The Midnight (Uber) Ride of Devin Nunes

[Nevilledog]

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Greg Olear
@gregolear
"The question is: Why? Why has Devin Nunes acted so strangely for the last four years? Why has he so brazenly attempted to scuttle the Russia investigation? Why was he talking to Lev Parnas, of all people, on the phone? Was he a client of Fraud Guarantee?"

The Midnight (Uber) Ride of Devin Nunes
Are we close to solving one of the enduring mysteries of Trump/Russia?
gregolear.substack.com
5:04 AM · Nov 17, 2020

https://gregolear.substack.com/p/the-midnight-uber-ride-of-devin-nunes

THERE WAS A TIME, believe it or not, when Devin Nunes was one of the good guys. He grew up on a cattle ranch, studied agriculture at state schools, and in 2003, the year he turned 30, he got married and was elected to Congress. What a great story! He was precocious, ambitious, self-made, and if you read early interviews, in the job for the right reasons. Yes, he was a Republican, but in the farmland district of CA-22, in Fresno and Tulane Counties, he had to be. He wasn’t a knuckle-dragger like Jim Jordan, a troll like Matt Gaetz, or an ideologue like Doug Collins. He was more of a Paul Ryan type.

As recently as 15 September 2016, while serving as chair of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI), Nunes was perfectly capable of identifying a traitor. Here is his statement from back then, when the Committee released its Executive Summary of Review of the Unauthorized Disclosures of Former NSA Contractor Edward Snowden:

Edward Snowden is no hero—he’s a traitor who willfully betrayed his colleagues and his country. He put our servicemembers and the American people at risk after perceived slights by his superiors. In light of his long list of exaggerations and outright fabrications detailed in this report, no one should take him at his word.

And yet by 13 January 2017, a week after the Intelligence Community released a report unanimously concluding that Russia interfered in the 2016 election on behalf of Trump, Nunes was no longer dunking on traitors, but rather poo-pooing the notion of investigating Trump/Russia. “House committees don’t go operational like that, that I know of,” he said, as if all those Benghazi hearings were just a dream. He suggested that the committee’s time would be better spent investigating leaks, instead of, you know, treason.

What changed during the four months between September 2016 and January 2017? Why was Devin Nunes suddenly so reluctant to call out the bad guys? First, Donald John Trump somehow won the 2016 election. Second, Nunes joined the Trump Transition Team—probably the worst decision of his professional life. (The executive membership of that Team is a veritable “Who’s Who” of current and future felons: Steve Bannon, Rudy Giuliani, Mike Flynn, Pam Bondi, Steve Mnuchin, Chris Collins, and Jared Kushner among them. If you were on that Team, you’re right now either 1. sweating out Joe Biden’s AG pick, or, 2. like Chris Christie, Kellyanne Conway, and Ben Carson, recovering from covid-19. Yikes.)

*snip*

[dchill]

1. K&R.