Devin Nunes gave another “must-see” interview with Maria Bartiromo on Sunday. Nunes helps make clear the increasingly obvious.
For only the second time in our nation’s history a standing political party attempted to block the peaceful transition of power following an election.
The first being President Lincoln’s 1860 election – leading into Civil War on April 12, 1861.
I’ve transcribed this interview. It starts off strong and only gets stronger.
We’re finally approaching the point of disclosure. The Dam is now past capacity.
BARTIROMO: A lot of conversation about this informant… what can you tell us in terms of what went on?
NUNES: I can tell you that nobody was ever interested in an informant. We asked for specific documents that we still have not received from the Department of Justice. So they continue to leak out things about this informant and we don’t know if there is one informant of more informants because there’s so much out there now.
It is really getting tough to follow, and all we are asking for is give us the documents that were used to start this investigation.
BARTIROMO: What you’ve been investigating is what exactly launched an investigation into so-called collusion between Donald Trump and the Russians. Is that right?
NUNES: Remember, we discovered that the dossier was used – the dirt that the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democrats used – it got to the FBI and the FBI used it to get a FISA warrant.
We’re trying to get to the bottom of what else was used to get that FISA. You have many people in the DOJ who are claiming we’re wrong. If we’re wrong, show us the information…
A video clip plays. Comey says more than just the Dossier was used in the FISA Application. “[The Dossier was] part of a broader mosaic of facts.”
Andrew McCabe testified there would have been no FISA Application without the Dossier.
Nunes: We’re looking for the pieces to Mr. Comey and the FBI’s mosaic. So they’re continued to say that this didn’t happen, we’ve had career prosecutors go evaluate this, we released a memo… for all Americans to see that they used this dirt, bought and paid for, before a FISA court. And they are in total denial.
We have a right to get the information. If James Comey and many others and people who are currently at the Department of Justice today continue to say there’s nothing to see here — well, if there’s nothing to see here, show us the documents we’re asking for. They refuse to do it.
BARTIROMO: How many documents have you gotten so far, of the 1.2 million you’ve requested.
NUNES: [The 1.2 million figure] is actually from a different request about the Hillary Clinton email investigation. We have been very specific, we think there is only a handful of documents left that we’d like to see, but we never get the full story.
BARTIROMO: The DOJ told Fox News that they have invited you to go to the DOJ and you haven’t responded, are you aware of this invitation?
NUNES: They continue to leak. We had what I thought was a productive meeting, and then, after that meeting, they’ve done nothing but leak and leak and leak. Now, we don’t know exactly who it is over at the Department of Justice or the FBI. I’m not pinning any blame on people. But we’re not going to go to another meeting where we don’t get documents and then the meeting leaks out.
This should make people very suspicious. They were trying to get Mr. Gowdy and I to go on Friday to the Department of Justice for, supposedly, another briefing. We said, look, unless we’re going to get documents, we found out Thursday night, they were not going to provide documents, so therefore, we’re not going to go.
Now if you look at what happened on Friday night, probably the mother of all leaks, of all time, to two major newspapers, that came out Friday night. Now, had Mr. Gowdy and I went to that meeting, you can bet they would have tried to pin that on us.
BARTIROMO: A moment ago before we went to break, you said it was the mother of all leaks conducted by the DOJ. What were you referring to?
NUNES: There were two mainstream media outlets Friday night who had lots of details. If any of those details are correct.
Remember, we don’t have any documents – we can’t confirm whether there is or is not an informant, because we were never given the documents. In fact, we’ve never even asked for the names of any informants or any sources whatsoever.
If any of that is true, and they ran a spy ring or an informant ring, and they were paying people within the Trump campaign, if Any of that is true, that is an Absolute Red Line.
There is not an honest person who can believe that taxpayers’ dollars should go to fund this ring, and operate like this, how they said in the New York Times.
If any of that is true, that is a red line in this country, you can’t spy on political campaigns. According to them, this was done in the spring, before the counterintelligence operation was even opened. if that is true, we need to know about it.
BARTIROMO: The New York Times and the Washington Post report that somebody was paid. Somebody was paid and they were interacting with the Trump Campaign.
NUNES: If they paid someone it’s an absolute Red Line and this is over with.
I don’t know how to say this, there is no possible way that we should be allowing – even if it was legal – we should never allow this in this country. Congress should not allow for anything like this to ever occur again. To any political campaign.
Which is why, I’ll say again, all they gotta do is provides us the documentation. If they didn’t do anything like that, provide us the documents so we can verify it.
BARTIROMO: When you say “this is over” what do you mean?
NUNES: When I say it’s over, meaning that this whole thing is a scam. There’s real FISA Abuse here. If there’s real FISA Abuse, I just can’t imagine, if what’s in these stories is true how can any American stand for this.
There is not an honest person in this country that thinks it’s okay for sources, informants – whatever you want to call them – go around and start passing out money all over the globe to secretly put yourself into a Presidential Campaign. That’s not acceptable in this country.
BARTIROMO: How far up the line does this go? We know that Loretta Lynch and Sally Yates were briefed on the Trump Campaign in 2016 – the Spring of 2016. We know from Peter Strzok texts, “President Obama wants to know everything we’re doing on this.” We know that Peter Strzok told Lisa Page “we need an insurance policy” should Donald Trump win the presidency.
Who was calling the shots here.
NUNES: There’s a lot of abuse here. They were briefed in the Spring. We know the FBI briefed the highest levels of the Obama Administration in the Spring of 2016. Shortly after that Mr. Steele gets going – he’s being paid by the Clinton Campaign secretly. He’s also meeting with the FBI. He’s digging up what ends up being totally phony dirt, he claims he got it from Russians.
I don’t know how clearly I can say possibly this. If anybody’s looking for collusion, all they have to do is figure out if Christopher Steele talked to Russians, because there you have your collusion. They took information from Russians and they used it against President Trump. And the Democrats paid for it all.
BARTIROMO: Wouldn’t Robert Mueller be looking at that. Would he have looked at collusion between Hillary Clinton and the Russians or is that not his mandate.
NUNES: I doubt it. What about the leak of General Flynn’s phone call. Why don’t we start there.
BARTIROMO: Well, that we know was a felony. The IG Report is forthcoming. What are you expecting from that IG Report. Will Justice be served.
NUNES: I don’t have any idea. That is the Clinton email Investigation. I have not met with Mr. Horowitz. But I can tell you the cast of characters that are involved in that investigation are the same cast of characters we are investigating at the House Intelligence Committee as we look into FISA Abuse and counterintelligence operations.
BARTIROMO: You’re also investigating the State Department. Anything new there?
NUNES: The interesting thing about the State Department is we’re trying to figure out how did this information make it over from London to the FBI. We’ve never been able to put that together.
We were told many times these were trusted Five Eyes sources and intelligence products. As you know, we never found any intelligence products as it relates to our Five Eyes partners sending us information.
How did it get through? We think the State Department because we have people talking about this – former State Department Officials talking about this. If that indeed happened, we have something totally irregular. You’re taking information from the State Department and opening up a counterintelligence investigation into a political campaign. That’s totally irregular.
BARTIROMO: You said in the past that Sidney Blumenthal and Cody Shearer were actually funneling information to the State Department.
NUNES: You have all kinds of people. You’ve got Christopher Steele working for the Democrats and the Hillary Clinton Campaign. You’ve got Blumenthal and others who were tied or affiliated with the Clinton Operation. Then on the other side you have the FBI. They’re all – about at the same time – running operations into…Carter Page? It’s very odd.
President Trump has demanded the DOJ Investigate:
I hereby demand, and will do so officially tomorrow, that the Department of Justice look into whether or not the FBI/DOJ infiltrated or surveilled the Trump Campaign for Political Purposes – and if any such demands or requests were made by people within the Obama Administration!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 20, 2018
He has every right to do so. The Department of Justice is subordinate to the Executive Branch. For any who believe otherwise I encourage a reading of Andrew McCarthy’s piece.
This afternoon, President Trump, Chief of Staff John Kelly and White House Counsel Don McGahn met with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, FBI Director Chris Wray and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coates.
That meeting has now concluded. The White House released this statement:
Based on the meeting with the President, the Department of Justice has asked the Inspector General to expand its current investigation to include any irregularities with the Federal Bureau of Investigations or the Department of Justices tactics concerning the Trump Campaign. It was also agreed that White House Chief of Staff Kelly will immediately set up a meeting with the FBI, DOJ, and DNI together with Congressional Leaders to review highly classified and other information they have requested.
On March 28, 2018, the Office of the Inspector General released a second Initiation of Review – dealing specifically with FISA abuses.
See: Understanding the Inspector General’s Announcement
Today’s agreement provides for an expansion of the March 28, 2018 Initiation of Review.
Draft copies of the Inspector General’s Report on the Clinton Email Investigation were sent out on or around May 16, 2018. President Trump was surely one of the recipients.
John Brennan once again took note of developments:
Senator McConnell & Speaker Ryan: If Mr. Trump continues along this disastrous path, you will bear major responsibility for the harm done to our democracy. You do a great disservice to our Nation & the Republican Party if you continue to enable Mr. Trump’s self-serving actions. https://t.co/uAhgL6wfIC
— John O. Brennan (@JohnBrennan) May 20, 2018
President Trump took note of Brennan:
“John Brennan is panicking. He has disgraced himself, he has disgraced the Country, he has disgraced the entire Intelligence Community. He is the one man who is largely responsible for the destruction of American’s faith in the Intelligence Community and in some people at the….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 21, 2018
….top of the FBI. Brennan started this entire debacle about President Trump. We now know that Brennan had detailed knowledge of the (phony) Dossier…he knows about the Dossier, he denies knowledge of the Dossier, he briefs the Gang of 8 on the Hill about the Dossier, which….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 21, 2018
…they then used to start an investigation about Trump. It is that simple. This guy is the genesis of this whole Debacle. This was a Political hit job, this was not an Intelligence Investigation. Brennan has disgraced himself, he’s worried about staying out of Jail.” Dan Bongino
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 21, 2018
Brennan has disgraced himself. He has disgraced our Country.
Brennan has been at the center of events. Now we may find out who was at the top…
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