April 13, 2017

THE "SQUIRREL!" SHOUTERS:

Susan Rice Is Cleared. It's Time to Shine the Spotlight Back Where It Belongs. (Nancy LeTourneau,  April 13, 2017, Washington Monthly)

[I]t's time to once again shine the spotlight on what Rep. Nunes and his buddy in the White House Ezra Cohen-Watnick were up to.

As a reminder, we now know that Cohen-Watnick was the one who summoned Nunes to a clandestine meeting at the White House to review the "evidence" he had uncovered that some of Trump's associates had their communication with foreign targets collected incidentally. Cohen-Watnick had been tasked (probably by his boss Michael Flynn) to review the "unmasking" procedures used during the Obama administration. It is very likely that this was an attempt to uncover what the intelligence community knew about Flynn's contacts with Russians.

When Cohen-Watnick initially took his findings to the White House counsel's office, he was told to cease and desist these activities because it was likely illegal given the investigation that is currently underway into the Trump campaign's possible collusion with the Russia.

At that point, Cohen-Watnick decided to do an end-around that cease and desist order and shared the information with Nunes, who went on to talk about it with the press and share it with Trump, but not with his colleagues on the Intelligence Committee.

We learned much of that from an AP report that was published on April 4th, and on April 6th (after having met with Speaker Paul Ryan the previous night), Rep. Nunes stepped down. 

Posted by at April 13, 2017 9:34 AM

  

« WE ARE ALL DESIGNIST NOW: | Main | DUDE, IT'S SUSHI!: »