Even the Weekly Standard is asking: Why Is Devin Nunes So Quiet? (after FBI #spygate briefing)...

[riversedge]

Seems the repugs did not get the actual docs they wanted. Wonder what Trump will do now. This is not over I fear.



Why Is Devin Nunes So Quiet?

https://www.weeklystandard.com/andrew-egger/after-the-white-house-briefing-with-the-department-of-justice-devin-nunes-is-quiet

Andrew Egger
3 Min Read


May 25, 2018 7:15 AM

In many ways, Thursday’s classified Justice Department briefing was the culmination of a year’s work for House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes. For months, Nunes has been demanding that the Justice Department turn over information documenting how and why they first began to investigate the Trump campaign for potential collusion with Russian efforts to undermine the U.S. presidential election in 2016. The California Republican has made no secret of his belief that partisan hacks at DOJ launched that investigation on disastrously scant evidence, and has heaped derision on law enforcement for resisting his challenge to prove him wrong.

So when President Trump unexpectedly announced this week that the White House was organizing a Justice Department briefing at which Nunes would be able to “open up documents, take a look, and find out what happened,” you’d think the chairman had struck gold. But the Thursday meeting came and went—and so far, no word from Nunes on whether his suspicions were confirmed.

In a sense, of course, this is not surprising: The whole bone of contention between House Intel Republicans and the FBI has been that the documents in question are highly classified, so it would be irresponsible of Nunes to spread that information publicly after receiving it. That said, there’s nothing to prevent Nunes from offering general takeaways from the meeting, such as, whether he found the information offered by the Justice Department to be reassuring, or whether he remained concerned. So far, he has not done so. (A spokesman for Nunes declined to comment for this article.) Why would this be?

It’s possible that Nunes’s silence indicates that the Justice Department briefing laid out a compelling case for why the FBI was justified in surveilling the Trump campaign—given that he’s spent a year muttering ominously about partisan pettifoggery at the DOJ, it’s hard to imagine Nunes sprinting to the nearest microphone to call off the dogs. Then again, it’s equally possible that even in the Thursday briefing, the Justice Department did not open their books to Nunes’ satisfaction: President Trump on Wednesday declined to say whether he had actually ordered DOJ to release all the documents the House Intelligence Committee had subpoenaed. “I want them all to get together and I want them—because everybody wants this solved,” Trump said then. “I want them all to get together. They’ll sit in a room. Hopefully they’ll be able to work it out among themselves.”

One other possibility: Nunes might have elected not to put much emphasis on this particular meeting given the way the White House rolled it out, mixing up the list of invited lawmakers over the day leading up to the briefing after Democrats howled about the impropriety of holding private briefings for a single party. (The Justice Department ultimately held two consecutive classified meetings: One for Nunes and fellow Intel Republican Trey Gowdy, and one for the so-called “Gang of Eight,” the bipartisan group of congressional leaders who are regularly briefed on classified intelligence matters.)...................

Link to tweet

[Jim__]

1. Didn't Adam Schiff attend both meetings?

The article claims that the only representatives to attend the 1st meeting were Nunes and Gowdy:

One other possibility: Nunes might have elected not to put much emphasis on this particular meeting given the way the White House rolled it out, mixing up the list of invited lawmakers over the day leading up to the briefing after Democrats howled about the impropriety of holding private briefings for a single party. (The Justice Department ultimately held two consecutive classified meetings: One for Nunes and fellow Intel Republican Trey Gowdy, and one for the so-called “Gang of Eight,” the bipartisan group of congressional leaders who are regularly briefed on classified intelligence matters.)

I thought Schiff actually attended both meetings.

[riversedge]

4. no Dems were invited to the first meeting.

[Jim__]

6. Nancy Pelosi did get Schiff into the first meeting

From abc news:

...

The series of meetings began at noon, when House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, a California Republican, and House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy, a South Carolina Republican, met at the Justice Department with FBI Director Chris Wray, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and Ed O'Callaghan, a Justice Department official and deputy to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

Nunes and Gowdy left about an hour later without speaking to reporters.

Schiff joined Gowdy and Nunes in the initial briefing at noon, at House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s request after Democrats were initially excluded by the White House.

...

[riversedge]

8. I am so glad to hear that. Thank you for the information :-)

[Justice]

5. Schiff attended both meetings

[Jim__]

7. Thanks.

[world wide wally]

2. So, what about all the "transparency" Spanky was talking about anyway?

I guess it was the word of the day for him to prove he could pronounce a 4 syllable word.

[Progressive dog]

3. The DOJ couldn't find the documents that show no collusion,

those documents have never existed.