With Nunes Out, the New Guys Running the Trump-Russia Probe Ain't Much Better

[babylonsister]

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/04/conaway-gowdy-rooney-nunes-trump-house-russia-investigation

With Nunes Out, the New Guys Running the Trump-Russia Probe Ain't Much Better
At the intel committee's first hearing, they focused on protecting Trump over probing the real scandal.

David Corn
Apr. 6, 2017 3:18 PM


On Thursday morning, the inevitable happened: Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), the chairman of the House intelligence committee, announced he was yielding the reins on his panel's derailed investigation into Russia's meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Nunes claims the reason for his retreat is that the House ethics committee is investigating whether he publicly revealed classified information—a charge he insists is "baseless." Whatever happens with this ethics inquiry, his departure does not guarantee the investigation will fare any better than it has.

In his statement, Nunes curiously said nothing about Vladimir Putin's secret political attack on the United States. Nor did he mention the question of contacts between Trump associates and Moscow. He only discussed one aspect of the committee's probe: the leaking of classified information (mainly about Michael Flynn, who was fired from the national security adviser post after news reports showed he had lied about his conversations with the Russian ambassador to the United States during the transition). "The charges…are being leveled just as the American people are beginning to learn the truth about the improper unmasking of the identities of US citizens and other abuses of power," Nunes declared. So even as he said bye-bye to the probe, the congressman—who served on the Trump transition team and who delegitimized himself while trying to provide cover to President Donald Trump for his fact-free charge that Barack Obama had wiretapped him—was still promoting Trump's distraction of choice: The big story is what happened when Trump and his team were possibly picked up by "incidental" intelligence collection, not Putin's attempt to subvert an American election or the FBI's investigation of Trump associates for possibly coordinating with Russia.

And the committee members Nunes designated as his heirs have been champions of the same diversionary tactic.

Nunes, who is retaining his post of committee chairman, assigned the task of running the Russia investigation to Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Texas). He also noted that Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) and Rep. Tom Rooney (R-Fla.) will assist Conaway. At the committee's first hearing for its Russia probe—before Nunes ran the investigation into a ditch—his three designees, as they questioned FBI chief James Comey and National Security Agency head Mike Rogers, focused on the narrow issue of leaks and unmasking. ("Unmasking" is the term of art for when a senior US official cleared to handle top-secret reports based on intelligence intercepts of foreign targets requests an intelligence agency to disclose to him or her the identity of a US citizen referenced in a report.) Or they asked questions designed to raise doubts about the intelligence community's assessment that Putin meddled in the election to assist Trump. That is, they stuck to the GOP's political script.

Moreover, in early January, Conaway dismissed the issue of Russian involvement in the campaign with a wacky comparison. Speaking to a Dallas newspaper, he compared the Russian hacking-and-leaking assault to standard campaign moves: "Harry Reid and the Democrats brought in Mexican soap opera stars, singers and entertainers who had immense influence in those communities into Las Vegas, to entertain, get out the vote and so forth. Those are foreign actors, foreign people, influencing the vote in Nevada. You don't hear the Democrats screaming and saying one word about that." As the Dallas Morning News reported, "Asked whether he considers that on par with Russian cyber-intrusions that aimed to damage Hillary Clinton's campaign, Conaway said: 'Sure it is, it's foreign influence. If we're worried about foreign influence, let's have the whole story.'"

snip//


Acting in a partisan and puzzling manner, Nunes made a hash of the House intelligence committee's investigation of the Trump-Russia scandal. After his botched stunt, his credibility was shot. Stepping aside was the correct action. Yet he has placed this important exercise in the hands of men who have indicated they are not fully concerned with the main issues, which, of course, are rather inconvenient for their party and its president. Conaway, Rooney, and Gowdy have not yet demonstrated they can mount an independent and vigorous investigation on this politically sensitive terrain. Nunes may be gone, but the challenges facing the committee remain.

[Cattledog]

1. 3 stooges.

[spanone]

2. on the plus side, they will be under great scrutiny.

[riversedge]

3. Oh my--I had a good laugh when I read about this a while back--NOW, he is CHAIR!!....uga....

.....Moreover, in early January, Conaway dismissed the issue of Russian involvement in the campaign with a wacky comparison. Speaking to a Dallas newspaper, he compared the Russian hacking-and-leaking assault to standard campaign moves: "Harry Reid and the Democrats brought in Mexican soap opera stars, singers and entertainers who had immense influence in those communities into Las Vegas, to entertain, get out the vote and so forth. Those are foreign actors, foreign people, influencing the vote in Nevada. You don't hear the Democrats screaming and saying one word about that." As the Dallas Morning News reported, "Asked whether he considers that on par with Russian cyber-intrusions that aimed to damage Hillary Clinton's campaign, Conaway said: 'Sure it is, it's foreign influence. If we're worried about foreign influence, let's have the whole story.'"

[riversedge]

4. pic of Conaway..

Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Texas) leaves a House Republican leadership meeting on November 15, 2016. Cliff Owen/AP

[Angry Dragon]

5. should have gone to the ranking democrat