The House Intelligence Committee led by Devin Nunes released the report on their Russia "investigation" yesterday, and guess what? No collusion!

Courtesy of CNN: 

The House Intelligence Committee on Friday released a redacted version of the Republican report on the committee's year-long Russia investigation, in which GOP members say they found no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia and disputed the intelligence community's assessment that Russian President Vladimir Putin tried to help elect Donald Trump. 

The committee released the report with redactions from the intelligence community, along with a redacted Democratic dissent. saying collusion exists and that there were key aspects of the probe Republicans failed to investigate. 

The report's release marks the conclusion of a yearlong committee investigation that devolved into a partisan brawl between Democrats and Republicans, fighting over the decision by House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes to step aside from the probe, the subpoenas that were and were not issued and dueling memos over a surveillance warrant for a former Trump campaign adviser.

The committee ended its investigation into Russia's 2016 election meddling last month, concluding they found no evidence that Trump's team had colluded with Russians. 

"We found no evidence of collusion, and so we found perhaps some bad judgment, inappropriate meetings," (Rep. Mike) Conaway said when they submitted their report for declassification.

Of course Trump was also quick to jump on this. 

Just Out: House Intelligence Committee Report released. “No evidence” that the Trump Campaign “colluded, coordinated or conspired with Russia.” Clinton Campaign paid for Opposition Research obtained from Russia- Wow! A total Witch Hunt! MUST END NOW!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 27, 2018

However anybody who actually thought this Devin Nunes led investigation was interested in getting to the truth must have their head shoved so far up their ass that they can watch their food digest.

And as the Democrats on that committee point out, the investigation was nowhere near complete.

Courtesy of WaPo:  

The GOP report does address that Trump Tower meeting, allowing that it showed “poor judgment” on the part of the Trump campaign. As we learned from Trump Jr.’s emails, those top Trump campaign officials went to the meeting in the full expectation of receiving dirt on Hillary Clinton, supplied by the Russian government. But the GOP report brushes this off, concluding there was “no evidence that the Trump campaign colluded, coordinated, or conspired with the Russian government.”

But the Democratic response fills in some extremely important context — and it may involve the president himself, though we cannot know one way or the other right now. 

According to the Democratic response, right after Trump Jr. set up the specifics of the meeting, he had two calls with a number in Russia belonging to Emin Agalarov. Between those two calls, the Democratic response recounts, Trump Jr. received a third call from a blocked number. Who might it have been? 

Democrats wanted to find out, but Republicans blocked it from happening, according to the Democrats’ response. 

“We sought to determine whether that number belonged to the president, because we also ascertained that then-candidate Trump used a blocked number,” Schiff said during our interview. “That would tell us whether Don Jr. sought his father’s permission to take the meeting, and [whether] that was the purpose of that call.” 

Schiff added that Democrats asked Republicans to subpoena phone records to determine whose number it was, but Republicans “refused,” Schiff said. “They didn’t want to know whether he had informed his father and sought his permission to take that meeting with the Russians.”

Okay exactly WHY would the Republicans stop the Democrats from accessing those phone records unless they already knew to whom the blocked number belonged?

But do you know who probably already has that information?

Robert Mueller that's who.

This whole House Intelligence Committee "investigation" was nothing but a distraction to keep the public from focusing on the real investigation which is ACTUALLY looking for the truth.

And that truth is coming, whether Donald Trump and Devin Nunes want it to or not.

Devin Nunes is investigating the State Department because he cannot follow a simple narrative.

Courtesy of Fox Business: 

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes said Sunday his review of FBI and Justice Department “electronic communication” documents shows no intelligence was used to begin the investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 election. 

“We now know that there was no official intelligence that was used to start this investigation. We know that Sidney Blumenthal and others were pushing information into the State Department. So we’re trying to piece all that together and that’s why we continue to look at the State Department,” Nunes told Maria Bartiromo on “Sunday Morning Futures.” 

The California Republican said he is now investigating the State Department due to signs of “major irregularities,” in an effort to figure out how information about former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos – who reportedly met with a foreign policy expert and Cambridge professor with connections to the CIA and Britain’s MI6 in London in 2016 – was obtained by the FBI. 

So if Nunes would bother reading the New York Times he would know exactly how the FBI found out about Papadopoulos connections with the Russian Cambridge professor:

During a night of heavy drinking at an upscale London bar in May 2016, George Papadopoulos, a young foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign, made a startling revelation to Australia’s top diplomat in Britain: Russia had political dirt on Hillary Clinton. 

About three weeks earlier, Mr. Papadopoulos had been told that Moscow had thousands of emails that would embarrass Mrs. Clinton, apparently stolen in an effort to try to damage her campaign. 

Exactly how much Mr. Papadopoulos said that night at the Kensington Wine Rooms with the Australian, Alexander Downer, is unclear. But two months later, when leaked Democratic emails began appearing online, Australian officials passed the information about Mr. Papadopoulos to their American counterparts, according to four current and former American and foreign officials with direct knowledge of the Australians’ role. 

Okay so yes there was "official intelligence" communicated from the Australian intelligence services to our own FBI.

And as Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee Nunes HAS to know this.

So WTF?

Yesterday Nunes also suggested the DNC's decision to sue the Trump Campaign, the Russians, and Wikileaks was nothing more than a fundraising scheme, and that they should actually be suing themselves.

Courtesy of the Washington Examiner:  

"This is nothing more than a scam to keep their base fired up," Nunes, who is chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said during an interview Saturday with Fox News' Judge Jeanine Pirro.

"This is about the extreme left, the socialist left, wanting to never accept that the president of the United States was rightfully and duly elected, carried a number of states that nobody expected him to carry," the congressman said. "So this is a fundraising scheme. It's nothing more, nothing less. It's a fundraising scheme because the Democrats are out of money, and that's what this is about."

The lawsuit Nunes was asked to comment on alleges a conspiracy between the trio to disrupt the 2016 presidential campaign in order to get Donald Trump elected. The DNC's complaint was filed Friday in a federal district court in Manhattan, N.Y. 

Nunes started out his answer quipping, "Well, they ought to be suing themselves." 

"They are the ones that colluded with the Russians. So they're the ones that have an FEC violation, they didn't report that they were paying Fusion GPS, right? That they were digging up dirt on the trump campaign. None of that was reported, so they ought to be suing themselves. This is nothing more than a scam to keep their base fired up."

The "extreme left?"

The "socialist left?"

If that he who is identifying as those never wanting to accept Donald Trump as their president then I think that about 70% of the country is now identified as the "extreme socialist left."

And if true that sounds pretty good for the Democrats heading into the 2018 election cycle.

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!

Devin Nunes continues in his attempts to obstruct the Russia investigations.

Courtesy of TPM:

In his latest round of anti-FBI shenanigans, House Intel Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) is threatening legal action against the Justice Department for refusing to show him unredacted versions of materials documenting the launch of the FBI’s Russia probe. 

In an April 4 letter sent to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein (who’s overseeing the investigation because Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself) and FBI Director Christopher Wray, Nunes accuses the Justice Department of “arbitrary resistance to legitimate oversight.”‘ 

“Be advised that failure to comply in a satisfactory manner will result in the Committee pursuing all appropriate legal remedies, including seeking civil enforcement of the August 24 subpoenas in federal district court,” Nunes’ letter said.

Nunes is seeking an unredacted version of a document known as an electronic communication “related to the opening of an FBI counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign.” The document falls under subpoenas issued by the committee in August, Nunes said, and his committee has only been able to view “heavily redacted” versions of the electronic communication.

I actually do not blame the FBI for keeping Nunes away from sensitive data.

The guy is clearly focused on finding information that he can use to obstruct the Mueller investigation and has no desire to perform the duties for which he was elected.

Fortunately for everybody concerned it looks quite likely that his days in office may be numbered.

Devin Nunes' challengers are using his obstruction of Russian investigations against him in their campaigns.

Courtesy of USA Today:  

Rep. Devin Nunes' handling of the Russia investigation as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee has become a major campaign issue as he seeks a ninth term in Congress. 

Both the California Republican and his Democratic challenger, Fresno County Deputy District Attorney Andrew Janz, are using Nunes' high-profile role in the bitterly partisan Russia inquiry to appeal for campaign cash throughout the nation.

 Janz said he has raised more than $1 million in the first quarter of 2018 in part because donors were upset by the now famous "Nunes memo" — which accused the FBI and Department of Justice of abusing their surveillance power to target a Trump campaign aide with ties to Russia. 

Democrats have denounced the memo as a blatant attempt by President Trump and House Republicans to discredit special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, possible collusion between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin and possible obstruction of justice by the president. 

"Traditionally, the prosecution of crimes has been a non-partisan activity, so I'm really disappointed to see my opponent and the Trump White House attacking federal law enforcement agencies and officials," said Janz, who has worked with FBI agents as a prosecutor. "It really undermines our criminal justice system, which is a cornerstone of our democracy."

That's very smart. I see Nunes' obstructionism as his main weakness. 

And I am going to be watching this race very closely because Devin Nunes is at the top of my list of motherfuckers that gots to go.

Devin Nunes' Democratic challenger has raised more than one million dollars in the first quarter.

Courtesy of CNN: 

A Democratic candidate challenging House Intelligence Committee chair Devin Nunes took in more than $1 million in the first quarter of 2018, a sign of Democrats' enthusiasm to oust the California congressman who has allied himself closely with President Donald Trump. 

Andrew Janz, the Deputy District Attorney in Fresno County, is still considered a long shot in his bid to unseat Nunes. CNN currently rates the 22nd District as a "safe Republican" seat. But Nunes' role in running interference for Trump on the investigations into Russia's role in the 2016 election has made him a target for Democrats nationwide. 

According to fundraising figures provided to CNN by the campaign, Janz has raised more than $1 million so far in 2018 with just three days left in the first quarter. The campaign received a huge influx in fundraising cash from donors across the country in the wake of Nunes role in releasing a controversial memo detailing concerns Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee had with the federal investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

"We feel like he is the one person that is really standing in the way of the (FBI Special Counsel) Robert Mueller investigation," Janz told CNN. "We think people deserve to know what happened to our elections in 2016 and what is happening in 2018. And every day my opponent is out there trying to undermine federal law enforcement, the special prosecutors probe and really working for Trump instead of the American people."

I think that Devin Nunes is toast.

And deservedly so.

He almost single handedly quashed the House Intelligence Commmittee's Russia investigation to protect Putin's White House asset and he deserves to be humiliated in this next election, investigated for obstructionism, and ultimately thrown in jail.

In other words Fuck Devin Nunes!

Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee is apparently behind attempts to sabotage investigation by the Senate Intelligence Committee. Has this ever happened before?

Burr and Warner

Courtesy of the New York Times:  

The Senate Intelligence Committee has concluded that Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee were behind the leak of private text messages between the Senate panel’s top Democrat and a Russian-connected lawyer, according to two congressional officials briefed on the matter. 

Senator Richard M. Burr of North Carolina, the committee’s Republican chairman, and Senator Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat, were so perturbed by the leak that they demanded a rare meeting with Speaker Paul D. Ryan last month to inform him of their findings. They used the meeting with Mr. Ryan to raise broader concerns about the direction of the House Intelligence Committee under its chairman, Representative Devin Nunes of California, the officials said. 

To the senators, who are overseeing what is effectively the last bipartisan investigation on Capitol Hill into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, the leak was a serious breach of protocol and a partisan attack by one intelligence committee against the other. 

The messages between Mr. Warner and Adam Waldman, a Washington lawyer, show that the senator tried for weeks to arrange a meeting with Christopher Steele, the former British spy who assembled a dossier of salacious claims about connections between Mr. Trump, his associates and Russia. The Senate committee has had difficulty making contact with Mr. Steele, whom it views as a key witness. And Mr. Waldman, who knew Mr. Steele, presented himself as a willing partner.

Those texts, which were sent via a secure messaging application, were then leaked to Fox News who quickly used them in an attempt to discredit Senator Warner.

And they even called in a little help to do so.

Wow! -Senator Mark Warner got caught having extensive contact with a lobbyist for a Russian oligarch. Warner did not want a “paper trail” on a “private” meeting (in London) he requested with Steele of fraudulent Dossier fame. All tied into Crooked Hillary.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 9, 2018

So to be clear, Devin Nunes revealed private correspondence between a sitting Senator and his source to a national media outlet, and then the president of the United States used that information to publicly attack a fellow Republican and attempt to discredit an investigation into his own wrongdoing.

And all of this happened only weeks after the House Republicans published that erroneous memo claiming that the FBI relied only on the dossier and some media reports in order to get a FISA warrant to put Carter Page under surveillance.

Which of course is also a lie. 

We are so far down the rabbit hole now.

Devin Nunes has his own online propaganda platform paid for with campaign donations.

 Courtesy of CNN:

The campaign committee for House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes has been funding a website billed as a local news outlet. 

The site, CARepublican.com, features headlines ranging from national politics stories to state and local matters and college football. Many of the posts link out to conservative sites like National Review and The Federalist, and the Facebook page for the site labels it a media/news company that is focused on "delivering the best of US, California, and Central Valley news, sports, and analysis." 

The site says it is paid for by Nunes' campaign committee, and the congressman has shared some CARepublican posts on his Facebook page. 

Campaign money? I'm surprised it is not simply funded by the Russians, since Nunes is clearly doing their dirty work for them.

Well if you were looking for some fake news, I think we have narrowed the search a little.

Though actually it might be too late.

Courtesy of The Hill: 

An online media outlet funded by Rep. Devin Nunes’s (R-Calif.) campaign appeared to be down Sunday afternoon after what the site called “heavy traffic and an attack on our servers.” 

“The California Republican,” the name of the site, posted on its Facebook page that those trying to reach the site may encounter an error message. 

As of late Sunday afternoon, the link to the site’s home page redirects back to the outlet’s Facebook page, and links to articles redirect to a broken Facebook link. 

Politico reported earlier Sunday that the Nunes campaign has paid nearly $8,000 to a Fresno-area communications consultant since July for the site. "The California Republican" is listed as a "Media/News Company" on Facebook.

Well that must be terribly inconvenient.

Now how will all the mouth breathers get their phony news and conspiracy theories?

Oh wait, I guess Fox News still exists doesn't it? 

There is another Devin Nunes' memo coming, and this one attacks the State Department.

Courtesy of Business Insider:  

As Democrats and Republicans continue brawling over the Russia probe, House Intelligence Committee Chair Devin Nunes is gearing up to release a second memo as part of his investigation into perceived bias within the FBI and Department of Justice. 

Nunes's much-hyped first memo, which was declassified last week, purports to show the FBI and DOJ abusing their surveillance authority by omitting "material and relevant" facts when submitting an application for a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant against Carter Page, a former adviser to President Donald Trump's campaign. 

Much of the Republican document also questioned the FBI's decision to use the Steele dossier — an explosive collection of memos by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele alleging collusion between Trump and Russia — as a "roadmap" in the Russia investigation. 

Nunes's next memo, meanwhile, will focus on alleged abuses at the Department of State and a second Trump-Russia dossier compiled by Cody Shearer, a controversial political activist with close ties to the Clinton family, according to a Republican familiar with the details. 

Apparently Trump, and his attack poodle Nunes, will not be happy until they have undermined every government law enforcement or intelligence agency in the country.

The first memo by Nunes landed with a thud, and it is likely that this one will be just as pathetic.

Of course that doesn't mean Sean Hannity will not treat it like a smoking gun, and that Right Wing media will not go apoplectic over it. Because they will.

Already one of Nunes' newest allegations has failed the smell test.

Here is a Nunes' quote courtesy of WaPo: 

“The truth is that they [Democrats] are covering up that Hillary Clinton colluded with the Russians to get dirt on Trump to feed it to the FBI to open up an investigation into the other campaign.” —Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, in an interview on the Hugh Hewitt Show, Feb. 7, 2018

The Post's fact checkers went to town on that statement, and this is what they ultimately came away with:   

Was the dossier used to gin up media attention to Russia-Trump ties and bolster an existing FBI investigation? Perhaps. That’s certainly a question worth exploring. 

But the media needed little prodding to investigate when candidate Trump appeared unexpectedly solicitous of Russian President Vladimir Putin as Russian-linked entities leaked emails stolen by Russian hackers in the middle of a campaign. Meanwhile, the initial FBI counterintelligence probe was prompted not by Steele’s reporting but by the loose lips of a Trump campaign staffer. 

Finally, there is no evidence that Clinton was involved in Steele’s reports or worked with Russian entities to feed information to Steele. That’s where Nunes’s claim goes off the rails — and why he earns Four Pinocchios.

But those are facts, and facts have no impact on the Republican bubble, so this next memo is almost certainly going to cause yet another Right Wing freakout that will dominate conservative news outlets for several days. 

And all of this is clearly designed to undermine and ultimately foil the Robert Mueller investigation.

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.

So Donald Trump is finally going to get his wall. Only it's going to be built between the Republicans and the Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee.

You know what would make this all go smoother? A wall.

Courtesy of CBS News:

In a sign of increasing partisan hostilities, Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee plan to construct a wall -- a physical partition -- separating Republican and Democratic staff members in the committee's secure spaces, according to multiple committee sources. It's expected to happen this spring. 

For now, some Republican committee members deny knowing anything about it, while strongly suggesting the division is the brainchild of the committee's chairman, Devin Nunes, R-California. 

"I'm not part of that decision," said Rep. Mike Conaway, R-Texas. "You've got to talk to Devin. I don't know what they're trying to do one way or the other." 

"I swear to God I didn't know that," said Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Florida, when asked about the plan. While acknowledging a wall might not be constructive for the committee's work, he said, "The level of trust and the level of everything down there is -- it's poison. It's absolute poison down there."

I don't even have a comment about this.

It is simply too surreal to be believed. 

Steve Bannon blows off subpoena from the House Intelligence Committee, but plans to sing like a canary for Robert Mueller.

Courtesy of CNN:

Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon won't appear before the House Intelligence Committee Tuesday, escalating a tense standoff with the panel. 

Bannon was not planning on showing up ahead of a Tuesday deadline because the White House and committee haven't reached an agreement over the scope of the questioning, a source said Monday. 

The House Intelligence Committee confirmed Tuesday it was giving Bannon another week to comply with its subpoena. 

"The House Intelligence Committee's interview with Stephen Bannon has been postponed at the Committee's initiative until next week," Emily Hytha, spokeswoman for Rep. Mike Conaway, the Republican running the committee's Russia probe, said in a statement. "We look forward to having him before the Committee once we can assure that he will be able to thoroughly answer all our questions without concerns regarding the scope of executive privilege." 

This is the third extension on this subpoena that this committee has provided to Bannon, which kind of makes them appear completely toothless right now.

It could simply be that Bannon, like most of America, simply has no respect for Devin Nunes, the chairman of that committee, because he has another date to testify that he is supposedly taking much more seriously.

Courtesy of the AP: 

Steve Bannon, the former chief strategist to President Donald Trump, is scheduled to speak with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigators next week as they probe possible obstruction of justice by the president. 

That’s according to two people familiar with Bannon’s interview. The people spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record about details of the interview. 

One of the people says Bannon plans to tell Mueller “everything” he knows.

I actually get the feeling that Bannon is eager to share what he knows with Mueller. 

And we know from Michael Wolff's book that he certainly loves to talk.

Devin Nunes claims that Donald Trump never met George Papadopoulos. Uh..really?

NUNES downplays PAPADOPOULOS' role in Trump campaign, claims he shouldn't have been investigated for drunkenly bragging about Russia having dirt on Clinton.

"As far as we can tell, Papadopoulos never even knew who Trump wa-- never even met with the president." pic.twitter.com/NgMdzdXVPM

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) February 5, 2018

Courtesy of The Week:

Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) appeared on Fox & Friends on Monday to talk about the FBI's investigation into collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. Specifically, he made some questionable claims downplaying the importance of President Trump's former foreign policy adviser, George Papadopolous, who has proved surprisingly essential to a swirl of controversy in Washington. 

Papadopolous triggered the FBI's probe of the Trump campaign and Russia, thanks to a drunken conversation with an Australian diplomat in which he touted Russia's hacking efforts against Hillary Clinton during the 2016 election. He has also been indicted for lying to the FBI — but Nunes claimed that none of that really matters, because Papadopolous played such a minor role in the Trump campaign. In fact, "as far as we can tell, Papadopoulos … never even had met with the president," Nunes told host Brian Kilmeade.

That claim is untrue. Papadopoulos not only provoked the FBI probe, but he also edited foreign policy speeches for Trump and arranged meetings on the then-candidate's behalf with foreign leaders.

Oh, and there's also this picture. 

 That is Trump at the head of the table and Papadopoulos to his right, separated by only three people.

It should also be noted that Trump himself tweeted this picture out back in March of 2016.

You know it's kind of like Nunes is trapped in one of those sensory deprivation chambers where he remains completely cut off from reality.

Or else he is just a compulsive liar, like his boss.

Weren't impressed by that last memo? Well Devin Nunes has at least five more he is going to release so there!

No I was just kidding. This next memo, THAT'S going to be the juicy one.

Courtesy of Axios:

"The memo" — which pitted the Justice Department against the White House and brought ugly partisan sniping into stark relief — is only the beginning. Republican sources close to Devin Nunes tell me he's assured them there's much more to come. 

The House Intelligence chair and his team have told members and associates they've found other examples of politically motivated "wrongdoing" across various agencies, including the FBI, the broader Justice Department, and the State Department. 

What we're hearing: Republicans close to Nunes say there could be as many as five additional memos or reports of "wrongdoing." But a source on the House Intelligence Committee tells me there's no current plan to use the same extraordinary and highly controversial process they just went through, with a vote and ultimately a presidential approval to declassify sensitive information. 

A Republican member briefed on Nunes' investigations told me: "There are several areas of concern where federal agencies used government resources to try to create a narrative and influence the election. Some have suggested coordination with Hillary Clinton operatives, [Sidney] Blumenthal and [Cody] Shearer, to back up the false narrative."

Yes let's all assume that this first memo was just an opening salvo that all the REALLY troubling stuff will be in the fourth or fifth memo that he sends out to the news agencies.

You know, because that makes all kinds of sense.

I think that Devin Nunes is currently the most pathetic and desperate character in Washington DC, well aside from Donald Trump himself that is.

I cannot imagine that anybody, except perhaps Sean Hannity and the folks at Fox and Friends, would even bother to report on any additional memos of disappointment from this idiot.

What a shit show.

Believe it or not it may be retiring Congressman Trey Gowdy who put the final nail in the "secret memo" coffin.

When Trey Gowdy says Trump's vindication claim is garbage, Republicans are cooked. pic.twitter.com/zesgMvMKNN

— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) February 4, 2018

Courtesy of The Hill: 

CBS's Margaret Brennan pressed Gowdy on whether he believes the memo has "no impact on the Russia probe." 

"Not to me, it doesn't — and I was pretty integrally involved in the drafting of it," Gowdy, who recently announced he will not seek reelection, said. 

"There is a Russia investigation without a dossier. So to the extent the memo deals with the dossier and the [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act] process, the dossier has nothing to do with the meeting at Trump Tower. The dossier has nothing to do with an email sent by Cambridge Analytica." 

He added that the dossier has "nothing to do with George Papadopoulos's meeting in Great Britain." 

"It also doesn't have anything to do with obstruction of justice. So there's going to be a Russia probe, even without a dossier," he said.

And that my friends, is that. 

Also keep in mind that Gowdy was the one that Nunes sent to read the actual documentation behind those FISA applications.

He then brought his notes to Nunes and his staff, and that is where this memo originated.

So if Gowdy is stating emphatically that the memo has "no impact on the Russia probe" THAT is game over.

Donald Trump tweets that the Nunes' memo "totally vindicates Trump."

This memo totally vindicates “Trump” in probe. But the Russian Witch Hunt goes on and on. Their was no Collusion and there was no Obstruction (the word now used because, after one year of looking endlessly and finding NOTHING, collusion is dead). This is an American disgrace!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 3, 2018

Courtesy of Politico:  

President Donald Trump said Saturday that the controversial memo written by Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) and other GOP lawmakers "totally vindicates" him — a judgment shared by few but his staunchest defenders. 

"This memo totally vindicates “Trump” in probe. But the Russian Witch Hunt goes on and on," the president wrote on Twitter. "Their [sic] was no Collusion and there was no Obstruction (the word now used because, after one year of looking endlessly and finding NOTHING, collusion is dead)." 

Democrats and some conservatives said the memo did nothing to delegitimize Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation; if anything, some of them said it confirmed that the probe was not predicated on the anti-Trump dossier that the president and his allies have attacked.

It is becoming increasingly clear that Trump does not simply enjoy hearing misinformation that comforts him into believing that his presidency is going better than it is, but that he absolutely believes it to be true.

I read the memo yesterday, and if you read the memo yesterday, you know as well as I do that it did nothing to "vindicate" Donald Trump.

In fact it proved that the allegation the investigation was based on false evidence, completely false.

The initial investigation was the result of good intelligence, and the continued reevaluation of the FISA case against Carter Page demonstrated that there was increasing information that he was still clearly working with the Russians.

Oh, and just in case somebody fixes that tweet before this is published, yes Trump used the wrong "their" on his official Twitter page.

The California prosecutor who is running against Devon Nunes in 2018, has a new campaign ad out using his ridiculous "secret memo" against him.

With your help I'm going to beat Devin Nunes in November. Unless Mueller gets to him first. #removenunes pic.twitter.com/RL1h2S8Wxf

— Andrew Janz (@JanzforCongress) February 2, 2018

Courtesy of Mother Jones:  

The California Republican, who chairs the House intelligence committee, released a controversial memo on Friday alleging that the FBI abused its surveillance powers as the bureau investigated the Trump campaign’s contacts with Russia. In the weeks leading up to the release, Trump’s Department of Justice warned that making the memo public would be “extraordinarily reckless.” The FBI, now under the leadership of Trump appointee Christopher Wray, said it had “grave concerns about material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo’s accuracy.” Nunes’ hometown newspaper blasted his behavior in an editorial, referring to the congressman as “Trump’s stooge.” And Democrats on the intel. committee claimed the memo deliberately distorted classified information in an effort to discredit the ongoing investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. (It took my colleague David Corn all of a few minutes Friday to find the first error in the memo.) 

And now Andrew Janz, a prosecutor who is running for the Democratic nomination to challenge Nunes in November, is turning the memo into a campaign issue. On Thursday, Janz released a brutal new ad targeting Nunes’ involvement in the matter.

The memo also helped Janz in another way.

Some news: Devin Nunes’ Democratic opponent, @JanzforCongress, raised over $100,000 today alone with news of the memo release, per a senior campaign aide.

— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) February 2, 2018

I think that Nunes is in real trouble here, and that his credibility is essentially in shreds right now.

Even his own home town newspaper slammed Nunes for doing Trump's "dirty work" concerning the Russian investigations.

Personally I would not be at all surprised if Nunes turned out to be yet another Republican who suddenly decides to make a career change.

Release the Memo! Oh, is that it?

Upon memo’s release, Nunes claims GOPers "discovered serious violations" https://t.co/rS9sZAH0jr pic.twitter.com/lSRZmu7r8h

— Talking Points Memo (@TPM) February 2, 2018

Okay so the memo got released today.

I read it. (You can also read it here.)

My very well thought out and cleverly worded response is, um....seriously?

Here is what the Washington Post had to say about it: 

The four-page, newly declassified memo written by the Republican staffers for the House Intelligence Committee said the findings “raise concerns with the legitimacy and legality of certain (Justice Department) and FBI interactions with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC),’’ calling it “a troubling breakdown of legal processes established to protect the American people from abuses related to the FISA process.’’ 

The memo accuses former officials who approved the surveillance applications – a group that includes former FBI Director James B. Comey, his former deputy Andrew McCabe, former deputy attorney general Sally Yates and current Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein — of signing off on court surveillance requests that omitted key facts about the political motivations of the person supplying some of the information, Christopher Steele, a former intelligence officer in Britain. 

The memo says Steele “was suspended and then terminated as an FBI source for what the FBI defines as the most serious of violations — an unauthorized disclosure to the media of his relationship with the FBI.’’ 

The memo is not an intelligence document and reflects information the committee has gathered, which Democrats, the FBI and Justice Department have criticized as incomplete and misleading.

Much of the focus of the memo, is that the surveillance of Carter Page...

Yeah, this dude.

...was almost wholly approved due to information provided in the Steele dossier, which the Republicans suggest is tainted by the fact that Democrats funded a portion of the investigation. (Remember originally it was the conservatives footing the bill.)

They also suggest that the information was tainted by the fact that Steele also discussed the dossier with various news outlets. (I am not really sure how that is a thing.)

However as Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson testified "sources said the dossier was taken so seriously because it corroborated reports the bureau had received from other sources, including one inside the Trump (campaign)."

That suggests that the FISA court likely had other information available to help decide whether surveillance was necessary, that the memo has conveniently left out.

Besides as the Wall Street Journal points out Carter Page was on the counterintelligence radar from as far back as 2013.

This is from a release by the House minority in response to this misleading memo:

“The Republican document mischaracterizes highly sensitive classified information that few Members of Congress have seen, and which Chairman Nunes himself chose not to review. It fails to provide vital context and information contained in DOJ’s FISA application and renewals, and ignores why and how the FBI initiated, and the Special Counsel has continued, its counterintelligence investigation into Russia’s election interference and links to the Trump campaign. The sole purpose of the Republican document is to circle the wagons around the White House and insulate the President. Tellingly, when asked whether the Republican staff who wrote the memo had coordinated its drafting with the White House, the Chairman refused to answer. 

“The premise of the Nunes memo is that the FBI and DOJ corruptly sought a FISA warrant on a former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser, Carter Page, and deliberately misled the court as part of a systematic abuse of the FISA process. As the Minority memo makes clear, none of this is true. The FBI had good reason to be concerned about Carter Page and would have been derelict in its responsibility to protect the country had it not sought a FISA warrant. 

“In order to understand the context in which the FBI sought a FISA warrant for Carter Page, it is necessary to understand how the investigation began, what other information the FBI had about Russia’s efforts to interfere with our election, and what the FBI knew about Carter Page prior to making application to the court – including Carter Page’s previous interactions with Russian intelligence operatives. This is set out in the Democratic response which the GOP so far refuses to make public. 

“The authors of the GOP memo would like the country to believe that the investigation began with Christopher Steele and the dossier, and if they can just discredit Mr. Steele, they can make the whole investigation go away regardless of the Russians’ interference in our election or the role of the Trump campaign in that interference. This ignores the inconvenient fact that the investigation did not begin with, or arise from Christopher Steele or the dossier, and that the investigation would persist on the basis of wholly independent evidence had Christopher Steele never entered the picture. 

I mean at this point it is almost giving it too much credit to call this memo a "nothing burger."

Here is what Twitter is saying about the release of the memo:

Senate Intel Vice Chair Warner on memo release:

"Unlike almost every House member who voted in favor of this memo's release, I have actually read the underlying documents on which the memo was based. They simply do not support its conclusions.”

Latest: https://t.co/X0E7hXhGni

— NBC News (@NBCNews) February 2, 2018

This, all the way at the bottom of the Nunes memo, literally proves that the FBI didn't use the Steele dossier as its sole source for a FISA warrant. Papadopoulos was not mentioned in the dossier and he came on the FBI's radar before Steele even handed them his first report. pic.twitter.com/XOcMt6WjM8

— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) February 2, 2018

#NunesMemo concedes that #Steele had provided reliable intel in the past. Pretty much undercuts the whole argument about the #FISA warrants being corrupt. #Nothingburger.

— Howard Fineman (@howardfineman) February 2, 2018

LOL

A year attacking the Steele dossier.

A month hyping that the dossier started the whole FBI investigation.

Weeks hyping that they have a memo (a memo!) that will finally prove it!

So... is there some other memo?

Because this one says it was Papadopoulos, not the dossier.

— Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) February 2, 2018

There is literally so much fail here that I am not even sure that Fox News can make a mountain out of this pathetic little molehill.

But we know they're gonna try. 

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. 

Devin Nunes will not say if he worked with the White House on his "secret memo." I think we know what that means.

Courtesy of the Daily Beast:  

The Republican chairman of the House intelligence committee refused to answer when a colleague asked him if he had coordinated his incendiary surveillance memo with the White House, The Daily Beast has learned. 

During Monday’s contentious closed-door committee meeting, Rep. Mike Quigley, a Democrat, asked Nunes point-blank if his staffers had been talking with the White House as they compiled a four-page memo alleging FBI and Justice Department abuses over surveillance of President Trump’s allies in the Russia probe. 

According to sources familiar with the exchange, Nunes made a few comments that didn’t answer the question before finally responding, “I’m not answering.”

Well actually that sort of IS an answer, isn't it?

In the meantime even Trump's own FBI Director has come out against releasing this memo.

Courtesy of Bloomberg: 

FBI Director Christopher Wray told the White House he opposes the release of a controversial, classified GOP memo alleging bias at the FBI and Justice Department because it contains inaccurate information and paints a false narrative, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Wray was actually one of the few people  allowed to read the memo, so he knows what he is talking about. 

However that is not going to stop Trump:  

President Donald Trump was overheard Tuesday night telling a Republican lawmaker that he was “100 percent” planning to release the memo, which was written by staffers on the House Intelligence Committee and is aimed at raising questions about the validity of the investigation into possible collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russia, now led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

It should also be noted that reports are that Nunes himself has actually not read the classified documents that were used to write the memo, so he really does not know what the negative effect might be.

Of course he might not even really care.

Which leads us to this exchange: 

On Tuesday’s edition of Morning Joe, political analyst John Heilemann asked a question of Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) that he readily admitted “under almost any other circumstances would be ridiculous and absurd, but under these circumstances I think is actually warranted.” 

“Is it possible that the Republican chairman of the House Intel Committee has been compromised by the Russians?” Heilemann inquired. “Is it possible that we actually have a Russian agent running the House Intel Committee on the Republican side?”

Murphy replied by saying: “I hope that’s not the case and I certainly have no information to suggest that it is.” 

Notably, he did not call the notion “ridiculous” or “absurd.” Instead, Murphy suggested that Nunes was “instinctually” acting to protect President Trump. 

“Doesn’t his behavior speak of that though?” Heilemann pressed on. “I’m not the first person who’s raised this. He’s behaving like someone who’s compromised and there are people in the intelligence community and others with great expertise in this area who look at him and say, ‘That guy’s been compromised.’”

I am trying not to go all "Alex Jones" here but I am beginning to wonder if there are not a number of Republicans who have been compromised by the Russians.

 I'm just saying.