House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) railed against Democrats and the FBI for the “clear link” between Russia and opponents of Donald Trump, who engaged in a literal conspiracy to smear Trump with the cooperation of Russian government officials.
Appearing on Fox News, Nunes traced the path directly from the Clinton campaign to the Kremlin:
“We have a clear link to Russia — you have a campaign who hired a law firm, who hire Fusion GPS, who hired a foreign agent, who then got information from the Russians on the other campaign,” said Nunes, adding “It seems like the counterintelligence investigation should have been opened up against the Hillary campaign when they got ahold of the dossier. But that didn’t happen, either.”
Nunes also noted that the FBI never informed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court which granted a spy warrant on one-time Trump advisor Carter Page was not informed that the salacious and unverified dossier used as its foundation was funded in part by the Clinton campaign and the DNC.
It has been reported through various outlets, however, that officials did disclose the political origins of the dossier.
.@DevinNunes: “It seems like the counter intelligence investigation should’ve been opened up against the Hillary campaign when they got ahold of the dossier. But that didn’t happen, either.” #Hannity pic.twitter.com/zJuEu7xPwM
— Fox News (@FoxNews) February 6, 2018
Meat the press
Nunes then called out the MSM for extreme hypocrisy over the disproportionate standards applied to the left vs. the right;
“I think the bigger problem, challenge here, is that the mainstream media is totally uninterested in this. Can you imagine if the shoe was on the other foot – and Donald Trump or George Bush or Karl Rove had paid for information and then George W Bush’s FBI had opened an investigation into the Obama campaign because they were talking to Russians – which, by the way, really did happen; the Obama campaign was talking to Russians back in 2008 – and open up a counterintelligence investigation using dirt dug up and paid for by RNC and George W. Bush supporters?
This town would be on fire. Every reporter would be following around Karl Rove and George W. Bush all over town – yet it’s crickets from the media. It’s embarrassing. It’s absolutely embarrassing, I’m almost flabbergasted. Because I thought at least there would be some ounce of credibility left, but there really is none.” –Devin Nunes
.@DevinNunes: “I think the bigger problem, challenge here, is that the mainstream media is totally uninterested in this. Can you imagine if the shoe was on the other foot?” #Hannity pic.twitter.com/geGYgzdS0P
— Fox News (@FoxNews) February 6, 2018
Phase Two
Earlier on Monday, Nunes appeared on Fox & Friends where he told them that the four-page “FISA memo” authored by staffers from his office and released last Friday was “just the beginning.”
While the memo released last Friday summarizes what the House Intelligence Committee GOP says are rampant abuses of surveillance powers by the FBI and DOJ during and after the 2016 election, phase two will focus on “irregularities” within the Obama State Department headed by Hillary Clinton and later John Kerry.
“What we will do in phase two is follow the facts where they lead, and when we get enough facts, we will figure out a way to let the American people know,” Nunes told “Fox & Friends.”
“Phase one of our investigation was getting to the FISA abuse. What we’re looking at now is the State Department and some of the irregularities there,” Nunes said Monday, noting that the committee has “several other areas” to probe.
Nunes first mentioned “phase two” last Friday on Special Report with Bret Baer.
Actual Russian Collusion
While Nunes didn’t elaborate, we suspect it might have something to do with the involvement of John Kerry’s State Department’s in a second Dossier containing claims from Kremlin officials – as detailed in a January 4 letter from Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA).
As we detailed yesterday, the second dossier – like the first, relied on Russian officials for information (actual Russian collusion people). From there, this second dossier went from Clinton “hatchet man” Cody Shearer, who gave it to an unnamed official in the Obama State Department, before it was routed it to former British Spy Christopher Steele. It is unknown what happened to the document after that.
Shearer – who took the Russian sourced Dossier and handed it to the Obama State Department, before they then handed it to Christopher Steele – is a controversial political activist and former journalist who was close to the Clinton White House in the 1990s. Of note, Shearer’s brother served as an ambassador during the Clinton administration, and his late sister was married to Strobe Talbott, the chief authority on Russia in President Bill Clinton’s State Department, according to ProPublica.
Sounds like exactly the “hatchet man” Hillary Clinton needed to quite literally collude with Russia in order to influence the US election – which, as Devin Nunes pointed out, the FBI should have done something about.
Again;
“It seems like the counterintelligence investigation should have been opened up against the Hillary campaign when they got ahold of the dossier. But that didn’t happen, either.” –Devin Nunes
via RSS http://ift.tt/2EMhfyS Tyler Durden