-testing of federal employees through his hand-chosen grand inquisitor, 29-year-old John McEntee, the president’s former body man who was fired last year for a gambling addiction. Along with his deputy, a college student, McEntee is reportedly concentrating the hunt on allegedly anti-Trump political appointees. My contacts inside the government report the working level has not yet been targeted. “But our antennae are up,” said one national security official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

In other words, the president is turning paranoia into personnel policy. An expert in the politicization of intelligence, American University professor Joshua Rovner calls Trump’s moves “manipulation by appointment.” He told me in an interview that he worries that Ratcliffe “would perpetrate real damage to the intelligence community.”

Stephen Slick, a 27-year CIA senior operations officer who now heads the University of Texas at Austin’s intelligence studies program, told me Trump’s bid to coerce political loyalty from government agencies and civil servants that are charged with pursuing the truth puts the country in danger. “If the president succeeds in his project to diminish the fundamental non-partisan character of American intelligence and law enforcement, we will become increasingly vulnerable to miscalculation or catastrophic surprise,” he said.

Of course, we know the consequences of manipulated intelligence. George W. Bush’s decision to invade Iraq and oust Saddam Hussein in 2003, based on faulty intelligence, led the country into a chaotic war that destabilized the Middle East. Thus far, that overseas adventure has cost more than $2 trillion and almost 4,500 American service members’ lives. Roughly 32,000 soldiers have been wounded.

The Trump White House’s intimidation is already having a deleterious impact. Last month, agency chiefs declined to participate in briefing the House Intelligence Committee in the public segment of the annual Worldwide Threat Assessment hearing, fearing that doing so would attract the president’s ire.

Trump’s constant attacks against the intelligence community fit into his wider war on truth itself. His mission is twofold: to shield the public from intelligence that potentially could damage him politically, and to control the flow of information emanating from the agencies. That Trump’s goals fit neatly with those of Vladimir Putin could be a mere coincidence, or perhaps something more insidious. Eventually, that truth will come out.

Meanwhile, the Vichy GOP acts as Trump’s enabler. Based on the past behavior of Republicans in Congress, it seems obvious that they won’t stand up to the president now, even with the nation’s national security on the line.

Having served for many years as a State Department diplomat, and as a Pentagon intelligence analyst, I am of the conviction that Trump knows full well what he is doing. He may, typically, not have a detailed plan, but his ultimate objective is clear. And the country will be the worse for it.

https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/russia-is-interfering-on-trumps-behalf-again-and-hes-enraged-that-congress-now-knows-it-report/

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Russia is interfering on Trump’s behalf again — and he’s enraged that Congress now knows it: report

Written by Joan McCarter / Daily Kos February 20, 2020

There’s a bit more clarity now to the story of the briefing to the House Intelligence Committee that may or may not have contributed to acting director of national intelligence Joseph Maguire’s departure from the Trump administration. According to The New York Times, the mysterious briefing that Republicans and impeached President Donald Trump so objected to was about Russia interfering in this election, the 2020 one.

Five people familiar with the matter told the Times that the Feb. 13 briefing included a warning to lawmakers that Russia was interfering to get Trump reelected, a “disclosure that angered Mr. Trump, who complained that Democrats would use it against him,” as opposed to using it to try to secure the election and prevent Russia from mucking about in it again. The Times reports that the next day, Trump “berated Joseph Maguire, the outgoing acting director of national intelligence, for allowing it to take place” and the fact that Rep. Adam Schiff, the committee chairman, was present to hear it was “a particular irritant.”

It’s not too much of stretch to figure out who filled Trump in on all the details of the briefing, as a committee official said that ” members of both parties attended, including Representative Devin Nunes of California, the top Republican on the committee” and that it was indeed about the “integrity of our upcoming elections.” In what’s really not good news for the upcoming election, the Times reports that “Some intelligence officials viewed the briefing as a tactical error, saying that had official who delivered the conclusion spoken less pointedly or left it out, they would have avoided angering the Republicans.”

Not angering Republicans should not be the intelligence community’s concern at all. Not when they have credible information saying that this election is in jeopardy of Russian interference on behalf of the man who has already been impeached for trying to get another country to do the same

https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/the-intelligence-community-erupts-as-trump-purges-everyone-opposed-to-russian-election-interference/

The intelligence community erupts as Trump purges everyone opposed to Russian election interference

https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/trump-names-right-wing-troll-to-lead-intelligence-agencies/

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Trump names right-wing troll to lead intelligence agencies

Written by Heather Digby Parton / Salon February 21, 2020

Sen. Susan Collins of Maine has had a long career in politics, and I’m sure she has many accomplishments that she’s proud of. But I’m afraid she’s going to be remembered for one thing and one thing only: Her declaration that President Trump had “learned his lesson” after his impeachment trial in the Senate. That would have been a ridiculous rationale for voting to acquit any president on the evidence in that case, but saying it about Trump was downright laughable. He has proved that every single day since the trial ended.

Right out of the box he vowed revenge. He attacked Sen. Mitt Romney, the one Republican who voted to convict him in the Senate trial, and then immediately set about firing witnesses who had testified against him, including the twin brother of Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, for no apparent reason.

Trump has pushed the Senate Republican majority and the Department of Justice to help him exact his vengeance by investigating professionals who were involved in the Russia and Ukraine investigation. His apparent collusion with Attorney General Bill Barr to interfere in criminal cases has caused a near-insurrection within the Department of Justice.

This week Trump went on a pardon spree, freeing a list of people who had been convicted of corruption, sending yet another obvious message to those inside and outside the justice system that he is unencumbered by the rule of law. It remains to be seen if he will pardon his old pal Roger Stone, now that he’s been sentenced to 40 months in prison. But if he has any fear that Stone has information to trade, you can be sure he’ll do it.

That’s just a partial list of “lessons” Trump has learned since the Senate failed to do its duty, and I’m sure I’m leaving some out. But the announcement on Thursday that Trump will name his ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell, as the new acting director of national security may be the most shocking action of recent weeks.

Grenell is one of the most odious Trump toadies in the administration, and that’s really saying something. Like so many others, he came to Trump’s attention as a sharp-tongued Fox News personality. It’s likely that Trump didn’t know much about him other than the fact he was a big fan. That’s all it takes. Truthfully, if he’d known Grenell’s whole story he would like him even more.

Grenell held a few PR flak jobs in the government, working for the likes of John Bolton at the UN, where he was universally reviled.But he is best known as a Twitter troll, just like the president. He quit Romney’s presidential campaign in 2012, where he’d been hired as a foreign policy spokesman, after his Twitter feed was revealed to be full of nasty comments. During the 2016 campaign, he got back in the game and really made a name for himself as a crude and vicious Trump supporter.

Needless to say, Trump loved it and gave him the plum job of U.S. ambassador to Berlin, where he immediately alienated everyone in sight. On his very first day on the job, referencing the fact that Trump had withdrawn from the Iran nuclear deal, Grenell tweeted that “Germans doing business in Iran should wind down operations immediately.” Obviously he had no authority to dictate any such thing, and people in Germany were not amused, to say the least. Leaders of two German political parties have called him a “brat” and a “failure” and requested that he be withdrawn. No such luck.

Grenell has gone on to cultivate the far right in Germany and elsewhere in Europe, particularly Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz, the “boyish face” of his country’s far-right government. Grenell told Breitbart that he wanted to “empower” Kurz and others like him in Europe, which exceeds the job description of ambassador just a wee bit.

Most recently, he was implicated in the baroque Ukraine scandal, and particularly in the side plot involving Lev Parnas and Ukrainian oligarch Dmytro Firtash. Parnas was reportedly instructed (perhaps by Rudy Giuliani) to ask Grenell for a heads-up if the Department of Justice decided to seek Firtash’s extradition to the U.S. Grenell apparently agreed to do it, which was probably illegal.

Grenell’s name has been floating all over the Trump administration for a while, mentioned as a possible national security adviser after Bolton’s departure or a potential secretary of state if Mike Pompeo quits. He has no qualifications for any such posts, other than his personal fealty to Donald Trump.

The professionals in the intelligence community are reportedly very alarmed by Grenell’s appointment, as they should be. The DNI oversees all the U.S. intelligence services and has access to all the most important capabilities and secrets. It is unclear whether Grenell even has a top-level security clearance or could qualify for one.

This appointment was announced as yet another “acting” assignment, which seems odd since an acting DNI, Joseph Maguire, was already in place. (He has filled the job since last August, when Dan Coats departed.) Administration sources have said that Grenell will only serve until Trump nominates someone for the permanent position, which would require Senate confirmation, and won’t resign his position in Germany. So why put in another placeholder?

Late on Thursday, the Washington Post and the New York Times reported the answer: Trump wanted Maguire out immediately because his department had briefed the House Intelligence Committee last week and told members that the Russian government is once again interfering in the presidential campaign on Trump’s behalf. As usual, Trump is livid that members of his administration actually performed their legal and constitutional duties, and is determined to punish those who did. He was especially angry that Intelligence Committee chair Adam Schiff, D-Calif., a major villain in Trump World, was given this information.

Aside from Maguire, the second-ranking official in the DNI’s office, longtime intelligence professional Andrew Hallman, also announced his departure, leaving the top echelon without experienced leadership. But never fear, another Trumpian hack is on the way. According to Politico, hyper-partisan henchman Kash Patel, the former aide to Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif.,who played an important role in House Republicans’ attempts to discredit the Russia investigation, will come on board as “senior adviser” to Grenell.

It’s clear that Trump has moved his most dedicated disciples into the DNI’s office in order to prevent any more briefings on Russian interference on his behalf and to ensure that the intelligence community is brought to heel. Between this and Bill Barr’s unlimited mandate to investigate the intelligence on election interference from 2016, one can assume that the purge of anyone Trump considers a threat within the intelligence agencies or the Justice Department is now in full effect.

So in a sense Susan Collins was right. Trump has learned his lesson: Only proven Trump loyalists will run national security and federal law enforcement from now on. What could possibly go wrong?

Heather Digby Parton, also known as “Digby,” is a contributing writer to Salon. She was the winner of the 2014 Hillman Prize for Opinion and Analysis Journalism.

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Nunes banned his local newspaper from a public event. Why is he so scared?

February 20, 2020

Rep. Devin Nunes’ war against the free press reached a new low on Tuesday when he barred The Fresno Bee from covering a major water forum in Tulare, Calif.The forum…

https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/watch-devin-nunes-slammed-at-house-intel-hearing-for-leading-sad-and-dangerous-boycott-of-the-committee/

https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/emasculated-pissant-devin-nunes-scorched-by-national-talk-radio-host-for-media-threats/

Nunes threatens criminal charges against inspector general over whistleblower complaint

Sky Palma / Raw Story

According to an exclusive report from Fox News, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) is threatening to take action against Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson over his handling of the whistleblower’s complaint,…

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/devin-nunes-lev-parnas-trump-aide_n_5e2285e8c5b632117613ed0d

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New Records Bare Extensive Links Between Devin Nunes Aide And Lev Parnas

Texts link the Ukraine pressure scheme to the office of the top GOP congressman on the House Intelligence Committee before the impeachment hearings.

headshot

By Mary Papenfuss

Newly released documents reveal extensive contacts between a key aide to Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) and indicted Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas.

The frequent communications between Parnas and Nunes’s aide Derek Harvey were revealed in records provided by Parnas and released Friday night by the U.S. House.

The information is particularly problematic for the GOP congressman — the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee — because of his role in the House impeachment hearings concerning Donald Trump’s pressure on Ukraine to announce an investigation into the president’s political rival Joe Biden. Nunes participated in the hearings and strongly defended Trump, even though the records indicate he may have been involved in the operation. Nunes has denied any role in the scheme to press Ukraine to investigate Biden.

But text messages released Friday between Parnas and Harvey indicate that Nunes’s office was aware of the operation at the heart of the impeachment inquiry and that he sought to use the information Parnas was collecting. Texts show that Parnas was working last spring to set up calls for Harvey with the Ukrainian prosecutors who were allegedly providing information about former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter to Giuliani, Trump’s personal attorney.

Parnas, who has been indicted for alleged campaign finance violations, worked to strong-arm Ukraine into launching a Biden investigation. He said he was following Trump’s wishes, communicated to him by Giuliani.

Parnas told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow earlier this week that, although Nunes “couldn’t be in the spotlight,” he “wanted to help out” in the Ukraine operation. (See the video above.) Parnas said he was put in touch then with Harvey, who “knew everything” already when the two men talked, according to Parnas.

Parnas wrote to Harvey in a text on April 19: “Do you want to interview the general prosecutor who got [ditched] by Biden? Also the anti corruption prosecutor? Let me know.”

“Does tomorrow work?” Harvey responded, according to a text.

Texts also show that Harvey met with Parnas and Giuliani at the Trump hotel in Washington. Parnas told Maddow he met “several times” with Nunes at the hotel.

Parnas told Maddow he was “in shock” when he watched the impeachment hearings and “saw Devin Nunes sitting up there” with Harvey. “I texted my attorney. I said, ‘I can’t believe this is happening’ ... because they were involved in getting all this stuff on Biden.”

He added: “It’s hard to see them lie like that. It’s scary.”

A House report last month on Trump’s impeachment also noted several direct calls between Nunes and Parnas, according to logs.

Natasha Bertrand

@NatashaBertrand

More calls between Devin Nunes and Lev Parnas, including one that lasted 8 minutes on April 12.

Nunes said after the House report that he could not recall ever speaking with Parnas. But he told Fox News on Wednesday that his memory was refreshed after he reviewed his records.

“I checked it with my records, and it was very clear,” he said. “I remember that call, which was very odd, random, talking about random things. And I said, ‘Great, you know, just talk to my staff,’ and boom, boom, boom. That’s just normal operating procedure.”

But there were several phone calls, according to records noted in the House impeachment report.

House Democrats Release More Lev Parnas Documents

The documents include more texts about efforts to track then-U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ted-lieu-devin-nunes-lev-parnas-shove-it_n_5e2275eac5b674e44b985f5c

...Lieu posted the first page of a letter from an attorney for Nunes threatening a lawsuit — and his own letter back.

It’s not clear from the single page of the lawyer’s missive specifically what the threatened lawsuit would address, though it mentions Nunes’ right to an “unimpaired reputation.” Lieu’s letter indicates that it would involve his allegations in December that Nunes conspired with indicted Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas in the Ukraine scheme to smear Joe Biden.

The lawsuit threat is particularly ironic now that newly released records have revealed extensive links between Nunes aide Derek Harvey and Parnas.

By his own admission, Parnas worked to pressure Ukraine to announce an investigation into unfounded accusations against the former vice president. He has said he was following Donald Trump’s wishes as communicated to him by Giuliani, the president’s personal attorney.

The House report on Trump’s impeachment last month also revealed phone logs of several calls between Nunes and Parnas.

“I received your letter ... in which you state your client Congressman Devin Nunes will sue me if I don’t, among other actions, issue a public apology to Devin Nunes,” Lieu wrote to Nunes’ attorney in the letter he posted on Twitter. “It is true that I stated Congressman Nunes worked with Lev Parnas and conspired to undermine our own government.”

Lieu warned that “truth is a defense” and then snapped: “I welcome any lawsuit from your client and look forward to taking discovery of Congressman Nunes. Or, you can take your letter and shove it.”...

https://www.emptywheel.net/2019/11/21/devin-nunes-bills-taxpayers-63000-for-a-jaunt-to-europe-chasing-lev-parnas-disinformation/

NUNES BILLED TAXPAYERS $63,000 FOR A JAUNT TO EUROPE CHASING ACCUSED FRAUDSTER LEV PARNAS’ DISINFORMATION:{:(style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;border:#d4d4d4;;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;vertical-align:baseline"):}:

November 21, 2019/35 Comments/in 2016 Presidential Election, 2020 Presidential Election, Impeachment /by emptywheel

Betsy Woodruff Swan just put the maraschino cherry on the impeachment sundae with this story describing how Lev Parnas served as tour guide for a trip Devin Nunes, failed NSC staffer Derek Harvey, and two other House Intelligence staffers took to Europe last year.

Lev Parnas, an indicted associate of Rudy Giuliani, helped arrange meetings and calls in Europe for Rep. Devin Nunes in 2018, Parnas’ lawyer Ed MacMahon told The Daily Beast.

Nunes aide Derek Harvey participated in the meetings, the lawyer said, which were arranged to help Nunes’ investigative work. MacMahon didn’t specify what those investigations entailed.

Nunes is the top Republican on the House committee handling the impeachment hearings—hearings where Parnas’s name has repeatedly come up.

Congressional records show Nunes traveled to Europe from Nov. 30 to Dec. 3, 2018. Three of his aides—Harvey, Scott Glabe, and George Pappas—traveled with him, per the records. U.S. government funds paid for the group’s four-day trip, which cost just over $63,000.

The travel came as Nunes, in his role on the House Intelligence Committee, was working to investigate the origins of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian election meddling.

There’s much that’s crazy about the story: The inclusion of Harvey, a Mike Flynn loyalist who got fired from NSC; the role of Parnas’ lawyer, Ed MacMahon (who seems to be aiming to discomfort as many of the powerful people Parnas interacted with as possible); and the release of this story at the end of a week during which Nunes offered debunked conspiracy after debunked conspiracy in a bid to defend Trump.

But it’s the timing of the trip I find most interesting. While I’m sure Swan has a reason to invoke Nunes’ efforts to undercut Mueller, the trip actually comes long after HPSCI had moved on from trying to confuse about the Russian investigation. The effort had been picked up by a joint House Judiciary/Oversight effort; and even that was largely over by December 2018. Just as interestingly, the trip came after Republicans got shellacked in mid-term elections but before Democrats took over in the House. That is, this seems like a last ditch effort to chase down something that accused fraudster Lev Parnas was dangling in front of easy marks, while Nunes still had unfettered ability to squander taxpayer funds.

Devin Nunes has spent 2.5 years squealing that a respected Russian expert, Christopher Steele, shared information with DOJ with our own experts on organized crime, because that information was paid for by DNC. But he’s now billing taxpayers to chase after disinformation from an obvious grifter.

Tags: Derek Harvey, Devin Nunes, Lev Parnas, Mike Flynn

ref

https://www.emptywheel.net/2019/11/14/devin-nunes-calls-an-experienced-organized-crime-researcher-funded-by-paul-singer-a-democratic-operative/

blog?

NUNES CALLS AN EXPERIENCED ORGANIZED CRIME RESEARCHER FUNDED BY PAUL SINGER A DEMOCRATIC OPERATIVE:{:(style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;border:#d4d4d4;;font-style:inherit;font-variant:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-stretch:inherit;vertical-align:baseline"):}:

November 14, 2019/64 Comments/in 2016 Presidential Election, 2020 Presidential Election, Impeachment, Mueller Probe /by emptywheel

There’s a key part of Devin Nunes and Mark Meadows’ defense of the President yesterday that deserves far more attention, both for the way it distorts the factual record and how it suggests that simply being an expert on Russian and Ukrainian organized crime makes one a Democratic operative.

At issue is their bid to make the impeachment inquiry about Nellie Ohr, whom they’ve past falsely suggested had a role in mainlining the Steele dossier into DOJ and FBI. They’ve brought Nellie, the spouse of a key DOJ expert on organized crime, Bruce Ohr, back into their narrative by claiming she testified to Congress that Fusion GPS relied on Ukrainian sources. The idea is that Ohr’s testimony would prove that Trump had good reason to think Ukraine had it in for him in 2016, so could rightly ask Ukraine to investigate whether that amounted to tampering in the election.

Here’s how Nunes laid it out in his demand that Ohr be called to testify:

Nellie Ohr, former contractor for opposition research firm Fusion GPS. In a 2018 interview with the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees, Ms. Ohr stated that, during her work with Fusion GPS that ultimately assisted in the production of the Steele dossier–comprising false allegations against then-candidate Trump–Fusion GPS used information from sources in Ukraine, including Serhiy Leshchenko who recently lost his post from the Ukrainian parliament. Given President Trump’s documented belief that the Ukrainian government meddled in the 2016 election to oppose his candidacy, which forms the basis for a reasonable desire for Ukraine to investigate the circumstances surrounding the election and any potential Ukrainian involvement, Ms. Ohr is a prime fact witness who can assist Congress and the American public in better understanding the facts and circumstances surrounding Ukrainian involvement in the 2016 election.

In his demand, Nunes helpfully provides a footnote, to make it easy to see how many errors he makes in this paragraph. Here’s the passage of Ohr’s testimony before Congress that, Nunes falsely claims, backs his insinuations that Ohr tampered in the 2016 campaign.

GOP counsel Ryan Breitenbach is questioning her.

Q Was there indication from [her boss at Fusion GPS, Jake] Berkowitz or [Glenn] Simpson that they had any inside information as to whether there were suspicious connections with any of President Trump’s orbit of individuals including his family?

A What do you mean by “inside information”?

Q I would say any information that they specifically gave you, in terms of your employment with Fusion GPS, that would indicate that there were some level of connections with President Trump’s family and Russia?

A They would give me leads based on their open-source research and, you know, legal documents and other things.

Q Did they ever indicate that any of their leads were based off of sources of theirs?

A I don’t remember get- — regarding the Trump family, no.

Q Regarding any of the research during this year, 10-, 11-month period, was any — was any research based off of sources of theirs that you were aware of?

A Yes.

Q And who were the sources?

A I recall a — they were mentioning someone named Serhiy Leshchenko, a Ukrainian.

Q And did they give you any indication as to Leshchenko’s connections with them, how they got to know him? Were they doing work for him?

A With Fusion GPS?

Q Correct.

A I am not aware of how they —

Q Were you aware of how they had a connection with him?

A I am not aware.

Q But you were aware that he was a source of information that was leading to information that they had, that they were then presenting to you as reasons for following up on opposition research or what research —

A Yes.

Q — that is, on President Trump or his family?

A My understanding is that some — yes. And — yes, it was not necessarily on his family that Leshchenko’s research was on.

Q Are you aware of what his research, or what his source information included?

A His source information, I am not aware.

Q You are just aware that he was a source of —

A Yes.

Q — Glenn Simpson? Or was it a source of Mr. Berkowitz? Or both?

A I am not aware of a differentiation between them. Just a source for Fusion GPS.

Q That is one source. Were there any other sources that you were aware of?

A I don’t think so. I don’t recall that there were.

Q And were you aware of Mr. Leshchenko prior to him being mentioned to you as a potential source of their information?

A Yes.

Q In what way?

A He is very well-known, Ukrainian, anti-corruption activist. So I had read about him in the press.

Q Had you studied him before?

A What do you mean by “studied”?

Q Performed independent research for any prior employer.

A No. I followed him in the — you know, if I saw him mentioned in the press, I read — I read about it.

Q And previous to this particular incoming knowledge from Mr. Simpson or just from Fusion GPS, were you aware of any connections between Mr. Leshchenko — am I saying that name, by the way?

A Yes.

Q — Mr. Leshchenko and President Trump, or anyone in President Trump’s familial orbit or even friendly orbit?

A I was unaware of any connections before that. [my emphasis]

Before this colloquy, Ohr had already testified that she had “no reason to believe” that her work was integrated into the Steele dossier at all. Democratic staffers walked her through passage after passage in the Steele dossier and asked her if her work had provided background for it, which she said it did not. She also had already explained (to both Jim Jordan and Mark Meadows in separate interactions directly) that she, “did online open source research using Russian sources, media, social media, government, you know, business registers, legal databases, all kinds of things.” Ohr’s testimony was backed by Glenn Simpson’s earlier appearances before Congress — including an appearance before HPSCI that Nunes attended; Simpson also said his own research was based off open source research.

Moreover, both the reports Nellie did (PDF 216 to 299) and a table she put together on Trump and his flunkies’ ties to suspect Russians show that the bulk of her research for Fusion preceded the time when Christopher Steele was working on the dossier. Significantly, that means much of Nellie Ohr’s work was paid by GOP billionaire Paul Singer, not the DNC.

So in this passage, Nellie Ohr is talking leads she got from her boss at Fusion, Jake Berkowitz, based off open source research he had done, that she would use to do more open source research, for a project mostly paid for by a Republican billionaire interested in the ties between Trump and Russian organized crime.

And what the passage shows is that:

Ohr said the information from Berkowitz came from open source reporting
She described herself getting information on Serhiy Leshchenko’s efforts, because he was a very well-known anti-corruption activist who was covered in the press
She twice said she was not aware of how Berkowitz and Simpson got their information from Leshchenko
She also said she didn’t know where Leshchenko got his information
Ohr said that Leshchenko’s reporting wasn’t focused on the Trump family (it almost certainly was focused on Paul Manafort, about whom Ohr wrote a detailed timeline)

In short, the transcript Nunes says supports a demand that Ohr testify does no such thing. Instead, it shows that this side of Fusion’s work relied on open source reporting, and that information on Leshchenko’s efforts was available via open sources. It also shows that Ohr repeatedly denied knowing whether the Fusion focus on Leshchenko was based on anything but open source reporting.

This transcript also shows that if Republicans really wanted to know about how Leshchenko’s work informed Fusion’s work, they should ask Simpson or Berkowitz to testify, because Ohr was only ever working from open sources — that is, doing research, mostly paid for by a Republican billionaire.

That background is all critically important for how Nunes ended yesterday’s testimony. In his closing statement at the hearing, Nunes restated his demand that Schiff permit Republicans to call their chosen witnesses, which he listed as:

The whistleblower
The folks that he spoke to
Numerous Democratic operatives who worked with Ukraine to meddle in the election

Obviously, Nellie Ohr — an experienced researcher on Ukrainian and Russian organized crime — must fall into the latter category.

So on top of all the ways Nunes misrepresented the Ohr’s testimony (or her ability to testify on the issues he claims to want to hear), there’s this. The Ranking Member of the House Intelligence Committee, Devin Nunes, believes that an expert on Ukrainian and Russian organized crime being paid to do open source research by a Republican billionaire must be a Democratic operative.

Tags: Bruce Ohr, Christopher Steele, Devin Nunes, Glenn Simpson, Jim Jordan, Mark Meadows, Nellie Ohr, Paul Manafort, Paul Singer, Serhiy Leshchenko

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/parnas-accuses-devin-nunes-being-involved-anti-biden-effort-n1117601?cid=sm_fb_maddow

As Donald Trump's Ukraine scandal has unfolded, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, is among the Republicans who've faced questions about communications with some of the scheme's key players.

It was against this backdrop that Rachel asked Lev Parnas, a Rudy Giuliani associate involved with executing the Ukraine scheme, about his associations with the controversial California congressman.

Parnas also said he met several times with U.S. Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., one of Trump's top defenders and ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee, which investigated the Ukraine allegations.

Parnas said he was later referred to a Nunes aide, who was aware of what Parnas and Giuliani were doing. Parnas said the referral came because of something to do with an ethics committee, and Nunes "couldn't be in the spotlight." Parnas said he was shocked to see Nunes and the aide during the impeachment hearings....

"I was in shock when I was watching the hearings and when I saw Devin Nunes sitting up there," Parnas said, adding that he was similarly surprised to see Derek Harvey, a Nunes aide he claims to have worked with on the Ukraine scheme, on the dais during the congressional proceedings.

Parnas told Rachel, "I texted my attorney. I said, 'I can't believe this is happening.'"

Asked why he was so surprised, he added, "Because they were involved in getting all this stuff on Biden."

Parnas went on to say, in apparent reference to Nunes, "[I]t's hard to see them lie like that... It's scary because, you know, he was sitting there and making all statements and all that when he knew very well that he knew what was going on. He knew what's happening. He knows who I am."

Though Nunes' office did not immediately respond to a request for comment, the Washington Post noted that the GOP lawmaker appeared on Fox News.

A couple of hours before the Parnas interview aired on MSNBC, Nunes was asked by Fox News host Martha MacCallum about the phone records that show that he spoke with the former Giuliani associate. Last month, Nunes told Fox's Sean Hannity that while it was "possible" that he spoke with Parnas, he did not "recall" his name. "I will go back and check my records, but it seems very unlikely I will be taking calls from random people," Nunes said at the time.

On Wednesday, however, Nunes said that after having time to go through his records, he was reminded that he did talk to Parnas -- a chat he described as "random."

"I just didn't know the name -- this name 'Par-nas,'" Nunes said. "You know now that he had called my cellphone and I didn't know his name, I didn't remember the name, but I did remember going back where I was at the time -- you can do that now, you actually know where you physically are -- checked it with my records.

It's of interest that Nunes remembered an interaction with Parnas on the same afternoon as Parnas' interview with Rachel.

MORE: Today's Maddowblog

https://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/congress/article239353658.html

Devin Nunes on Wednesday publicly acknowledged for the first time that he spoke with Lev Parnas, an indicted associate of Rudy Giuliani who allegedly helped carry out President Donald Trump’s campaign to pressure the Ukrainian government for investigations that would benefit Trump’s re-election.

Nunes was first connected to Parnassix weeks ago, when a Democratic investigation published phone records showing that Nunes spoke with Parnas and with Giuliani, Trump’s personal attorney. Nunes initially said he did not recall the conversation. with Parnas

This week, Nunes said in an interview on Fox News that he remembered the call.

“It was very odd, random, talked about random things. I said great, just talk to my staff, boom boom boom, which is normal, standard operating procedure.”

Nunes’ acknowledgment of the interaction coincided with Parnas’ appearance on MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow show. Parnas said he didn’t have much of a relationship with Nunes, although Parnas said he met with Nunes “several times” at a Trump hotel.

“He knows who I am,” Parnas said about Nunes.

Parnas said he worked with one of Nunes’ aides who was “looking into this Ukraine stuff also and wanted to help out….he had a lot of information already.”

Nunes’ office did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.

WHAT TRUMP WANTED FROM UKRAINE

Nunes, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, was a vigorous Trump defender at the House impeachment hearings.

The hearings centered on diplomats’ testimony that the White House withheld security assistance from Ukraine as Trump pressed Ukraine’s president to announce an investigation into business dealings carried out by Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s son, Hunter.

“I was in shock when I was watching the hearings...I text my attorney and said I can’t believe this is happening,” Parnas said. “Because they were involved in getting all this stuff on Biden.” The aide, Parnas said, had interviews with Ukrainian sources he helped arrange.

Parnas was indicted by federal prosecutors in October and charged with campaign finance violations. Prosecutors also allege that Parnas lobbied a congressman to remove the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch.

Parnas turned documents over to the House Intelligence Committee this week that detail his role in pushing for Yovanovitch’s ouster. The government of Ukraine on Thursday announced thatit opened an investigation into alleged surveillance of the former ambassador.

As the Senate prepared to begin Trump’s impeachment trial Thursday, Parnas sparked a new furor, telling Maddow, “President Trump knew exactly what was going on” with all the Ukraine intrigue.

“He was aware of all my movements. I wouldn’t do anything without the consent of Rudy Giuliani or the president. I have no intent, I have no reason to speak to any of these officials,” Parnas said.

DEVIN NUNES ON FOX

In, aired Wednesday night, Nunes raised questions about Parnas’ credibility.

“This is someone who’s been indicted for major felonies. It’s very odd that the Democrats have been playing cat and mouse with this guy. There’s some talk that he’s after an immunity deal, trying to get the Democrats to seek immunity,” Nunes said.

Last month, a Democratic report summarizing evidence gathered during the House impeachment inquiry detailed phone records showing Nunes, R-Tulare, spoke with Giuliani and Parnas in early April.

That was around the time when a series of opinion articles by conservative journalist John Solomon raised questions about Yovanovitch and ultimately led to her dismissal.

The phone records showed Nunes had at least three calls with Giuliani and two with Parnas. Giuliani also called a member of Nunes’ staff, Derek Harvey, on May 8, and a former Nunes staffer, Kashyap “Kash” Patel, who now works on the National Security Council.

Wednesday, Fox News host Martha McCallum noted that Nunes could not recall in a previous interview speaking with Parnas.

The question “was brand-new when that had come out when I was on your show. I just didn’t know the name, this name Parnas,” Nunes said.

“What I always like to remind people is we are dealing with people every day,” he said. “We’re an oversight committee. So we have incoming calls that come to my office, to my cell phone et cetera et cetera and then you know now that he had called my cell phone and I didn’t know his name,” Nunes said.

ELECTION

Devin Nunes’ challenger hauls in $700,000 after impeachment hearings

JANUARY 07, 2020 1:09 PM

THE-WEST

‘Pattern of harassing lawsuits’: McClatchy asks judge to dismiss Devin Nunes’ complaint

DECEMBER 20, 2019 7:09 PM

THE-WEST

Devin Nunes lives on a congressman’s salary. How is he funding so many lawsuits?

DECEMBER 14, 2019 8:00 AM

https://www.alternet.org/2019/12/local-paper-raises-questions-about-the-mysterious-financing-of-devin-nunes-lawsuit-binge/

an 1219

...t"That means Nunes is either paying for the lawsuits out of his own pocket, promising to pay his lawyer a portion of any money they’re awarded in court at a later date, or flouting House Ethics rules that would require him to publicly disclose who is funding the legal work,” concluded the Bee.

The Bee has itself faced public attacks from Nunes after publishing a story about cocaine and prostitutes allegedly found on a charity yacht cruise financed by a winery that Nunes is invested in. McClatchy, the media company that owns the Bee, is the target of one of Nunes’ lawsuits. “Nunes would have to set up a legal defense fund to accept free legal services or to receive money from a benefactor. Members of Congress have strict rules against receiving generous gifts, with some exceptions for family,” noted the Bee. However, “Nunes has no such fund set up, according to a public records search by McClatchy. Even under the rules of that fund, set up by Congress, no one person could donate more than the $5,000 limit,” according to Campaign Legal Center general counsel Kedric Payne....

Devin Nunes claims he was ‘stalked’ after reporter asked basic questions about his role in Trump’s Ukraine scheme

Jake Johnson / Common Dreams

Nunes may regret trying to silence his critics

Sher Watts Spooner / Daily KosDecember 8, 2019

U.S. Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Laughing Stock) has filed yet another frivolous lawsuit in his series of frivolous lawsuits. The latest is a $435 million defamation suit against CNN, something he had…

https://www.alternet.org/2019/12/report-points-to-trump-1-as-the-ringleader-of-a-global-conspiracy/

"huge" rudy

no lnx

Report points to Trump, ‘-1,’ as the ringleader of a global conspiracy

Written by John Stoehr, The Editorial Board December 4, 2019

The House Intelligence Committee released its report Tuesday. In it were phone call records showing frequent contact between Rudy Giuliani and the White House. The records suggest in the most granular detail yet that the president of the United States is the leader of an international criminal conspiracy to defraud the American people.

But the call records do more than that. They offer a teachable moment. They provide an illustration, in miniature, of what a conspiracy looks like, and why it’s morally and legally wrong for the head of the world’s oldest democracy to engage in such conduct.

The House Intelligence report does not say Giuliani called Trump. Instead, it says the president’s personal attorney called a number designated as “-1.” Adam Schiff, the panel’s chairman, said his committee is investigating whether “-1” is Trump’s phone. The timing of calls and other strong circumstantial evidence, however, point to him.

Joe Biden announced his candidacy on April 25. Leading up to that date, Giuliani, Lev Parnas and John Solomon were in frequent contact, according to the call logs. Parnas was one of Giuliani’s henchmen. He’s now under federal indictment for campaign-finance violations. Solomon was a reporter for The Hill, a Washington newspaper.

As mentioned in previous editions of the Editorial Board, Parnas, under Giuliani’s direction, connected Solomon to Yuriy Lutsenko. Lutsenko used to be Ukraine’s top prosecutor. He was hugely corrupt, because he was intimately linked to Vladimir Putin. In interviews with Solomon, Lutsenko alleged that Joe Biden, when he was the vice president, tried to shield his son, Hunter Biden, from criminal investigation in Ukraine (a lie) and that Ukraine, not Russia, had interfered with the 2016 presidential election (also a lie.) Lev Parnas was deeply involved in Solomon’s “journalism.” He was present at his interviews with Yuriy Lutsenko, according to reporting in Pro Publica.

This we knew. What didn’t know was the timing.

On the same day Joe Biden announced his presidential campaign, John Solomon wrote a falsehood-laden column “alleging that Ukraine had planted Russia collusion allegations against the Trump campaign,” according to the Post. “The column also described Biden’s efforts to oust a Ukrainian prosecutor and questioned whether Biden had acted to protect his son Hunter, who served on the board of a Ukrainian energy company facing an investigation, as the fired prosecutor has alleged.”

Coincidence? Unlikely.

The very same day, April 25, Giuliani received a call from “-1” (i.e., Trump). Giuliani then called Sean Hannity at Fox. A while later, Trump appeared on Hannity’s show to comment on Solomon’s report in The Hill. “That sounds like big, big stuff,” he said.

It could have been a coincidence, but again, unlikely. As I noted last week, Parnas’ attorney said he met regularly with the “BLT Team,” a name taken from the restaurant where the group convened several times a week on the second floor of the Trump International Hotel in Washington. The BLT team included Parnas, Giuliani, Solomon, attorneys Joe diGenova and Victoria Toensing, and US Rep. Devin Nunes’ chief aide.

Coincidence isn’t the right word to describe a president’s dirty lawyer getting a dirty prosecutor to tell a dirty reporter the president’s Democratic rival is dirty, and then getting a dirty TV host to ask the president to comment on the dirty reporter’s dirt.

The right word to describe all that is conspiracy.

Which can be criminal. Paul Manafort, the president’s former campaign chief, is now serving time in federal prison for defrauding the United States. Legally, conspiracy doesn’t require an underlying crime. Prosecutors were only required to show Manafort conspired to “impair or obstruct the lawful function of any part of the government.”

I don’t know if the president’s conduct meets a statutory standard. I do think it meets a political one. Trump, as “-1,” is the ringleader of a global conspiracy to defraud the American people of their right to consent to his leadership. There is no such thing as legitimate consent when presidents collude with enemies foreign and domestic to obstruct the free and fair process by which all Americans exercise self-governance.

This is a giant of a scandal. It dwarfs Watergate. It boggles the mind of ordinary Americans to contemplate the wide array of seedy underworld characters involved in a vast global conspiracy. (Another side of this involves another dirty former Ukrainian prosecutor who did a favor for a Ukrainian mobster fighting extradition to the US. Dmitry Firtash, the mobster, got Viktor Shokin, the prosecutor, to say Biden was dirty. That wonGiuliani’s attention. His friends diGenova and Toensing went to the US Department of Justice to plead with the US attorney general to go easy on Firtash.)

As I said, giant.

But these call logs bring the vastness of the conspiracy down to a human scale. Donald Trump talked to Giuliani, who talked to Parnas, who talked to Lutsenko, who talked to Solomon, who talked to Giuliani, who talked to Hannity, who talked to Donald Trump.

1119

Nunes is trending on Twitter — and the hashtag is hilarious

Walter Einenkel / Daily Kos

In June, Rep. Devin Nunes sued Twitter, as well as three individual Twitter accounts, for defamation. The complaint, which asked for $250,000,000 in damages and $350,000 in punitive damages, argued…

new

https://www.alternet.org/2019/11/nunes-spent-at-least-57000-of-taxpayer-money-on-parnas-arranged-trip-to-dig-up-dirt-on-biden/

Newsweek is now reporting that Nunes’ congressional office spent $57,000 in taxpayer money to fly Nunes and three members of his congressional staff to Europe for secret meetings with Shokin and other Parnas-arranged “sources.”

new

https://www.alternet.org/2019/11/nunesresign-trends-after-indicted-giuliani-associate-implicates-house-republican-in-effort-at-heart-of-trumps-impeachment-inquiry/

no lnx

#NunesResign trends after indicted Giuliani associate implicates House Republican in effort at heart of Trump’s impeachment inquiry

Written by Jake Johnson / Common Dreams November 24, 2019

Calls for Republican Rep. Devin Nunes to resign spread rapidly on social media Friday night following reports that Lev Parnas, an indicted associate of President Donald Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, is willing to testify to House impeachment investigators that Nunes met with a former Ukrainian prosecutor in an effort to dig up dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden.

Parnas’ attorney Joseph Bondy told CNN Friday that his client “learned from former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Victor Shokin that Nunes had met with Shokin in Vienna last December,” news that sparked the trending Twitter hashtag #NunesResign.

According to CNN, Parnas and Nunes, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee and a fervent Trump defender, “began communicating around the time of the Vienna trip.”

“Parnas says he worked to put Nunes in touch with Ukrainians who could help Nunes dig up dirt on Biden and Democrats in Ukraine,” CNN reported. “That information would likely be of great interest to House Democrats given its overlap with the current impeachment inquiry into President Trump, and could put Nunes in a difficult spot. Bondy tells CNN his client is willing to comply with a congressional subpoena for documents and testimony.”

Ryan Lizza

@RyanLizza

If this CNN report is accurate, that would mean that Nunes and his colleagues sat there every day accusing Schiff of meeting with the whistleblower (he didn’t) and never disclosed that Nunes met with Shokinto get dirt on Biden. https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/22/politics/nunes-vienna-trip-ukrainian-prosecutor-biden/index.html …

If this CNN report is accurate, that would mean that Nunes and his colleagues sat there every day accusing Schiff of meeting with the whistleblower (he didn’t) and never disclosed that Nunes met with Shokin to get dirt on Biden. https://t.co/M5lbjbQ4gj

— Ryan Lizza (@RyanLizza) November 23, 2019

Nunes has repeatedly claimed during public impeachment hearings that Ukraine may have meddled in the 2016 election in an effort to harm Trump’s campaign.

“President Trump had good reason to be wary of Ukrainian election meddling against his campaign,” Nunes said Thursday.

Fiona Hill, a former member of Trump’s National Security Council, testified Thursday that Nunes’ claim of Ukraine election meddling is a “harmful” fiction.

Michael Weiss

@michaeldweiss

Guy who accuses Ukrainians of meddling in a US election sought Ukrainians to meddle in a US election. https://www.cnn.com/2019/11/22/politics/nunes-vienna-trip-ukrainian-prosecutor-biden/index.html …

Guy who accuses Ukrainians of meddling in a US election sought Ukrainians to meddle in a US election. https://t.co/5pLh8HpkyN

— Michael Weiss (@michaeldweiss) November 23, 2019

CNN story came days after The Daily Beast reported that Parnas, who was indicted last month on campaign finance charges, “helped arrange meetings and calls in Europe” for Nunes.

In a statement to far-right outlet Breitbart News, Nunes accused CNN and The Daily Beast of “defamation” and said he plans to sue both publications.

“I look forward to prosecuting these cases, including the media outlets, as well as the sources of their fake stories, to the fullest extent of the law,” Nunes said. “I intend to hold The Daily Beast and CNN accountable for their actions. They will find themselves in court soon after Thanksgiving.”

When CNN asked Nunes earlier this month about the reported Vienna trip, Nunes refused to answer.

“I don’t talk to you in this lifetime or the next lifetime,” the California Republican said. “At any time. On any question.”

new

https://www.alternet.org/2019/11/the-road-to-expulsion-heres-a-timeline-of-devin-nunes-clandestine-operations-on-the-house-intelligence-committee/

no lnx

The road to expulsion: Here’s a timeline of Devin Nunes’ clandestine operations on the House Intelligence Committee

Written by Mark Sumner / Daily Kos November 24, 2019

News that Devin Nunes has been sitting through the House impeachment inquiry, pretending to act as a investigator, while actually being an active participant in the scandal might be more shocking if this was the first time. Or the second. But the history of Devin Nunes’ time on the House Intelligence Committee is one that features a nearly unbroken streak of lies, corruption, and plain old idiocy.

As the machinery of the House cranks toward an another inevitable appearance of Nunes before the Ethics Committee—and Fox News opens up 10,000 hours of programming devoted to explaining why it’s perfectly okay for the ranking member of the Intelligence Committee to be traveling the world on the taxpayer dime, actively soliciting corrupt former officials for manufactured dirt that can be deployed in the 2020 election—here’s a little reminder that Double-Naught Nunes was never less than crooked. And ridiculous.

Mar 21, 2017 — Nunes leaps from an Uber car at a stoplight, leaving behind a senior Intelligence Committee staffer without explanation and disappears into the night. Nunes swaps to another car, travels somewhere, and shows up hours later to tell Paul Ryan he has uncovered evidence supporting Donald Trump’s claims that President Obama “spied” on him.

Mar 22, 2017 — Nunes launches the first of several press conferences in which he declares that he has secret information showing that the Obama administration spied on Trump. Then Nunes runs back to Paul Ryan, then he holds asecond press conference during which it becomes clear that Nunes is both revealing classified information and sharing that information with the people supposedly under investigation by his committee.

Mar 23, 2017 — Nunes declares that his loyalty to Trump trumps any requirement that he either protect classified information or inform other members of his committee about his actions

Mar 24, 2017 — Nunes cancels hearings without informing other committee members, leaving his own committee sitting without him, while he continues to work with his secret sources on allegations that “Obama spied on Trump.”

Mar 28, 2017 — Facing demands from other members of the House Intelligence Committee that he come clean about his multiple visits to “brief” the White House and his secret sources of information on “spying,” Nunes declares a date for when he’ll let the rest of the committee in on his information: “Never.”

Mar 29, 2017 — Nunes defends his series of bizarre acts and makes it clear that his goal is to halt the investigation into Trump’s Russia connections. Nunes’ increasingly unhinged performance earns him a dressing down from Lindsey Graham (really, Lindsey Graham) who calls Nunes’ actions an “Inspector Clouseau investigation.”

Mar 30, 2017 — Nunes’ secret sources for his supposed information are revealed as White House attorney Michael Ellis and Michael Flynn protege Ezra Cohen-Watnick, proving that Nunes was pretending to brief the White House … on information coming from the White House. On the same day, it’s revealed that Nunes’ complaints about a “refusal” of FBI Direct James Comey to appear before the committee result from the fact that Nunes never actually sent Comey an invitation to appear. Also on the same day, Sean Spicer refuses to confirm or deny that the White House and Nunes have been conspiring together to cook up the “spying” claim as a means of derailing the Russia investigation. (Spoiler: They have.)

Apr 6, 2017 — Nunes supposedly “steps aside” from the Russia investigation, but does not formally recuse himself. He blames “left wing activist groups” for his decision. But Nunes has barely ended the latest in his string of frothing press conferences when it’s clear that he’s actually under investigation by the Ethics Committee fore repeatedly spilling classified information.

Dec 7, 2017 — With the help of departing Republicans who hustled the action through before the House swapped into Democratic control in the coming year, the Ethics Committee simply closed the action against Nunes without having formal hearings—an act that Nunes declared a complete exoneration.

May 8, 2018 — The FBI warns the White House that Nunes’ is endangering undercover assets by demanding, and leaking, information and even Trump is forced to withhold information from Nunes after the FBI presents evidence that he cannot be trusted.

Aug 28, 2018 — Nunes travels to London and asks to talk with heads of both MI5 and MI6 in an effort to find someone who will support conspiracy theories about the “Steele Dossier” and provide dirt on former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele. (Spoiler: Neither intelligence chief would meet with him.)

Nov 30, 2018 — Nunes travels to Ukraine along with three of his aids, and spends over $63,000 in a four-day visit in which it now appears that he met with corrupt former Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin for the express purpose of supporting Trump’s conspiracy theory against Joe Biden.

Mar 19, 2019 — Nunes sues a cartoon cow, along with other parody accounts, in an effort to both silence critics and promote a conspiracy theory about “shadow banning” of conservative accounts on Twitter.

Apr 19, 2019 — Nunes instructs Fox viewers to avoid confusion by not reading the actual Mueller report, and sticking to the “summary” provided by Bill Barr.

Oct 29, 2019 — Nunes and other Republicans plant lies about the whistleblower into transcripts of House impeachment inquiry investigations, in the hopes of ‘poisoning’ those transcripts.

Oct 30, 2019 — Officials reveal that Nunes’ staffer Kashyap Patel has been pretending to be the NSC expert on Ukraine and bringing unsourced data directly to Trump to reinforce conspiracy theories while shutting out information from actual expert Alexander Vindman.

Nunes is going back to the Ethics Committee — and no, they won’t be able to find any.

new

https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2019/11/intelligence-committee-fundraising-impeachment/

As Congress readies for the first round of public impeachment hearings starting Wednesday, two of the most powerful lawmakers piloting the inquiry are racking up campaign cash.

The pair of California lawmakers sitting on the House Intelligence Committee — Ranking minority member Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) and committee Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) — respectively rank first and second for House lawmakers with the most cash on hand.

Nunes, a vocal defender of President Donald Trump, has just shy of $7 million in bank — the most among his House colleagues. He received more money from Republican or conservative groups than any other House member, raising $224,279 so far. The former dairy farmer is also among the top recipients of cash from retirees and agricultural businesses.

The California Republican enjoys a strong small-dollar donor base, ranking fourth among all current GOP House members in the percentage of small-dollar contributions his campaign received. Roughly $3.1 million — or almost 55 percent of his campaign cash during the 2020 election cycle — came from those who each gave $200 or below.

Nunes’ cash-rich campaign benefited from his top position on the committee. During the 2018 cycle, then-chairman Nunes vigorously defended Trump during probes into Russian interference in the 2016 election. He raised $13.3 million during the 2018 cycle — a personal fundraising record — for his campaign and leadership PAC, New PAC.

This year, since the beginning of the impeachment inquiry, which was largely prompted by the infamous July 25 phone call between Trump and the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Nunes has repeatedly tried to and called the investigation a “hoax.” He labeled the ongoing process an “orchestrated farce” on Twitter and attacked Schiff for being in touch with the whistleblower before the complaint was filed.

While questioning European Union Ambassador Gordon Sondland, a major Trump donor tangled up in the Ukraine controversy, Nunes centered his talking points around the unrelated Steele Dossier. In other hearings, Nunes reportedly remained largely quiet, sometimes even absent.

As Nunes takes a backseat, House Republicans announced last week the addition of Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) to the House Intelligence Committee. Jordan, a top Trump defender and the ranking member on the House Oversight Committee, replaced Rep. Rick Crawford (R-Ark.), who hasn’t been active in all depositions.

Seeking reelection in 2018, Nunes faced a serious challenge for the first time from a well-funded Democrat amid criticism from his home state of California for his outspoken defense of Trump during the Russia investigation. But the Fresno Republican managed to outraise his opponent by more than $3 million, hauling in $12.6 million to successfully defend his seat, winning the race by a narrow margin.

With an influx of cash ahead of 2020, Nunes quickly put the money to use. Almost 80 percent of his spending — $2.3 million — went to fundraising efforts to rake in more cash. The campaign has spent $340,691 on digital, radio and TV ad buying this year, as well as $654,975 on postage and mailing, Federal Election Commission records show. Nunes also doled out $25,000 to the National Republican Congressional Committee.

While Nunes holds the most cash among all House members, Schiff comes as a close second.

The California Democrat significantly outraised his opponent during the midterm election, winning almost 80 percent of the votes. But Schiff has now come under fire from Republicans, conservative groups as well as the president himself for leading the impeachment inquiry into Trump for his alleged “quid pro quo” with Zelensky. Many House Republicans, including Reps. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.) and Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), have run Facebook ads to denounce Schiff or call for his resignation.

Schiff’s campaign, however, has profited off of the attacks. In a recent Facebook ad, Schiff’s campaign alluded to the impeachment inquiry as “critical” and asked for $16 donations from its audience to help reelect him.

Having presided over all the impeachment hearings behind closed doors, Schiff now has a cash reserve of $6.8 million, most of which came from retirees, lawyers and investors. The prosecutor-turned-politician amassed $221,103 from lawyers, some of whom are among his top donors.

Schiff also leads House members in contributions from publishers and is among the top recipients of money from the TV production and distribution industry. He received $1.9 million, or 44 percent of his campaign funds, from small-dollar donors.

The campaign has spent at least $844,747 on print and digital advertising this year, records show. It paid $716,945 to Authentic Campaigns, a communications firm that also provides services to Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) on a seven-figure contract. Schiff’s team has bought more than $400,000 worth of Facebook ads since last May.

Researchers Doug Weber and Andrew Mayersohn contributed to this report.

https://www.alternet.org/2019/11/watch-eric-swalwell-calls-out-devin-nunes-own-ties-to-the-ukraine-scandal-to-his-face

no lnx

Watch: Eric Swalwell calls out Devin Nunes’ own ties to the Ukraine scandal to his face

Ricky Davila

@TheRickyDavila

Found it. This was Devin Nunes’ reaction during the moments when @RepSwalwell blasted him and tied him to indicted Giuliani associate Lev Parnas! So delicious.

Embedded video

Written by Igor Derysh / Salon November 22, 2019

Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif, called out Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., on Thursday over his links to an indicted associate of Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani who assisted with the effort to pressure Ukraine into launching investigations to help President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign.

Swalwell cited a Daily Beast report that Giuliani business partner Lev Parnas helped Nunes arrange meetings in Europe while the former House Intelligence Committee chairman led an investigation seeking to undermine former special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia at Thursday’s impeachment hearing.

His comments came after Fiona Hill, the former top Russia expert on the National Security Council, hit out at Republicans on the committee who have pushed a conspiracy theory welcomed by Trump that Ukraine framed Russia in the 2016 election meddling case, which she said “clearly advance[d] Russian interests.”“Dr. Hill, you cautioned us on the dangers of members of this committee perhaps peddling any Ukrainian conspiracy theories that could benefit Russia,” Swalwell said. “I want to ask you if you’ve heard the name Lev Parnas, of Ukraine, someone in this investigation who was influencing President Trump and Rudy Giuliani about some of the debunked conspiracy theories you referenced,” he added, referring to a baseless George Soros-linked conspiracy theory that led to the ouster of former Ukraine Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch.

After Hill acknowledged that she had, Swalwell asked if she was aware that Parnas was indicted “for making foreign contributions to Republicans in U.S. elections.”

“I am aware of those reports, yes,” Hill replied.

“Are you aware of yesterday’s Daily Beast story reporting the indicted Ukrainian Lev Parnas has been working with ranking member Devin Nunes on Mr. Nunes’ overseas investigations?” Swalwell asked, before entering the report into the official record.

Swalwell quoted from the piece, which said that Parnas “helped arrange meetings and calls in Europe for Rep. Devin Nunes in 2018… Nunes aide Derek Harvey participated in the meetings… which were arranged to help Nunes’ investigative work.”

Swalwell then addressed Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., noting that Schiff had been “falsely accused throughout these proceedings by the ranking member as being a ‘fact witness.’”

“Now, if this story is correct, the ranking member may have actually been projecting,” Swalwell said. “And, in fact, he may be the fact witness if he’s working with indicted individuals around our investigation.”

The timeline in the Daily Beast report dovetailed with Nunes’ parallel investigation to the official House Russia probe, seeking to undermine the “origins” of the Mueller investigation.

Parnas’ attorneys told The Daily Beast in response to the report that his client is “prepared to testify completely and accurately about his involvement in the President and Rudy Giuliani’s quid pro quo demands of Ukraine” and confirmed that Parnas assisted Nunes.

Parnas attorney Joseph Bondy shared the report on Twitter and wrote that he hopes the House Intelligence Committee will “finally arrange to hear my client” and his “pivotal” testimony related to Trump, Giuliani, and the Republican Party, adding the hashtags “LetParnasTestify” and “LevIsKey.”

Bondy later added that Parnas has already “been producing materials” to the committee “pursuant to his prior subpoena” and offered “hard evidence” to investigators.

“Mr. Parnas’ speaking provided Rep. Swalwell the information that Nunes plainly should have disclosed,” he tweeted. “Let him meet with [the House Intelligence Committee].”

Bondy did not deny on Twitter that Parnas was seeking leniency in his own criminal case in his bid to testify to impeachment investigators. He told The Daily Beast that Parnas fired former Trump attorney John Dowd and agreed to cooperate in the inquiry because Trump denied knowing him even though they met numerous times. Parnas’ attorneys and associates have placed him at the center of numerous key events in Trump’s pressure effort on Ukraine and said he is willing to testify to them under oath.

“President Trump’s recent and regrettable disavowal of Mr. Parnas,” the attorney said, “has caused him to rethink his involvement and the true reasons for his having been recruited to participate in the President’s activities.”

no lnx

Politics

Analysis

Devin Nunes’s opening statement at the public impeachment hearing, annotated

Philip Bump

November 13, 2019

Rep. Devin Nunes (Calif.), the top minority-party member of the House Intelligence Committee, was the first Republican to present a defense of President Trump during the first public hearing of the House’s impeachment inquiry.

For many observers, Nunes’s arguments might have been somewhat confusing, relying at times on shorthand references to rhetoric popular in conservative media. To others, Nunes’s introduction of the Republican case might have seemed tangential to the day’s discussion.

With that in mind, we’ve endeavored to explain and contextualize Nunes’s remarks, as well as to indicate where they might align with or deviate from the points central to the impeachment inquiry. Nunes’s prepared testimony follows in its entirety. Inset text is additional context from The Post.

Nunes’s remarks

In a July open hearing of this committee following publication of the Mueller report, the Democrats engaged in a last-ditch effort to convince the American people that President Trump is a Russian agent.

It’s useful to remember that Nunes has frequently been a strong defender of Trump’s. In 2017, he took the lead in defending Trump after the president accused former president Barack Obama of wiretapping Trump Tower, leaking information about the Obama administration unmasking the identities of people involved in phone calls. In 2018, Nunes’s staff drafted a document alleging abuses of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and suggesting that the Russia probe broadly was falsely predicated.

That probe overlaps with Nunes’s reference to the “Mueller report” above; specifically, to the final report compiled by then-special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, which was released in April of this year. The open hearing to which Nunes refers is that in which Mueller himself testified on July 24.

Nunes’s presentation of theDemocrats’ “effort” to paint Trump as a “Russian agent” is political rhetoric; the Mueller hearing was focused on the special counsel’s inquiry and, largely, on evidence that Trump sought to obstruct the Russia investigation. Nunes later echoes Trump’s own rhetoric referring to the Mueller probe as the “Russia hoax,” a shorthand that glosses over what Mueller’s probe found.

That hearing was the pitiful finale of a three-year-long operation by the Democrats, the corrupt media and partisan bureaucrats to overturn the results of the 2016 presidential election.

This framing is a constant among Trump’s defenders, suggesting that the concern of Democrats is that Trump is president at all. The mention of “corrupt media” is an effort to cast outlets like our own as untrustworthy, so that people will be skeptical if we, say, contextualize erroneous public statements from politicians.

After the spectacular implosion of their Russia hoax on July 24, in which they spent years denouncing any Republican who ever shook hands with a Russian, on July 25 they turned on a dime and now claim the real malfeasance is Republicans’ dealings with Ukraine.

As Nunes notes, Trump spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the phone the day after the Mueller hearing. During that call, Trump pushed Zelensky to open politically useful investigations.

What Nunes blurs is that Democrats didn’t immediately seize upon the July 25 call as problematic. Instead, that focus only emerged in mid-September, when a whistleblower in the intelligence community filed a complaint focused on concerns about Trump’s interactions with Zelensky. That complaint triggered the current probe and the emergence of evidence bolstering the whistleblower’s complaint.

What Nunes is doing here, unsubtly, is framing the impeachment process itself as a function of partisanship. The next section makes that even more obvious.

In the blink of an eye, we’re asked to simply:

forget about Democrats on this committee falsely claiming they had “more than circumstantial evidence” of collusion between President Trump and the Russians;

This is a reference in part to committee chairman Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.). For Schiff and other Democrats, incidents like the meeting in Trump Tower in June 2016 establish an effort by Trump’s team to collude with Russian actors. Republicans, including Nunes, reject such claims.

forget about them reading fabrications of Trump-Russia collusion from the Steele dossier into the congressional record;

forget about them trying to obtain nude pictures of Trump from Russian pranksters who pretended to be Ukrainian officials;

The “nude pictures” comment is a reference to Schiff’s having been tricked by Russian pranksters offering purported incriminating photos of Trump. This reference, like the reference to the dossier of reports filed by former British intelligence office Christopher Steele, is meant to embarrass and undermine Schiff rather than to specifically defend Trump.

forget about them leaking a false story to CNN, while he was testifying to our committee, claiming Donald Trump Jr. had colluded with WikiLeaks;

Nunes again tries to disparage House Democrats by suggesting that they leaked erroneous information to the press. CNN, making an error on dates, incorrectly reported that Donald Trump Jr. had received early notification about a release of documents from WikiLeaks.

and forget about countless other deceptions, large and small, that make them the last people on Earth with the credibility to hurl more preposterous accusations at their political opponents.

This is the main point: Democrats can’t be trusted to hold an unbiased impeachment inquiry. (Again, though, note that this doesn’t address Trump’s interactions with Ukraine.)

Nunes continues on this line.

And yet now we’re supposed to take these people at face value when they trot out a new batch of allegations. But anyone familiar with the Democrats’ scorched-earth war against President Trump would not be surprised to see all the typical signs that this is just a carefully orchestrated media smear campaign. For example:

After vowing publicly that impeachment requires bipartisan support, Democrats are pushing impeachment forward without the backing of a single House Republican.

True, but only in part because the one Republican who supported impeachment, Rep. Justin Amash (I-Mich.) left the party. It’s also the case that Republicans maintained a solid front in part to be able to make this argument.

The witnesses deemed suitable for television by the Democrats were put through a closed-door audition process in a cultlike atmosphere in the basement of the Capitol, where the Democrats conducted secret depositions, released a flood of misleading and one-sided leaks, and later selectively released transcripts in a highly staged manner.

This is broadly misleading. A review of transcripts reveals that Republicans were given equal time to question witnesses. Republicans participated in the interviews; dozens were members of committees that allowed them to do so. Both Democrats and Republicans leaked information from the depositions.

Violating their own guidelines, the Democrats repeatedly redacted from the transcripts the name of Alexandra Chalupa, a contractor for the Democratic National Committee who worked with Ukrainian officials to collect dirt on the Trump campaign, which she provided to the DNC and the Hillary Clinton campaign.

The Democrats rejected most of the Republicans’ witness requests, resulting in a horrifically one-sided process where crucial witnesses are denied a platform if their testimony doesn’t support the Democrats’ absurd accusations. Notably, they are trying to impeach the president for inquiring about Hunter Biden’s activities, yet they refused our request to hear from Biden himself.

Democrats, who hold the majority in the House, did reject several witnesses proposed by Republicans. One rationale is that witnesses like Hunter Biden, former vice president Joe Biden’s son, would have little to offer on Trump’s interactions with Ukraine — the focus of the inquiry.

The whistleblower was acknowledged to have a bias against President Trump, and his attorney touted a “coup” against the president and called for his impeachment just weeks after his election.

Republicans have seized on the bias of the whistleblower — revealed by the inspector general for the intelligence community — as being disqualifying. The whistleblower’s complaint, however, has been broadly confirmed by subsequent testimony.

The comment about a “coup” is from a tweet at the beginning of Trump’s administration. Republicans displayed an oversize version of the tweet during the hearing. Embracing a tweet from a lawyer for a whistleblower seems somewhat at odds with the long-standing complaint from Republicans that the impeachment inquiry relies on secondhand information.

At a prior hearing, Democrats on this committee read out a purely fictitious rendition of the president’s phone call with [Ukrainian] President [Volodymyr] Zelensky. They clearly found the real conversation to be insufficient for their impeachment narrative, so they just made up a new one.

Trump has also focused on this “fictitious rendition” — a paraphrasing of the call by Schiff — as problematic.

And most egregiously, the staff of Democrats on this committee had direct discussions with the whistleblower before his or her complaint was submitted to the inspector general, and Republicans cannot get a full account of these contacts because the Democrats broke their promise to have the whistleblower testify to this committee. Democrat members hid these contacts from Republicans and lied about them to the American people on national television.

Nunes is again attacking Schiff, suggesting impropriety in his interactions with the whistleblower (also a Trump focus). Outreach to congressional committees is, however, an acceptable part of the whistleblower process. There’s no indication Schiff knew who the whistleblower was or what the complaint was centered on before its being filed.

I’ve noted before that the Democrats have a long habit of accusing Republicans of offenses they themselves are committing. Recall that:

For years they accused the Trump campaign of colluding with Russia when they themselves were colluding with Russia by funding and spreading the Steele dossier, which relied on Russian sources.

Again a conservative-media talking point. The Steele dossier is used as a rebuttal to questions about Trump’s interactions with Russia, despite that rebuttal centering on the idea that doing research involving Russians is equivalent to allegations about Russia trying to integrate with Trump’s 2016 campaign.

And now they accuse President Trump of malfeasance in Ukraine when they themselves are culpable. The Democrats cooperated in Ukrainian election meddling, and they defend Hunter Biden’s securing of a lavishly paid position with a corrupt Ukrainian company, all while his father served as vice president.

The “Democrats cooperated in Ukrainian election meddling” line links back to the Democratic National Committee contractor mentioned earlier, Alexandra Chalupa. A 2017 Politico article reported on Chalupa’s efforts to get information on Paul Manafort in 2016. Manafort was then Trump’s campaign chairman and had worked in Ukrainian politics for years. There’s no indication that the Democratic Party broadly or the Ukrainian government was part of the effort.

Despite this hypocrisy, the Democrats are advancing their impeachment sham. But we should not hold any hearings at all until we get answers to three crucial questions the Democrats are determined to avoid asking:

First, what is the full extent of the Democrats’ prior coordination with the whistleblowerand who else did the whistleblower coordinate this effort with?

Second, what is the full extent of Ukraine’s election meddling against the Trump campaign?

And third, why did Burisma hire Hunter Biden, what did he do for them, and did his position affect any U.S. government actions under the Obama administration?

Observers might consider those questions in a different light: What might their answers reveal about Trump’s apparent efforts to pressure Ukraine into launching politically useful investigations?

The question at the center of the impeachment inquiry is what Trump did and whether he leveraged his power appropriately. If there were evidence that Ukraine interfered in 2016 (which there isn’t) or that Hunter Biden violated the law (which there isn’t), perhaps Trump’s position would be stronger. It would not necessarily be exculpatory.

These questions will remain outstanding because Republicans were denied the right to call witnesses who know the answers.

What we will witness today is a televised theatrical performance staged by the Democrats. Ambassador Taylor and Mr. Kent — I’d like to welcome you here, and congratulate you for passing the Democrats’ Star Chamber auditions held for the last six weeks in the basement of the Capitol. It seems you agreed, wittingly or unwittingly, to participate in a drama. But the main performance — the Russia hoax — has ended, and you’ve been cast in the low-rent Ukrainian sequel.

I’ll conclude by noting the immense damage the politicized bureaucracy has done to Americans’ faith in government. Though executive branch employees are charged with implementing the policy set by our president, who is elected by and responsible to the American people, elements of the civil service have decided that they, not the president, are really in charge.

It is certainly true that faith in government has eroded over time.

Thus, as we’ll learn in these hearings:

After expressing skepticism of foreign aid and concern about foreign corruption on the campaign trail, President Trump outraged the bureaucracy by acting skeptically about foreign aid and expressing concerns about foreign corruption.

Trump didn’t mention corruption at all in his conversation with Zelensky, instead focusing only on the hacking of the DNC in 2016 and on Biden and his son.

Officials’ alarm at the president’s actions was typically based on secondhand, third-hand, and even fourth-hand rumors and innuendo.

But not always. Several witnesses testified to firsthand interactions with others or with the president.

They believed it was an outrage for President Trump to fire an ambassador, even though the president has full authority to retain or remove diplomats for any reason at any time.

Officials showed a surprising lack of interest in the indications of Ukrainian election meddling that deeply concerned the president at whose pleasure they serve.

Again, these indications are flimsy.

Despite all their dissatisfaction with President Trump’s Ukraine policy, the president approved the supply of weapons to Ukraine, unlike the previous administration, which provided blankets as defense against invading Russians.

By undermining the president who they are supposed to be serving, elements of the FBI, the Department of Justice, and now the State Department have lost the confidence of millions of Americans who believe that their vote should count for something. It will take years, if not decades, to restore faith in these institutions.

Nunes himself has been at the forefront of raising questions about U.S. intelligence institutions as part of his ongoing defenses of Trump, on whose presidential transition team he served.

This spectacle is doing great damage to our country. It’s nothing more than an impeachment process in search of a crime.

It’s a minor nit, but an important one: Presidential impeachments don’t depend on the commission of a crime.

BAK

===

neglected?

unrecused?

lost all cred when he served as backchannel to white house but "back" as useful tool (and one of the few who will directly support in impeach along with jim jordn)

lost chair blue wave 2018

1119 devin nunes in opening of impeach raise dems use of steele doss

attempt to replace with attack dogs jim jordan or meadows?

https://www.alternet.org/2019/11/nunes-met-with-ukraine-collusion-conspiracy-nut-in-may-and-then-started-pushing-rumors-about-the-2016-election/

In an interview with the Daily Beast, a Ukraine diplomat who has been pushing conspiracy theories about the 2016 election involving Democrats admitted that he has spoken with Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) along with Rudy Giuliani.

According to the report, Andrii Telizhenko — who is at center of allegations that Kyiv meddled in the 2016 elections — said he met Nunes to talk about Ukrainian and Russian politics.

“Congressman Nunes had a really interesting and good impact on me as a very positive and influential politician who loves America and is interested in Ukraine and developments on fighting Russia,” Telizhenko told The Daily Beast. “We talked about how to fight Russian aggression in Ukraine and Russian propaganda.”

Noting that Telizhenko worked at Kyiv’s embassy in Washington from December 2015 through June 2016, the Beast reports that he “he has played a key role in the promotion of the contentious narrative, popular on the political right, that the Ukrainian government worked with Democrats during the 2016 campaign to damage Trump.”

According to the diplomat, he met with Nunes at a party in May of this year.

...

https://www.thedailybeast.com/dc-wise-man-had-early-access-to-trumps-pro-russia-speech

dC. Wise Man Had Early Access to Trump’s Pro-Russia Speech

Photos obtained by The Daily Beast show that controversial think tank chief Dimitri Simes was closer than previously known to the speech’s drafting.

Betsy Swan

Political Reporter

Updated 09.06.18 9:49PM ET / Published 09.06.18 4:54AM ET

In the morning of April 21, 2016, a staffer at the Center for the National Interest, a Washington D.C., think tank, wandered into the office of Dimitri Simes, the group’s president.

The staffer saw a pile of papers on the desk titled “FOREIGN POLICY AND DEFENSE OUTLINE.” The staffer realized the papers were the detailed outline, in bullet-pointed paragraphs, of a major foreign-policy address that then-candidate Donald Trump was set to deliver six days later as a guest of the center. The staffer used a cellphone to snap pictures of all five pages of the document.

More than two years later, Maria Butina, who once wrote for the center’s magazine and occasionally emailed with Simes, was arrested as an accused Kremlin agent. Subsequently, the person provided the photos to The Daily Beast. The photos’ metadata confirm they were taken on a cellphone on the morning of April 21, 2016. A second former staffer told The Daily Beast that he saw the same documents on Simes’ desk.

The pictures provide new insight into the creation of Trump’s historic foreign-policy speech. They also indicate that Simes was closer than previously known to the drafting of that speech. (Jacob Heilbrunn, the editor of the center’s magazine, wrote for Politico shortly after the speech that he didn’t know what was going to be in it. “I was curious as anyone to see what Trump would actually say,” he wrote.)

“The Committee has reason to believe that Mr. Simes played a central role in drafting portions of the speech related to Russia.”

— House Intelligence Committee Democrats

It isn’t unusual for a think tank chiefs to preview drafts of a speeches presented at their invitation. But Simes’ proximity to the speech shows that he had an early view into the crafting of a speech that would have historic significance for American foreign policy. Democrats on the House intelligence committee tried to investigate Simes’ relationship to Trump’s campaign, but Republican committee Chairman Devin Nunes blocked their efforts.

Presented with this account and with the pictures of the document, the center’s executive director, Paul Saunders, declined to comment. Heilbrunn emailed that he did not receive any preview of the speech. Simes did not respond to a request for comment but wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed on Sept. 5, 2018, that his think tank’s interaction with the Trump campaign had a “small scope.” Michael Glassner, the chief operating officer at Donald J. Trump for President, did not respond to multiple requests for comment. J.D. Gordon, a foreign-policy adviser to Trump on the 2016 campaign, told The Daily Beast he was not familiar with the document.

...

too late?

c de v

Donald Trump and his spokespeople continue to engage instochastic terrorism. The most recent example: Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., perhaps Trump’s most avid congressional defender, told Fox News’ Tucker Carlson on Monday that journalists are “assassins.”

Trump and his Republican Party are continuing their campaign to keep nonwhite people and other likely Democratic supporters from voting. This is part of a broader effort to undermine the human and civil rights of nonwhite people in America and around the world.

Public opinion polls and other research show that Donald Trump’s political cult remains extremely loyal to him. Fox News and other parts of the right-wing propaganda machine continue to distort reality in the president’s favor. Trump himself has now told almost 14,000 public lies. Trump’s hate-filled rallies continue to draw thousands of supporters, people who are being primed for political violence by the president’s rhetoric and other behavior.

https://www.alternet.org/2019/10/fox-news-guest-calls-impeachment-a-secret-ritual-conducted-by-a-cult-headed-by-high-priestess-pelosi/

no lnx

Fox News guest calls impeachment a ‘secret ritual’ conducted by a ‘cult’ headed by ‘high priestess’ Pelosi

Written by David Badash / The New Civil Rights Movement October 30, 2019

Fox News Business channel’s Maria Bartiromo Wednesday morning interviewed pro-Trump guest Lee Smith who told the top anchor the House impeachment inquiry is a “secret ritual” where Speaker Pelosi is the “high priestess” and Chairman Schiff the “high priest.”

“Here is how I see what we’re calling the impeachment process, inquiry — I see it as a secret ritual conducted by a cult,” Smith told Bartiromo (video below). “I mean, they’re doing most of this in secret. And I think it’s worthwhile thinking of Speaker Pelosi as the high priestess of the cult, and Adam Schiff as a high priest of the cult.”

“And the purpose of the cult is to protect the swamp and what the swamp has done,” he adds.

Smith appears to not understand how investigations are conducted, or how President Trump has grown the swamp.

Smith is author of the book, “The Plot Against the President: The True Story of How Congressman Devin Nunes Uncovered the Biggest Political Scandal in U.S. History,”which is currently number one on Amazon’s list of Political Commentary & Opinion books. It does not appear to be listed as fiction.

The Amazon page for his book says he was given “unprecedented access to Congressman Devin Nunes, former head of the House Intelligence Committee, to expose the deep state operation against the president–and the American people.”

Last year The Daily Beast ran a profile of Maria Bartiromo, declaring: “Once a titan of apolitical financial reporting, Bartiromo has made an unmistakeable pivot toward conspiratorial and occasionally alt-right-assisted Trump cheerleading.”

Eric Kleefeld

@EricKleefeld

Fox Business guest: "Here is how I see what we're calling the impeachment process, inquiry — I see it as a secret ritual conducted by a cult … And I think it's worthwhile thinking of Speaker Pelosi as the high priestess of the cult, and Adam Schiff as a high priest of the cult."

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https://www.alternet.org/2019/10/it-was-nutso-devin-nunes-reportedly-made-himself-look-ridiculous-by-obsessing-over-the-steele-dossier-in-ukraine-hearing/

no lnx

‘It was nutso’: Devin Nunes reportedly made himself look ridiculous by obsessing over the Steele Dossier in Ukraine hearing

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House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes speaking at the 2018 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland.]

Written by Cody Fenwick October 18, 2019

While the House Intelligence Committee is spearheading impeachment with its investigation into President Donald Trump’s Ukraine scandal, it seems Republican Rep. Devin Nunes of California can’t stop obsessing about the Steele Dossier.

According to the Daily Beast, the ranking member of the committee launched into an exchange during the closed impeachment inquiry hearings about the dossier on Thursday with Gordon Sondland, the ambassador to the European Union who is at the center of the Ukraine scandal. He was a point person in Trump’s efforts to get the Ukrainians to announce an investigation into the 2016 election as well as former Vice President Joe Biden in exchange for favorable treatment from the White House.

Sondland, the Daily Beast found, was “perplexed” by Nunes’ focus on the dossier, which is itself another matter entirely from the subject of the inquiry. But Nunes has been obsessed for years with the dossier, which was compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele and documented a series of claims, many unproven, about Trump and his aides’ ties to Russia. Though Republicans like Nunes have tried to smear the FBI’s entire Russia investigation and the subsequent work by Special Counsel Robert Mueller by associating it with the dossier, theprobe’s final report revealed that the investigation began long before the bureau received Steele’s findings on another basis entirely.

The Daily Beast tried to explain why Nunes might bring up the dossier in the hearing:

The context, according to three sources familiar with the episode, was [Nunes’] effort to explain why President Trump might be “upset” about Ukraine.

Nunes, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee that is leading the impeachment probe, said some of the dossier’s contents dealt with Ukraine, and that the Clintons paid for it. Some attendees said it seemed oddly divorced from the topic at hand–namely, whether Trump pressured the Ukrainian government to investigate one of his political opponents.

A Nunes spokesperson told the outlet that he has made similar comments publicly. But apparently, those in the hearing were still baffled.

“It was nutso,” said of the sources told the Daily Beast of Nunes’ exchange. “It was awkward.”

https://www.alternet.org/2019/10/local-fresno-paper-pegs-devin-nunes-as-an-outright-conspiracy-theories-our-own-justice-department-says-so

Rep. Devin Nunes, the far-right Republican congressman who has been the butt of jokes for filing a frivolous lawsuit against Twitter over the parody account Devin Nunes’ Cow, sees himself as a traditional conservative. But Nunes’ critics see him as a conspiracy theorist with a taste for the absurd and the ridiculous — so absurd, in fact, that a local newspaper in the Central California district he represents is calling him out. That newspaper is the Fresno Bee, and the Bee’s Marek Warszawski stresses in an October 9 opinion column that some prosecutors in the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) share that view of Nunes.

Nunes was reelected in 2018 via California’s 22nd Congressional District, which includes areas of Fresno County, Tulare County and the San Joaquin Valley area. But he is by no means universally loved in that part of the state. And Nunes, Warszawski notes in the Fresno Bee op-ed, has aggressively promoted the Uranium One conspiracy theory — which claims that the Obama Administration conspired with the Russian government in order to enrich Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Foundation, and which DOJ itself has debunked....

did mueller antic/ dread rw fox BS attacks? modulated accordingly?!

ailes and atwater used tv to get bush41 electd in a way unprecedented? sorta bypass party? here merge of gop and fox:

For years, Sean Hannity has poisoned the well for special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into the investigation of Russian interference with the 2016 presidential election. That effort came to a head when Mueller testified before two House committees, with Hannity effectively dictatingthe GOP’s strategy in handling Mueller. The night before the hearings, he urged congressional Republicans to focus their attention not on the results of the investigation, but on the investigators. And that’s exactly what many of them did, using questions ripped from Hannity’s program to demand Mueller weigh in on the network’s conspiracy theories.

One House Republican cited Gregg Jarrett, the Fox legal analyst who once argued on Hannity’s show that in light of the Mueller probe, “the FBI has become America’s secret police” like “the old KBG.” Another entered into the record an op-ed he had written for Hannity’s website. Others championed Hannity’s feverish focus on tangential topics like former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele’s memos, the research firm Fusion GPS and its founder, Glenn Simpson, and the purported political leanings of Mueller’s staff.

Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee and a Hannity regular, devoted much of his opening statement during the afternoon hearing to the Fox host’s twisted theory that the real collusion during the 2016 presidential campaign was between Russia and the Democrats.

Watch this: We put together a full supercut of Hannity and other Fox figures juxtaposed with Republicans during the hearings, and it is utterly uncanny. There can be no more denying the facts: Fox News and the Republican Party have merged.

https://www.alternet.org/2019/04/devin-nunes-is-trying-to-keep-his-upcoming-fundraiser-secret/

When last we heard from Devin Nunes, he was stampeding away from a planned fundraiser with his tail between his shanks.

Well, he may have been tipped over temporarily, but he’s not going to just wallow in the mud forever.

He’s got another fundraiser coming up in June — this one at a location TBD in San Luis Obispo County. But … shhhhhhh … it’s a secret.

An invitation to the event was recently sent out to local party members, and it included two rules: Rule 1: Don’t talk about Devin Nunes’ fundraiser, and rule 2: DON’T TALK ABOUT DEVIN NUNES’ FUNDRAISER!

You know what to do.

The San Luis Obispo Tribune:

But the email also includes this unusual message to recipients: “Due to tight security issues, please DO NOT POST anything about this event on your social media: Not your website, Facebook, Twitter nor any other! Thank you!”

It’s unclear what the security issues might be or why the group wouldn’t want to widely publicize an event planned as a fundraiser.

…

Earlier this month, Nunes, former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, was scheduled to be the keynote speaker at a dinner for the Fresno County Republican Party, but it was canceled after a wave of social media posts urged people to disrupt the event, The Fresno Bee reported.

Of course, there’s simply no chance super stealthy double-naught spy Devin Nunes will let anyone find out where his latest meeting of the He-Man Woman Hater’s Club will be. I mean, he was chair of the House Intelligence Committee, so he must know how to cover his tracks.

Anyway, please, please, please don’t disrupt Devin’s fundraiser with more sophomoric cow-related taunts. All taunts should be sly, urbane, and worthy of an esteemed member of Congress.

But don’t do it. Seriously. Be Butter … er, Best.

https://www.alternet.org/2019/04/devin-nunes-planned-secret-meeting-with-bill-barr-to-launch-investigation-against-mueller-probe/

According to a report from Politico,Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) is making plans to meet behind the scenes with newly appointed Attorney General Bill Barr to set the stage for launching investigations into Justice Department officials who took part into the inquiry into President Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

The report states Democrats are furious with the GOP lawmaker who ran interference for the president when Republicans controlled the House.

devin nunes 2 truth social

WHAT TRUMP WANTED FROM UKRAINE

DEVIN NUNES ON FOX

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