The chairman of the House intelligence committee has backed down from his dramatic assertion that Donald Trump and his aides were "monitored," by U.S. spies — a claim the Republicans have cited this week in emails to loyalists.
Rep. Devin Nunes told reporters Friday he can't be sure whether conversations among Trump or his aides were captured in the surveillance that has become a source of controversy since Nunes made it public in two news conferences this week.
"He said he'll have to get all the documents he requested from the (intelligence community) about this before he knows for sure," his spokesman, Jack Langer, said earlier.
Nunes continued to refuse to say how he had learned about the surveillance, including whether his source was in the White House.
I want to say WTF here but that doesn't even seem to cover this.
This idiot went before reporters, not once but twice, claiming that he had seen this evidence and that he was "actually alarmed by it."
And now he is not sure that he saw anything of the kind?
What's more Nunes just cancelled a major public hearing with former CIA director John Brennan, former DNI James Clapper, and former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates.
This was how Nunes explained this decision:BREAKING: Chairman just cancelled open Intelligence Committee hearing with Clapper, Brennan and Yates in attempt to choke off public info.— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) March 24, 2017
Panel chairman Devin Nunes said he had to cancel next Tuesday's hearing with officials from former Democratic President Barack Obama's administration in order to have a classified briefing with the directors of the National Security Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation.
"The committee seeks additional information ... that can only be addressed in closed session," Representative Nunes told reporters.
But Rep. Schiff was having none of it:
Representative Adam Schiff, the intelligence committee's top Democrat, said the cancellation was not in the public interest.
"I think that there must have been a very strong pushback from the White House about the nature of Monday's hearing. It's hard for me to come to any other conclusion about why an agreed upon hearing would be suddenly canceled," Schiff told a separate news conference.
At this point there is literally no other conclusion that can be reached except that Nunes is attempting to sabotage this investigation.
The only question I have is who has the dirt on Nunes?
Trump or Putin?
I agree. It really felt like his arm was twisted so far behind his back that it was about to break off. Either someone knows about his skeletons and is threatening to out him or Trump is threatening to aggressively campaign against him in 2018.
ReplyDeleteSomething is amiss . If you said wtf! When the meeting got cancelled. Then there is something wrong. I sensed the same . Nunes is possibly compromised and is trying to run interference. Either way he is a gone man.These people are playing for keeps . It is scary but nonetheless real. Its going to get more clandestine.
Delete"Dead man walking.."
DeletePutin called and read the thing the riot act abut his idiot minions. The thing called Nunes to get his ass in there and reamed him a good one.
DeleteWhat fucking idiots in the Republican party! They keep showing themselves for what they are to America each and every day. They couldn't be a worse breed!
ReplyDeleteIt is telling that he made his revised statement on a Friday afternoon. Right when people are stepping away from their computers and TVs.
ReplyDeleteAhhhh, but just in time for Sunday talk shows! The emporers have no clothes.
Deletebah, his name will live in infamy alongside Trump's. All he has been able to demonstrate is that he's an incompetent crook.
ReplyDeleteONLY VOTERS CAN KICK HIM OUT.
Who has the dirt on Nunes?
ReplyDeleteI bet at least one of the three on this picture. And...Lee Atwater has been dead since 1991
http://static.politico.com/92/e0/530aabf74f4bbe7fe9372b28ae40/paul-manafort-roger-stone-lee-atwater.jpg
This has also been puzzling me...I am sure it was a set up but was the end result to squash/emd this panel or expose Nunes. Not hearing from other members of this panel is unsettling.
ReplyDeleteNunes better get himself a body guard cause too many men are dying in Russia....and accidents happen, even in the USA. He appear to be running scared to me.
I feel the same! Rachel is killing it tonight; can't wait for Maher!
Deletehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/paul-manafort-testify-russia_us_58d52fa4e4b02a2eaab2f665?
ReplyDelete"The Republican leader of the House Intelligence Committee called off a public hearing scheduled for Tuesday on possible ties between President Donald Trump’s associates and the Russian government, saying the group will hold a closed-door meeting first.
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the highest ranking Democrat on the committee, called the decision by Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) “a dodge” and an “attempt to choke off public info.”
While Nunes characterized the change as a postponement, Schiff called it a cancellation."
"Nunes said the public hearing was being postponed because the committee needed to first hear from FBI Director James Comey and National Security Agency Director Mike Rogers in a private setting.
Comey and Rogers testified in a public hearing before the panel on Monday, when the FBI director confirmed for the first time that the agency is investigating Trump associates’ ties to Moscow as a part of a broader probe into reports that Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. election to help Trump win."
And we all know how well that testimony went. Is it any wonder Nunes is trying to cover up as much of this as possible?
"Nunes did not say whether or not Manafort would testify publicly, but Schiff urged the former campaign manager to appear in both an open and closed setting.
Trump’s former foreign policy adviser, Carter Page, and longtime Trump confidant Roger Stone later said they would also testify before the committee.
Nunes welcomed other Trump associates to come forward but was evasive about whether he would use subpoenas to call in witnesses who did not volunteer ― an authority Schiff has said the chairman must be willing to exercise.
“We’re not going to get into a neo-McCarthyism era where we just start bringing in Americans because they were mentioned in a press story,” Nunes said Friday."
Unfortunately we can't rely on our government to investigate this transparently and honestly so we have to depend on our press to dig into the collusion between the Trump campaign, the Trump administration and agents of Vladimir Putin.
Sad.
They better get Flynn to testify before putin gets him first.
DeleteYeah that little Flynn and his little son have lots to say under oath. And make sure it is televise on main stream media for the entire country to witness. Lying little pos's.
DeleteFlynn is most likely closeted with the FBI and spilling his 3 star guts. He has a pension to protect...
DeleteHey GRYPHEN!!!
ReplyDeleteCHECK THIS OUT !!!
Pence and Obama...2010...
(It's from Digby's twitter)
https://twitter.com/yashar/status/845375383742676995
Meanwhile T.Rump has the attention span of a fruit fly. Couldn't do a 7 minute meeting let alone a 7 hour one.
ReplyDeletelmftfy: the attention span of a horny fruit fly.
DeleteHow about a bill that limits his security budget, he is making money at trump tower etc, let him foot the security bill.
ReplyDelete=============================================
‘MAR-A-LAGO Act’ introduced by democrats
At the so-called “Winter White House,” President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, the former reality TV star hosted Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and would soon welcome Chinese president Xi Jinping. But some of the hotel’s visitors, like Republican campaign funding juggernaut David Koch, have been a bit less visible to the public.
Democrats in the House and Senate pushed to change that Friday, unveiling twin bills requiring the White House to publish visitor logs—not only at the official White House, but at Trump’s other frequent meeting places in New York and New Jersey, as well.
In their announcement of the Make Access Records Available to Lead American Government Openness Act, or MAR-A-LAGO Act for short, Democrats criticized “the Trump administration’s refusal to extend the pro-transparency policy established by former President Barack Obama to release visitor logs at the White House 90 to 120 days after they were created.” In addition to Mar-a-Lago, the bill also expanded the scope of desired visitor logs to Trump Tower in New York City and the Trump National Golf Club in New Jersey.....
.... “President Trump has taken the unusual and potentially dangerous step of conducting official business in the plain view of guests at his high-priced Mar-a-Lago club,” a press statement for the pieces of legislation read, adding that in February, Udall and Whitehouse had written to Trump “demanding information about who is buying access to what President Trump calls the ‘Winter White House.’”......
http://www.rawstory.com/2017/03/mar-a-lago-act-introduced-by-democrats/
The bills sound reasonable to me but the GOP will never move them along so they'll be "dead in the water." The GOP is all against transparency when they are in charge.
DeleteBeaglemom
http://www.rawstory.com/2017/03/i-sense-panic-at-the-white-house-journalist-louise-mensch-explains-how-the-russia-trump-probe-is-coming-to-a-head/
ReplyDeleteHe has to walk it back when it shows that it was known Russian operatives that were being monitored and in those documents certain Trump people keep cropping up.
ReplyDeleteNunes is such a moron that he basically called attention to something he wanted to hide. Now he's frantically trying to spin it all and make it go away.
Schumer is having none of it.
Making these meetings secret is the last thing that is going to help Nunes. It just makes them all look MORE guilty.
What a fucking sideshow.
George W. Bush must be dancing a jig. He is no longer the worst president in history. And I'll give him this. Georgie would never have tried to take away healthcare like Ryan did. He may be a fool but he's not stupid and he's not cruel. He would understand that you don't punish women and you don't deny healthcare to millions.
Yeah, he's giggling in glee he is no longer the goat.
++++++
DeleteNot so fast. Old Georgie and dick are fully connected and invested in the riggers club. It aint over.
DeleteWhat kind of idiots would possibly think the America people would fall for this ass clown show? Seriously how freaken ignorant are these republican simpletons? Gee whiz what a mess they are.
DeleteAmerica will never forget 911. America will never forget the "famous" meeting of the republican big giant heads plotting and planning the do nothing congress against President Obama for 8 yrs straight. Where is old dick chaney and rummy today? That old oil loving bunch. Yep, oil riggers and citizen united, NRA and KKK. The religious right and their kids. Oh what a bunch of fools. Oh the lies and spies. The insane and lame. How about A cup of tea as we reflect the hard facts and truth?
DeleteWe Redacted Everything That's Not a Verifiably True Statement From Trump's Time Interview About Truth
ReplyDeletehttp://theslot.jezebel.com/we-redacted-everything-thats-not-a-verifiably-true-stat-1793571837
After AHCA failure, Donald Trump and House Republicans hatch plan to oust Speaker Paul Ryan
ReplyDelete...This means ObamaCare will remain the law of the land. It also means someone on the Republican side has to take the fall for it. Accordingly, the Trump administration and House Republicans have confirmed that they’re now seeking to oust Speaker Paul Ryan.
Trump’s White House and the House Republicans have both leaked this confirmation to propaganda site Breitbart this evening. In general, claims made by Breitbart can’t be treated as if they’re coming from a legitimate news outlet. However, the site can be viewed as a mouthpiece for Trump and the extremist wing of the GOP. So these leaks do tell us with a good degree of certainly that they truly are aligning to oust Ryan tonight.
It’s less clear who the new Speaker would be.
https://www.palmerreport.com/politics/after-ahca-failure-donald-trump-and-house-republicans-hatch-plan-to-oust-speaker-paul-ryan/2046/
Exclusive — Discussion About GOP Replacement to Paul Ryan as Speaker of the House Intensifies in White House, Congress
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/03/24/exclusive-discussion-gop-replacement-paul-ryan-speaker-house-intensifies-white-house-congress/
On Jan. 20, Trump put in motion plans to foil the ACA at every opportunity when he signed the exec. order telling civil servants to mess with the law at every opportunity. Now the GOP will starve it. Then it can all be blamed on the Obama administration and, by extension, on Hillary Clinton. No one in the GOP cares at all about keeping people healthy. They just want to keep themselves and their rich puppet masters rich.
DeleteBeaglemom
Devin Nunes Vanished the Night Before He Made Trump Surveillance Claims
ReplyDeleteThe Republican intelligence chairman got a message and jumped out of an Uber. The next morning he made a bombshell claim based on classified information.
...Nunes was riding in an Uber vehicle with a “senior committee staffer” on Tuesday night when he received a phone call, prompting him to have the car stopped. He then jumped out of the car and vanished, leaving the confused staffer behind. Where did he go? No one knows for sure yet, and no one in his own circle saw him until the next day. But the phone call was presumably from whoever ended up feeding him the supposed Trump-Russia classified intel that night – and any authorized briefer from any intel agency would never have used such a method.
Where did Nunes go after he abruptly exited his Uber? Did he hop the subway? Was he picked up by the person who had called him? Did he get into another Uber just to ditch the committee staffer?
https://www.palmerreport.com/news/devin-nunes-jumped-out-of-his-uber-ride-and-vanished-the-night-before-his-trump-russia-stunt/2050/
Hours before the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee announced his shocking claims about surveillance of the Trump transition team on Wednesday morning, he practically disappeared.
Rep. Devin Nunes was traveling with a senior committee staffer in an Uber on Tuesday evening when he received a communication on his phone, three committee officials and a former national security official with ties to the committee told The Daily Beast. After the message, Nunes left the car abruptly, leaving his own staffer in the dark about his whereabouts.
By the next morning, Nunes hastily announced a press conference. His own aides, up to the most senior level, did not know what their boss planned to say next. Nunes’ choice to keep senior staff out of the loop was highly unusual.
The Republican chairman had a bombshell to drop.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/03/24/devin-nunes-vanished-the-night-before-he-made-trump-surveillance-claims.html
Panicked Devin Nunes cancels Sally Yates public testimony on Donald Trump and Russia
ReplyDeleteAfter House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes had originally announced that former acting Attorney General Sally Yates would testify during the March 20th public hearings on Donald Trump and Russia, that ended up not happening for reasons which were never explained. Now today we’re finally getting confirmation today that Yates was ultimately scheduled to testify during the March 28th public hearings – but we’re only learning this information because a panicked Nunes just called it off.
Congressman Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House Intel Committee, posted the following today: “BREAKING: Chairman just cancelled open Intelligence Committee hearing with Clapper, Brennan and Yates in attempt to choke off public info” (source: Twitter). This means that after Devin Nunes had his bizarre meltdown earlier in the week in which he shared classified information about the FBI’s Donald Trump investigation with Donald Trump, and then leaked it to the public as well, he’s now in total panicked meltdown mode.
https://www.palmerreport.com/politics/panicked-devin-nunes-cancels-sally-yates-public-testimony-on-donald-trump-and-russia/2044/
http://www.rense.com/general52/over54.htm
DeleteExplains the chess game played so far...
Look at the names started with and now?
No such thing as coincidence. Okey Dokey!
The entire republican party looks abit CONStipated !!! Like the shit is about to hit the fan. Goodness get yer googles on everyone. Duck the turds 0:
ReplyDeletePooty really gots a hold of the rump and stumps. Pooty says pay up or I will destroy ya all!! Yes and We the American people will never forget who cheered at the lousy actor rallies and who aided the enemy against America. YOU PEOPLE are traitors and about to be served your lunch after we fix your boat.
ReplyDeleteTake a laxative already! You don't get it. We are ONE in humanity.Bad actors will be corrected on camera
Deletehe bailed on a uber ride and vanished into the night... stranger and stranger..... http://www.palmerreport.com/news/devin-nunes-jumped-out-of-his-uber-ride-and-vanished-the-night-before-his-trump-russia-stunt/2050/
ReplyDeleteProbably all cracked out.
DeleteI think that Nunes should resign from the Intel. Committee. These hearings should be public and he doesn't seem to have the gravitas needed for such a position. His having worked on the Trump transition doesn't help either. I think he's most worried that he will become personally entangled in the mess. If he had been smart, he would have stayed out of it, far out of it.
ReplyDeleteBeaglemom
Wanted to post this as proof Nunes was set up and Ryan complicit: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/3/23/1646706/-Larry-O-Donnell-Paul-Ryan-Told-Devin-Nunes-to-Take-Incidentally-Collected-Information-To-Trump
ReplyDelete"This means that Ryan instructed his House Intelligence Chairman to brief the very person his committee is investigating on confidential information germane to that investigation... before he’d shared it with any of the other members of the committee.
This could be classic Obstruction of Justice."
“For House Republicans and the White House, this is about obstruction and distraction,” Rep. Mike Quigley told The Daily Beast. “And this week there were three: that Obama wiretapped Trump tower, number two, this middle of the night excursion, and number three, canceling the open hearings. I just tell my colleagues that we have to keep up the pressure so they don’t turn the lights out.”
ReplyDeletehttp://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/03/24/devin-nunes-vanished-the-night-before-he-made-trump-surveillance-claims.html
I didn't know Comey had a private meeting with panel after testimony re Digby:
ReplyDelete"I was on the Majority Report with Sam Seder earlier and Sam had a very interesting alternative theory about what actually happened. He points out that after the hearing the other day the committee held a closed door meeting and for the first time Comey revealed some of what he had. Sam's hypothesis is that Nunes, as a member of the transition team whomay not feel entirely secure from surveillance himself had to figure out a way to get Comey's information to the White House and needed to find reason to go up there personally to deliver it. So he came up with this cockamamie scheme, which would explain why he didn't share what he had with the committee --- he didn't have anything.
It's an interesting theory. This Nunes gambit was very strange and certainly gives rise to suspicions that he was doing something other than what he said he was doing. The fact that suddenly three former Trump associates have agreed to testify before the committee makes you wonder why they might feel more confident in their stories all of a sudden.
Nunes should have recused himself from this committee. He was a member of the transition and for all we know he's implicated himself. He's not smart enough to outwit the counterintelligence agents, though. He probably shouldn't try ...
This is the closed door hearing, right?
Delete