Cogito Ergo Non Serviam

Congressman Nunes Adds Farce to Trump-Russia Drama

The ties between the President of the United States, the Republican Party and Russian mobsters are serious threats to the Republic. In this equation, the mobsters are ruthless and highly effective. Fortunately for the future of the United States, the president and GOP are bungling fools whose chief talent appears to be incompetence. As of this morning, they don't even have the votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act; something the previous House managed 50 or so times. However, the cake-taker in all of this is Congressman Devin Nunes (R-CA), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, who violated just about every norm in government yesterday by running up to the White House in front of the cameras to warn Mr. Trump about something no one quite can figure out. They are the gang that can't govern straight.

Chairman Nunes, who was also part of the Trump transition team, somehow came into possession of information unrelated to the Russia investigation that "bothers me, and I think it should bother the president himself and his team, because I think some of it seems to be inappropriate." That is exceedingly troubling. But he also said, "This is a normal, incidental collection, based on what I could collect. This appears to be all legally collected foreign intelligence." That is the exact opposite of troubling.

Chairman Nunes' behavior is unprecedented bordering on bizarre. Members of the intelligence committee get information in one of two ways: normal channels whereby intelligence agency products are presented to all committee member, or by whistleblowers who are permitted by law to bring their information to any member of Congress. Since ranking minority member Adam Schiff (D-CA) was not informed, the second path must have been used. What the chairman should have done at that stage was relay what he has to the Mr. Schiff, and then the whole committee (whose security clearances are the highest).

Instead, he told Speaker of the House Paul Ryan that he was headed to the White House and that he was alarmed by what he had read. Then, in a complete breach of the concept of separation of powers, he briefed the president, after which he stepped out of the White House to field questions from the media. It seems that Mr. Schiff and the rest of the committee learned about everything from this impromptu presser.

What smells worst about this entire affair is that the President of the United States has access to all intelligence collected by the intelligence community. He has no need of a briefing from a committee chairman. There are secured lines between the Capitol and the White House, so the chairman really had no need to physically travel up Pennsylvania Avenue (wasting valuable time if the information were truly damaging). Moreover, such a meeting, if it must be held, would be best held in secret. Letting the opposition know what one knows is poor spycraft. There are many ways into and out of the White House where journalists don't patrol.

Congresswoman Jackie Speier (D-CA) went so far as to claim, "This was pure theater. I think in many respects it was probably orchestrated by the White House." This is probably giving the White House too much credit. In the last several weeks, it has shown an ineptitude of dazzling proportions. More than likely, Congressman Nunes saw a chance to sabotage his own committee's investigation into the Trump-Russia ties and took it. He doesn't want the truth because it is politically beneficial to him if it stays buried.

As Congressman Schiff said, "The chairman will either need to decide if he's leading an investigation into conduct which includes allegations of potential coordination between the Trump campaign and the Russians, or he is going to act as a surrogate of the White House. Because he cannot do both." But he thinks he can.

This is not going to go away.

© Copyright 2017 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.



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