Devin Nunes has been the Republican Congressman for California’s 22nd congressional district since 2003. He is the Chair of the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) and served as a member of President Trump’s transition team. He recused himself from the Russia Investigation on April 6, 2017.
He owns part of the Alpha Omega Winery, the Nunes Vineyard, valued at $50,000 which sells to a Russian distributor. the Luding Trading Company, which sent Putin a 55th birthday Wine and Flowers basket. Palmer Report March 22, 201 & Scott Dworkin,Democratic Coalition
Nunes Vineyard — Russian River Valley Pinot Noir — Sonoma County
Even though he is in the agriculture business, “Global warming is nonsense,” Mr. Nunes said. He criticized the federal government for shutting off portions of California’s system of water irrigation and storage, and diverting water into a program for freshwater salmon. “There was plenty of water. This has nothing to do with drought. They can blame global warming all they want, but this is about mathematics and engineering.”
Official Website & Wikipedia PFAW Petition to Remove Nunes as Chair of the USHIC
Nunes has had key involvement by creating diversions and confusing the general public with misleading information and accusations. So far, they have legitimized the concerns and actions of the Intelligence agencies and Justice Department over time to people who are aware of the facts and big picture. Because Nunes, as “recused” Chair of the House Intelligence Committee, has focusesd on attacking the Intelligence agencies and the FISA warrants which are used as evidence against the Trump Administration, please do yourself a favor and read Fun With FISA. Follow the links and you will start to understand WHY the standing FISA warrants on Carter Page are legitimate and used far more than just the Steele Dossier as proof to FISC.
Fun With FISA; The Trump Russia Treason Timeline Patribotics September 20, 2017
- The Susan Rice “unmasking” scandal: Rice wanted to know why UAE Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyann visited NY December 15, 2016, during Trump’s Transition for a meeting with Kushner, Flynn, and Bannon. In January, the UAE arranged a secret meeting in the Seychelles with Erik Prince. “The purpose of the meeting was part of an effort by the UAE to persuade Russia to curtail its relationship with Iran, including in Syria, according to the Post.” CNN Alarmed, she requested the names be unmasked internally, a common practice.
- Interfering with the testimony of Sally Yates.
- From the Timeline below: Michael Flynn’s hire, Ezra Cohen-Watnick, NSC, procured documents which Nunes saw on March 21, 2016. After taking a phone call and hopping out of a shared Uber to run to the White House, he read them in a SCIF (Secure room). “After assembling reports that showed that Trump campaign officials were mentioned or inadvertently monitored by U.S. spy agencies targeting foreign individuals, Cohen-Watnick took the matter to the top lawyer for the National Security Council, John Eisenberg. The third White House official involved was identified as Michael Ellis, a lawyer who previously worked with Nunes on the House Intelligence Committee but joined the Trump administration as an attorney who reports to Eisenberg. Ellis and Eisenberg report to the White House counsel, Donald McGahn.” Washington Post
- March 4, 2017: Trump Tweets an accusation that Obama wiretapped Trump Tower. The FISA warrant was on Sergei Kislyak, and incidental collection on Trump Campaign members who communicated with him. Carter Page was under FISA warrant starting with his Moscow trip in July 2016. March 8, 2017, Nunes, as Chair of the House Intelligence Committee, sent the DOJ and FBI requests for interview and production of docs related to the FISA/FISC and Steele Dossier.
- Trump said Rice may have committed a crime on April 5, 2017. NYTimes
- Nunes recused from the leading the House Intelligence Committee investigation into the Russian Interference in our Election in April.
- Forming his own Congressional Probe, drawing Congressmen away from testimony and into private chambers to conduct their own investigation and concoct their own “FBI Release the Memo” diversion.
- Nunes violated his recusal from the Russia investigation by signing numerous subpoenas, detailed below.
- Nunes has been attacking the FBI Dir. Christopher Wray and Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein, overseeing Mueller in Russiagate and threatened Wray and Sessions with Contempt on September 1, 2017. CNN
- Nunes and Gowdy Justice Department and FBI “Uranium One” Probe: The repeated, incorrect claim that Russia obtained ‘20 percent of our uranium’ Washington Post
- Released the “Nunes Memo” February 2, 2018, questioning the validity of FISA warrants on Carter Page and misrepresenting the Steele Dossier. Neutrality of funding has been in question, however: After the initial Republican contractor of Fusion/Steele, the DNC hired Perkins Coie who hired Fusion GPS. Fusion GPS WAS ALSO WORKING FOR OPPOSING COUNSEL ON THE MAGNITSKY ACT WHOSE LAWYER, NATALIA VESELNITSKAYA, WAS AT TRUMP TOWER JUNE 9, and HIRED TO GET KOMPROMAT ON BILL BROWDER, RESPONSIBLE FOR THE MAGNITSKY ACT SANCTIONS. “Around the same time it was digging up dirt on Trump, however, Fusion was also working for the law firm BakerHostetler on behalf of Prevezon* — a real-estate company incorporated in Cyprus and owned by a prominent Russian businessman, Denis Katsyv. BakerHostetler was representing Prevezon in the US as part of civil asset-forfeiture and money-laundering case first brought against the firm in New York several years ago. Fusion was hired by BakerHostetler to dig up dirt on Bill Browder, an American investor whose Russian lawyer uncovered a massive Kremlin-backed tax fraud scheme that Prevezon was allegedly involved in. [and responsible for the Magnitsky Act Sanctions]” Business Insider Glenn Siimpson of Fusion GPS that Natalia Veseslnitskaya met with him for lunch and then headed to Trump Tower on June 9, 2016, a surprise to him. Additionally, Prevezon hired Former FBI Director Louis Freeh to defend them in the case against the US Government.
- THE SAME DAY AS THE NUNES MEMO, NATALIA VESELNITSKAYA and Frmr. FBI Director Freeh settled: “Federal judge in NY grants U.S. motion to enforce its $5.9 million settlement with Prevezon in longstanding litigation that arose from an alleged $230 million Russian tax refund fraud scheme that was uncovered by Sergei Magnitsky.”
BACK TO WHERE IT STARTED WITH NUNES, SECRET DOCUMENTS & FAKE WIRETAPPING SCANDAL
Devin Nunes attended a breakfast with Michael Flynn and Turkey’s foreign minister just before the inauguration Natasha Bertrand November 10, 2017 Business Insider
Nunes: “The president needs to know these intelligence reports are out there and I have a duty to tell him that.
Three White House officials tied to files shared with House intelligence chairman Washington Post “The White House role in the matter contradicts assertions by the committee’s chairman, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), and adds to mounting concerns that the Trump administration is collaborating with the leader of the House Intelligence Committee’s investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
One of those involved in procuring the documents cited by Nunes has close ties to former national security adviser Michael Flynn. The official, Ezra Cohen-Watnick, survived a recent attempt to oust him from his White House job by appealing to Trump advisers Jared Kushner and Stephen K. Bannon, the officials said.
The materials unearthed by Nunes have been used to defend President Trump’s baseless claims on Twitter that he had been wiretapped at Trump Tower under a surveillance operation ordered by then-President Barack Obama. FBI Director James B. Comey and others have said that claim is false.
Nunes reviewed the material during a surreptitious visit to the White House grounds last week. He then returned the next day in a visit he said was arranged so that he could brief Trump on what Nunes depicted as potential abuses by U.S. spy agencies brought to his attention by an unnamed source.
After assembling reports that showed that Trump campaign officials were mentioned or inadvertently monitored by U.S. spy agencies targeting foreign individuals, Cohen-Watnick took the matter to the top lawyer for the National Security Council, John Eisenberg.
The third White House official involved was identified as Michael Ellis, a lawyer who previously worked with Nunes on the House Intelligence Committee but joined the Trump administration as an attorney who reports to Eisenberg. Ellis and Eisenberg report to the White House counsel, Donald McGahn.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) leaves the House floor on March 29. (Aaron P. Bernstein/Reuters)The involvement of Ellis and Cohen-Watnick was first reported Thursday by the New York Times.”
Trump administration sought to enlist intelligence officials, key lawmakers to counter Russia stories White House uses members of intelligence community, Congress to counter Russia stories The Washington Post
National Security reporter Greg Miller reports that the Trump administration is enlisting extra help to dispute stories alleging Trump-Russia contacts.
The Breaking News on Nunes:
Devin Nunes Vanished the Night Before He Made Trump Surveillance Claims The Republican intelligence chairman got a message and jumped out of an Uber. The next morning he dropped a bombshell based on classified information. The Daily Beast TIM MAK March 24, 2017
The Nunes-White House question, assessed minute-by-minute Washington Post By Philip Bump March 30, 2017
Nunes: “The president needs to know these intelligence reports are out there and I have a duty to tell him that.”
Wired’s “Devin Nunes: A Running Timeline of His Surveillance Claims and White House Ties”
Tuesday evening, March 21: Devin Nunes takes a phone call while sharing a ride with a staffer, according to The Washington Post. After the call, he switches cars without telling his team where he’s going. As a Nunes spokesperson confirmed following a later CNN report, the unscheduled trip is to the White House, where an unnamed source provides Nunes with information about incidental collection of Trump and his associates.
Wednesday afternoon, March 22: Nunes holds a press conference in the Capitol building outlining “incidental collection” of Trump and associates, as well as their “unmasking,” which means they were identified by name in intelligence reports. Nunes says the reports came from FISA surveillance, which means that foreign nationals who the intelligence community has eyes on either talked to or about the president-elect and his transition team at some point. There’s nothing either incriminating or surprising about this.
Next, Nunes visits the White House to brief Trump on the intelligence reports. Directly after, he holds another press conference, this time on the White House lawn.
Meanwhile, Trump says he feels “somewhat vindicated” after the Nunes briefing, despite no evidence that Trump Tower was wiretapped (which is what he had claimed).
Shortly thereafter, representative Adam Schiff of California, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, releases a statement clarifying that Nunes did not share his information with his colleagues prior to holding public press conferences. Schiff added that Nunes had informed him that, contrary to previous statements, “most of the names in the intercepted communications were in fact masked.”Wednesday evening, March 22: Senator John McCain (R-Arizona), in an MSNBC interview, calls for a select committee to investigate Russia, saying that “no longer does the Congress have credibility to handle this alone.”
Thursday morning, March 23: Nunes apologizes to his Intelligence Committee colleagues “in a generic way,” according to representative Jackie Speier (D-California), a fellow committee member. Nunes also tells the committee that they’ll see the documents on Friday. (This does not happen.)
Thursday afternoon, March 23: A Nunes spokesperson clarifies that Nunes does not know “for sure” whether Trump or his associates were on the phone calls that were being surveilled or whether they were just mentioned in conversations between two or more foreign nationals.
Thursday night, March 23: Appearing on Hannity on Fox News, Nunes explains his rationale for briefing Trump on sensitive information: “I felt like I had a duty and obligation to tell him, because, as you know, he’s taking a lot of heat in the news media,” Nunes said. “I think to some degree there are some things he should look at to see whether, in fact, he thinks the collection was proper or not.”
Friday morning, March 24: Nunes cancels a planned open Intelligence Committee hearing that was to feature former ODNI head James Clapper, former CIA director John Brennan, and former deputy attorney general Sally Yates. Schiff calls it an “attempt to choke off public info.”
Separately, representative Eric Swalwell, a California Democrat who also sits on the Intelligence Committee, confirms that Nunes has not showed them the intelligence reports as promised, adding that “it looks like [Nunes is] running his own intelligence service at this point.”
Monday morning, March 27: A Nunes spokesperson says Nunes met his source at the White House last week “in order to have proximity to a secure location where he could view the information provided by the source.” That’s apparently referring to a SCIF, a protected room used to share classified materials. But the need for a SCIF doesn’t explain the use of the White House; the Capitol building houses several of them and sits just 15 minutes away by car.
The spokesperson further clarifies that, “because of classification rules, the source could not simply put the documents in a backpack and walk them over to the House Intelligence Committee space.” That also seems unlikely, given that someone with access to that level of confidential documents would in most cases also be cleared to take them from one location to another.
Tuesday morning, March 28: Appearing on the Today show, senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) colorfully derides Nunes as running an “Inspector Clouseau investigation,” referring to the bumbling detective in the Pink Panther series.
Later Tuesday morning, Nunes declines to recuse himself from the investigation. When pressed on Democrat concerns that he’s too close to Trump, Nunes responds that it “sounds like their problem.” House Speaker Paul Ryan also said he saw no reason for Nunes to step aside.
Wednesday morning, March 28: Nunes shifts blame to the Democrats, saying: “We’re beginning to figure out who’s actually serious about the investigation because it appears like the Democrats aren’t really serious about this investigation.” Democrats on the panel respond by noting that it was Nunes who canceled a previously scheduled open panel scheduled with no explanation and no apparent intent to reschedule.
Thursday afternoon, March 29: The New York Times reports that National Security Council senior director for intelligence Ezra Cohen-Watnick and White House national security lawyer Michael Ellis provided Nunes the intelligence documents, indicating a direct thread between the administration and the original news conference. At his daily press briefing, Press Secretary Sean Spicer declines to comment, saying he chooses to focus more on the “substance” than the “process.”Wired
Devin Nunes and the Tragedy of the Russia Inquiry Bloomberg
“Thursday morning, April 6: Due to an ethics complaint, Devin Nunes steps down from his leadership of the Russia investigation, leaving open the possibility of return after an inquiry. His statement reads, in full:
“Several leftwing activist groups have filed accusations against me with the Office of Congressional Ethics. The charges are entirely false and politically motivated, and are being leveled just as the American people are beginning to learn the truth about the improper unmasking of the identities of U.S. citizens and other abuses of power. Despite the baselessness of the charges, I believe it is in the best interests of the House Intelligence Committee and the Congress for me to have Representative Mike Conaway, with assistance from Representatives Trey Gowdy and Tom Rooney, temporarily take charge of the Committee’s Russia investigation while the House Ethics Committee looks into this matter. I will continue to fulfill all my other responsibilities as Committee Chairman, and I am requesting to speak to the Ethics Committee at the earliest possible opportunity in order to expedite the dismissal of these false claims.”
Thursday night, April 11: CNN reports that, after having reviewed the same documents that prompted the original Nunes allegations, both Republican and Democratic lawmakers found nothing “unusual or illegal.” Instead, the bipartisan consensus appears to be that Susan Rice was simply doing her job, and that no politically motivated attempts to unmask took place.” Wired
The Continuing Fallout From Trump and Nunes’s Fake Scandal, New Yorker, April 18, 2017 “The fallout from Trump’s tweet could have grave consequences for national security. The law governing the N.S.A.’s collection of the content of communications of foreign targets is up for renewal this summer. Known as Section 702, part of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, it is perhaps the most important intelligence tool that America’s spy agencies have to gather information about potential terrorist attacks and about the intentions of regimes around the world. There are legitimate privacy concerns about allowing the N.S.A. to vacuum up such an enormous amount of communications. A report from 2014 by the Obama Administration’s Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board identified several areas that might be changed to increase the privacy protections for Americans, but the board also “found no evidence of intentional abuse” of the program. Some American intelligence officials are now concerned that Trump and Nunes’s wild claims about intercepts and Rice have made Section 702 look like a rogue program that can be easily abused for political purposes.”New Yorker
Trump administration sought to block Sally Yates from testifying to Congress on Russia Trump administration tried to block Sally Yates’s congressional testimony Washington Post
The Trump administration sought to stop former acting attorney general Sally Yates from testifying before the House Intelligence Committee.
REVEALED: Devin Nunes Canceled Russia Hearing Same Day Sally Yates Promised to Testify About Mike Flynn The findings raise new questions about the congressman’s possible obstruction of justice. By Travis Gettys
“Jeremy Bash, the former chief of staff at Defense Department and CIA under Obama, said Nunes concocted the stunt to shut down the testimony of Yates — who Trump fired for refusing to enforce his travel ban, and after she expressed concern about former national security adviser Michael Flynn’s communications with the Russian ambassador.” Alternet March 28, 2017 Video
THE NUNES MEMO, SUBPOENAS, and a SURPRISE SEARCH FOR STEELE
“The Committee rules provide that the chair has to sign the subpoenas unless that authority is delegated to someone else,” Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) told Andrea Mitchell during an interview on MSNBC.
“That authority should have been delegated to [Texas Republican Rep.] Mike Conaway in consultation with myself. That hasn’t happened yet. I think that’s a violation of the recusal by the Chairman.”
“I believe it is in the best interests of the House Intelligence Committee and the Congress for me to have Representative Mike Conaway, with assistance from Representatives Trey Gowdy and Tom Rooney, temporarily take charge of the Committee’s Russia investigation while the House Ethics Committee looks into this matter. I will continue to fulfill all my other responsibilities as Committee Chairman,” Nunes said in a statement when he stepped aside.
A Republican aide argued to CNN that Nunes never used the word “recusal,” and Nunes had therefore not recused himself.
On MSNBC, Schiff said of the subpoenas, “I think they’re part of the White House desire to shift attention away from Russia to the unmasking.”
Mitchell asked whether the unmasking investigation should count as a different investigation than the Russia investigation, meaning that the apparent recusal spurred on by Nunes revealing evidence of unmasking would not cover subpoenas about the unmasking.
“Clearly, it doesn’t appear separate to the president,” Schiff said.” The Hill
August 22, 2017: Glenn Simpson of FUSION GPS Testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Grassley, Sen. Graham, Sen. Feinstein, Sen. Whitehouse in attendance.
Magnitsky Act: August 24, 2017 Russia issues new ‘red notice’ request for arrest of British Putin critic Bill Browder Bill Browder gave evidence on Russia to the Senate Judiciary Committee in July The Telegraph UK CREDIT: ANDREW HARRER/BLOOMBERG
“But earlier this month Mr Browder, the founder of a London-based investment firm, was stopped at Heathrow while attempting to fly to the US, due to what officials later described as a “flag by foreign law enforcement” next to his name. Bill Browder’s lawyer Sergei Magnitsky was found dead in a Russian prison, in what the UK government labelled an “atrocious murder”
Days earlier he had given evidence to the US Senate’s judiciary committee on a controversial meeting Donald Trump Jr held with Natalia Veselnitskaya, a Russian lawyer, during the presidential election campaign. “The Telegraph UK
“February 27, 2017: The Guardian reports on evidence that Michael Flynn had communicated with Russian ambassador to the United States Sergey Kislyak. In response, Nunes gives a statement to reporters saying:
As of right now, I don’t have any evidence of any phone calls … That doesn’t mean they don’t exist, but I don’t have that. And what I’ve been told by many folks is that there’s nothing there … I want to be very careful that we can’t just go on a witch-hunt against Americans because they appear in news stories.
In response to Nunes’s statement, Schiff gives a counter-press conference criticizing Nunes for disclosing information: “When you begin an investigation, you don’t begin by stating what you believe to be the conclusion.” LawfareBlog
Nunes vents anger at Sessions over subpoena, threatens to hold AG, FBI chief in contempt
CNN By Tom LoBianco and Manu Raju, September 6, 2017 “Nunes, who despite stepping aside from directing the House Russia investigation has been leading his own separate investigation, accused Sessions and the FBI of stonewalling him repeatedly in a September 1 letter obtained by CNN. In the letter, he threatened to drag Sessions and FBI Director Christopher Wray before the committee for a public grilling and hold them in contempt of Congress — a jailable offense — if they don’t hand over the documents.”
2. October 10, 2017 Nunes Subpoenaed Firm Behind Trump Dossier Without Telling Democrats NBC News A source close to Fusion GPS, a firm co-founded by former Wall Street Journal reporter Glenn Simpson, confirmed to NBC News that its partners had received subpoenas from the committee. And a Democratic congressional source told NBC News that the subpoenas were issued unilaterally by the Republicans “despite good faith engagement thus far by the witnesses on the potential terms for voluntary cooperation.”
Committee rules specifically give the chairman the authority to issue subpoenas. According to the rules, he does not need approval from minority Democrats to do so.
“This is a blatant attempt to undermine the reporting of the so-called ‘dossier,’ even as its core conclusion of a broad campaign by the Russian government to influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election has been confirmed by the U.S. intelligence community and is now widely accepted as fact,” Joshua Levy, a lawyer for Fusion GPS, told NBC News in a statement.
“The public record alone contains mounting evidence that the Kremlin used nearly every tool in its arsenal of dirty tricks to try to tip the election in favor of Donald Trump,” Levy continued. “We are learning more each day about fake news perpetuated by the Russian government via social media, the deep ties to Russia of top Trump campaign officials, and the Trump Organization’s quest for Russian business deals and outsized reliance on Russian money.
“Rather than investigate these chilling facts in good faith, Rep. Nunes has decided to act unilaterally to set traps for and demonize those who have investigated these serious matters — be they FBI investigators or private citizens exercising their First Amendment rights.” Related: Mueller Met With Author of Trump Dossier
“Is there anything in the Dossier you know for a fact is false?”
Nunes: “I’d refer you back to the uh… Intelligence Committee”
“You personally? Can you speak to it?”
Nunes: “No. I’d refer you to the Intelligence Committee.” pic.twitter.com/ko5tk3kT8P— Patrick (@TrickFreee) January 11, 2018
- The Russian-owned real-estate firm Prevezon earlier this year hired former FBI Director Louis Freeh to help settle a major money-laundering case with the US government.
- That detail was in a memorandum released on Thursday by Joon Kim, the acting US attorney for the Southern District of New York, seeking to enforce the settlement agreement Prevezon struck with the government in May for roughly $5.9 million.
- Prevezon is also represented by Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer who met with top Trump campaign officials in June 2016 at Trump Tower.
“Freeh, who was the director of the FBI from 1993 to 2001, has been known to take on controversial clients since entering the private sector in the early 2000s. In 2015, for instance, he represented an Israeli billionaire accused of bribing the government of Guinea for a stake in an iron mine.
Prosecutors are now trying to get Prevezon to pay the $5.9 million it was supposed to turn over by October 31.
Prevezon has argued that the funds it would use to pay the settlement are tied up in the Netherlands with a company called AFI Europe, which Prevezon says froze a payment of more than $3 million as part of the US litigation against the Russian-owned firm. But the government has balked at Prevezon’s excuse.
“If Prevezon’s payment is not due until Prevezon obtains the debt from the Netherlands, this case could stay open – and Prevezon’s US assets could stay frozen – for years,” Kim wrote.
He added that Prevezon had even prepared for the possibility that it would never be paid by AFI Europe.
“During settlement negotiations in 2015 and again in 2017, Prevezon repeatedly requested various protections for Prevezon in the event that the Netherlands announced or manifested its intent to retain the AFI Europe Debt following its release of the US-requested restraint,” the memorandum says.
A federal judge in New York who earlier this month denied Prevazon’s request to let Veselnitskaya enter the US to represent it in court argued that the firm should have been eager to pay the $5.9 million because, absent settlement, “the trial would have showcased a tale of international intrigue – a massive tax fraud in Russia resulting in the transfer of $230 million through a Byzantine web of shell companies.” Business Insider
Nunes announced appointment to the Transition Team on November 11, 2017.
3. House to Subpoena Justice Department Official on Trump Dossier Bloomberg By Billy House and Chris Strohm
“House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes said in a statement Thursday that his panel is issuing the subpoena for Bruce Ohr, an associate deputy attorney general.
Nunes said the Justice Department has refused to turn over material on what he says are Ohr’s multiple contacts with the firm that assembled the dossier, Fusion GPS, and its author, former British spy Christopher Steele. Nunes says the dossier, prepared as opposition research during the presidential campaign, may have been used to justify spying on Trump associates.”
We just got a big reminder of how much Devin Nunes still controls the House’s Russia probe Business Insider Natasha Bertrand December 19, 2017
“The subpoena wasn’t to Deutsche Bank — which was fined last year over its involvement in a major Russian money-laundering scheme and has been the Trump family’s bank of choice for decades. Rather, the subpoena was delivered to the primary bank for the Washington, DC-based opposition research firm Fusion GPS.
Republican Rep. Devin Nunes, the committee’s chairman, stepped aside from the Russia probe in April amid an ethics investigation into whether he’d disclosed classified information in a press conference. But he was cleared earlier this month, and has spearheaded a months-long investigation into who paid Fusion for its work during the 2016 election.
The law firm Perkins Coie, which represented Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee, confirmed in October that it hired Fusion in April 2016 to help research Trump’s ties to Russia. That research was done primarily by former British spy Christopher Steele, who wrote the now-famous dossier outlining an alleged Trump campaign conspiracy with Russia to sway the election.
Around the same time it was digging up dirt on Trump, however, Fusion was also working for the law firm BakerHostetler on behalf of Prevezon* — a real-estate company incorporated in Cyprus and owned by a prominent Russian businessman, Denis Katsyv.
BakerHostetler was representing Prevezon in the US as part of civil asset-forfeiture and money-laundering case first brought against the firm in New York several years ago. Fusion was hired by BakerHostetler to dig up dirt on Bill Browder, an American investor whose Russian lawyer uncovered a massive Kremlin-backed tax fraud scheme that Prevezon was allegedly involved in. [and responsible for the Magnitsky Act Sanctions]
Fusion’s work for a law firm that represented a Russian client — BakerHostetler — and a law firm that represented Democratic clients — Perkins Coie — at virtually the same time appears to have given House and Senate Republicans fodder to conflate the two projects. Trump and other Republicans have alleged that Fusion was paid by Russians to research Trump’s ties to Russia.
To that end, Nunes subpoenaed Fusion’s bank records earlier this year to get a glimpse at its clients. The firm is currently fighting the subpoena in court, and has issued a series of filings arguing that Nunes’ requests are politically motivated.”Business Insider
4. Byron York: McCain associate subpoenaed in Trump dossier probe Washington Examiner by Byron York December 27, 2017 “House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes has issued a subpoena to David Kramer, a former State Department official who, in late November 2016, traveled to London to receive a briefing and a copy of the Trump dossier from its author, former British spy Christopher Steele. Kramer then returned to the U.S. to give the document to Sen. John McCain. Kramer is a senior fellow at the McCain Institute for International Leadership at Arizona State University.
McCain, recovering in Arizona from treatments for cancer, has long refused to detail his actions regarding the dossier. For his part, Kramer was interviewed by the House Intelligence Committee on Dec. 19. The new subpoena stems from statements Kramer made in that interview.
In the session, Kramer told House investigators that he knew the identities of the Russian sources for the allegations in Steele’s dossier. But when investigators pressed Kramer to reveal those names, he declined to do so.
Now, he is under subpoena. The subpoena, issued Wednesday afternoon, directs Kramer to appear again before House investigators on Jan. 11.“Washington Examiner
Magnitsky Act: Hermitage Capital’s Browder Sentenced In Absentia By Moscow Court Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty December 29, 2017
Although Nunes has not officially wrested his panel’s Russia probe back from the Republicans he deputized to run it, the chairman’s reemergence as a combative Trump loyalist has raised alarm among Democrats that the future of the investigation may be clipped short or otherwise undermined. Even some of Nunes’s GOP allies have expressed concern about his tactics, prompting rare public warnings that he should temper his attacks on federal law enforcement.
[No longer a ‘lonely battle’: How the campaign against the Mueller probe has taken hold]
“I’m interested in getting access to the information and not the drama,” Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) said last month, when Nunes began threatening contempt citations for FBI Director Christopher A. Wray and Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein in the wake of revelations that former Mueller team members had exchanged anti-Trump texts.”
Republican lawmakers and Fox News question the integrity of the FBI, as special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe intensifies.
“More recently, Gowdy said that his “heart would be broken” if Nunes follows through on reported plans to issue a corruption exposé about the FBI, citing concerns that issuing such a report outside the context of a comprehensive investigation of the Justice Department could prove damaging to law enforcement.
Gowdy, a member of the Intelligence panel who also chairs the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, suggested that Nunes has taken some of these steps without the express blessing of House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), who has been involved in crafting the GOP’s multipronged approach to examining a string of allegations from Russian election interference to alleged mismanagement at the nation’s top law enforcement agencies.
A spokesman for Nunes declined to comment.
But Nunes’s moves coincide with what Democrats say is a coordinated GOP effort to shutter the House Intelligence Committee’s Russia probe, publicly absolve President Trump of the most serious allegations against him, and refocus the House’s resources against the law enforcement officials, such as Mueller, who continue to investigate Trump.
The House Committee on Oversight and the Judiciary Committee have already launched an inquiry into the FBI’s handling of the Hillary Clinton email probe. And a joint investigation by Nunes and Gowdy into the Justice Department and FBI’s review of circumstances surrounding an Obama-era deal giving Russia a stake in the American uranium market seems to have lost its initial momentum.
If there is one aspect of the Russia probe that seems destined to outlast the House Intelligence Committee’s preferred timeline, it is Nunes’s investigation of Fusion GPS, the firm behind a dossier detailing Trump’s alleged connections to Russian officials, financiers and exploits in Moscow. Nunes’s subpoena of the firm’s bank records is caught up in a court battle, and the chairman’s staff is in touch with the office of Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), according to the senator, who is also looking into reports that the Clinton campaign and the Democratic Party paid for research that ended up in the dossier’s pages.” Washington Post
The Men Behind the Nunes Memo
The House Intelligence Committee’s chair wasn’t alone in drafting the classified memo that it just voted to release.
The Atlantic NATASHA BERTRAND Two sources familiar with the matter told me that much of the heavy lifting was done by Kash Patel, a top Nunes staffer and senior committee counsel. Patel previously attracted media attention by traveling to London late last summer—without the knowledge of the U.S. embassy or British government—along with committee staffer Doug Presley in search of Christopher Steele, author of a controversial dossier on Trump.Patel did not immediately return a request for comment.
The Circumscribed Ethics Investigation Into Devin Nunes
The House Intelligence Committee chair claimed he’d been completely cleared, but the panel probing his conduct never gained access to the intelligence he was accused of divulging. The Atlantic NATASHA BERTRAND
“Early last April, the House Ethics Committee opened an investigation into whether the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Devin Nunes, broke rules governing the public disclosure of classified information when he told reporters that he had obtained details about “American intelligence monitoring foreign officials” who may have “incidentally picked up communications of Trump transition team members.”
Eight months later, after seeking an analysis of Nunes’s statements by classification experts in the intelligence community, the Ethics Committee closed the case. Nunes thanked the committee for “completely clearing” him, and said it had found he “committed no violation.”
But the committee was never able to obtain or review the classified information at the heart of the inquiry, according to three congressional sources briefed on the investigation who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press. The panel’s inability to determine for itself what may or may not have been classified—and what Nunes had actually been shown—likely contributed to its decision to close the investigation, according to one source.”
Secret Memo Hints at a New Republican Target: Rod Rosenstein
The renewal shows that the Justice Department under President Trump saw reason to believe that the associate, Carter Page, was acting as a Russian agent. But the reference to Mr. Rosenstein’s actions in the memo — a much-disputed document that paints the investigation into Russian election meddling as tainted from the start — indicates that Republicans may be moving to seize on his role as they seek to undermine the inquiry.” NY Times
The 3 different memos about the FBI and Trump-Russia, explained Devin Nunes’s memo is tearing the American political system apart. But there are actually two other memos — and we may only ever see one of them. Vox By
NON-DENIAL: Did Devin Nunes Work With White House on Anti-FBI Memo? ‘Far as I Know, No.’
The House intel committee GOP leader refused to answer behind closed doors if he coordinated with the president’s team on his report blasting Rosenstein, Comey, and McCabe. The Daily Beast BETSY WOODRUFF SPENCER ACKERMAN January 30, 2018
Whoa—Nunes’s speech and debate clause Congressional immunity may not protect him from liability for conduct outside Congress. Depending on the facts, Nunes may have put himself in middle of a conspiracy to obstruct justice. He better beware: There r no secrets in this White House https://t.co/wD1atYgtR3
— Norm Eisen (@NormEisen) January 31, 2018
Congressional Immunity Law and Legal Definition
Nunes could face obstruction charges: Expert says colluding with White House nullifies congressional immunity Raw Story David Edwards
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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 (Letter to Nunes Photo)
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Nunes Statement on FBI, DOJ Objections to Release of HPSCI Memo, January 31, 2018
Rep. Nunes’s memo crosses a dangerous line Washington Post House committee votes to release memo alleging missteps by FBI in Russia probe
Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) says the House Intelligence Committee vote to release documents alleging abuse in the FBI’s Russia probe marks a “very sad day.”
“On Monday, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) moved to release a memo written by his staff that cherry-picks facts, ignores others and smears the FBI and the Justice Department — all while potentially revealing intelligence sources and methods. He did so even though he had not readthe classified documents that the memo characterizes and refused to allow the FBI to brief the committee on the risks of publication and what it has described as “material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo’s accuracy.” The party-line vote to release the Republican memo but not a Democratic response was a violent break from the committee’s nonpartisan tradition and the latest troubling sign that House Republicans are willing to put the president’s political dictates ahead of the national interest.
In response, they have drawn on the stratagem of many criminal defense lawyers — when the evidence against a defendant is strong, put the government on trial. The Nunes memo is designed to do just that by furthering a conspiracy theory that a cabal of senior officials within the FBI and the Justice Department were so tainted by bias against President Trump that they irredeemably poisoned the investigation. If it wasn’t clear enough that this was the goal, Nunes removed all doubt when he declared that the Justice Department and the FBI themselves were under investigation at the hearing in which the memo was ordered released.
This decision to employ an obscure rule to order the release of classified information for partisan political purposes crossed a dangerous line. Doing so without even allowing the Justice Department or the FBI to vet the information for accuracy, the impact of its release on sources and methods, and other concerns was, as the Justice Department attested, “extraordinarily reckless.” But it also increases the risk of a constitutional crisis by setting the stage for subsequent actions by the White House to fire Mueller or, as now seems more likely, Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, an act that would echo the 1973 Saturday Night Massacre.
However, unlike President Richard Nixon, who waged his Watergate fight without the same kind of vocal allies, Trump not only has an entire media ecosystem dedicated to shielding him from accountability but also senior Republicans on the Hill who have cast aside their duty to uphold the law and perform oversight in favor of protecting the Trump presidency — no matter the cost. Nunes may have wielded the committee gavel here, but the ultimate responsibility lies with House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), who lacked the courage to stop him.
Ryan, who has never served on the Intelligence Committee, seems not to understand the central bargain underpinning the creation of the intelligence committees after Watergate. In exchange for the intelligence community’s willingness to reveal closely guarded national secrets to a select group of members and staff for the purposes of oversight, the committees and the congressional leadership pledged to handle that information responsibly and without regard to politics.
That contract has now been spectacularly broken by the creation of a partisan memo that misrepresents highly classified information that will never be made public. Intelligence agencies can no longer be confident that material they provide the committee will not be repurposed and manipulated for reasons having nothing to do with national security. As a result, they will be far more reluctant to share their secrets with us in the future. Moreover, sources of information that the agencies rely upon may dry up, since they can no longer count on secrecy when the political winds are blowing. This is a grave cost for short-term political gain.
The obscure rule that the majority has relied upon contemplates a responsible president who will consult with the agencies affected and reject a misleading and partisan declassification effort. Sadly, this is not something we can expect from the current occupant of the Oval Office. He will have to answer for his actions. But there will be no avoiding congressional complicity in the shattering of yet another norm of office, check and balance.” Washington Post
Conservative Website First Funded Anti-Trump Research by Firm That Later Produced Dossier
Paul Singer in June at an event for investors in New York. CreditMisha Friedman/Bloomberg
WASHINGTON — The Washington Free Beacon, a conservative website funded by a major Republican donor, first hired the research firm that months later produced for Democrats the salacious dossier describing ties between Donald J. Trump and the Russian government, the website said on Friday.The Free Beacon, funded in large part by the New York hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer, hired the firm, Fusion GPS, in 2015 to unearth damaging information about several Republican presidential candidates, including Mr. Trump. But The Free Beacon told the firm to stop doing research on Mr. Trump in May 2016, as Mr. Trump was clinching the Republican nomination.Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee had begun paying Fusion GPS in April for research that eventually became the basis for the dossier.The Free Beacon informed the House Intelligence Committee on Friday that it had retained the firm.
