The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee was on his way to an event in Washington late Tuesday when the evening’s plans abruptly changed. After taking a brief phone call, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) swapped cars and slipped away from his staff, congressional officials said. He appears to have used that unaccounted-for stretch of time to review classified intelligence files brought to his attention by sources he has said he will not name.
Schiff also implied he suspects a White House hand in what he called Nunes’s “dead-of-night excursion” to view classified documents. Several congressional officials said they were told about the phone call and swapped cars by members of Nunes’s staff.
Jack Langer, a spokesman for Nunes, disputed the depiction. “That account is inaccurate,” Langer said. He declined to elaborate.
To review classified files without breaking the law, Nunes would have needed to do so at a secure facility. Congressional officials said that the director of National Intelligence, the FBI and National Security Agency had all indicated that they got no late-night visit from Nunes, a trip that probably would have been entered in security logs.
Nunes has repeatedly refused to say where he went or whether the documents were provided by the White House, including when confronted by committee members during a closed-door meeting on Thursday, officials said.
So a clandestine meeting to get 'classified information' from unnamed sources....but not actually viewed in the secure facility that he's supposed to use for that purpose? There sure is a lot of smoke here.
They might actually be learning about that whole "self-incriminating" thing:
White House spokesman Sean Spicer also refused to rule out a White House role in providing access to the files. “I don’t know where he got the documents from, so I can’t say anything more than ‘I don’t know,’ ” Spicer said during Friday’s White House briefing.
The idea that a poetry critic whose previous attempts at punditry amounted to "Bernie Sanders is totally winning the primary with my secret math" which he maintained well through June has this story before every national security and justice reporter on two continents is ludicrous and a testament to how stupid and desperate the internet can get.
"Trump unable to prove a negative" is not an argument any self respecting journalist would be making, whether the actual allegations are true or not.
In general right now I think certain members of the left are veering way too far towards conspiracy theory crafting, creating vast world-sweeping plots that include every possible theory and claim against Trump and would require incredible competence on the part of everyone involved.
This is a problem, because it undercuts the much more supportable and reasonable case against Trump, which is pretty robust all by itself.
I'm surprised no one has tried to pin Vince Foster's death on Putin.
The White House Counsel’s Office was informed this month that the Senate Intelligence Committee, which is investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, wanted to question Mr. Kushner about meetings he arranged with the Russian ambassador, Sergey I. Kislyak, according to the government officials. The meetings included a previously unreported sit-down with the head of Russia’s state-owned development bank.
There hasn't been much talk of Kushner's role in the campaign during this investigation.
The idea that a poetry critic whose previous attempts at punditry amounted to "Bernie Sanders is totally winning the primary with my secret math" which he maintained well through June has this story before every national security and justice reporter on two continents is ludicrous and a testament to how stupid and desperate the internet can get.
"Trump unable to prove a negative" is not an argument any self respecting journalist would be making, whether the actual allegations are true or not.
In general right now I think certain members of the left are veering way too far towards conspiracy theory crafting, creating vast world-sweeping plots that include every possible theory and claim against Trump and would require incredible competence on the part of everyone involved.
This is a problem, because it undercuts the much more supportable and reasonable case against Trump, which is pretty robust all by itself.
I'm surprised no one has tried to pin Vince Foster's death on Putin.
Its science! The hypothesis stands untill it's falsified.
From the above Times article on Kushner's part in the Senate hearings:
The extent of Mr. Kushner’s interactions with Mr. Kislyak caught some senior members of Mr. Trump’s White House team off guard, in part because he did not mention them last month during a debate then consuming the White House: how to handle the disclosures about Mr. Flynn’s interactions with the Russian ambassador. Ms. Hicks said that Mr. Trump had authorized Mr. Kushner to have meetings with foreign officials that he felt made sense, and to report back to him if those meetings produced anything of note. She said that because in Mr. Kushner’s view the meetings were inconsequential, it did not occur to him to mention them to senior staff members earlier. “There was nothing to get out in front of on this,” she said.
oh golly is this administration bad at the obfuscation game
White House officials and members of Donald Trump’s transition team are reportedly “purging” their electronic devices to avoid being compromised by subpoenas, it has been claimed.
The accusation comes just weeks after government lawyers ordered the President’s aides to preserve any materials that could be connected to Russian interference in the 2016 election.
SharpyVII on
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Mx. QuillI now prefer "Myr. Quill", actually...{They/Them}Registered Userregular
It wouldn't be so galling if these weren't the same people who made a big fuss about wiping email servers.
Pretty sketchy though.
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MayabirdPecking at the keyboardRegistered Userregular
Sometimes when I allow myself to hope, I wonder if Trump is like a dude made of asbestos - he's cancer to anyone who gets exposed to him, and while he doesn't burn when his pants spontaneously catch on fire, he does set fire to everything around him. Which is to say, I know Trump will somehow never be impeached, but maybe he'll end up destroying all the corrupt lackeys around and associated with him through sheer accident/throwing them under the bus.
It might be worth mentioning that whilst The Independent used to a be a reasonable newspaper since it switched to online only it's become very click-baity and less reliable. I think I read somewhere that it only has two proper journalists remaining on staff
The idea that a poetry critic whose previous attempts at punditry amounted to "Bernie Sanders is totally winning the primary with my secret math" which he maintained well through June has this story before every national security and justice reporter on two continents is ludicrous and a testament to how stupid and desperate the internet can get.
"Trump unable to prove a negative" is not an argument any self respecting journalist would be making, whether the actual allegations are true or not.
In general right now I think certain members of the left are veering way too far towards conspiracy theory crafting, creating vast world-sweeping plots that include every possible theory and claim against Trump and would require incredible competence on the part of everyone involved.
This is a problem, because it undercuts the much more supportable and reasonable case against Trump, which is pretty robust all by itself.
I'm surprised no one has tried to pin Vince Foster's death on Putin.
Well that is not so much a case of having to try to prove a negative. The report in question had some actual accusations of issues. So far going through the list of stuff that had evidence one way or the other the various points so far are checking out with actual evidence.
Some of the stuff should be pretty easy to prove/disprove one way or the other and most of what could be known seems to be accurate. There is still a lot of investigating to go but so far everything they have been able to make a definitive conclusion on from that report has been accurate.
Yup trying to frantically wipe cell phones and what not of government business could wind up being a bigger problem for them than what was on the phones.
"Chairman Nunes met with his source at the White House grounds in order to have proximity to a secure location where he could view the information provided by the source," said his spokesman, Jack Langer.
However
It's unclear why Nunes would have to go to the White House to seek a secure location to view classified material, since his own committee has a secure room in the Capitol where Nunes and his aides review secret documents on a daily basis.
I don't know the process for starting an independent investigation, but Nunes is certainly making the case for one.
Yup trying to frantically wipe cell phones and what not of government business could wind up being a bigger problem for them than what was on the phones.
It might be worth mentioning that whilst The Independent used to a be a reasonable newspaper since it switched to online only it's become very click-baity and less reliable. I think I read somewhere that it only has two proper journalists remaining on staff
I'll see this comment and raise it: The Independent is not a proper news source anymore.
Ryan knows that this takes up all the oxygen in the room if this moves forward. Remember he considers all of this a waste of his time, so he's going to *want* a crony on there running a blatant coverup. He just wishes this would all go away so he could get back to reforming health care uhh...
If the guy who is in charge of a congressional investigation leaks details about said investigation to its target how is that not obstruction of justice
If the guy who is in charge of a congressional investigation leaks details about said investigation to its target how is that not obstruction of justice
It's only a crime if there's someone capable of charging and subsequently convicting you of it.
So a source at the White House had information on surveillance and had Nunes come to the White House to look at it. Then Nunes leaves the White House, and for some reason decides to return to the White House to inform Trump of said information.
It's sounds like the dumbest game of telephone so I fully expect Trump to be the source of the information at the White House.
In other words, it's like what the Bush II administration did when it "anonymously" provided intel to journalists, those journalists breathlessly reported the intel, and the Bush II administration pointed to this reporting as evidence supporting their arguments.
Only more moronic and breathtakingly incompetent.
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ButtersA glass of some milksRegistered Userregular
Ryan knows that this takes up all the oxygen in the room if this moves forward. Remember he considers all of this a waste of his time, so he's going to *want* a crony on there running a blatant coverup. He just wishes this would all go away so he could get back to reforming health care uhh...
Given how much responsibility Ryan holds in the AHCA debacle I don't know what knows or doesn't know anymore. It was a spectacular failure orchestrated almost entirely by him and puts any thought that he has some master plan in serious doubt.
It's clear what he wants but judging by the last few weeks it appears he has no idea how to achieve it.
Spicer rebuts to reporters in the same annoyed tone that I use with my kids when they're being especially whiny, except my kids are asking for more chocolate ice cream and the reporters are asking questions about suspected Russian interference in the election.
So a source at the White House had information on surveillance and had Nunes come to the White House to look at it. Then Nunes leaves the White House, and for some reason decides to return to the White House to inform Trump of said information.
It's sounds like the dumbest game of telephone so I fully expect Trump to be the source of the information at the White House.
Trump pretended to be his own press agent so it would not shock me if so.
Black lives matter.
Law and Order ≠ Justice
ACNH Island Isla Cero: DA-3082-2045-4142
Captain of the SES Comptroller of the State
Or the source thing is just a lie and Nunes was there to leak the info to Trump. Then Trump repeated it like a moron and Nunes felt obligated to back him up publicly
Or the source thing is just a lie and Nunes was there to leak the info to Trump. Then Trump repeated it like a moron and Nunes felt obligated to back him up publicly
I've learned to attribute anything that happens in this administration to sheer, blinding stupidity until otherwise informed so yeah, I would not be surprised if this were the case.
Posts
got a link?
Edit : fixed it
A member of the House Intelligence Committee said, "I think we'll want to talk to Christopher Sreele."
So nothing has been scheduled, that we know, but it seems likely they would interview him.
More here: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/some-democrats-in-congress-want-former-british-spy-to-testify-about-russian-dossier/
Senate Committee to Question Jared Kushner Over Meetings With Russians
There hasn't been much talk of Kushner's role in the campaign during this investigation.
Its science! The hypothesis stands untill it's falsified.
oh golly is this administration bad at the obfuscation game
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trump-staff-wiping-electronic-devices-subpoena-fbi-investigation-russia-a7651276.html
Noooooooooope.
Pretty sketchy though.
Sometimes when I allow myself to hope, I wonder if Trump is like a dude made of asbestos - he's cancer to anyone who gets exposed to him, and while he doesn't burn when his pants spontaneously catch on fire, he does set fire to everything around him. Which is to say, I know Trump will somehow never be impeached, but maybe he'll end up destroying all the corrupt lackeys around and associated with him through sheer accident/throwing them under the bus.
Also illegal, per the Federal Records act
How do we get an independent investigation?
They're either stupid and don't think they'll be jailed for it, or think whatever they're wiping is worse than obstruction of justice charges.
Well that is not so much a case of having to try to prove a negative. The report in question had some actual accusations of issues. So far going through the list of stuff that had evidence one way or the other the various points so far are checking out with actual evidence.
Some of the stuff should be pretty easy to prove/disprove one way or the other and most of what could be known seems to be accurate. There is still a lot of investigating to go but so far everything they have been able to make a definitive conclusion on from that report has been accurate.
Yup trying to frantically wipe cell phones and what not of government business could wind up being a bigger problem for them than what was on the phones.
Nunes Had Secret White House Meeting Before Trump Monitoring Claim
However
I don't know the process for starting an independent investigation, but Nunes is certainly making the case for one.
As always, it's not the crime, it's the cover up.
If there's one thing you can count on Paul Ryan for, it's taking the most chickenshit stand on any particular issue.
I'll see this comment and raise it: The Independent is not a proper news source anymore.
Steam: adamjnet
It's only a crime if there's someone capable of charging and subsequently convicting you of it.
ergo
It's sounds like the dumbest game of telephone so I fully expect Trump to be the source of the information at the White House.
Only more moronic and breathtakingly incompetent.
Given how much responsibility Ryan holds in the AHCA debacle I don't know what knows or doesn't know anymore. It was a spectacular failure orchestrated almost entirely by him and puts any thought that he has some master plan in serious doubt.
It's clear what he wants but judging by the last few weeks it appears he has no idea how to achieve it.
Also there are two issues: "What Russia did, and who keeps leaking shit"
No, Sean, that's what you wish the two issues were
But the people leaking info about potentially treasonous activities to reporters probably have clearance too, or else how would they know?
Gee I wonder why Trump cares exclusively about one kind of leak and not the other.
But that is presumably true for most of the leakers in the administration.
Trump pretended to be his own press agent so it would not shock me if so.
Law and Order ≠ Justice
ACNH Island Isla Cero: DA-3082-2045-4142
Captain of the SES Comptroller of the State
I've learned to attribute anything that happens in this administration to sheer, blinding stupidity until otherwise informed so yeah, I would not be surprised if this were the case.
Yeah