"Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive!" (Sir Walter Scott, 1808)
And, according to the Washington Examiner's Byron Scott, there's a whole bunch of deception going on. And Devin Nunes has had enough of it:
Byron York: Nunes blows up, threatens contempt after FBI stonewalls House on Russia investigator demoted for anti-Trump bias
by Byron York | Dec 2, 2017, 6:38 PM
"House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes has issued an angry demand to the FBI and Department of Justice to explain why they kept the committee in the dark over the reason Special Counsel Robert Mueller kicked a key supervising FBI agent off the Trump-Russia investigation.
Stories in both the Washington Post and New York Times on Saturday reported that Peter Strzok, who played a key role in the original FBI investigation into the Trump-Russia matter, and then a key role in Mueller's investigation, and who earlier had played an equally critical role in the FBI's Hillary Clinton email investigation, was reassigned out of the Mueller office because of anti-Trump texts he exchanged with a top FBI lawyer, Lisa Page, with whom Strzok was having an extramarital affair. Strzok was transferred to the FBI's human resources office — an obvious demotion -- in July.
The Post reported that Strzok and Page exchanged text messages that "expressed anti-Trump sentiments and other comments that appeared to favor Clinton."
York goes on to explain how Nunes was unaware of this little "text affair", and had been asking the Mueller team for information since August 24th with a subpoena. The subpoena also directly asked for information on the Trump Dossier---all unanswered by the FBI and the DOJ. York lays out a timeline of where Nune's committee continues to ask for information on Strzok, and how each time receives no response.
What Nunes did get came from, (or was leaked to), the New York Times and the Washington Post, who both wrote that this demotion of Strzok might hurt Mueller's credibility while helping President Trump:
"Among federal law enforcement officials, there is great concern that exposure of the texts they exchanged may be used by the president and his defenders to attack the credibility of the Mueller probe and the FBI more broadly," the Post reported. The Times reported that "the existence of the text messages is likely to fuel claims by Mr. Trump that he is the target of a witch hunt."
What it did fuel was a stern response from Nunes:
"By hiding from Congress, and from the American people, documented political bias by a key FBI head investigator for both the Russia collusion probe and the Clinton email investigation, the FBI and DOJ engaged in a willful attempt to thwart Congress' constitutional oversight responsibility," Nunes said in a statement Saturday afternoon. "This is part of a months-long pattern by the DOJ and FBI of stonewalling and obstructing this committee's oversight work, particularly oversight of their use of the Steele dossier. At this point, these agencies should be investigating themselves."
(Read the full Byron York story here to see the whole reason Nunes is deservedly pissed off)
Who would have thunk that a little old affair, a few texts, and an acknowledged Trump-Hater would get in the way of a Special Prosecutor's best laid plans?
Right at the moment, (sincere or not), Mueller's credibility rates about a 2 on the scale of 1-10. Throw in the "fact" that now it turns out Flynn was under the orders of Obama's administration to "freely converse" with any foreign government entity---including Russian officials---Mueller's, and the Liberal Media's supposed fall guy, (that was supposed to implicate Trump surrogates and possibly even the President)---the general may be getting walking papers or a mild sentence, rather than becoming the "Trump Card".
I'd also note that from reading this story, I get the impression Nunes and his team are pushing their powers to the edge, forcing Mueller to either announce prematurely he's got nothing on Trump and/or the investigation's going to wrap up soon. Either way, if one more of Mueller's "team of Trump-hating Democrats" he hired to do his "dirty work" gets publicly outed as biased against the President, Mueller might as well resign.
One thing is certain.............Putin must be laughing his ass off.
Trump's got to be chuckling a bit too.
Oh My! Collusion!!!
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