aside Timeline For Rep. Nunes Bizarre Activities Around 3/22/17

Image result for photos of nunes schiff
Schiff/ Nunes

The cloak and dagger activities by the US House’s Intelligence Committee’s Chair Devin Nunes (R-CA) around 3/22/17 has political pundits buzzing because the whole saga makes no sense. A lot of us are trying to figure what was the real reason for Mr. Nunes trip to the White House to look at intelligence data on 3/21/17, only to be followed up the next day by a trip to the White House again, when the representative claims he advised the republican President Donald Trump directly about the intelligence he recently studied, which the president already had at his fingertips.

It has been alleged that all this subterfuge was designed to give the president some cover over his assertion that the President Barack Obama had him wiretapped/ surveilled while he was transitioning into his new role. Rep. Nunes was to pretend that a whistle-blower shared data indicating that the president’s name was detailed in incidental material gathered by the US intelligence community.

Some of us are not buying the current explanations. We are assuming that we are still missing a piece of the puzzle to make sense out of this bizarre saga.

Image result for photos of nunes schiffHere is a timeline of what happened on 3/21-3/22/2017...

On 4/1/17, Katie Bo Williams of the The Hill penned the following report, “Devin Nunes, Trump and the Russia probe: A timeline:”

“It’s the biggest mystery gripping Washington, D.C.: Why did Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) do what he did?”

“The beleaguered House Intelligence Committee chairman last week took a trip to the White House to view documents he says expose the widespread incidental collection of surveillance on Trump transition team members.”

“No one else had at that point seen the documents.”

“The unusual sequence of events — and Nunes’s often-opaque explanations — have led committee ranking member Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) to suggest that the White House was “laundering” intelligence through the committee.”

Image result for photos of nunes schiffSaturday, March 4

“President Trump tweets a claim that former President Barack Obama  “wiretapped” Trump Tower during the campaign.”

Wednesday, March 15

“President Trump tells Fox News’ Tucker Carlson that “We are going to be submitting certain things (to the Intelligence Committee).”

“I think you’re going to find some very interesting items coming to the forefront over the next two weeks,” he said.”

Image result for photos of comey rogers at hearingMonday, March 20

“FBI Director James B. Comey publicly announces that the bureau is investigating potential coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia in an appearance before the House Intelligence Committee — a hearing widely interpreted as bad for the White House.”

Tuesday, March 21

 “Nunes secretly travels to the White House grounds to meet an unnamed source, who shows him the mystery intelligence reports in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.”

“The Daily Beast will later report that he was traveling with a staffer at night and that after receiving “communication” on his phone, Nunes abruptly switched cars and heads to the White House alone.”

“In later interviews, Nunes will dispute this account, telling reporters that it was daytime and that he spoke to several “foreign dignitaries” on the White House grounds.”

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Nunes

Wednesday morning, March 22

“Nunes briefs House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on his findings.”

Wednesday midday, March 22

“Nunes holds a hastily scheduled solo press appearance — billed as related to the committee’s Russia investigation — and tells reporters that “on numerous occasions, the intelligence community incidentally collected information about U.S. citizens involved in the Trump transition” including “details about people associated with the incoming administration… with little apparent foreign intelligence value.”

Those details had nothing to do with Russia or the Russia investigation and were “widely disseminated in intelligence community reporting.”

“I have confirmed that additional names of Trump transition team members were unmasked,” Nunes says.”

“Nunes reiterates that he has seen no evidence that Trump was wiretapped.”

Image result for photos of nunes schiffWednesday afternoon, March 22

“Nunes heads back to the White House to brief President Trump.”

“In a second press availability, he indicates that the information he saw may have been derived from Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrants — which are classified, raising speculation that Nunes may have revealed classified information at the podium.”

“He says that he had a “duty” to tell the president.”

“President Trump says he feels “somewhat” vindicated by Nunes’s disclosure, after weeks of lawmakers and intelligence officials publicly disavowing his claim he was “wiretapped.”

Thursday, March 23

“Press Secretary Sean Spicer refutes the suggestion that Nunes could have received his information from the White House.”

“I don’t know why he would come up to brief the president on something that we gave him,” Spicer said.”

“Nunes apologizes to his fellow committee members for bypassing them.”

Friday, March 24

‘Nunes draws criticism for canceling an open hearing featuring former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and former CIA Director John Brennan scheduled for March 28. He said the cancellation has “nothing to do with the new documents” and that the committee needs more time to interview Comey and NSA Director Mike Rogers in a closed setting.”

“Later that night, The Daily Beast first reports Nunes’s White House visit, igniting a firestorm of scrutiny.”

Monday, March 27

“A spokesman for Nunes explains the decision: “Chairman Nunes met with his source at the White House grounds in order to have proximity to a secure location where he could view the information provided by the source.”

“The House Intelligence committee has its own secure facility in the U.S. Capitol.”

“Nunes tells Bloomberg View’s Eli Lake that his source was an intelligence official, not a White House staffer.”

“Schiff, as well as House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), call for Nunes to recuse himself from the committee’s investigation.”

Image result for photos of nunes schiffTuesday, March 28

“Nunes says he will “never” tell his colleagues on the Intelligence Committee who gave him the documents, vowing to protect his source.”

Wednesday, March 29

“Ryan rebuffs calls for Nunes to step down from the committee. He says Nunes described his source as “a whistleblower-type person.”

Thursday, March 30

“The New York Times reports that Nunes’s sources were two White House officials: Ezra Cohen-Watnick, senior director for intelligence at the National Security Council, and Michael Ellis, a lawyer who works on national security at the White House Counsel’s Office and was previously counsel on the House Intelligence Committee.”

“Schiff speculates that the White House was attempting to “launder” intelligence through the House committee.”

“Why all the cloak and dagger stuff?” he tells reporters in a late-afternoon press conference.”

“They don’t need our chairman to deliver something to the president they can deliver themselves,” Schiff said. “The White House needs to answer is this instead a case in which to effectively launder information through our committee to avoid [revealing] the true source of the information.”

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SPICER

Friday, March 31

“Spicer, struggling with questions about Nunes at his daily briefing, says Nunes’s visit “was 100 percent proper.”

“Later that day, Schiff releases a statement saying that he went to the White House to view materials which were presented to him as the same information that Nunes saw.”

“Nothing I could see today warranted a departure from the normal review procedures, and these materials should now be provided to the full membership of both committees,” Nunes says. “The White House has yet to explain why senior White House staff apparently shared these materials with but one member of either committee, only for their contents to be briefed back to the White House.”

8 comments

  1. There is something to this exchange that we have not seen as yet. The mention of members of the administration being recorded in exchanges not involving foreign nations is out of the scope of the warrant obtained to seek information. What is strange is the comment from Nunes about those type of recorded comments were incidental to the data received and there fore not to be considered. There has been no words from the administration that the data recorded was not done legally, so one might have pause to wonder what type of discussion was involved and who was involved in the discussion? Could there have been discussion about some other type of criminal activity by the staff of the candidate, or even the candidate himself?

    The more that the spokes people for King tRump try to explain away this problem, the more suspicious of their reasoning I become, and the more convinced I become that they are using this to divert attention away from other more important information that has yet to be found. Perhaps as a wise man once told me, don’t pay a whole lot of attention to the shiny object held in front of your eyes, and ignore the plain ordinary bag being spirited away from your view, because that bag holds the real treasure.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Dear Crustyolemothman,

      I’m not buying current explanations for one second. I suspect that the intelligence which was shared with the US Congress Representative Adam Schiff of the Intelligence Committee was not everything that was presented to Rep. Devin Nunes.

      Hopefully, sometime in the future, the true story in its entirety, will be revealed, especially if Rep. Nunes is called as a witness.

      I enjoyed watching John Oliver’s YouTube presentation of Rep. Nunes escapades.

      Ciao, Gronda

      Like

  2. While I normally don’t use U-Tube for reference, here is a short video clip you might find amusing that covers the very topic of this article. While I don’t consider the language in it necessary, it still does not detract from the video. If King tRump has done nothing else he has created a number of jobs in the field of comedy…

    Liked by 1 person

      • Dear 1EarthUnited,

        He is interesting. This whole scenario makes absolutely no sense. My hypothesis is that this theatrical performance delivery was designed to deflect but that is only a small part of the story. My guess is as good as many other theories..

        Ciao, Gronda

        Like

  3. It seems like there’s an info war going on between the far left and right. Each side has their interpretation of DT’s surveillance and what’s legal, procedural, permissible etc.
    As usual the truth is somewhere in the middle, we just have to get past all the speculation and rumours.
    Latest breaking news comes from Yahoo, via Fox which is a conservative station. Interesting how they spin it, quoting sources that are confidential, supposedly from insider whistleblowers, but I’m not buying it!

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/sources-trump-associates-surveilled-122117231.html

    Like

    • Dear 1EarthUnited,

      For me it is real simple. If Susan Rice unmasked DT or surrogates as part of surveillance of Russian or foreign officials, this would have been legal and appropriate because, it had already been revealed that Russia attempted to interfere 2016 presidential elections.

      If the unmasking was based on surveillance outside of Russian probe, then this needs to be uncovered and addressed. While this action may be legal it is not right. The use of intelligence data should not be done for political purposes but for US national security.

      Ciao, Gronda

      Like

      • Totally agree, very good assessment. Any administration that utilizes a FISA court order should only investigate activity relevant to national security. The 2016 election has been especially contentious, if there’s impropriety on behalf of the Obama administration, then they should also be held accountable, no one should be above the law. So far, we only have preliminary report from FBI stating that there is no collusion between Trump and Russia influencing the election, and Obama did not personally wiretap Trump’s office. Like you said, time will reveal all.

        Like

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