“The Intelligence Committee chair said that he has yet to see any evidence that Trump aides were in contact with Russian officials before the election.”
At what point do Nunes and the other Republicans introduce Articles of Impeachment against the FISA court judges who authorized the wiretaps?
Great article. Since Devin can look at whatever he wants, could somebody ask for some forensic accounting of Trump companies in Cyprus. Cyprus is the main destination for Russia, and also sometimes the biggest source of FDI ($49 billion in 2012). If you are going to look at Russia and Trump, you have to start in Cyprus.
In fulfilling his role as a White House apologist, Nunes clearly articulated just how necessary an independent probe is.
Follow the money.
Well, that’s one of the more depressing 5 points I’ve seen in awhile.
All this fierce denial, is reminding me of something a friend of mine who is was a junior high school counselor taught me.
She used to help kids to confront another kid who was spreading rumors about them (usually the victim would have a good idea of who the rumor-spreader was). She would coach the victim to confront the accuser in person, but make sure that they were prepared for the rumor-spreader to deny everything.
The idea was that even if the person did not in any way acknowledge the truth of the accusation, they did hear it. And the rumor-spreader would stop.
I bring this up, because there is going to be no-end of show from the Republicans that there is nothing going on. This does not mean that they do not hear the accusations. Nor does it mean that they will not change their behavior.
Keep up the accusing…
Nothing to see here, clearly:
We have multiple contacts with Russia from multiple people in Trump’s campaign and administration, including highly questionable contacts that have resulted in two resignations.
We have, at least in one case, a contact that arguably broke the law, followed by lying to the FBI about said contact.
We have the unanimous verdict of all of America’s various federal intelligence and law enforcement agencies that Russian agents, directed by Russia’s leaders, interfered in the U.S. election with the goal of electing Donald Trump.
We have the Trump campaign’s change to the Republican Party platform with regard to Russia and Ukraine, the only change in that platform that they were actively involved in.
We have Trump’s language with respect to Putin, Ukraine, and Russia.
We have Trump’s views on Russian sanctions.
We have the Trump camp’s conflicting stories about Russian cash in Trump business activities.
We have the reports of millions in secret cash payments to then Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort from a pro-Russian party in Ukraine.
We have Russian attempts to blackmail Paul Manafort.
We have a dossier of information about Trump’s involvement with Russia, gathered by a source that U.S. intelligence agencies take seriously. The dossier includes both established facts and rumor, some of which has been corroborated, some of which appears to be false, and the rest of which remains to be investigated. The latest, as reported by the New Yorker, is that, “But, in the weeks that followed, they confirmed some of its less explosive claims, relating to conversations with foreign nationals. ‘They are continuing to chase down stuff from the dossier, and, at its core, a lot of it is bearing out,’ an intelligence official said.”
We have reports of a Trump campaign server’s connection to a Russian server.
We have the conflicting stories from Trump about his business connections in Russia and about his connection with Putin.
We have admissions from Russia’s foreign service about repeated and continuing communications with the Trump campaign.
We have Tillerson’s connections to Russia and Putin.
We have Trump’s attacks on the U.S. intelligence community.
We have multiple intelligence officials who have insisted that “members of the Trump campaign and other Trump associated had repeated contacts with senior intelligence officials in the year before the election.”
We have the Trump team’s initial refusal to do anything about Flynn even after they knew he had acted inappropriately and lied about it. Instead, they attempted to stonewall and lie.
We have the stories that Josh has been commenting on about Felix Sater, Michael Cohen, and Paul Manafort, where the various parties cannot seem to get their story straight:
We have Russia paying Michael Flynn $40,000 to attend the 10th anniversary banquet for the English-language propaganda channel Russia Today.
We have the NSA intercepting Russian officials congratulating themselves after Trump won the election.
We have reports detailing cyberattacks not just against the DNC but also against the White House, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the State Department, the RNC, and various American corporations.
We have a report giving the the names of the Russians who delivered the stolen emails to WikiLeaks.
We have zero credible explanations from the Trump camp on these various activities. Instead, their only responses thus far have been to attack the intelligence community and vow to go after “leakers.”
And even more at http://billmoyers.com/story/the-trump-resistance-plan-a-timeline-russia-and-president-trump/.
Nunez does or does not realize he is part of a different branch of government? He is supposed to be part of the checks and balances. Not. Rubber. Stamp.
Relax. Nunes is simply going through what Chris Christie refers to as the learning curve of effectively managing public responsibilities. Nunes and other Republicans collectively have no idea how good government works, so they have to waste years and years in office trying to figure everything out by trial and error. But, rest assured, the public will tell them in no uncertain terms what they need to do, and they will do it, pronto. Or leave town in great shame. Or handcuffs. One or the other.
Next step is start calling this “proof” that nothing happened and call to an end of any inquiries about it. Thing is that this WH cant control outside sources of info.
We don’t have tRump’s tax returns. If we did (when we do) he’s burnt toast.
Here’s a small primer on Cyprus and Putin.
and of course, Wilbur Smith today
“So here you have the White House actually trying to communicate with many of you and trying to communicate with the Congress about what they’re doing, and now suddenly that’s wrong. There’s nothing wrong with that,” he said.
So Rep. Nunes, did the White House tell you to say that?
There’s been no investigation but he’s sure there’s nothing there?
What an asshole. He needs to be forced out of office. Fucking unbelievable.
Nunes. It is an incredibly important distinction in Central Valley politics. Devin Nunes and David Valadao are of Portuguese descent. They are not your average Latino. These were farmers that came to the Central Valley as the promised land, where everything was an externality, and free!
These people tied in to the Republican hard-core power structure. Hence, the full-throated defense of Trump from Nunes.
Nunes is the BEST kind of Political-Whore: Once bought, he STAYS bought.
Non-US intelligence agencies and even non-US bank regulators may have information about Trump’s Russian relations. Since it is multinational in nature, leaking could come from numerous sources.http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/08/29/deutsche-banks-10-billion-scandal
And speaking of Deutschebank, what about those loans?
That’s like saying Putin was a political whore. Nunes is also ruthless. Remember, Trump is tangential to his interest in Total Surveillance. I would go back and look at Nunes career a bit more closely. He’s been in Congress for 14 years and over that time has migrated to core issues around raising the cyberpolice state, not exactly the top concern of most almond growers.
Good lord, would anyone of the actors involved have been cleared, heck even considered for NSA or a Military Intel position with just what is known. Before the finding of actual malfeasance, the sniff test would likely have killed consideration. So the intel chair’s behavior is reckless in my opinion. There is plenty of smoke, more than enough connectivity to warrant a close look in light of the events during the election and the people involved. Nothing there? Fine, we suffer but with the idea that the people in charge are actually doing their job. Concerned about leakers? Okay, technically maybe they are in violation, but intent is important as well. Are they evil doers? or people trying to do the right thing under bad circumstances? I suspect the leakers would not be leaking if they felt it was trivial and not worth risking time in the criminal justice system. If I were the President and I wanted this to go away, I would be insisting on a full investigation with transparency. Behavior like that of Nunes just fans the flames of suspicion.
Because it means you, Rep. Nunes, are serving as a shill for the White House rather than serving as a Congressional/Legislative check & balance on the Executive Branch, you slimy corrupt git.
