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NYT: Two White House Officials Helped Give Nunes Intelligence Reports

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C

chadskin

Member
A pair of White House officials played a role in providing Representative Devin Nunes of California, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, with the intelligence reports that showed President Trump and his associates were incidentally swept up in foreign surveillance by American spy agencies.

The revelation that White House officials assisted in the disclosure of the intelligence reports — which Mr. Nunes then discussed with President Trump — is likely to fuel criticism that the intelligence chairman has been too eager to do the bidding of the Trump administration while his committee is supposed to be conducting an independent investigation of Russia’s meddling in the last presidential election.

Mr. Nunes has also been faulted by his congressional colleagues for sharing the information with President Trump before consulting with other members of the intelligence committee.

The congressman has refused to identify his sources, saying he needed to protect them so others would feel safe coming to the committee with sensitive information. He first disclosed the existence of the intelligence reports on March 22, and in his public comments he has described his sources as whistle-blowers trying to expose wrongdoing at great risk to themselves.

Several current American officials identified the White House officials as Ezra Cohen-Watnick, the senior director for intelligence at the National Security Council, and Michael Ellis, a lawyer who works on national security issues at the White House Counsel’s Office and formerly worked on the staff of the House Intelligence Committee.

A White House spokesperson declined to comment.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/30/us/politics/devin-nunes-intelligence-reports.html
 
P

Poltergust

Member
For some reason I read the thread title thinking that it was talking about white House officials, instead of officials of the White House.
 
S

studyguy

Member
Fenderputty said:
I mean, let's see how Paul Ryan reacts. Lol dudes such a spineless cunt.
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Hasn't budged yet, I mean Nunes self immolated on national tv and then blew off his fellow committee members openly so....

https://twitter.com/BraddJaffy/status/847414958790856705

Bradd Jaffy
@BraddJaffy

Ryan: Nunes told me whistleblower gave him info & “he was going to brief others” (He briefed Trump, not intel cmte)
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I mean it sounds like Ryan was lied to by Nunes which is not a great look.
 
S

Slime

Banned
Cohen-Watnick was brought onto Trump’s transition team and then the NSC by a leading critic of the CIA: retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who was Cohen-Watnick’s boss at the Defense Intelligence Agency and preceded McMaster as national security adviser.

Cohen-Watnick and Flynn “saw eye to eye about the failings of the CIA human intelligence operations,” said a Washington consultant who travels in intelligence circles. “The CIA saw him as a threat, so they tried to unseat him and replace him with an agency loyalist,” the operative said.
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http://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/trump-national-security-mcmaster-overrule-236065
 
A

Apharmd

Member
So leaks are okay now huh, motherfucker?

The congressman has refused to identify his sources, saying he needed to protect them so others would feel safe coming to the committee with sensitive information. He first disclosed the existence of the intelligence reports on March 22, and in his public comments he has described his sources as whistle-blowers trying to expose wrongdoing at great risk to themselves.
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Scumbag.
 
J

johnsmith

remember me
What was the point of this? Just to get dumbass Nunes to talk to the media and purposefully ruin the house investigation?
 
V

Veidt

Blasphemer who refuses to accept bagged milk as his personal savior
The whitehouse told him the was wiretapped. So he went to the whitehouse to say the trump was tapped.
 
N

NoFaceNico

Member
3/15/17 http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trump-says-he-ll-have-more-wiretapping-claim-soon-n734186:

Trump said his administration would be "submitting things before the committee very soon," an apparent reference to the House Intelligence Committee.

Trump said he couldn't disclose what the administration would offer. "It's right now before the committee, and I think I want to leave it," Trump said. "I have a lot of confidence in the committee."
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Yeah, sure. I wonder who his unnamed source was...
 
R

rambis

Banned
Why wouldn't this go straight to the President? If this news "vindicated him" he not only has the power to declassify it, he has his own Press team to disseminate it. Why would they want to make it seem like it came from Nunes?
 
N

Netherscourge

Banned
Ezra Cohen-Watnick
Michael Ellis

-So they leaked the FISA information to Nunes, who then bounced it right back to Trump.

I'm shocked they didn't just go right to Trump themselves.
 
H

Hubbl3

Unconfirmed Member
Devin Nunes: "I'll never tell you my sources or methods!"

NYT: "These were the sources and methods."


Devin Nunes... truly the human equivalent of Ft. Knox.
 
N

Nafai1123

Banned
How the fuck is a Flynn selection still on the NSC?

Netherscourge said:
Ezra Cohen-Watnick
Michael Ellis

-So they leaked the FISA information to Nunes, who then bounced it right back to Trump.

I'm shocked they didn't just go right to Trump themselves.
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I wouldn't be surprised if they already did, and the Nunes meeting at the WH was actually about how to proceed with the information (AKA politicizing it by holding BS press briefings).
 
P

Pastry

Banned
rambis said:
Why wouldn't this go straight to the President? If this news "vindicated him" he not only has the power to declassify it, he has his own Press team to disseminate it. Why would they want to make it seem like it came from Nunes?
Click to expand...

Netherscourge said:
Ezra Cohen-Watnick
Michael Ellis

-So they leaked the FISA information to Nunes, who then bounced it right back to Trump.

I'm shocked they didn't just go right to Trump themselves.
Click to expand...

They wanted the Nunes press conference, the info holds more weight when the person in charge of the investigation validates his insane claims.
 
M

Metroidvania

People called Romanes they go the house?
In case anyone missed it....

Several current American officials identified the White House officials as Ezra Cohen-Watnick, the senior director for intelligence at the National Security Council, and Michael Ellis, a lawyer who works on national security issues at the White House Counsel’s Office and formerly worked on the staff of the House Intelligence Committee.
Click to expand...

Mr. Cohen-Watnick is a former Defense Intelligence Agency official who was originally brought to the White House by Michael T. Flynn, the former national security adviser.
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so pro-trump faction in white house disseminates info to Nunes to 'validate' Trump's claims from a third party, instead of using White House sources directly....

Seems legit.
 
K

kess

Member
Trump steps in to keep 30-year-old NSC aide

Bannon and Kushner prevail on the president to override his national security adviser and keep a Flynn protégé.


President Donald Trump has overruled a decision by his national security adviser, Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, to sideline a key intelligence operative who fell out of favor with some at the Central Intelligence Agency, two sources told POLITICO.

On Friday, McMaster told the National Security Council's senior director for intelligence programs, Ezra Cohen-Watnick, that he would be moved to another position in the organization.

The conversation followed weeks of pressure from career officials at the CIA who had expressed reservations about the 30-year-old intelligence operative and pushed for his ouster.

But Cohen-Watnick appealed McMaster's decision to two influential allies with whom he had forged a relationship while working on Trump's transition team — White House advisers Steve Bannon and Jared Kushner. They brought the matter to Trump on Sunday, and the president agreed that Cohen-Watnick should remain as the NSC's intelligence director, according to two people with knowledge of the episode.
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Backed by Flynn, Bannon, and Kushner. Move along, folks!
 
S

Surfinn

Member
Republicans can only turn a blind eye for so long. Pretty soon their jobs (and reputation of their party) will be in jeopardy.
 
smokeymicpot

smokeymicpot

Beat EviLore at pool.
C8LwBOxU0AEUpXp.jpg


Nunes response.
 
K

kaskade

Member
Beautiful. Just adding to list of reasons we need the press. Just recuse yourself nunes, no point in waiting until next week.
 
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