Calling for House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunez (R-Calif.) to resign, ranking member Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) insists Nunes no longer has the independence to conduct an impartial investigation. Schiff cried foul when Nunes informed 70-year-old President Donald Trump March 22 that he was the subject of intel surveillance since at least July 2016. If that weren’t bad enough to Schiff, Nunes held a secret meeting at the White House March 26 with an unnamed intel source showing documents proving Trump and his campaign team were under surveillance unrelated to the Russian investigation. Schiff insists that Nunes recuse himself because Democrats on the intel committee seek nothing short that securing information to impeach Trump. Schiff and other Democrats like Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.), don’t want an objective investigation, they want to impeach Trump.
FBI Director James Comey admitted March 20 before the House Intelligence Committee that the FBI was involved in an active investigation since July 2016 on Trump and his campaign’s alleged coordination with the Russians to influence the 2016 presidential election. Comey testified that Russian President Vladimir Putin had a vendetta against Democratic nominee former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, despite offering no evidence. Nunes’ revelation, reinforced by Comey’s own testimony, that Trump and his campaign team was under surveillance for nearly a year, raises potentially legal charges against former President Barack Obama and former Atty. Gen. Loretta Lynch. Trump tweeted March 5 that Obama had his wires tapped at Trump Tower, something causing Democrats and the liberal press to go wild, accusing Trump of outright lying.
Nune’s March 22 revelation about Trump surveillance contradicts the Democrats’ narrative that Trump conspired with Russian actors to sabotage Hillary’s campaign. Schiff wants, more than anything else, to shield Obama and former White House officials from an unconstitutional use of the intel community for political purposes. “I think you put his objectivity in question at the very least,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), one of Trump’s biggest detractors on Capitol Hill. “He’s gone off on . . . a sort of Inspector Clouseau investigation himself,” hoping to force Nunes to resign. Graham has zero credibility when it comes to Trump, once calling him a “jackass” before the South Carolina primary, dropping out the GOP race with almost no support. Schiff’s become the most partisan Democrat in the House, working feverishly with other partisan Democrats to impeach Trump’s.
Collecting incidental intel on Trump outside the Intelligence Committee, Nunes hoped to get to the bottom of the president’s charge that he and his campaign associates were subject to an intel investigation during the 2016 campaign. “In the interest of a fair and impartial investigation whose results will be respected by the public, the Chairman’s recusal is more than warranted,” said Schiff, demanding Nunes step down. Nunes disclosure to Trump and from his an intel source at the White House indicates that ongoing spying on Trump and his campaign raises disturbing questions about the intel community but also about Obama and White House officials that signed off during the 2016 campaign on investigatiffng Trump. After nearly one year of investigation, Comey shed no light on Democrats’ charge that Trump conspired with the Kremlin to win the 2016 presidential race.
When Comey testified March 20 in the Intel Committee, he offered no evidence to support Schiff’s claims that Trump conspired with the Russians to win the election. Schiff insists, over-and-over-again, that he has more than circumstantial evidence, proving Trump’s collusion with the Kremlin. When pressed to show proof, Schiff says he’s not willing into disclose what he knows. Claiming he’s seen classified intel reports about Trump campaign collusion with Moscow, Schiff refuses to admit what he has. When pressed, he brings up former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn lying to Congress about meeting with Russian Amb. Sergey Kislyak during the transition period. Why Flynn didn’t openly admit his contacts with Kislyak is anyone’s guess. But Schiff sees those contacts as direct evidence the Trump campaign did its utmost to sabotage Hillary’s campaign.
Whatever information Nunes has about Trump surveillance during he campaign, he needs to share it with the intel committee. Showing the courage to purse a source not available to the committee, Nunes was hardly playing, as Lindsey Graham says, Inspector Clousoeau. With so much disinformation coming from unreliable sources, Nunes hoped to get the bottom of Trump’s March 5 charge that he was “wiretapped” by the Obama White House. Comey never denied in his March 20 testimony that a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act [FISA] court warrant existed on the Trump campaign. Putting two-and-two together, Comey said nothing “illegal” went on, meaning the FBI used either “incidential” collection or had an actual warrant to investigate Trump & Co. Pursuing leads on a murky investigation into Trump’s Russian ties, Nunes tried to get facts on what’s turned out a partisan witch-hunt.
