Trumps Congressional Allies Trying to Manipulate Steele Dossier to Undercut the Russia Investgation

[CousinIT]

As the Trump-Russia scandal expands, Republicans responsible for leading investigations into the matter have consistently pursued angles that critics say are designed to undermine the investigation and distract attention from the main issue: Russia’s covert interference in the 2016 election and interactions between the Trump campaign and Vladimir Putin’s regime.

Last week, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) joined in a key component of that GOP effort: attempts to deflect attention by focusing on what’s known as the Steele dossier. These are the memos written during the campaign by a veteran British intelligence official that included allegations that the Kremlin had sought to cultivate and co-opt Trump, in part by collecting compromising information on him, and that his campaign secretly exchanged information with Moscow.

Nunes, who was forced to step aside from the Trump-Russia probe in March, returned to the fray by subpoenaing the Justice Department and FBI to demand information on the FBI’s interactions with Steele, who began sharing his memos with the bureau in the summer of 2016. The subpoenas seek material on whether the FBI paid Steele or used his information to apply for secret warrants (presumably to eavesdrop on Trump-related targets).

...

It may seem odd that Republicans believe going after the Steele memos, which included salacious allegations about Trump, is a way to help the president. But they appear to have two goals: to suggest the Steele memos were actually cooked up by the Russian government—and thus are proof that Moscow did not favor Trump in 2016—and to undercut the FBI’s Russia investigation by linking its origins to the Steele memos.

...

Democrats see an effort to gin up controversy over of the Steele memos to protect Trump. “They tried to conflate two things so that they could create the false narrative that the Russians were meddling on both sides,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), a Judiciary Committee member, told Mother Jones.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/09/trumps-congressional-allies-are-manipulating-the-steele-dossier-to-undercut-the-russia-investigation/

[Control-Z]

1. Nunes was forced to step aside

from the Trump-Russia probe in March but is now running a one man investigation and issuing subpoenas? How is that tolerated, or even legal?

[ProudLib72]

2. Nunes is like stepping in dog shit

You can try your damnedest to get rid of him, but he will always be there to some extent.

[Control-Z]

3. Thank you! I needed to laugh!

What an apt description of Nunes.

[volstork]

4. Just like a roach

n/t

[red dog 1]

6. "How is that tolerated, or even legal?"

Good questions!

(It's Animal Farm and the pigs are in charge)

[red dog 1]

5. K&R

[Bernardo de La Paz]

7. Will not deflect Mueller one bit & he is likely to come on stronger than anybody else

Republicons are trying to delay the inevitable so that they can ram through as many judicial appointments as possible.

No more judicial confirmations. This is the last year of the tRump Presidency.