Nunes, D Rep
===
SEE TWO
see BAK
neglected?
unrecused?
SEE STEELE DOSSIER CHALUPA
It doesn’t matter that 73% of Steele’s findings have been completely or partially confirmed by press releases and the Mueller report
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 jordan)
he bailed to run trump media?
scary MSN news no warning gives: [then at end rolls to brian kileade asks us to click on something to join?]
6 min interview with fmr ca congressman" not 1st time; ran confid hu sources; infiltrate, FISA warrant; russia hoaxers, crickets in mainstream press; cites andrrew c mccarthy; mueller: trump framed; cognitive issues; clinton campaIGN OPERATIVES AND dirty cops [steel?]; doing it by the bk, zero leaks, complete opposite [bizzarroworld inversion?]; fmr intelligence chair; ratcliffe pushed russia colusion docs to durham, says docs kept from congress
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/brexit/hillary-clinton-dodges-questions-on-durham-probe-developments/vi-AATWsl8
Trump Media & Technology Group CEO Devin Nunes on the Durham probe into individuals connected to the Clinton campaign.
blonde host: devin confid hu sources paid w/ tax;
lost chair blue wave 2018
omfg
Trump, according to CNN's Kaitlin Collins, has chosen Rep. Devin Nunes of California to receive the Medal of Freedom — and Collins describes Trump's reasons for picking the far-right conspiracy theorist as a "doozy."
According to an official statement from the Trump White House, Nunes' "courageous actions helped thwart a plot to take down a sitting United States president. He also forced the disclosure of documents that proved that a corrupt senior FBI official pursued a vindictive persecution of Gen. Michael Flynn — even after rank and file FBI agents found no evidence of wrongdoing."
Here are some of the incredulous reactions that Twitter users have had to what Collins accurately described as a "doozy":...
https://www.alternet.org/2021/01/devin-nunes/
https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/trump-names-right-wing-troll-to-lead-intelligence-agencies/
no lnx
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.
==
==
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.
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==
==
devin nunes seethes after FISA court picks Obama administration lawyer to oversee reforms
Rep. Devin Nunes told “Fox & Friends” that he’s outraged that Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has chosen former Obama administration attorney David Kris to oversee reforms to the FISA warrant process.
==
https://www.alternet.org/2019/11/heres-how-devin-nunes-wacky-speeches-helped-craft-an-alternative-narrative-for-republicans-during-impeachment
no lnx
Here’s how Devin Nunes’ wacky speeches helped craft an alternative narrative for Republicans during impeachment
Written by Alex Henderson November 25, 2019
In recent weeks, one of the most influential Republicans has been Rep. Devin Nunes of California. The far-right GOP congressman has been a loud and strident defender of President Donald Trump at all of the public impeachment hearings. And Sam Brodey, congressional reporter for the Daily Beast, outlines in a November 25 article some of the ways in which Nunes’ over-the-topic antics have been helping fellow Republicans craft a pro-Trump impeachment narrative.
“Charged with weaving the Republicans’ counternarrative — and crafting a case for the exoneration of Trump — has been Rep. Devin Nunes,” Brodey reports in the Beast. “The California Republican, as stalwart an ally of the president’s as there is, not only got more airtime than any other Republican lawmaker in the room, but had the first word and the last word for his side across seven hearings.”
Trump’s Democratic critics have been quick to point out that Nunes, during the hearings, has been talking a lot of nonsense and promoting the debunked CrowdStrike conspiracy theory — which claims that it was the Ukrainian government, not the Russian government and President Vladimir Putin, who interfered in the United States’ 2016 presidential election. But that doesn’t mean that Nunes’ impeachment speeches before the House Intelligence Committee haven’t been influential on the right: Fox News and AM talk radio have been quick to echo Nunes’ pro-Trump talking points.
Middle Age Riot
@middleageriot
Devin Nunes is what would happen if someone tried to make stupid from concentrate, but forgot to add water.#DevinNunesIsAnIdiot
Eric Wolfson
@EricWolfson
Devin Nunes is the Matt Gaetz of Jim Jordans.#DevinNunesIsAnIdiot
Nunes, Brodey explains, has been the voice for “an entirely different political universe” — one in which Trump is the victim.
“In that universe,” Brodey observes, “Trump is totally innocent of all of the Ukraine allegations. And what’s more, those allegations are just one more step in a coordinated and years-long conspiracy by an evil coterie of actors — Democratic Party operatives, the ‘fake news’ media, faceless and nefarious deep state bureaucrats, and even Ukrainians themselves — who will stop at nothing to destroy the president.”
Brodey points out that although “Nunes’ Democratic colleagues sometimes struggled to react with a straight face” when he made his pro-Trump speeches during the hearings, Republicans thanked him with “some atta-boys from Trump World” and “a healthy dose of Fox News coverage.”
A senior White House official, quoted anonymously, told the Daily Beast that Trump supporters were pleased with Nunes’ speeches at the hearings: “Everyone thought he did a great job. He wasn’t there to be the breakout star, like a Jim Jordan or an Elise Stefanik, and throw major bombs or anything like that. He coordinated and led the Committee, and everyone watching was happy with what he achieved.”
==
an 1119
Appearing on MSNBC on Sunday morning, former Rep. David Jolly (R-FL) scorched former colleague Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) for threatening another lawsuit.
==
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.
manafort, solomon black ledger nunes
https://theintercept.com/2019/11/19/republicans-use-impeachment-hearings-smear-ukrainian-helped-expose-manafort
==
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.”
==
https://www.alternet.org/2019/11/gop-hypocrisy-and-impeachment-hearings-lindsey-graham-and-devin-nunes-once-sang-different-tunes
...
Graham isn’t the only Republican whose past comments sound very different in light of the Trump impeachment hearings. Earlier this week, Politico reporter Ryan Lizza re-published an excerpt of an interview he conducted with Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., who has turned the Trump impeachment hearings into a forum for right-wing conspiracy theories, as he did with the House investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
“This may surprise people who only know Devin Nunes’s recent record, but in late 2015 Nunes told me during a long interview in his office that he was extremely concerned about the rise of conspiracy theorists in the Republican Party,” Lizza tweeted.
The interview showed Nunes complaining that he used to get messages from constituents about policy details, with only a small number of them referring to every “conspiracy theory that’s out there.”...
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."
Embedded video
==
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
[
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.
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==
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.
According to the report, “Nunes’ accusations of misconduct are aimed at a slew of former FBI and Justice Department officials, who he alleges committed crimes in their pursuit of allegations that President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign conspired with Russians to influence the election.”
Nunes had previously hinted on Fox News that he was submitting criminal referrals to the Justice Department against those he feels have unfairly — or criminally — gone after the president.
“Nunes’ move is an escalation by Trump’s allies in Congress to pivot from Mueller’s still-unreleased findings to the conduct of the FBI and Justice Department investigators who initiated the Russia probe,” Politico reports. “Before seeing its contents, Nunes labeled Mueller’s report a ‘partisan document’ and said ‘we can just burn it up,’ even as most of Trump’s supporters were celebrating the news — as described publicly by Barr — that Mueller ‘did not establish’ a conspiracy between the campaign and the Russian government.”
According to the report, “The Justice Department declined multiple inquiries about whether Barr intends to meet with Nunes.’
You can read more here.
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Rep. Devin Nunes tells *Fox & Friends* that the Mueller report should be burned
==
Conservatives have been spreading conspiracies theories about Twitter censoring them for a few years now, but on Monday Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) took the issue to court with a lawsuit seeking $600,000 in damages, Fox News reports. All Twitter users took away from the lengthy complaint, though, is how Nunes sees parody accounts for his mother and cow as serious threats to his image.
According to Fox News, Nunes’ complaint filed in Virginia state court Monday outlines a conspiracy orchestrated by Twitter to knowingly hinder his duties as the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee by “facilitating defamation on its platform.”
In addition to the millions in damages, Nunes also sought an injunction for Twitter to reveal the identities of the accounts that mocked him. Most notably, Nunes named parody accounts @DevinNunesMom and @DevinCow for viciously spreading misinformation.
“In her endless barrage of tweets, Devin Nunes’ Mom maliciously attacked every aspect of Nunes’ character, honesty, integrity, ethics and fitness to perform his duties as a United States Congressman,” reads the court ruling according to Fox News.
Parody accounts are allowed on Twitter so long as their profiles state their purpose. While @DevinNunesMom’s account has been suspended, judging by the kind of content cited in Nunes’ lawsuit, including a posted image of a Putin-Trump-Nunes human centipede, it’s a safe bet not many people believed it to be Nunes’ real-life mother.
[twt centipede]
Per the complaint, the account @DevinCow has no such disclaimer and caused Nunes “extreme pain and suffering” by calling him a “treasonous cowpoke” and an “udder-ly worthless” criminal.
That Twitter allowed such defamatory accounts like these to persist clearly illustrates anti-conservative bias, his suit claims. Twitter users, however, thought the only thing it illustrates is that Nunes has no idea what a troll is.
...
==
Stunning video emerges of Devin Nunes defending a protestor who called civil rights icon John Lewis the N-word
Scott Dworkin at the Democratic Coalition unearthed an old video of Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) where the thin-skinned Congressman appears to defend tea party protesters using the N-word.
==
Trump-lover Devin Nunes goes off the rails on Fox — demands Mueller prosecute Hillary Clinton for Russia collusionTana Ganeva / Raw Story
https://www.alternet.org/2019/02/devin-nunes-was-trumps-mole-inside-the-gang-of-eight/
no twit
Natasha Bertrand is one of the people who personally interviewed former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe. But the most consequential thing he told her didn’t make the cut of her report at the Atlantic. After tweeting what McCabe said about the meeting in which the Gang of Eight was informed about a counterintelligence investigation into whether the president was under the influence of a foreign power, she tweeted this:
[] In other words,McCabe believes that Rep. Devin Nunes—who participated as chair of the House Intelligence Committee—was acting as a mole for the president in the briefings. The steps McCabe took to open an investigation after Trump fired Comey were immediately relayed to the White House by Nunes.
That is not something that comes as a surprise to any of us who have been watching all of this unfold. But it is important that McCabe shares those suspicions. If fits perfectly with Nunes’ history of disclosing classified information whenever it suits his purposes.
For example, Rep. Nunes was the subject of an ethics investigation in 2017 when he held a press conference to announce that intelligence agencies incidentally collected information about some of President Trump’s associates. In January, he became the subject of another ethics complaint.
The complaint, filed by theCampaign for Accountability, …calls on the Office of Congressional Ethics to investigate whether Nunesor committee staff leaked closed-door testimony of the head of the company that produced the bombshell dossier of Russian information on Donald Trump.
Parts of the confidential testimony apparently were “selectively leaked” to discredit Fusion GPS and to “retaliate against Fusion for its role in investigating” Trump and his campaign’s ties to Russia, according to the complaint. It alleges the leak further aimed to “deter the firm from engaging in any continued investigation.”
That is why, when reading reports from Trump’s media enablers that are based on transcripts of closed-door testimony that hasn’t been released to the public, my initial reaction is to always assume that the leak came from Rep. Nunes.
I know congressional committees have their hands full these days with investigations of Trump and his administration. But at some point they need to zero in on all the ways that Rep. Nunes has been attempting to obstruct justice.
==
ref hmmn
the hill
ho would have thought that, this deep into the Russia collusion probe, we'd be learning about yet another dossier connected to Hillary Clinton? And, as it turns out, it was sort of a family secret.
By his own account, senior Department of Justice (DOJ) official Bruce Ohr played an essential — and unorthodox — role, carrying politically tainted allegations of Donald Trump-Russia collusion to the FBI during the 2016 election.
First, it was unverified intelligence starting in July 2016 from Trump-hating former British spy Christopher Steele,the author of the infamous Russia dossier.
Next, it was sketchy intelligence starting in August 2016 from Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson, an opposition-research contractor who hired Steele and was paid to help Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign develop political dirt on Trump.
And now we learn, from testimony that is still being kept secret from the public, that Ohr admitted to Congress last year that he also took Russia information that his wife, Nellie, assembled against Trump on a computer drive and delivered that to the FBI in 2016 — a revelation that has raised fresh concerns in Congress about a possible conflict of interest.
Nellie Ohr worked for Fusion GPS and, for a time, worked on the same Clinton-financed Russian research project as Steele, according to the testimony.
DOJ ethics rules forbid department officials from working in cases where a spouse has a financial interest, a prohibition that Bruce Ohr said he knew about when he forwarded his wife’s evidence to the FBI.
The way Ohr described it, his wife’s research was like an additional dossier assembled from Fusion GPS research to augment what Steele was separately providing the FBI.
“She (Nellie Ohr) provided me with a memory stick that included research she had done for Fusion GPS on various Russian figures,” Ohr told congressional investigators.
“And the reason she provided that information to me is, my understanding was, it related to some of the same — it related to the FBI’s Russia investigation. And she gave me that stick to give to the FBI.”
Ohr’s revelation about his wife adds yet another example of people connected to the Clinton machine flooding the FBI with anti-Trump Russia research during the 2016 election.
Steele’s dossier was the opening salvo. A document sent to the State Department by Clinton proteges Cody Shearer and Sidney Blumenthal was another. A thumb drive given by Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussman to FBI general counsel James Baker was a third. Simpson's thumb drive given to Bruce Ohr was a fourth. And Nellie Ohr’s thumb drive would be a fifth. At least three of those work products — those from Steele, Shearer/Blumenthal and Nellie Ohr — resemble what many people might consider a dossier.
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ez win 2018
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AN
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Hometown Newspaper Drops Scathing Editorial — Ending 16 Year Support of 'Damaging' Devin Nunes
By Martin Cizmar, Raw Story
The Fresno Bee will not be endorsing Devin Nunes this year. READ MORE»
lnx: Of course today, we know Nunes as the point man from the House Intelligence Committee who keeps trying to push the lie that it was Hillary Clinton who actually colluded with Russia. Nunes is also a global warming denier even as Fresno, the largest city in his California district, experienced a record consecutive days with highs that topped 100 degrees.
Nunes is now one of the leaders in disinformation.
Why?
Because Fox News and other right-wing conspiracy media outlets have made him famous. His fame has brought in $7.4 million in campaign donations, the most of any California Republican. This is also three to seven times any previous amount he’s raised.
https://www.alternet.org/heres-why-republican-party-has-abandoned-reality
no lnx vid
Here's Why the Republican Party Has Abandoned Reality
It's Trump's GOP now.
By David Akadjian / Daily Kos September 16, 2018, 7:58 AM GMT
This year, the Republican candidate for governor in Georgia was decided in a special runoff election between Brian Kemp and Casey Cagle, the top two finishers in the Republican primary. Before the runoff election, Casey Cagle was secretly recorded talking about the craziness of the Georgia Republican primary. He said:
:{
}:
The problem is in a primary—and you and I are just talking off-the-record frank—they don’t give a shit about those things. Okay. In the general election, they care about it. Okay. But they don’t care about it in a primary. This primary felt like it was who had the biggest gun, who had the biggest truck, and who could be the craziest.
:{
}:
Kemp quickly pounced on these remarks and used them to win the runoff by 40 points—which, ironically, validated Cagle’s remarks.
Here in Ohio, I saw the same thing in our race for governor. The entire race was about who was the most conservative. Mary Taylor called Mike DeWine a “liberal” and DeWine said Taylor was a criminal, so “lock her up.”
You’ve probably seen something similar in a race where you live. Conspiracy theorists are falling out of trees in Republican primaries.
So why is this going, on and what can we learn from it?
Politicians are cowards
Almost a year before the 2016 election, Devin Nunes spoke with The New Yorker about then-House Speaker John Boehner’s ouster.
Nunes told the author that one of the biggest changes he’s seen since his arrival in 2002 is the rise of online media outlets and for-profit groups that spread bad or even false information:
:{
}:
I used to spend ninety per cent of my constituent response time on people who call, e-mail, or send a letter, such as, ‘I really like this bill, H.R. 123,’ and they really believe in it because they heard about it through one of the groups that they belong to, but their view was based on actual legislation.Ten per cent were about ‘Chemtrails from airplanes are poisoning me’ to every other conspiracy theory that’s out there. And that has essentially flipped on its head.
:{
}:
Today, the calls and emails are 90 percent about the bad information and conspiracy theories, and only a small percentage are about things that are actually true.
Of course today, we know Nunes as the point man from the House Intelligence Committee who keeps trying to push the lie that it was Hillary Clinton who actually colluded with Russia. Nunes is also a global warming denier even as Fresno, the largest city in his California district, experienced a record consecutive days with highs that topped 100 degrees.
Nunes is now one of the leaders in disinformation.
Why?
Because Fox News and other right-wing conspiracy media outlets have made him famous. His fame has brought in $7.4 million in campaign donations, the most of any California Republican. This is also three to seven times any previous amount he’s raised.
So … conspiracy away!
In three years Nunes went from Freedom Party critic to one of the lead conspiracy theorists in Congress. Along the way, he threw out every principle he once might have had.
He’s not a leader. He’s a Fox News puppet.
[vid]
Devin Nunes calls his own paper, The Sacramento Bee, ‘fake news’
It’s important to understand that this is not just true for Nunes, but for most politicians
It’s easy for liberals to see this with Devin Nunes because he’s a lying conspiracy theorist Republican.
The mistake we often make, however, is seeing Democratic politicians differently. They’re not conspiracy theorists like Nunes. But they also don’t tend to be leaders like we want them to be. They have to get elected, too. So they will do what it takes to get elected.They will champion causes that are hot-button issues in the media. They will talk about what they think they can talk about in order to win. If an issue is going to hurt them politically, they may avoid it.
The simple model for what they’re doing looks like this:
Social change -> political change -> policy change
Social change is cultural change. It is what is popular in the public mind. Political change is winning elections. And policy change is when politicians write legislation.
Politicians will do what those who get them elected want.
If we look at someone saying this on the Democratic side, it looks like Barack Obama in 2009 talking about health care. Obama took a page out of President Franklin Roosevelt’s playbook. FDR once met with a group of activists who wanted support for new, bold legislation. After listening to their arguments, he then said, “You’ve convinced me. Now go out and make me do it.”
...
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ca water
https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/devin-nunes-turned-away-british-intelligence-officers-after-trying-dig-dirt
House Intelligence Committee chair Devin Nunes (R-CA) is at it again. And his latest scheme to undermine the Russia investigation ended in laughable failure.
According to a new report from the Atlantic, Nunes traveled to London earlier this month, seeking a meeting with MI5, MI6, and GCHQ regarding information on Christopher Steele — the former British spy hired to compile the infamous dossier into President Donald Trump's alleged dealings in Russia.
A U.K. security official, speaking on background, said "it is normal for U.K. intelligence agencies to have meetings with the chairman and members of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence." But those meetings did not pan out—Nunes came away meeting only with the U.K.’s deputy national-security adviser, Madeleine Alessandri. The people familiar with his trip told me that officials at MI6, MI5, and GCHQ were wary of entertaining Nunes out of fear that he was “trying to stir up a controversy.” Spokespeople for Alessandri and Nunes did not return requests for comment, and neither did the press offices for MI5 and MI6. GCHQ declined to comment.
In other words, Nunes, under color of his office as a high-ranking U.S. politician overseeing national security, went to Britain to speak with their intelligence agencies, and they turned him away because they suspected he was really there to discredit Steele and muddy the waters about the investigations into Trump.
A steadfast ally of Trump, Nunes has used his committee position to suppress any serious investigation of Russia on the House, instead launching a series of investigations into the investigators. He has been fixated on discrediting the Steele dossier and any federal investigator who might have relied on it, even though several portions of the dossier have now been confirmed true, and even though the FBI's initial investigation began with leads other than the dossier.
In particular, Nunes is obsessed with the idea, repeatedly debunked, that the FBI only secured warrants to surveil members of the Trump campaign by lying to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance (FISA) court about whether the dossier was funded by political opponents of Trump.
Last year, Nunes faced an ethics investigation for allegedly divulging classified information to reporters about the nature of the FBI's Russia surveillance. He also released a four-page memo purporting to reveal widespread anti-Trump bias at the FBI, which was laughably flimsy.
Nunes, who represents California's 22nd Congressional District in the Central Valley, is currently locked in a bitter fight for re-election against Democratic Fresno prosecutor Andrew Janz.
==
caine
There was a time when Ryan Zinke’s claim to be a Teddy Roosevelt Republican would have elicited laughter heard from Don Pedro Dam to Mount Rushmore. Teddy Roosevelt was one of the first and strongest ever defenders of public lands and wildlife; Donald Trump’s Secretary of the Interior might go down in history as the worst-ever enemy of those same public lands and wildlife.
:{
}:
Consider this: Ryan Zinke has already presided over the removal of some two million acres of public land from protection, mostly in the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase National Monuments. Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia,called it, “the largest elimination of public land in American history.”
And while the nation’s been distracted by Donald Trump’s daily rolling dumpster fire, Ryan Zinke and friends have managed to gut one of the most venerated of all of America’s great conservation measures—the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
One-hundred years old this year, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) is honored by nations including Canada, Mexico, and Japan. It protects migratory birds from robins and cranes to Peregrine Falcons. Ironically, the Audubon Society named 2018 the, “Year of the Bird,” to honor the hundred-year anniversary of one of our most enduring commitments to the values of Teddy Roosevelt.
None of this got mentioned during Ryan Zinke’s whirlwind tour through California Congressional District 10 last week. Zinke was visiting as the guest of Congressman Jeff Denham, who is putting on his biennial campaign extravaganza, featuring promises to remedy all the problems he’s neglected ever since he won office in 2010.
Zinke’s ludicrous claim about adhering to Teddy Roosevelt’s land ethic came in a district that features the protected wintering grounds of well over a hundred thousand migratory waterfowl, including the formerly endangered Aleutian Canada Goose, as well as ducks, cranes, and swans. The San Joaquin River National Wildlife Refuge is the result of a partnership between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Audubon Society, prominent local families, and a host of other organizations and individuals.
Only a few miles west of Modesto, the refuge isn’t just a living monument to local pride in our special natural history, it represents the love of nature Teddy Roosevelt personified in his commitment to public lands—exactly opposite Ryan Zinke’s “plunder for profits” campaign.
And even though Jeff Denham has been telling his constituents he’s against the tunnels, he joined Nunes and Valadao in voting for legislation that not only prevents lawsuits against the tunnels, it would prevent lawsuits against water projects in general.Ostensibly here to help Jeff Denham stop the state’s “water grab,” Ryan Zinke’s commitment is actually to the likes of Devin Nunes and David Valadao, Denham’s Republican colleagues in the southern San Joaquin Valley. That’s where Big Ag dominates politics and water issues and where Nunes and Valadao are pushing hard for twin tunnels in the Delta.
Think Jeff Denham and Ryan Zinke are interested in protecting the interests of Valley citizens? Just follow the money. Jeff Denham receives money from coal and oil barons like the Koch Brothers, who want to continue exploiting public lands for dirty energy and dirtier money. Ryan Zinke’s happy to help.
Closer to home, Stewart Resnick and Boswell Farms want our water to keep flowing south;Jeff Denham’s happy to help. After all, he made the top ten of Resnick’s donation list, just a few thousand dollars behind his buddy David Valadao.
Jeff Denham and Ryan Zinke are about as much like Teddy Roosevelt as Donald Trump is like Abraham Lincoln. Americans who value their history should shower him with boos and catcalls any time Ryan Zinke so deceitfully invokes the name, “Roosevelt.”
https://thevalleycitizen.com/denham-and-zinke-crimes-against-nature/
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with duncan hunter jr, seems to be an all in me too copy of djt stance/tactics:
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) has repeatedly gone to bat to block investigation of President Donald Trump's ties to Russia, and target anyone outside his committee who is doing so.
He also appears to be adopting one of Trump's favorite tactics: call any media criticism "fake news." And his crusade against a local paper in his district, theFresno Bee, has had consequences.
The Bee has endorsed Nunes in every election he has run in since his first bid for Congress in 2002. Nonetheless, the paper has increasingly published criticisms of his conduct in the Trump years, culminating in a recent exposé of a Napa Valley winery Nunes invested in, which reportedly had drugs and sex workers onboard its yacht at a charity event.
After the paper ran editorials criticizing Nunes for not answering questions about his link to the winery, he took out a lengthy campaign ad attacking the newspaper. "Sadly, since the last election, the Fresno Bee has worked closely with radical left-wing groups to promote numerous fake news stories about me," he proclaimed in the ad.
The ad worked all too well, according to VICE News:
It was a rare campaign expenditure for Nunes, who isn’t seen as particularly vulnerable in his deep-red Central Valley district. But it was heard by enough voters in the district that Fresno Bee reporters received an uptick in hate mail, angry social media posts and voicemails denouncing their reporting and the paper.
Mackenzie Mays was the Fresno Bee reporter who wrote the original story on the winery controversy. In response to Nunes’ ad, she received voicemails calling her and her colleagues "corrupt bastards" — but she said it wasn’t the first time she’s gotten hate from readers, and their attacks have only gotten more vicious recently — since Trump was elected.
Nunes is not unique. Numerous Republicans now reflexively attack the press, from Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) shouting "fake news" at a CNN reporter for challenging his claim that the Charlottesville riots were a false flag, to Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY) doing the same at reporters questioning her claim that mass shooters are mostly Democrats, to the incident last year in which Greg Gianforte body-slammed a *Guardian* reporter one night before being elected to Montana's congressional seat.
In the Trump era, GOP lawmakers seem increasingly emboldened to treat the press itself as a political enemy. And the damage that does could long outlast Trump.
==
win at all costs: if we don't win "all of this goes away" what is this?
https://www.alternet.org/here-are-4-shocking-revelations-secret-nunes-tape
impeach rod rosenstein
...
ar-right Republicans seemed to be quite enthusiastic about impeaching Rosenstein, but to their dismay, House Speaker Paul Ryan came out against the move. And Nunes, in the recording (which was obtained by a liberal/progressive group), indicates that he opposes impeaching Rosenstein at this point because getting Kavanaugh confirmed should be Senate Republicans’ top priority at this point. Asked about Republican plans to impeach Rosenstein, Nunes said that “it’s a bit complicated” because focusing on Rosenstein now would mean less time for Senate Republicans to focus on Kavanaugh. Nunes asserted, “Do you want them to drop everything and not confirm the Supreme Court justice, the new Supreme Court justice?"
2. Ari Melber: Nunes Admits Foreign Collusion Is a Crime.
MBNBC’s Ari Melber, tweeting on the Nunes tape, asserted that:
(1) “Nunes secretly wants another Rosenstein impeachment push — just after SCOTUS hearing,” and (2) Nunes admits foreign *collusion* on stolen e-mail *is a crime*.
Wow the @Maddow scoop on this new secret tape of Devin Nunes reveals:
1) Nunes secretly wants another Rosenstein impeachment push — just after SCOTUS hearing
2) Nunes admits foreign *collusion* on stolen email *is a crime*
(A legal fact, but at odds with Trump legal team)
— Ari Melber (@AriMelber) August 9, 2018
3. Nunes’ Remarks Indicate That He’s Fearful Republicans Could Lose the Senate in November
In the secret tape, Nunes is heard saying that in an impeachment scenario, “The Senate would have to drop everything they’re doing” and “start with impeachment on Rosenstein—and then, take the risk of not getting Kavanaugh confirmed. So it’s not a matter that any of us like Rosenstein. It’s a matter of, it’s a matter of timing.”
Clearly, Nunes’ remarks indicate that he’s fearful Republicans could lose the Senate to Democrats in the November midterms.
4. Nunes Specifially Mentions Midterms
In the tape, Nunes is heard saying, “I’ve said publicly Rosenstein deserves to be impeached. The question is the timing of it right before the election.”
When President Barack Obama nominated Judge Merrick Garland for the seat that the late Antonin Scalia had held on the U.S. Supreme Court, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused to hold any confirmation hearings. But with Kavanaugh, Nunes wants confirmation hearings ASAP—which speaks volumes.
==
https://www.alternet.org/justice-department-releases-fisa-applications-accused-trump-adviser-carter-page-conspiring-russian
no lnx
Justice Department Releases FISA Applications That Accused Trump Adviser Carter Page of 'Conspiring With the Russian Government'
"That the FISA materials hurt the GOP narrative is not surprising since Rep. Devin Nunes admitted he never read the source documents on Carter Page. In fact, the first Nunes memo was such a disaster that I can't wait for the second one."
By Jake Johnson / Common Dreams July 22, 2018, 2:42 AM GMT
In an unprecedented and unusually timed document dump Saturday night, the Justice Department released a 412-page, partially redacted version of the FBI's 2016 FISA application requesting authorization to wiretap former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser Carter Page.
"The FBI believes Page has been the subject of targeted recruitment by the Russian government," reads the FBI's application, which was ultimately approved by a federal court. The application goes on to accuse Page of "collaborating and conspiring with the Russian government."
The documents can be viewed here.
As Common Dreams reported, the FBI's surveillance of Page became a subject of "partisan sniping" earlier this year when Democrats and the GOP latched onto competing narratives about how Obama's Justice Department obtained permission to wiretap the former Trump campaign adviser.
Aligning with President Donald Trump, Republicans alleged in a memo drafted by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) that the FBI's surveillance of Page amounted to an abuse of power—an abuse Republicans don't typically care about when the privacy rights of ordinary Americans are at risk.
But as Splinter's Dell Cameron and Jack Mirkinson note, the Nunes memo "turned out to be self-defeating for the GOP for several reasons." They explain:
First, it charged that in seeking the secret surveillance warrant, federal investigators had failed to inform judges that key evidence was obtained from a biased source—the so-called Steele dossier, which was initially written by former British spy Christopher Steele on behalf of Democrats. But a response memo published by the Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee later debunked the accusation, revealing that the court had in fact been informed of the source’s political bias.
The memo also backfired by inadvertently confirming that the Steele dossier was not the primary factor jumpstarting the Russia inquiry. Instead, it acknowledged events previously reported by the New York Times: A former Trump foreign policy adviser, George Papadopoulos, came under the scrutiny of investigators in July 2016 after boasting that Russia had dirt on then-candidate Hillary Clinton to an Australian diplomat in London.
Responding to the newly released FISA documents on Saturday, Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) wrote: "That the FISA materials hurt the GOP narrative is not surprising since Rep. Devin Nunes admitted he never read the source documents on Carter Page. In fact, the first Nunes memo was such a disaster that I can't wait for the second one."
In a tweet early Sunday morning, Trump asserted—citing the right-wing advocacy group Judicial Watch—that the documents actually prove that the GOP's narrative was correct, and that the FBI "misled the courts."
"Witch Hunt Rigged, a Scam!" Trump added.
The FISA documents were released on Saturday in response to Freedom of Information Act requests by numerous news outlets and advocacy groups.
As Charlie Savage of the New York Times observes, "The spectacle of the release was itself also noteworthy, given that wiretapping under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, is normally one of the government's closest-guarded secrets. No such application materials had apparently become public in the 40 years since Congress enacted that law."
==
==
https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/everything-wrong-washington-trump-defender-rep-devin-nunes-used-political
One of President Donald Trump's most vigorous defenders is facing criticism for his use of political donations.
Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), the chairman of House Intelligence Committee who has frequently attacked law enforcement on Trump's behalf, spent thousands of dollars of political funds on basketball tickets and luxurious trips, according to *McClatchy*citing financial reports:
Rep. Devin Nunes used political donations to pay for nearly $15,000 in tickets to Boston Celtics basketball games as well as winery tours and lavish trips to Las Vegas... His PAC also spent about $42,741 since 2013 on catering, site rentals, hotels and meals in Las Vegas. The most recent instance was March 9, when the PAC spent $7,229 at seven different restaurants and hotels in Las Vegas. Nunes reported these expenditures as "fundraising expenses." When asked for comment by McClatchy, Nunes said, "I wish I could help you."
“I doubt his campaign donors intended their donations to be used for personal and lavish expenditures like basketball tickets and expensive wine tours,” Democrat Andrew Janz, who opposes Nunes in his 2018 race, told HuffPost. “Devin Nunes represents everything that is wrong with Washington and career politicians."
==
fresno bee
https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/errand-boy-devin-nunes-was-just-told-resign-his-hometown-paper
==
recused himself, then not, then trump bully into unprecedented briefing
https://www.alternet.org/devin-nunes-finds-shilling-donald-trump-paying-literally?src=newsletter1092594
...
managed to raise roughly $2.5 million over the last six weeks for his re-election campaign this year, according to the Washington Examiner. Overall Nunes has raised $5 million, including $1.25 million raised in the first fiscal quarter of 2018, more than he raised in all of 2017. Most of the money is raised outside California's 22nd congressional district -- an unglamorous agricultural region in the state's Central Valley -- from Republicans around the country who have become aware of Nunes thanks to his high-profile role in defending Trump and attempting to discredit the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
"If you’ve got the attention of the grassroots — particularly if you’re investigating the president or defending him — it’s a smart investment to make," a Republican consultant told the Examiner about Nunes' fundraising program.
...
==
https://www.alternet.org/senate-intel-committee-splits-nunes-led-house-panel-agrees-putin-interfered-2016-help-trump
==
https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/intelligence-officials-are-worried-devin-nunes-would-endanger-us-citizens-life
==
https://www.alternet.org/devin-nunes-calls-john-kerry-be-arrested-fbi-send-g-men
no lnx
Devin Nunes Calls for John Kerry to Be Arrested By the FBI: ‘Send In the G Men’:
Congressman Devin Nunes (R-CA) made his demand to imprison the former Massachusetts Democrat under the Logan Act,
By Bob Brigham / Raw Story
May 4, 2018, 11:04 PM GMT
The chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence is calling for former Secretary of State John Kerry to be the very first person every arrested under a constitutionally dubious 1799 law.
Congressman Devin Nunes (R-CA) made his demand to imprison the former Massachusetts Democrat under the Logan Act, which could theoretically result in three year in federal prison.
The allegations followed a new Boston Globe report on former Secretary of State Kerry working to save the Iran nuclear deal.
Annie Linskey ?@AnnieLinskey
SCOOP: John Kerry is very, very quietly playing quasi-diplomat, meeting with foreign leaders of France and Iran to save the Iran nuclear deal via @mviser //www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2018/05/04/kerry-quietly-seeking-salvage-iran-deal-helped-craft/2fTkGON7xvaNbO0YbHECUL/story.html …
9:53 PM - May 4, 2018Kerry quietly seeking to salvage Iran deal he helped craft - The Boston Globe
The former secretary of state has been on an aggressive yet stealthy mission to try to apply pressure on the Trump administration from the outside.
bostonglobe.com
3,800
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Rep. Nunes retweeted the story, saying it was time to “Send in the G Men.”
...
==
https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/devin-nunes-being-investigated-fec-possible-campaign-finance-violations
house Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) is under investigation for potentially violating campaign finance laws, according to a letter sent to him by the Federal Election Commission.
The Daily Beast reported Wednesday that the letter, which was sent to Nunes’ mother/campaign treasurer Toni Dian Nunes, found three potential violations stemming from donations he accepted in 2017.
As per the FEC’s letter to Nunes’ campaign committee, two of the alleged violations came from donors who surpassed the $2,700 legal limit for individuals donating to campaigns. The FEC flagged donations from health care lobbyist Jeffrey J. Kimbell, whose firm represented ambulance companies, which totaled $3,000. Nunes, the Beast noted, sponsored two bills in 2017 regarding ambulance services.
In addition to exceeding the legal limit for individual donors, the FEC also found that Stone Land Company, a farming company located near Nunes’ district in California, donated $10,000 to Nunes re-election campaign. The Beast noted that Stone Land Company’s donation violates FEC stipulating that candidates cannot take donations “from corporations and labor organizations unless made from separate segregated funds established by the corporations and labor organizations.”
==
intel comm deposed russia collab witness in NY during voodoo tax vote
Republican House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes is actively blocking his own committee’s investigation, refusing to subpoena Trump’s financial records or compel new testimony from key witnesses like Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Donald Trump Jr, despite new information emerging.
Republican Senators Chuck Grassley and Lindsey Graham are doing the White House’s bidding by calling for a criminal investigation -- not against those who worked with the Russians to interfere in the 2016 election, but against a whistleblower who compiled a research document exposing that interference.
==
see link below
ne of the more disturbing comments President Trump has made in recent months, and that's saying something, is what he said last month to radio talk show host Larry O'Connor in the wake of the indictments of Paul Manafort and others.
You know the saddest thing is that because I'm the president of the United States, I am not supposed to be involved with the Justice Department. I'm not supposed to be involved with the FBI. I'm not supposed to be doing the kind of things I would love to be doing. And I'm very frustrated by it. I look at what's happening with the Justice Department. Why aren't they going after Hillary Clinton with her emails and with her -- the dossier.
He continued with a rather stilted explanation that he as president couldn't be involved but that he "hoped" someone was looking into it. Later that same day, he spoke to the press as he prepared to leave for his Asia trip:
You want to look at Hillary Clinton. I'm not involved with the Justice Department. But they should be looking at the Democrats. They should be looking at a lot of things.
There was something about the way he said it that was . . . off. It seemed practiced. Indeed, he had started out the morning with this tweet, as if he had decided this would his theme for the day:
Donald J. Trump
?
@realDonaldTrump
....People are angry. At some point the Justice Department, and the FBI, must do what is right and proper. The American public deserves it!
3:11 AM - Nov 3, 2017
32,640 32,640 Replies 30,912 30,912 Retweets 131,753 131,753 likes
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Trump has been using "Crooked Hillary" as a foil for almost two years now, and it remains true that his crowds are still weirdly stimulated and aroused at the mere mention of putting her in prison. But this was the first time that Trump had said something as president that suggested a serious intention to follow through, if only he were allowed to direct the Justice Department and the FBI to do his bidding. MSNBC's Ari Melber noted at the time that Trump was "doing in public what Nixon would only do in secret. He is openly musing about pushing the DOJ to investigate or prosecute political opponents."
That's how it appeared to me too. Trump had already gotten himself in trouble when he personally asked former FBI Director James Comey to go easy on his buddy Michael Flynn, so he had learned the hard way that presidents are not supposed to be "involved" with the Justice Department. Thinking he was being clever, he just said publicly what he wanted to be done, as if he were speaking off the cuff.
Why he would want to pursue Hillary Clinton after all this time is obvious. He wants to muddy the waters with a parallel investigation into the hated Hillary and discredit special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into the Russia scandal by any means necessary. His loyalists had been casting about for the best way to fight back and settled on a sort of mirror conspiracy theory: While others accuse Trump of conspiring with the Russian government to tilt the 2016 election in his favor, they accuse Clinton of conspiring with the FBI and the Justice Department to steal the election from Trump
It's crazy, but that's what they're going with. Over the past week, this has ramped up from a number of different directions. On Thursday, NBC News reported that Attorney General Jeff Sessions directed DOJ prosecutors to "ask FBI agents to explain the evidence they found in a now-dormant criminal investigation into a controversial uranium deal that critics have linked to Bill and Hillary Clinton.” This is, of course, the debunked story from the book "Clinton Cash," cranked out by Steve Bannon's phony Government Accountability Institute.
Sessions had promised the Senate that he would recuse himself from all decisions about the Clinton emails and the Clinton Foundation, because of his criticisms of her during the campaign. Apparently he didn't mean it. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders insisted on Thursday that the president didn't "direct" Sessions to investigate the uranium deal, but then, he didn't need to. He'd already made it clear what he wanted done.
Sessions' recusal was as worthless as the one House Intelligence Committee chair Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., promised after he was caught sneaking around in the middle of the night hatching plots with the White House last spring, when he was supposed to be conducting an impartial investigation. Now Politico has reported that Nunes and a handful of fellow Trump disciples on the committee have been conducting a secret investigation, without informing their Democratic colleagues, that sounds an awful lot like what the president "mused" about in those comments back in November:
The people familiar with Nunes' plans said the goal is to highlight what some committee Republicans see as corruption and conspiracy in the upper ranks of federal law enforcement. . . . The sources familiar with the separate inquiry said it was born out of steadily building frustration with the Justice Department's refusal to share details of the way the Trump dossier was used to launch the FBI's investigation of his campaign team last year.
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Senators are getting in on the act as well. Senate Judiciary Committee chair Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, wants Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe fired because his wife is a Democrat and he's suspected of having been hostile to Trump during the election (which apparently translates into him covering up Hillary Clinton's crimes). Meanwhile, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has become downright hysterical:
Senator Rand Paul
?
@RandPaul
Time to investigate high ranking Obama government officials who might have colluded to prevent the election of @realDonaldTrump! This could be WORSE than Watergate!
6:33 AM - Dec 21, 2017
32,363 32,363 Replies 34,188 34,188 Retweets 70,557 70,557 likes
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But for all this bluster from Trump's increasingly sycophantic congressional supporters, if this plan is to work he has to persuade a majority of the public that he's more honest than Robert Mueller, the FBI and the Department of Justice. That part's not looking good. CNN released some polling on public attitudes about the Russia investigation on Thursday and this result is astonishing:
[The] things Donald Trump has said publicly about the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election have been ...
8% completely true
28% mostly true
32% mostly false
24% completely false
Only 8 percent of the American people believe that their president has been completely truthful about an investigation into whether he colluded with a foreign government to win the election. One imagines Mueller isn't losing sleep worrying about about his reputation being tarnished by someone with a credibility gap of that magnitude. Trump's the one who's looking tired these days.
Heather
https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/gops-new-hunt-crooked-hillary-last-ditch-gamble-save-trump
One of the more disturbing comments President Trump has made in recent months, and that's saying something, is what he said last month to radio talk show host Larry O'Connor in the wake of the indictments of Paul Manafort and others.
You know the saddest thing is that because I'm the president of the United States, I am not supposed to be involved with the Justice Department. I'm not supposed to be involved with the FBI. I'm not supposed to be doing the kind of things I would love to be doing. And I'm very frustrated by it. I look at what's happening with the Justice Department. Why aren't they going after Hillary Clinton with her emails and with her -- the dossier.
He continued with a rather stilted explanation that he as president couldn't be involved but that he "hoped" someone was looking into it. Later that same day, he spoke to the press as he prepared to leave for his Asia trip:
You want to look at Hillary Clinton. I'm not involved with the Justice Department. But they should be looking at the Democrats. They should be looking at a lot of things.
There was something about the way he said it that was . . . off. It seemed practiced. Indeed, he had started out the morning with this tweet, as if he had decided this would his theme for the day: [huge chunk of twitter code cut] Trump has been using "Crooked Hillary" as a foil for almost two years now, and it remains true that his crowds are still weirdly stimulated and aroused at the mere mention of putting her in prison. But this was the first time that Trump had said something as president that suggested a serious intention to follow through, if only he were allowed to direct the Justice Department and the FBI to do his bidding. MSNBC's Ari Melber noted at the time that Trump was "doing in public what Nixon would only do in secret. He is openly musing about pushing the DOJ to investigate or prosecute political opponents."
That's how it appeared to me too. Trump had already gotten himself in trouble when he personally asked former FBI Director James Comey to go easy on his buddy Michael Flynn, so he had learned the hard way that presidents are not supposed to be "involved" with the Justice Department. Thinking he was being clever, he just said publicly what he wanted to be done, as if he were speaking off the cuff.
Why he would want to pursue Hillary Clinton after all this time is obvious. He wants to muddy the waters with a parallel investigation into the hated Hillary and discredit special counsel Robert Mueller's probe into the Russia scandal by any means necessary. His loyalists had been casting about for the best way to fight back and settled on a sort of mirror conspiracy theory: While others accuse Trump of conspiring with the Russian government to tilt the 2016 election in his favor, they accuse Clinton of conspiring with the FBI and the Justice Department to steal the election from Trump
It's crazy, but that's what they're going with. Over the past week, this has ramped up from a number of different directions. On Thursday, NBC News reported that Attorney General Jeff Sessions directed DOJ prosecutors to "ask FBI agents to explain the evidence they found in a now-dormant criminal investigation into a controversial uranium deal that critics have linked to Bill and Hillary Clinton.” This is, of course, the debunked story from the book "Clinton Cash," cranked out by Steve Bannon's phony Government Accountability Institute.
Sessions had promised the Senate that he would recuse himself from all decisions about the Clinton emails and the Clinton Foundation, because of his criticisms of her during the campaign. Apparently he didn't mean it. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders insisted on Thursday that the president didn't "direct" Sessions to investigate the uranium deal, but then, he didn't need to. He'd already made it clear what he wanted done.
Sessions' recusal was as worthless as the one House Intelligence Committee chair Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., promised after he was caught sneaking around in the middle of the night hatching plots with the White House last spring, when he was supposed to be conducting an impartial investigation. Now Politico has reported that Nunes and a handful of fellow Trump disciples on the committee have been conducting a secret investigation, without informing their Democratic colleagues, that sounds an awful lot like what the president "mused" about in those comments back in November:
The people familiar with Nunes' plans said the goal is to highlight what some committee Republicans see as corruption and conspiracy in the upper ranks of federal law enforcement. . . . The sources familiar with the separate inquiry said it was born out of steadily building frustration with the Justice Department's refusal to share details of the way the Trump dossier was used to launch the FBI's investigation of his campaign team last year.
Senators are getting in on the act as well. Senate Judiciary Committee chair Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, wants Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe fired because his wife is a Democrat and he's suspected of having been hostile to Trump during the election (which apparently translates into him covering up Hillary Clinton's crimes). Meanwhile, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has become downright hysterical:
... [twit code] New York Times has tracked down the people who slipped info to Devin Nunes, and the reason he was never, ever going to reveal his sources seems clear enough.
A pair of White House officials played a role in providing Representative Devin Nunes of California, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, with the intelligence reports that showed President Trump and his associates were incidentally swept up in foreign surveillance by American spy agencies.
The two sources turn out to be Michael Ellis, a lawyer in the White House Counsel’s office who used to work with Nunes at the House Intelligence Committee, and Ezra Cohen-Watnick, who is the Senior Director for Intelligence at the National Security Council.
If you’re thinking that Cohen-Watnick’s name in this pairing redeems Nunes’ statement that he had gathered his secret info from an intelligence official, note that Cohen-Watnick is in his position under very unusual circumstances.
National Security Adviser Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster had informed Ezra Cohen-Watnick, the National Security Council’s senior director for intelligence programs, that he’d be moving to another position on Friday, Politico reported. McMaster reportedly made the decision after receiving complaints from several career officials about the 30-year-old intelligence operative. …
After they informed Trump of the situation Sunday, he overruled McMaster and told Cohen-Watnick he could stay put.
Cohen-Watnick knows Nunes because they were both members of the Trump transition team. How did he get on the NSC? MIchael Flynn put him there.
...
==
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes says he hasn’t found enough evidence of communications between President Trump’s associates and Russian officials to justify appointing a special prosecutor to investigate—even though there hasn’t been an investigation in order to obtain that evidence. Instead, Nunes is trying to shift focus onto the leaks coming out of the White House, calling them "major crimes." Nunes’ stance puts him at odds with other Republican lawmakers, including former House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa, who on Monday called for an independent review.
==
Last of all is the congressional point man of the Coalition is clearly Rep. Nunes. Nunes has taken to posting videos on YouTube of his regular diatribes on the floor of Congress, a popular astroturfing tactic employed by the big public relations firms. He is likely the person who connected the Friant Water Users and/or the Latino Coalition with Burson-Marsteller. After Part One of my article was printed, a B-M official told a Fresno television station it was advising the Coalition but insisted the firm was donating its services. Please note, however, that Burson-Marsteller has not said no one is paying the high-priced firm. They have been advising the Friant Unit growers for three years and they are surely being paid consulting fees for that.
---
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger met the marchers at the end of the march at the San Luis Reservoir and said he would continue to champion the cause of getting more water for western Valley agribusiness. He was promptly attacked by conservative Republican congressman Devin Nunes who called for Schwarzenegger's resignation for allegedly failing to deliver on proposed new taxpayer-funded water storage projects. The Metropolitan Water District, the Nisei Farmers League and the Western Growers' Association quickly came to the governor's defense, rejecting Nunes' attack, which critics said was merely grandstanding by the volatile congressman.
===
CURWOOD: It’s Living On Earth, I’m Steve Curwood. The U.S. House of Representatives has voted, yet again, to open part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration. It’s the tenth time the House has approved drilling in the refuge. What the Senate will do with the bill is less certain. One thing is certain though: a small army of lobbyists, consultants, direct mailers, advertisers and activists will be on hand to try to sway votes. After decades of debate, no one has made a penny drilling for oil in the Arctic refuge but in Washington D.C. it’s already a gusher. Living on Earth’s Jeff Young has a look at the cottage industry that’s grown up around one of the country’s most enduring environmental conflicts.
HOUSE SPEAKER: …under the rule, the yeas and nays are ordered. Members will record their votes by electronic device (GAVEL SLAM!).
YOUNG: Congress has voted on drilling in the Arctic refuge, or ANWR, as it’s known here, so many times now, it seems the only thing to add to the debate is why they seem to do it every year. California Republican Representative Devin Nunes thinks he knows why.
NUNES: One of the reasons this continues to be used as propaganda by the environmental community is because it’s their number one source of fundraising throughout the country to use in political campaigns.
YOUNG: The proof, Nunes says, is in the many email alerts and postcards telling drilling opponents to call congress and send money. The Defenders of Wildlife will even send you a plush toy polar bear. It’s not clear how much cash stuffed polar bears bring in. Defenders of Wildlife declined to comment. Their tax records show $23 million dollars in direct contributions last year. So, are environmental groups just milking a cash cow here?
BOSSO: No. I think to argue that ANWR is the number one fundraiser for the environmental community is way overstating things.
YOUNG: That’s Chris Bosso, a Tufts University Political science professor and author of the book, "Environment, Inc." Bosso says it’s true; many environmental groups seek support for the Arctic fight. But if they were hyping the issue purely to make money, as Congressman Nunes charges, they would quickly lose the most valuable thing they have, the trust of their donating members
==
wiki
Devin Gerald Nunes,OIH, (born October 1, 1973) is the U.S. Representative for California's 22nd congressional district, serving since 2003. The district, numbered as the 21st District from 2003 to 2013, is located in the San Joaquin Valley and includes most of western Tulare County, as well as much of eastern Fresno County. He is a member of the Republican Party. He is also the author of the book Restoring the Republic, published by WND Books in September 2010. Time magazine named Nunes one of the rising stars of American politics under 40, in their list of ″40 under 40″; that is, the top forty civic leaders under 40 years of age.[1] Nunes is a member of two committees in the House of Representatives: Ways and Means, where he was chairman of the Subcommittee on Trade and Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, where he is chairman.[2] He was co-chair of the Brazil Caucus and the U.S.-Mexico Friendship Caucus.
Contents
Early life, education, and career
Nunes was born in Tulare, California, the oldest of two sons born to Anthony and Diane Nunes[1]. His family has operated a farm in Tulare County for three generations. The Nunes family is of Portuguese descent, immigrating from the Azores to California.[3]
Nunes graduated from Tulare Union High School. He is the second member of Congress to attend Tulare Union, following Olympic gold medalist Bob Mathias three decades later, who served in House of Representatives from 1967 to 1975. After associate's work at College of the Sequoias, Nunes graduated from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, where he received a bachelor's degree in agricultural business and a master's degree in agriculture.
Nunes was first elected to public office when he was 22 years old. He unseated an 18-year incumbent for a seat on the Board of Trustees of his alma mater, the College of the Sequoias, earning 65 percent of the vote.[4] He served as a trustee from 1996 to 2002.[5] In 2001, he was appointed by President George W. Bush to serve as California State Director for the United States Department of Agriculture's Rural Development section. He left this post later in the year to run for the Republican nomination in the 21st congressional district, a new California district created through reapportionment after the 2000 United States census. Before 2002, the 21st congressional district was part of three districts represented respectively by Bill Thomas, Cal Dooley, and George Radanovich.
Elections 2002–2014
Nunes' principal opponents in the crowded seven-way 2002 Republican primary were former Fresno mayor Jim Patterson and state Assemblyman Mike Briggs. Nunes was the only major candidate from Tulare County, while Patterson and Briggs were both from Fresno. This was critical; 42% of the district's population was in Fresno County and 58% in Tulare County.[6] Patterson and Briggs split the vote in Fresno County, allowing Nunes to win by a four-point margin over Patterson, his nearest competitor. Nunes won 46.5% of the vote in Tulare County and 28.1% of the vote in Fresno County. In addition to Patterson and Briggs splitting Fresno County's vote, Nunes was also helped by a strong showing in the rural part of the district.[7] He won the endorsement of the California Farm Bureau and the Fresno Bee.[6] This district is solidly Republican, and Nunes coasted to victory in November. He has been reelected five times against only nominal Democratic opposition. During the June 8, 2010, California primary, Nunes actually received more write-in votes in the Democratic primary than the Democratic write-in candidate.[8][9] He ran unopposed in the 2010 general election.
Nunes' district was renumbered California's 22nd congressional district after the 2010 Census. With redistricting, Nunes lost most of eastern Tulare County to the neighboring 23rd District. California's 22nd congressional district also has an Hispanic plurality (44.8%). Based on recent elections totals, it remains predominately Republican. In the 2012 and 2014 general elections, Nunes won 61.88% and 70.58% respectively against Democrat opposition.[10]
U.S. Congress
Committees
During 108th Congress, Nunes' first term in Congress, he served on the House Resources Committee, where he was chairman of its National Parks Subcommittee. He was also a member of the Agriculture andVeterans Affairs committees. In the 109th Congress, Nunes was named to the House Ways and Means Committee. In January 2013, Nunes was named chairman of the Ways and Means Trade subcommittee.[11] He was also a member of the House Budget Committee during the 111th Congress. For the 112th United States Congress, Nunes was named to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. He was named chairman in the 114th Congress by Speaker John Boehner.
In 2003, Nunes became a founding member of the Congressional Hispanic Conference, a caucus of Republican Members of Congress of Hispanic and Portuguese descent.
Policies and legislation
Water
On May 1, 2011, Nunes authored with the support of other members of the San Joaquin Valley's Republican Congressional Delegation the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley Emergency Water Delivery Act to restore the flow of water to the San Joaquin Valley. This later became the basis for another bill co-sponsored by Nunes, the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley Emergency Water Delivery Act, which passed the House of Representative in February 2014 but was not voted on by the Senate. Nunes co-sponsored a third water bill, the California Emergency Drought Relief Act, which passed the House of Representatives in December 2014 but was not voted on by the Senate. Water restrictions have been in place to enforce the Endangered Species Act and other environmental regulations which have seen water allocations decline dramatically even in non-drought years. The result has been what Nunes terms a "man-made drought".[12] Nunes wrote in National Review in April 2015, "The House of Representatives has passed three bills in the last three years that would have expanded California water supplies by rolling back damaging environmental regulations. These bills died amid opposition from Senate Democrats, Governor Brown, and President Obama." [13]
In February 2014, during a **drought** that had hit California, Nunes rejected any link between the drought and **global warming**, saying "Global warming is nonsense."[14] He criticized the federal government for shutting off portions of California’s system of water irrigation and storage, and diverting water into a program for freshwater salmon and the delta smelt. “There was plenty of water. This has nothing to do with drought."[15][16]Nunes elaborated on these themes in his April 2015 National Review article. At the time California farmers were under attack for using most of California's water, making the state's drought worse. Farmers were accused of using 80 percent of the water, often on water-intensive crops, such as almonds. Nunes, a third-generation dairy farmer, challenged media criticism of farmers. He wrote, "Farmers do not use 80 percent of California’s water. In reality, 50 percent of the water that is captured by the state’s dams, reservoirs, aqueducts, and other infrastructure is diverted for environmental causes. Farmers, in fact, use 40 percent of the water supply. Environmentalists have manufactured the 80 percent statistic by deliberately excluding environmental diversions from their calculations." [17] Nunes added that California's lack of adequate water storage facilities has only made the problem worse. He wrote, "Furthermore, in many years there are additional millions of acre-feet of water that are simply flushed into the ocean due to a lack of storage capacity — a situation partly explained by environmental groups’ opposition to new water-storage projects.[18] Returning to an argument he has made before regarding California's water storage and irrigation system, Nunes added, "The drought is a genuine problem in California, but our irrigation system was designed to withstand five years of drought."[19]
Energy
In 2006, Nunes authored the"American-Made Energy Freedom Act". In July 2008, the Republican Conference introduced the American Energy Act, which included a key Nunes proposal from the American-Made Energy Freedom Act to establish a renewable energy trust fund from revenues generated by deep ocean and Arctic coastal plain exploration and invest the monies in alternative fuels and technology.[20]
On July 28, 2010, Nunes introduced H.R. 5899, "A Roadmap for America's Energy Future". It accelerates the exploration and production of fossil fuel; supports the rapid development of market-based alternative energy supplies; and expands the number of nuclear reactors from the current 104 to 300 over the next 30 years.[21] Kimberley Strassel of The Wall Street Journal wrote that "It's a bill designed to produce energy, not restrict it. It returns government to the role of energy facilitator, not energy boss. It costs nothing and contains no freebies. It instead offers a competitive twist to government support of renewable energy."[22]
Federal spending, healthcare, state pensions
On January 27, 2010, Nunes became an original cosponsor of H.R. 4529, "A Roadmap for America's Future", sponsored by Paul Ryan.[23] H.R. 4529 proposes major reforms of the U.S. health care system, Social Security, the federal tax code, job training, and the budget process. The "Roadmap" claims to solve the problem of the unfunded liabilities of Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, and provides for their long-term financial solvency. With respect to Medicaid, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has estimated that the plan would increase costs for States or those States would reduce enrollment; with respect to Medicare, the CBO has said the average senior would pay nearly twice what they currently contribute for the same coverage when the plan is fully implemented. On January 29, 2010, President Obama said that the "Roadmap" is a "legitimate" plan to solve the fiscal crisis facing the United States due to the unfunded liabilities of Medicare and Medicaid.[24] Nunes was also a cosponsor of "Roadmap for America's Future Act of 2008", an earlier version of H.R. 4529.
Also in 2009, Nunes coauthored the "Patients' Choice Act" with Paul Ryan (R-WI) in the House, and Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Richard Burr (R-NC) in the Senate. The Patient's Choice Act would establish a system of state health insurance exchanges and amends the Internal Revenue Code to allow a refundable tax credit for qualified health care insurance coverage. The bill also proposes to adsorb Medicaid programs to the exchange system.[25] The Patients' Choice Act was incorporated into A Roadmap for America's Future.
On December 2, 2010, Nunes introduced H.R. 6484, the "Public Employee Pension Transparency Act".[26] Paul Ryan and Darrell Issa (R-CA) are cosponsors. H.R. 6484 enhances transparency for state and local pensions, and would establish a clear federal prohibition on any future public pension bailouts by the federal government.
Transportation
California State Route 99 is a highway running north and south that breaks off from Interstate 5 at Wheeler Ridge in Kern County and continues through the Central Valley until it connects with I-5 again at Red Bluffin Tehama County. In 2005, Nunes introduced H.R. 99, which designated State Route 99 as a congressional High Priority Corridor. The bill also provided federal authorization for Highway 99 to become part of theInterstate Highway System. The bill became law as part of H.R. 3 in August 2005. On February 17, 2011, Nunes introduced H.R. 761, the "San Joaquin Valley Transportation Enhancement Act", which would give the State of California the option to redirect federal high-speed rail funds to finance improvements to Highway 99.[27] H.R. 761 was cosponsored by Jeff Denham (R-CA) and House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).[28]
Veterans
The Hubbard Act of 2008, H.R.5825, was named in honor of the Hubbard brothers of California, Jared, Nathan, and Jason. Jared and Nathan lost their lives serving in Iraq. Jason Hubbard was discharged as a sole survivor, but denied separation benefits on leaving the Army. The Hubbard Act provides sole survivors a number of benefits already offered to other soldiers honorably discharged. Sole survivors also do not have to repay any portion of their enlistment bonus, are entitled to the educational benefits of the Montgomery GI Bill, and can receive separation pay and transitional healthcare coverage.
National security, foreign affairs, and trade
Nunes is a vocal critic of the Obama administration’s national security policies, calling for stronger measures, for example, to fight ISIS, support for Ukraine and other Eastern European countries threatened by Russian actions in the region, and efforts to stop Iran’s development of nuclear weapons.[29] Nunes is also a prominent critic of the administration’s response to the Benghazi terror attack, Nunes was instrumental in bringing three security officers who fought in Benghazi to testify before the House Intelligence Committee. His actions were recorded in remarkable detail by the Weekly Standard, including controversies within theHouse Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence over the Benghazi investigations.[30]
As chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Nunes has oversight over some 17 military and national intelligence programs, including the CIA and other agency clandestine activities. Nunes travels extensively, like other HPSCI chairmen and members, and often to dangerous and strife-torn parts of the world. However, in the security sensitive and secretive world of intelligence, little is often disclosed in advance where HPSCI members travel to protect their safety, unless reported by HPSCI members themselves, the U.S or foreign governments, or international media.
As co-chair of the Brazil and Mexico caucuses, Nunes was selected by Speaker John Boehner to be a member of a well-publicized congressional delegation that the Speaker led to Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico in January 2012. Members of the delegation were Reps. Dave Camp (R-MI), Ways and Means Committee chairman; Doc Hastings (R-WA), Natural Resources Committee chairman; John Kline (R-MN), Education and the Workforce Committee chairman; Greg Walden (R-OR); and Dan Boren (D-OK). Boren was the sole Democrat on the trip.
As co-chair with Jared Polis (D-CO) of the U.S.-Mexico Friendship Caucus, Nunes along with members of the Congressional Hispanic Conference of the House of Representatives met with President Felipe Calderónof Mexico on April 24, 2012, in what is believed to be Calderón's final trip to Washington, D.C, as President of Mexico. Steny Hoyer, the Democratic Whip, also attended the meeting.[31]
Controversies
Nunes has been characterized as confrontational and sharped-tongued by his opponents.[32] He has been an unrelenting critic of the American left, particularly San Francisco Bay Area liberal activists and the environmental lobby.[33] He wrote in his book that members of the environmental lobby were "followers of neo-Marxist, socialist, Maoist or Communist ideals." [34] During the debate over President Obama's health care bill in the House of Representatives, Nunes said of then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi, "For most of the 20th century people fled the ghost of communist dictators and now you are bringing the ghosts back into this chamber." [35] He has also had a long-running dispute with another San Francisco Bay Area Democrat, Senator Dianne Feinstein, over California water policy and other issues,[36] even running a series of advertisements against her in California.[37] This fueled media speculation, later denied, that Nunes would challenge her for the Senate.[38] He has said of Feinstein, "She is either held hostage by extremists or she is an extremist." [39] Nunes wrote in April 2015 of what he calls "environmental extremists" and the damage he charges they have done in pursuit of an environmental utopia, "Utterly convinced of the righteousness of their crusade, environmental extremists stop at nothing in pursuing their utopian conception of 'sustainability.' The interests of families, farmers, and entire communities — whose very existence is often regarded as an impediment to sustainability — are ignored and derided in the quest for an ever-more pristine environment free from human contamination."[40]
Nunes has been a vocal critic of the Obama administration's foreign policy referring to it as a "complete disaster". He has also called Obama administration officials "wimps' for being opposed to enhanced interrogation techniques but for using drones instead to deal with terrorists. "People complain about harsh interrogation yet are okay with vaporizing people. In reality, they are kind of wimps, because they are not willing to do the hard stuff of capturing and interrogating people to get actionable information. The enemy knows that this administration won't interrogate them," Nunes told the American Thinker.[41]
Nunes' verbal jousting is not restricted to liberals in Congress or the Obama administration. During the October 2013 budget standoff, Nunes famously called certain members of his own Republican Conference who favored a government shutdown, "Lemmings with suicide vests, it's kind of an insult to lemmings to call them lemmings" because of their tactics.[42] [43] [44]
In May 2014, Nunes came under fire when he charged that Congressman Justin Amash was "al-Qaeda's best friend in Congress" due to the Michigan Congressman's voting record on National Security Agencysurveillance. At the time, Amash had voted in opposition to a Nunes water bill for California "on constitutional grounds." Nunes' statement about Amash linked the two issues, with him adding that Amash was acting as an ally of San Francisco liberals, who were opponents of Nunes' California water bills and NSA policies: “He’s been leading the charge and not telling the truth about [NSA surveillance policies]. He’s been fanning the flames, and it gets to the point where my assessment is this is a guy willing to work with San Francisco Democrats to protect bait fish, and at the same time he’s Al Qaeda’s best friend in the Congress.” [45]
In February 2015, during debate over Department of Homeland Security funding, Nunes showed again that he had not lost any of his colorfulness or verbal sharpness with opponents, in again criticizing certain conservative members of the Republican Conference: "“I prefer to be in the arena voting than trying to placate a small group of phony conservative members who have no credible policy proposals and no political strategy to stop Obama’s lawlessness. While conservative leaders are trying to move the ball up the field, these other members sit in exotic places like basements of Mexican restaurants and upper levels of House office buildings, seemingly unaware that they can’t advance conservatism by playing fantasy football with their voting cards.” [46]
Author
On September 13, 2010, Nunes' book, Restoring the Republic: A Clear, Concise, and Colorful Blueprint for America's Future was published by WND Books, an imprint of WorldNetDaily.
Committees 112th Congress
Committees 114th Congress
- House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence - Chairman.[47]
Personal life
Nunes is married to Elizabeth Nunes (née Tamariz), with whom he has three daughters-- Evelyn, Julia, and Margaret[2].
References
- :{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important;-webkit-user-select:none"):}:^ Devin Nunes - 40 Under 40 - TIME
- :{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important;-webkit-user-select:none"):}:^ US home prices rise strong 12.1 percent in June
- :{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important;-webkit-user-select:none"):}:^ 'I broke so many tractors, they made me work with the cows' | TheHill
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- :{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important;-webkit-user-select:none"):}:^ http://www.nationaljournal.com/njmagazine/nj_20021109_41.php
- ^ :{Jump up to::(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important;-webkit-user-select:none"):}:^a b(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devin_Nunes#cite_ref-nj_6-1) http://www.nationaljournal.com/pubs/almanac/2008/people/ca/rep_ca21.htm
- :{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important;-webkit-user-select:none"):}:^ CA Secretary of State - Vote2002 - United States Congress District 21 - Tulare County
- :{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important;-webkit-user-select:none"):}:^ http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/sov/2010-primary/pdf/85-95-cd.pdf
- :{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important;-webkit-user-select:none"):}:^ County of Fresno - County Clerk Registrar of Voters - June 8, 2010 Statewide Direct Primary
- :{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important;-webkit-user-select:none"):}:^ http://www.nationaljournal.com/almanac/member/373
- :{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important;-webkit-user-select:none"):}:^ Nunes to chair subcommittee on trade
- :{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important;-webkit-user-select:none"):}:^ http://www.kmjnow.com/pages/landing_news?Valley-GOP-Reps-Introduce-Water-Legislat=1&blockID=520842&feedID=806
- :{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important;-webkit-user-select:none"):}:^ http://www.nationalreview.com/article/416918/no-farmers-dont-use-80-percent-californias-water-devin-nunes
- :{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important;-webkit-user-select:none"):}:^ Onishi, Norimitsu; Davenport, Coral (February 14, 2014). "Obama Announces Aid for Drought-Stricken California". New York Times. Retrieved May 17, 2015.
- :{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important;-webkit-user-select:none"):}:^ Onishi, Norimitsu (14 February 2014). "Obama Announces Aid for Drought-Stricken California". New York Times.
- :{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important;-webkit-user-select:none"):}:^ Onishi, Norimitsu (14 February 2014). "Obama Announces Aid for Drought-Stricken California". New York Times. Retrieved 16 February 2014.
- :{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important;-webkit-user-select:none"):}:^ http://www.nationalreview.com/article/416918/no-farmers-dont-use-80-percent-californias-water-devin-nunes
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- :{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important;-webkit-user-select:none"):}:^ http://www.nationalreview.com/article/416918/no-farmers-dont-use-80-percent-californias-water-devin-nunes
- :{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important;-webkit-user-select:none"):}:^ American-Made Energy Freedom Act of 2006 (2006; 109th Congress H.R. 5890) - GovTrack.us
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- :{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important;-webkit-user-select:none"):}:^ RepDevinNunes - YouTube
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- :{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important;-webkit-user-select:none"):}:^ San Joaquin Valley Transportation Enhancement Act of 2011 (2011; 112th Congress H.R. 761) - GovTrack.us
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- :{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important;-webkit-user-select:none"):}:^ http://nunes.house.gov/podcasts/
- :{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important;-webkit-user-select:none"):}:^ Hayes, Stephen F.; Joscelyn, Thomas (December 15, 2014). "The Benghazi Report". The Weekly Standard. Retrieved May 16, 2015.
- :{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important;-webkit-user-select:none"):}:^ http://www.presidencia.gob.mx/2012/04/se-reune-el-presidente-calderon-con-legisladores-estadounidenses/
- :{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important;-webkit-user-select:none"):}:^ Lawmakers get testy in water debate | Turlock Recent News | Modesto Bee
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- :{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important;-webkit-user-select:none"):}:^ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auJ4VtdAd7w
- :{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important;-webkit-user-select:none"):}:^ Nunes contemplating bid against Feinstein | news10.net
- :{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important;-webkit-user-select:none"):}:^ RealClearPolitics - Politics - Nov 07, 2011 - GOP congressman runs TV ads attacking Feinstein
- :{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important;-webkit-user-select:none"):}:^ Nunes staffer says congressman won't challenge Feinstein | Politics | McClatchy DC
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- :{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important;-webkit-user-select:none"):}:^ Articles: A Tale of Three Cabinet Nominees
- :{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important;-webkit-user-select:none"):}:^ Nunes calls fellow House Republicans ‘Lemmings with suicide vests’ - The Washington Post
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External links
- Congressman Devin Nunes official U.S. House site
- Devin Nunes for Congress
- Devin Nunes at DMOZ
- Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
- Profile at Project Vote Smart
- Financial information (federal office) at the Federal Election Commission
- Legislation sponsored at The Library of Congress
- Profile at SourceWatch
- Smart Voter's election results for 2002, 2004, 2006
LOIS HENRY, Californian columnist lhenry@bakersfield.com
House Speaker John Boehner dug his shiny loafers into a swath of powder dry Kern County dirt on Wednesday and promised to move quickly on legislation aimed at easing the pain of California's historic drought.
Boehner and his partners on the legislation -- House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield, Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Visalia, and Rep. David Valadao, R-Hanford -- all agreed that, yes, the drought is the biggest obstacle to farmers getting adequate water in the near term.
But they denounced as "idiocy" and "nonsense" California's management of its water system.
"In my part of the world we would shake our heads at how things work here, " Boehner said. "It's nonsense that a bureaucracy would favor fish over people."
He referred to the delta smelt and other fish protected under the Endangered Species Act. In an attempt to bolster those populations, water exports from the San Joaquin-Sacramento delta have been curtailed.
The proposed bill would attempt to bring "reason" to how the system is managed, if only during the drought emergency, the politicians said.
The bill has yet to be written, but its three main prongs would seek to increase pumping out of the delta -- if water is available -- to agreed-upon 1994 levels, suspend the San Joaquin River restoration settlement and create a Senate-House task force to come up with long term solutions.
The consequences of the drought were brought into sharp focus when local farmer Larry Starrh talked about his family being forced to let 1,000 acres of productive almond trees die this year for lack of water.
"Water is life," he said, his voice thick with emotion. "But sadly in this world, water has become about power, water is used as a weapon."
As real and painful as the water situation is, there was more than a hint of politics lurking around the edges of Wednesday's press conference. The first two prongs of the proposed bill have already been rejected by the Senate last year. Increased pumping and suspension of the San Joaquin River restoration agreement were both parts of H.R. 1837, introduced by Nunes, passed by the House and left to whither and die on the steps of the Senate.
Though all the politicians at Wednesday's conference insisted this bill was different because it would implement those measures on an emergency-only basis, Senate reaction is likely to be the same.
Indeed, a press release from Sen. Dianne Feinstein's office Wednesday warned that "I am concerned that (the new proposed bill) may follow the pattern of previous House bills which seek to either preempt state law or waive state water quality and Endangered Species Act requirements which could spur serious litigation and likely delay any action."
The likelihood of strong opposition cast Wednesday's event in a suspect light. Was it a sincere attempt to help California in a time of need or an unofficial reelection kickoff for Valadao, who is being heavily targeted by Democrats?
While Boehner's presence brought a great deal more media attention to California's water plight, any meaningful change in federal law or a federal-state partnership would have to get Senate buy-in, meaning Feinstein, who's long been a heavyweight in California water politics, not Boehner.
However, if freshman Valadao needed a boost to help loosen wallets before the mid-term elections this fall, Boehner would be a great leg up. Since Valadao, himself a dairy farmer, has made water a key issue, Wednesday's event would look to be a smooth political fit.
Meanwhile, California's reaction to the proposed bill pitched by Boehner, et al, was wary.
John Laird, secretary of the state's Natural Resources Agency, provided testimony in 2011 vehemently opposing Nunes' bill, H.R. 1837. The state was particularly upset by the portions of H.R. 1837 that would have set pumping levels at those agreed to in 1994 and suspension of the San Joaquin River restoration settlement, which he said would essentially toss out California water law and upend long held water rights.
The exact same measures are being discussed for this new bill, albeit on an emergency basis only.
In an email on Wednesday, Laird said that if this new bill proves sufficiently similar to the old H.R. 1837, the state would again stand in opposition.
"We are rarely forced to confront water allocations this low, salinity in the delta, and difficulty moving water during a crisis. Now is not the time to be divided -- now is the time to bring people together to find solutions," Laird said.
http://www.bakersfieldcalifornian.com/local/x22866465/Boehner-comes-to-Kern-to-pitch-water-bill