Showing posts with label Rep. Devin Nunes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rep. Devin Nunes. Show all posts

Monday, July 23, 2018

Protect the Mueller investigation.Tell the House: Resist efforts to impeach Rosenstein


Tell the House:
"Protect the integrity of Robert Mueller's investigation. Resist the efforts to impeach his supervisor, Rod Rosenstein."
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Tell the U.S. House: Protect the Mueller investigation. Resist any effort to impeach Rosenstein
Reps. Devin Nunes, Mark Meadows and Jim Jordan along with other Trump lapdogs in the House want to impeach Rod Rosenstein, who oversees Robert Mueller's investigation into Trump's Russia ties.1
It's an outrageous and blatant attempt to discredit Mueller's investigation and protect Trump from Mueller's findings.2 The timing could not be more suspect: According to news reports, Rep. Meadows "had the impeachment document on the floor of the House at the very moment that Rosenstein spoke to reporters and TV cameras" to unveil the indictments of 12 Russian agents last Friday.3
In the wake of Trump's Putin presser and subsequent invitation of Putin to Washington, some Republicans have been critical of Trump, but instead of actually doing something to rein him in, Congress is poised to allow these extremists to give Trump cover by threatening the Mueller investigation.
Of course one of the chief architects behind this gross abuse of power is Rep. Nunes, a former member of the Trump transition team, who has done everything he can to undermine Mueller's investigation – as well as the parallel congressional investigation.4 Purportedly, he was forced to step aside from running the House Russia investigation after sharing classified information directly with the press and the White House in 2017.5 Nunes' most loyal ally in his effort to impeach Rosenstein is Rep. Jordan, who was recently named by Ohio State University survivors as complicit in covering up sexual abuse and seems to have a vendetta against investigations.6,7
Supposedly their attempt to impeach Rosenstein is based on his refusal to turn over classified documents. But given Nunes' history of leaking confidential information, Rosenstein is clearly in the right. Furthermore, the impeachment of a non-cabinet executive branch official is practically unheard of, but Trump and his lapdogs will try anything to undermine Mueller's investigation.8
Earlier this month, the Senate confirmed Trump-appointed Putin-linked Brian Benczkowski to head the Department of Justice Criminal Division, even though Benczkowski refused to recuse himself from the Russia investigation.9 As the new DOJ Criminal Division head, Benczkowski, who previously worked closely with Jeff Sessions, is now in a position where he can leak information about Mueller's probe to Sessions, who is recused, and even to Trump, who may be a subject of the investigation.10 If Nunes, Jordan and other Trump lapdogs succeed in impeaching Rosenstein, Trump could name Benczkowski as Rosenstein's replacement and effectively end Mueller's investigation.11
Tell Congress: Protect the integrity of Robert Mueller's investigation. Resist the efforts to impeach Rosenstein. Click the link below to sign the petition.
- Kaili Lambe, CREDO Action 
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References:
  1. Rachael Bade and Kyle Cheney, "House conservatives prep push to impeach Rosenstein," POLITICO, July 13, 2018.
  2. Fred Wertheimer and Norman Eisen, "In bid to impeach Rod Rosenstein, House Republicans are abusing power to protect Trump," USA Today, July 19, 2018.
  3. Bade and Cheney, "House conservatives prep push to impeach Rosenstein."
  4. Kelsey Snell, "Who Is Devin Nunes? A Look At The Man Behind The Memo," NPR, Feb. 2, 2018
  5. Spencer Ackerman, "Devin Nunes steps aside from House intelligence committee's Russia inquiry," The Guardian, April 6, 2017.
  6. Bob Moser, "Rep. Jim Jordan Is Named in New OSU Sexual Abuse Lawsuit," Rolling Stone, July 18, 2018.
  7. Rep. Jim Jordan, "Tweet," July 11, 2018.
  8. Wertheimer and Eisen, "In bid to impeach Rod Rosenstein, House Republicans are abusing power to protect Trump."
  9. David Shortell and Jeremy Herb, "Senate confirms Justice Department nominee with ties to Russian bank," CNN, July 11, 2018.
  10. David Ignatius, "Could this Trump nominee interfere with Mueller?," The Washington Post, March 22, 2018.
  11. Pema Levy, "If Trump Fires Rosenstein, This Man Could end up with power over the Russia Investigation," Mother Jones, April 11, 2018.

Saturday, February 3, 2018

Remove Nunes from the House Intelligence Committee


The petition to House Speaker Paul Ryan and House Republican leadership reads:
"The independence of Rep. Devin Nunes as chair of the House Intelligence Committee is compromised. You must immediately remove him from the Committee, and help ensure an independent and transparent investigation of all credible allegations concerning the relationship between Donald Trump and the Russian government."
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Remove Nunes from the House Intelligence Committee
One of Donald Trump’s most loyal congressional lapdogs – House Intelligence Committee (the Committee) Chair Rep. Devin Nunes – is doing everything in his power to undermine both the congressional investigation and the parallel FBI investigation into Trump’s Russia ties.
On Monday night, House Republicans voted to release the so-called Nunes memo – a blatant attempt to smear Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who is overseeing the Mueller investigation. Democrats who have seen the memo, including Rep Adam Schiff, ranking member on the Committee, report that the so-called memo is really just Republican talking points making unsubstantiated claims to undermine the credibility of the FBI’s investigation.1 The FBI even issued an unprecedented statement publicly rebuking Nunes's conspiracy-fueled “memo” and expressing “grave concerns about material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo’s accuracy.2"
Thanks to the progressive movement's activism, Nunes supposedly stepped aside last year from running the House Russia investigation after sharing classified intelligence directly with the press and the White House. However, he is still the Committee's chair and has been working to subvert its work in order to protect Donald Trump.3 If Paul Ryan really believes his own words that Congress is responsible for holding the executive branch accountable,4 he must now remove Nunes from the Committee.
It is clear that Trump and his cronies want the baseless Nunes “memo” released, even though members of his own party will not vouch for its accuracy, because it helps build their narrative that the Mueller investigation is a witch-hunt with Trump as its target.5 We now know that Trump reportedly demanded that Mueller be fired last summer, and the only reason Mueller is still on the job is because White House counsel stood up to Trump.6 It seems now that in lieu of outright firing, Trump and his lapdogs are doing everything they can to erode the public’s faith in the investigation and undermine Mueller’s independence.
Devin Nunes was a member of the Trump transition team, and his independence has been suspect for more than a year. But his latest actions go far and above stalling his committee’s investigation: He is now actively using his access to classified information to interfere in a separate independent investigation.
Nunes’ conspiracy theory-laden “memo” attracted major attention in part because thousands of Russian bots engaged on Twitter calling for the memo to be released.7 In any other era, the claims the memo supposedly makes would be laughable. Reportedly, it attacks the Rod Rosenstein, the Republican who is supervising Robert Mueller, because he signed off on a warrant to spy on Trump associate Carter Page, based on credible reports that Page had been collaborating with Russian spies.8 The idea that the FBI wouldn’t investigate him is ludicrous, but by dressing up fringe right-wing conspiracy theories as a “memo,” Nunes is making these absurd attacks mainstream – with the ultimate goal of discrediting Rosenstein and eroding public faith in the independent FBI investigation.
When Republicans voted to release the memo, they voted against even allowing the minority report authored by Rep. Adam Schiff, which points out the flaws in Nunes’ narrative, to be released to members outside the Committee.9 They also refused to allow the Department of Justice to review the memo for accuracy or redact anything that might jeopardize the investigation.10 What’s more, without redaction, the public release of the so-called memo could jeopardize not only the effectiveness, but even the safety of the FBI and other law enforcement officials.11
Republicans in Congress might hope they can obfuscate and redirect our attention, but if we make it clear we are paying attention and demand that they put the integrity of our democracy first, we can build pressure on them to act.
Demand that House Republican leaders immediately remove Rep. Nunes from the House Intelligence Committee. Click the link below to sign the petition.
- Kaili Lambe
CREDO Action
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  1. Nicholas Fandos, “House Republicans Vote to Release Secret Memo on Russia Inquiry,” The New York Times, Jan. 29, 2018.
  2. Ben Mathis-Lilley, "FBI Issues Statement Denouncing House Republican Russia Memo That Trump Has Promised to Release," Slate, Jan. 31, 2018.
  3. Zach Beauchamp, “The real reason the Nunes memo matters," Vox, Jan. 30, 2018.
  4. Phil Mattingly et al., “Ryan: Nunes memo should be released, members should separate memo from Mueller,” CNN, Jan. 30, 2018.
  5. Quinta Jurecic and Benjamin Wittes, “How Many of Devin Nunes’s GOP Colleagues on the Intelligence Committee Will Stand Up for the Accuracy of His Memo? Hint: Not Many," Lawfare, Jan. 23, 2018.
  6. Kristen Welker and Phil Helsel “Trump wanted to fire Mueller in June but backed down when White House counsel threatened to quit," NBC News, Jan. 26, 2018.
  7. Ryan Sit, “Trump Caught on Hot Mic Saying he will ‘100 percent’ Release Nunes Memo, despite Justice Department Objections,” Newsweek, Jan. 31, 2018.
  8. David Leonhardt, “The Nunes Conspiracy,” The New York Times, Jan. 30, 2018.
  9. Jeremy Herb and Manu Raju, "House Intel Committee votes to release Nunes memo on FBI,” CNN, Jan. 30, 2018.
  10. Steve Benen, “Trump, Justice Department at odds over dubious ‘Nunes memo,'” MSNBC, Jan. 29, 2018.
  11. Adam Goldman and Nicholas Fandos, "F.B.I. and Justice Dept. Brace for Possible Release of Secret Memo,” The New York Times, Jan. 30, 2018.