How Devin Nunes Helped Robert Mueller

[babylonsister]

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/11/michael-cohen-lying-to-congress-plea-deal-devin-nunes.html

How Devin Nunes Helped Robert Mueller
The House Intelligence Committee chair may have unintentionally assisted the special counsel in building cases against Trump associates.

By David R. Lurie
Nov 30, 2018
3:12 PM

snip//

Until very recently, lying before the House Intelligence Committee during its Russia investigation has seemed, even by generally lax congressional standards, likely to be nonconsequential. Far from considering the referral of even the most mendacious of witnesses for potential prosecution, the committee’s Republican majority has refused even to give Mueller transcripts of its interviews. The GOP majority thereby all but ensured that prosecutions for false statements simply could not be brought, at least in the absence of voluntary admissions like Cohen’s.

Yet that will soon change. Incoming Democratic House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff has made it clear that one of the first items on the new majority’s agenda next year will be to forward those transcripts to the special counsel. Those transcripts will likely be accompanied by expressions of concern regarding the veracity of the testimony of several witnesses, in light of facts that have recently come to light, including as a result of Mueller’s recently filed charging documents in the Cohen case and other cases.

The irony of this new situation is that, as Susan Hennessey has observed, outgoing House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, Rep. Mike Conaway (who purportedly led the Russia inquiry after Nunes’ quasi-recusal), lead interrogator Trey Gowdy, and the other GOP members of the committee may, wholly unintentionally, prove to have been devastatingly effective questioners in the service of future false-statement prosecutions.

This is because, as the House Intelligence Committee majority’s publicly released report indicates, the GOP appears to have all but openly encouraged its witnesses to deny any and all potential wrongdoing, regardless of the plausibility of their denials. Thus, the GOP members and their staffs appear to have been singularly uninterested in testing the veracity of witnesses’ testimony or even inquiring into elemental questions, such as whether Donald Trump Jr. called his father regarding his Trump Tower meeting with representatives of the Russian government, or whether Amway heir Erik Prince lied regarding yet another Trump Tower meeting, this one including Don Jr. and, among others, representatives of two Gulf states.

As a result, some witnesses affiliated with Trump and his campaign may have been lulled into thinking they could lie with particular impunity. It is therefore possible, if not likely, that a fairly substantial number of witnesses, including possibly the president’s eldest son, will soon find themselves facing the unusual prospect of being criminally charged for lying before a House panel that all but welcomed their dishonesty.

And as Mueller’s prior felony charges for lying against individuals including Michael Flynn, George Papadopoulos, and Alex van der Zwaan have demonstrated, the threat of such criminal liability can often be just what it takes to induce liars to tell important truths to investigators.

[malaise]

1. What a lovely Christmas present for all of us

[Gothmog]

2. This will be fun to watch

[wishstar]

3. The false statements allowed Repubs to keep saying that they had not seen any evidence of collusion

The House Repubs refused to obtain any evidence to support or contradict the false statements since they just wanted to continue insisting they hadn't seen any collusion.

[central scrutinizer]

4. Bwah hah hah

Not the sharpest tool (and I do mean tool) in the shed!

[Jarqui]

5. It's starting to have an effect - folks running scared ..

Roger Stone and Michael Caputo have amended their congressional testimony.

Link to tweet

Even Jeff Sessions might be getting nervous for his lies about Russia that Al Franken nailed him on

[BigmanPigman]

10. Swalwell was like a kid at Christmas last night when he did the rounds on cable news.

He said that Nunes and all the GOP members helped the witnesses in various ways, like telling them they didn't even have to follow up with answers to the Dems' questioning. He can't wait for Mueller to get the transcripts that Nunes has locked up (really, locked up) and not allowed Mueller to see as well as finally being able to really question the key witnesses again.

[Farmer-Rick]

6. When you lie, try to ensure no one is recording you

Seems what any smart criminal would do.

[LiberalFighter]

7. I hope Trey Gowdy and his reputation is destroyed.

[erronis]

15. And the tax-free payments that he received to destroy the US democracy

be returned with huge penalties.

And then, that he and all the other cowards (R) spend as much time in a prison cell as they spent ripping off the country.

[Nitram]

8. You've just made my day with these very encouraging observations.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

9. who has physical control of these transcripts?

GOPers have shredders.

[groundloop]

11. Shredders, and very very short memories.

Damn I can't wait to see all those bastards who turned a blind eye to Tiny's crimes simply for partisan reasons go down.

[displacedtexan]

13. These docs are part of the Congressional Record.

They can't be destroyed. Of course, I say this knowing how deplorable these TrumpGOP Deplorables are.

[ProfessorPlum]

12. i cant rec this enough

my favorite post in years

[Honeycombe8]

14. What if Nunes "accidentally" destroys them? Are there backups?nt

[Rizen]

16. It really is stupid watergate

Thank goodness we took the house. Time to fry these clowns.

[Kitchari]

17. K&R n/t

[JudyM]

18. I love this twist. Thanks for posting!