There was a public hearing scheduled for today by Devin Nunes’ House Intelligence Committee, which was allegedly investigating possible collusion between members of Trump’s team and Russia. That hearing, the first of two which would have been held this week, has been canceled.
It is significant that today was the day former acting attorney general Sally Yates was supposed to testify before the committee. Also scheduled to speak were former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and former CIA Director John Brennan.
Jeremy Bash, who used to be chief of staff at Defense Department and CIA during the Obama administration, told Brian Williams this morning,
“The real story, the real issue here, is not so much about the midnight run by the chairman onto the White House grounds, it’s really that they wanted to cancel the hearing this week.”
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Interesting—Jeremy Bash implies Sally Yates had revelations for House Intel about when she told WH that Flynn lied. Nunes nixed the hearing. pic.twitter.com/vKCd1jdoc5
— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) March 28, 2017
“The hearing this week was going to hear from Sally Yates, the former acting attorney general, and I’m told that she had some very interesting things to tell the committee, to tell the public about when she told the White House counsel that Mike Flynn had, in fact, been lying to the vice president. She was only going to be able to speak those things in the context of a congressional hearing, and so the White House and the chairman needed to shut her down. This was an elaborately choreographed gag order on Sally Yates.â€
Democrat Rep. Jackie Speier said this morning of Nunes’ conduct that “He has violated the first principle of doing an investigation.”
Watch courtesy of CNN:
Intel committee member @RepSpeier: Chairman @DevinNunes has "violated the first principle of doing an investigation" https://t.co/cjqVyKtNnj
— New Day (@NewDay) March 28, 2017
We mentioned the spy elements of the story this morning and that is the direction Rep. Speier took on CNN’s New Day this morning, telling Chris Cuomo,
“I don’t think he can just recuse himself and still chair the committee. I think that the writing is on the wall. It might make a good spy novel. It doesn’t make a good investigation.”
No, it doesn’t, but it is clear that what Nunes was engaged in was never an investigation but rather an attempt to protect Donald Trump from the investigation.
Asked by Chris Cuomo if she trusted Nunes, Speier answered, “I don’t trust him.” She added that “He is frankly over his head. I think He has used very poor judgment and I think he has tainted the committee.”
Speier told Cuomo that Trump wants to shut the committee down as a means of protecting himself, not that the ‘president’ ever had much to fear from Devin Nunes, who has done all in his power to protect Trump from his own investigation.
If Nunes’ loyalties were not already clear enough, this morning’s decision has left the world in no doubt as to who or what Nunes sees himself serving, and it is not the United States Constitution.
Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen’s Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.
