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Nunes Interview – “No Official Intelligence Used” & Problems for Brennan

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Devin Nunes gave an interview on Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo.

What transpired was nothing short of stunning.

Nunes was discussing the “Electronic Communication” (EC) – used to open the FBI Counterintelligence Investigation into the Trump Campaign on July 31, 2016:

Nunes: We are not supposed to spy on each other’s citizens, and it’s worked well. And it continues to work well. And we know it’s working well because there was no intelligence that passed through the Five Eyes channels to our government. And that’s why we had to see that original communication.

Full Stop.

There was no intelligence passed through Five Eyes to the United States.

Not “no Five Eyes Intelligence used in the EC” – there was no Five Eyes Intelligence passed to our government.

Overseas Intelligence either didn’t get passed along to the U.S. government as had been reported – or it came outside of official channels.

We know that GCHQ Head Robert Hannigan met with CIA Director Brennan in the summer of 2016. We also know that Hannigan abruptly resigned immediately following President Trump’s inauguration.

Nunes has now fully shifted his focus to the State Department:

Nunes: We are investigating the State Department. We think there are some major irregularities at the State Department and we’re trying to figure out how it is that this information – about Mr. Papadopoulos of all people – who was supposedly meeting with some folks in London, how that made it into the FBI’s hands.

We know a little about that because of what some of the State Department officials themselves have said about that.

We were glad to get this behind this but now, of course, as we peel another piece back it leaves more unanswered questions which we’re trying to get to the bottom of.

Bartiromo: You’re telling us that in order for the FBI and DOJ to launch an investigation into so-called collusion between President Trump and the Russians, there was no official intelligence used. Then how did this investigation start. I don’t understand.

Nunes: I think that is the point. We don’t understand. We never understood.

We have access to these finished intelligence products [Nunes is part of the Gang of Eight] and we’ve never seen one. We thought maybe there was one that went through a different channel – that was kept from Congress.

That is not what happened. There was no Five Eyes Intelligence Product – as it’s been reported. There was no product.

There was no official Five Eyes Product.

Nunes: That’s a major problem because we have to have trust with our partners, with our allies. We have to make sure our Agencies talk and work out problems. We have to make sure that they don’t spy on either American citizens or that we’re not spying on British citizens.

I think more may ultimately come of the above statement.

Nunes: This is even more critical. This about a Counterintelligence Investigation – at the height of a political campaign – where you opened up an investigation using these intelligence services to spy on the other campaign.

It’s clearly serious stuff.

Bartiromo: So you’re investigating the State Department. Does that mean it was Hillary Clinton pulling the strings.

Nunes: Well, we don’t know that yet. But I can tell you what we do know.

We do know that long-time associates of Hillary Clinton, including Sidney Blumenthal and Cody Shearer, were actively giving information to the State Department that was somehow making its way to the FBI. This is from two people within the State Department who have now publicly come out and said this…

We now know that there was no official intelligence that was used to start this investigation. We know that Sidney Blumenthal and others were pushing information into the State Department. So we’re trying to piece all that together and that’s why we continue to look at the State Department.

Now the conversation moves on to the IG Report and the Comey Memos:

Nunes: The main reason we wanted them [Comey Memos] out was because the MSM and the Democrats have been running around talking about Collusion. When they figured out there was no collusion, they moved on to Obstruction of Justice.

Once you read all of the Comey Memos they become exhibit A in the defense that there was no Obstruction of Justice.

For Mr. Comey, when you match up his Memos with what’s in his book, with the interviews he’s giving, I think he’s got a lot of problems coming in the future as it relates to what the IG’s looking at [regarding] his behavior in the Clinton Email Investigation.

You’ve got the added problem that the Memos that he wrote, the seven Memos that he decided to write on President Trump – he never wrote Memos on Obama or the AG – four of those Memos were classified.

He decided to launder them to a friend who then leaked them to the NY Times. If those Memos contain classified information, he purposely leaked them to get a Special Counsel started after he was fired.

We need to figure out exactly what is it that he leaked. Who did he give these Memos to. Was it just the friend that leaked it to the NYT or were there others.

I believe there were others. I think that these Comey Memos were actually given to several people. It contained classified information.

The irony is – it’s the very thing Comey cleared Hillary Clinton of.

Bartiromo: Are these reasons to shut down the Robert Mueller Special Counsel Probe?

Nunes: I actually supported the Special Counsel because I thought Mr. Mueller will come in – long-time FBI guy – he will quickly see that there’s no evidence of Collusion. We had not seen any intelligence product that showed collusion between the Trump Campaign and the Russians.

[I thought] he would quickly go after the felony that occurred when General Flynn was talking to the Russian Ambassador and all of that information was leaked out. And that is a felony at the highest level.

That never happened.

The most important statement in the entire interview is this:

We now know that there was no official intelligence that was used to start this investigation.

Recall, now, Brennan’s role – in his own words:

I was aware of intelligence and information about contacts between Russian officials and U.S. persons that raised concerns in my mind about whether or not those individuals were cooperating with the Russians, either in a witting or unwitting fashion, and it served as the basis for the FBI investigation to determine whether such collusion — cooperation occurred.

Brennan’s intelligence “served as the basis for the FBI investigation”.

During Congressional testimony, Brennan repeatedly made the assertion that he turned over any and all evidence the CIA had to the FBI.

It was well beyond my mandate as director of CIA to follow on any of those leads that involved U.S. persons. But I made sure that anything that was involving U.S. persons, including anything involving the individuals involved in the Trump campaign was shared with the bureau [FBI].

… and we were uncovering information intelligence about interactions and contacts between U.S. persons and the Russians. And as we came upon that, we would share it with the bureau.

And reiterated his notification to the Gang of Eight:

Through the so-called Gang-of-Eight process we kept congress apprised of these issues as we identified them. Again, in consultation with the White House, I personally briefed the full details of our understanding of Russian attempts to interfere in the election to congressional leadership. Specifically, Senators Harry Reid, Mitch McConnell, Dianne Feinstein and Richard Burr and to representatives Paul Ryan, Nancy Pelosi, Devin Nunes and Adam Schiff between 11th August and 6th September [2016], I provided the same briefing to each of the gang of eight members.

Given the highly sensitive nature of what was an active counter-intelligence case, involving an ongoing Russian effort, to interfere in our presidential election, the full details of what we knew at the time were shared only with those members of congress; each of whom was accompanied by one senior staff member.

Brennan’s comments from Meet the Press:

We, the CIA and the intelligence community had collected a fair amount of information in the summer of 2016 about what the Russians were doing on multiple fronts. And we wanted to make sure that the FBI had full access to that.

There was no Five Eyes Intelligence Product.

There was no official intelligence used to start the FBI Investigation.

The FBI Investigation – initiated at Brennan’s insistence – had no legal basis or foundation.

Which is precisely why the October 2016 Carter Page FISA Warrant was so critical.

A legal justification needed to be manufactured – precisely because one never existed in July 2016 when the FBI Investigation was opened.

We’ve been writing on the importance of the Electronic Communication:

The points I’ve been making are fairly simple.

  • George Papadopoulos was not the primary factor in the FBI’s initiation of the Investigation. He may not have been a factor at all.
  • CIA Director Brennan was a driving force behind the FBI’s 2016 Counterintelligence Investigation into the Trump Campaign.
  • Brennan – with an assist from DNI James Clapper – was a primary source of the entire Trump-Russia Collusion Narrative.

John Brennan resides at the center of the entire Russia Narrative.

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