Devin Nunes threatens to "impeach" the head of the FBI and Rod Rosenstein, while Donald Trump just wants to fire everybody.

Courtesy of The Hill: 

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) said Tuesday that he will seek to "impeach" FBI Director Christopher Wray and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein if they decline to hand over the document used to launch the FBI's probe into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia's meddling in the 2016 presidential election. 

"I can tell you that we're not going to just hold in contempt, we will have a plan to hold in contempt and impeach," Nunes said on Fox News's "The Ingraham Angle." 

Asked host Laura Ingraham if he was serious about impeaching Wray, Nunes replied: "Absolutely."

Of course as we know Nunes is essentially Trump's lap dog, and he is desperate to earn his Scoobie snack from his master.

However Trump may not even bother to go through that process as he is still talking about firing Rosenstein on his own: 

President Donald Trump is considering firing Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, multiple people familiar with the discussions tell CNN, a move that has gained urgency following the raid of the office of the President's personal lawyer. 

Such an action could potentially further Trump's goal of trying to put greater limits on special counsel Robert Mueller. 

This is one of several options -- including going so far as to fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions -- Trump is weighing in the aftermath of the FBI's decision Monday to raid the office of Michael Cohen, the President's personal lawyer and longtime confidant. Officials say if Trump acts, Rosenstein is his most likely target, but it's unclear whether even such a dramatic firing like this would be enough to satisfy the President.

In other news Mitch McConnell refused to allow a vote to protect Robert Mueller and his investigation:

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said he doesn't think the Senate needs to pass legislation protecting special counsel Robert Mueller, arguing President Trump won't fire him. 

"I haven't seen a clear indication yet that we needed to pass something to keep him from being removed because I don't think that's going to happen, and that remains my view," McConnell told reporters. The GOP leader, asked what the Senate would do if Trump fired the special counsel, declined to speculate. 

"It's still my view that Mueller should be allowed to finish his job. I think that's the view of most people in Congress," he said. 

There is NO way that McConnell actually believes that Trump is not capable of trying to fire Mueller, or of firing Rosenstein and forcing his successor to fire Mueller.

Especially since he actually had to be talked down from doing so by his lawyers back in December.

Jesus what a shit show!

Trump's own FBI Director completely deflated the White House spin on Rob Porter.

Courtesy of TPM: 

FBI Director Christopher Wray on Tuesday appeared to contradict the Trump administration’s claims about the background investigation into a former White House staffer who left the administration last week amid allegations of domestic violence. 

Various outlets have reported that the FBI alerted the White House to the allegations of domestic violence made against former staff secretary Rob Porter by two ex-wives and an ex-girlfriend before those allegations were made public last week. The administration has said in its defense that Porter’s background check was incomplete at the time of his ouster, and that they wanted to allow the FBI to finish its investigation before passing judgement on Porter. 

But Wray’s account of the FBI’s communications with the Trump administration, told to the Senate Intelligence Committee Tuesday, seemed to differ from the White House’s. 

“What I can tell you is that the FBI submitted a partial report on the investigation in question in March, and then a completed background investigation in late July,” he said, noting that the FBI “followed the established protocol” with Porter. 

“Soon thereafter we received requests for follow-up inquiry and we did the follow-up and provided that information in November. And then we administratively closed the file in January,” he continued. “And then earlier this month we received some additional information and we passed that on as well.”

This revelation caused Sarah Huckabee Sanders to start her spin cycle once again, only now she laid the blame on the White House personnel office, which she characterized as "career officials. " (That is clearly code for "deep state.")

Now as entertaining as all of this is, and it really is, there was also something else revealed during that hearing yesterday.

Courtesy of Mother Jones:

Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) appeared to surprise the witnesses by asking if Trump had specifically urged them to address the Russian threat. 

“I can’t say I’ve been specifically directed to blunt or actually stop” Russian influence efforts, NSA Director Mike Rogers replied. Rogers added that he considers it his agency’s job to gather intelligence for policymakers rather than act on it. 

CIA Director Mike Pompeo, appearing eager to defend Trump, said the president has generally asked the intelligence community to address threats, adding that the CIA takes “all kinds of steps to disrupt what the Russians are trying to do.” But he did not say that Trump has specifically directed the agency to prevent Russian interference. 

FBI Director Christopher Wray said he has not been “specifically directed by the president” to combat Russian meddling. Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence, similarly said Trump has not urged him to address Russian meddling. Nor has Trump pressed for any interagency effort to combat Russian interference, Coats conceded. “We essentially are relying on the investigations that are underway,” he said.

During the hearing ALL of the intelligence chief's unanimously stated that Russia was continuing to meddle in our politics, and to engage in cyber attacks, and yet Trump has not only refused to personally direct the government to do anything about it, but has also refused to implement the sanctions that Congress overwhelmingly voted to put in place in order to punish them for what they have ALREADY done.

You know if you were trying to convince people that you were secretly working for the Kremlin, this is exactly how you would do that.

Donald Trump blocks the release of the Democrats memo, which rebuts much of what is in the Nunes' memo, over "security concerns."

This memo shall not pass.

Courtesy of the New York Times:

President Trump on Friday blocked the release of a classified Democratic memo rebutting Republican claims that top federal law enforcement officials had abused their powers in spying on a former Trump campaign aide, a move that Democrats denounced as politically motivated hypocrisy. 

Last week, the president moved quickly, over the objections of the Justice Department and the F.B.I., to declassify the contents of a rival Republican memo drafted by House Intelligence Committee staff members. He claimed, incorrectly, that the Republican memo had vindicated him in the special counsel investigation into Russian election interference. 

But Donald F. McGahn II, the president’s lawyer, said in a letter to the committee on Friday night that the Democratic memo could not be released because it “contains numerous properly classified and especially sensitive passages.” He said the president would again consider making the memo public if the committee, which had approved its release on Monday, revised it to “mitigate the risks.”

Apparently McGahn used a memo supposedly written by FBI Director Christopher Wray and Rod Rosenstein, which suggested that portions of the memo included some sensitive data, to justify Trump's decision to block it.

It should be noted that both Wray and Rosenstein aggressively attempted to stop the release of the Nunes' memo and that did not even slow Trump down.

Obviously the real reason that Trump is keeping this under wraps is because it would further undermine the validity of the first memo, which Trump has convinced himself vindicates him.

This has nothing to do with national security, and everything to do with Trump's desperate need to convince himself that he is not in any legal jeopardy.

Let's talk "Secret Memo."

Courtesy of NBC News:

President Donald Trump is expected to tell the House Intelligence Committee that he does not object to the release of a classified memo about the Russia investigation, a senior White House official said Thursday. 

A decision not to block the memo's release would fly in the face of warnings from law enforcement officials — the FBI has said it has "grave concerns" about the memo's disclosure — as well as Democrats, who contend the memo is designed to distort the federal probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election. 

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, the senior White House official said the White House has had time over the last couple of days to look over the memo "to make sure it doesn’t give away too much in terms of classification." 

"Right now, I think it will be that we tell the Congress, probably tomorrow, that the president is okay with it," the official added, noting that the ultimate public disclosure of the memo is in the hands of Congress. 

So all day journalists have been breathlessly awaiting the release of the memo, only to learn that if it is released it will not be until tomorrow.

If you have been watching any news (Or regularly visiting here.) you likely already know that this memo contains information cherry picked by House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes, and that it is being used to undermine Rod Rosenstein, attack the FBI, and derail the Robert Mueller investigation.

And there was quite a lot of activity concerning the release of this memo yesterday and today.

First there was this:

FBI takes aim at the secret memo drafted by GOP staff of Rep. Nunes... FBI statement: pic.twitter.com/RrNLnvEThE

— Mike Levine (@MLevineReports) January 31, 2018

That is the FBI coming out publicly to say that releasing this memo is a bad idea for the country.

Not typically something you would see the FBI do.

There were also reports that Trump's own FBI Director may quit if this memo is released in defiance of the FBI's wishes:  

Top White House aides are worried FBI Director Christopher Wray could quit if the highly controversial Republican memo alleging the FBI abused its surveillance tools is released, multiple sources with knowledge of the situation tell CNN. 

Wray has made clear he is frustrated that President Donald Trump picked him to lead the FBI after he fired FBI Director James Comey in May, yet his advice on the Nunes memo is being disregarded and cast as part of the purported partisan leadership of the FBI, according to a senior law enforcement official. 

Wray's stance is "raising hell," one source familiar with the matter said.

There were also some reports that Wray was planning to debunk the memo point by point.

And then there was this today from Adam Schiff:

BREAKING: Discovered late tonight that Chairman Nunes made material changes to the memo he sent to White House – changes not approved by the Committee. White House therefore reviewing a document the Committee has not approved for release. pic.twitter.com/llhQK9L7l6

— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) February 1, 2018

Nunes claimed that he only altered some inconsequential things like dates.

Because you know, how often are getting the dates accurate really that important? Sheesh!

Then another odd thing happened.

Remember how after Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe quit and the official reason given was that it had something to do with his work on the Hillary Clinton email investigation?

Well here it is to remind you: 

FBI Director Chris Wray made clear in a message sent to all bureau employees on Monday night that Deputy Director Andrew McCabe's decision to step aside was a result of forthcoming information to be detailed in an inspector general report, according to a copy of his message obtained by NBC News. 

Wray alluded to having seen aspects of the IG's report into the way the FBI handled the investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private e-mail server.

Yeah, that's the one!

Well today Junior kind of fucked up that story line as well.

ATTORNEY: Hello?
DON, JR: Hey, it's me. I did it again.
ATTORNEY: JFC.... pic.twitter.com/PdSsBb1TLn

— Eric Schmeltzer (@JustSchmeltzer) February 1, 2018

Talking about the secret memo:

"It was good enough to fire McCabe, no one argues it's factually inaccurate, but now days later they want to protect the names  of those involved in a scandal that was big enough to fire a senior official a month before retirement? They don't deserve a pass on that!"

So much for Eric being the dumb son.

If you ever wondered what it would be like if the Keystone Kops, who also were secret Russian operatives, ran the White House, well now you know. 

FBI Director threatened to quit if Jeff Sessions did not stop trying to get him to fire his number two guy.

FBI Director Christopher Wray.

Courtesy of Axios:  

Attorney General Jeff Sessions — at the public urging of President Donald Trump — has been pressuring FBI Director Christopher Wray to fire Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, but Wray threatened to resign if McCabe was removed, according to three sources with direct knowledge. 

Wray's resignation under those circumstances would have created a media firestorm. The White House — understandably gun-shy after the Comey debacle — didn’t want that scene, so McCabe remains. 

Sessions told White House Counsel Don McGahn about how upset Wray was about the pressure on him to fire McCabe, and McGahn told Sessions this issue wasn’t worth losing the FBI Director over, according to a source familiar with the situation. 

Why it matters: Trump started his presidency by pressuring one FBI Director (before canning him), and then began pressuring another (this time wanting his deputy canned). This much meddling with the FBI for this long is not normal.

"Not normal" is a real understatement here.

If Wray had actually resigned that would mean that Trump would have lost two FBI directors in his first year.

And what is more troubling is that both of them would have been related to an ongoing investigation of the president himself, and his campaign.

We are functioning more like a banana republic every day it seems.