One CNN “exclusive” and one tweet in a matter of 24 hours put into focus several vague and seemingly unconnected events.
First came CNN’s Friday report that a lawyer for the Soviet-born American Lev Parnas says his client is willing to tell Congress that Republican Rep. Devin Nunes met with former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Victor Shokin last December in Vienna “to discuss digging up dirt on Joe Biden.” That same story stressed that Parnas—who is currently under indictment for campaign finance violations—has connections to Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani.
The next day, Giuliani took to Twitter, stating that he had “discovered a pattern of corruption that the Washington press covered up for years!” “I’m also going to bring out a massive pay-for-play scheme under the Obama Administration that will devastate the Democrat Party,” the former New York City mayor tweeted.
To punctuate matters, Giuliani, who during his time as the Southern District of New York’s U.S. attorney took on the Mafia, including the leaders of the five largest mob families, queried: “Do you honestly think I’m intimidated?The Nunes story sounded a familiar chord: Democrats had accused the former chair of the House Intelligence Committee—now ranking member—of ethical violations stemming from claims he shared with the White House classified information about the intelligence committee’s work on the investigation into Russia’s interference with the 2016 election. That ethics charge prompted some of Nunes’s then-Republican colleagues, most notably Rep. Paul Ryan, to push him out as the leader of the Russian investigation.
At the time, Nunes said in a statement that, “despite the baselessness of the charges, I believe it is in the best interests of the House Intelligence Committee and the Congress to step aside from the Russia inquiry while the Ethics Committee investigates.” The House Ethics Committee cleared Nunes of wrongdoing, but only after he had been sidelined by the charges for some eight months.
Some Democrats are now raising calls for launching a second ethics investigation into Nunes based on the conduct described in the CNN story. “‘If Devin Nunes was using taxpayer money to do political errands in Vienna for his puppeteer, Donald Trump,’ Congresswoman Jackie Spreier (D-Calif.), a member of the House Intelligence Committee, tweeted, an ethics investigation should be initiated.”
While Nunes remains mum about the specifics of the CNN report and in a similar story pushed by The Daily Beast, he broadly refuted the tales, telling Breitbart News that “these demonstrably false and scandalous stories published by the Daily Beast and CNN are the perfect example of defamation and reckless disregard for the truth.” Nunes added that he intends to sue both liberal news outlets.
That Nunes feels confident enough to unequivocally deny the stories as “false and scandalous” suggests the Republican representative can easily disprove the claims. That should not be surprising: Nunes surely has readily available documentation establishing that he did not visit Vienna during his December European vacation. If such evidence is available at the ready, Nunes will be able to quickly parlay the media and Democrats’ latest attack on him as fake news reminiscent of the Michael Cohen in Prague scandal.
But the latest hit on Nunes is much more than the mere peddling of fake news: It is the repeat of a pattern run by the left for the last three years. And it was the Giuliani tweet that revealed the play.
In his tweet, the former prosecutor spoke of corruption under the Obama administration and a “massive pay-for-play scheme” he had discovered. Giuliani then stressed he wasn’t about to be intimidated.
That closer resonated because the press and Democrats have been trying to intimidate Giuliani by casting him as a co-conspirator with Trump (and Nunes) in a plot to improperly obtain dirt on the Bidens. But if the most recent accusations against Nunes prove bogus—as the first set of ethics charges did—why should we credit a similar attack against Giuliani?
The answer is we shouldn’t. Rather, we should see the pattern underlying the attacks pushed by the media to Democrats’ benefit. That pattern is simple: taint Republicans investigating matters that threaten the left, either forcing them out of their leadership positions or using the manufactured scandal to breed public distrust in their conclusions.
We saw this when Barack Obama warned President-elect Trump about Michael Flynn, and later an FBI set-up led to his eventual firing by Trump. Next came Jeff Sessions, who recused from the Russia collusion probe based on a supposed conflict-of-interest, allowing for the appointment of a special counsel.
McCarthy says he has no problem with Nunes’ calls with Giuliani, Parnas
What a surprise. Especially since he presumably has no clue what the conversations were about.
Nor with groups. It’s also OK for him to talk to groups.
Meanwhile, Nunes claims he can’t remember whether he talked to Parnas or not.
Joseph A. Bondy, attorney for Lev Parnas, says his client remembers what the conversation was about, and will be more than happy to tell about it.
@Greg: Other than gross abuse of power, he cited a number it was a general White House switchboard number, which makes it difficult to determine who Giuliani, a former prosecutor and mayor of New York City, was actually calling, according to The New York Times.
Wall Street Journal reported. “Each time Mr. Giuliani called the number identified as associated with OMB, the call didn’t appear to connect, according to the report.”
Not in Service.
“There does not appear to be any basis to believe that a congressional committee is authorized to subpoena telephone records directly from a provider—as opposed to an individual,” former Attorney General Michael Mukasey told the Wall Street Journal.
Spying occurred prior to the House vote authorizing legal subpoenas.
Schiff really sucks at this coup stuff.
@Greg: Just a few pretty obvious things to point out. First, people talk to other people on phones. That;s what they are for. Second, just because all YOUR political leaders are blatant, pathological liars, lying every time they open their mouths, does not mean everyone is a liar. Nunes says he pulled his own phone records and, lo and behold, they do not match he records Schiff provided. Big surprise, Schiff is lying… again. Also, where Schiff says Nunes talked to the OMB… sorry, wrong number. That’s NOT the number for the OMB.
Aww… is him having ANOTHER bombshell go “poof”?
Meanwhile, Biden extorted Ukraine, Obama withheld military aid, Yovanovich committed perjury, gave Ukraine a “do not prosecute” list and Vindman lied, leaked and secretly altered the transcript. Schiff lied about having collusion evidence, what the phone call contained and meeting with the “whistle blower”.
You’ve got your own problems.
HPSCI Ranking Member Devin Nunes discusses his review of phone records, and how the phone data that Chairman Schiff put into his impeachment report doesn’t match with his own review.
Video: https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2019/12/07/devin-nunes-my-phone-records-dont-match-what-schiff-dems-put-in-report/
So, we cannot rely on Schiff’s “records” to be complete or even accurate!
The so called subpoena would not have stood up in a court challenge but…..
AT&T was too scared of what a Congress dominated by Dems could do to them to care about the confidentiality of their customers.
Food for thought.
@Nan G: Schiff is sloppy the entire coup has been sloppy. They leak to the ravenous media and sleuths parse and research every word.
AT&T folded like a cheap flip phone.
Something tells me Brennen a shirt tail employee gave them the right who to call.
@Nan G:
Well, it’s got to match the rest of the report.
December 11, 2019 – Feds say Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas hid $1M transfer from Russia, demand jail before trial
An undisclosed $1,000,000 cash transfer, wired to him in September 2019 from a bank account in Russia…
Apparently working for the attorney who conducts shadow diplomacy for Donald Trump in Ukraine for free pays very well. Who did the million-dollar payment come from, and for what?
@Greg:
https://invidio.us/watch?v=a0RfIAFCXgU
There are some people who will be going through some things.
OAN is a far-right propaganda outlet, plain and simple. They report things that simply aren’t true.
A few words about the current state of affairs from the late Paul Volcker, a very smart and observant American:
Bingo.
@Greg:
Why? Because they don’t toe the left wing Democrat propaganda line like CNN and MSNBC, who would not air the entire Horowitz hearing, but only Democrat statements? No, they are even more balanced than Fox.
Remember when all the liberal outlets were cheering Schiff’s report and calling Nunes a liar? ALL of them… and now it has been PROVEN SCHIFF is the liar and Nunes was absolutely accurate. Again and again and again, Greg, you and your Democrats are shown to be lying on an industrial scale… but you just keep on at it.
There sure is. Thanks, Democrats. Thanks, liberal media. Thanks Obama.
@Deplorable Me, #60:
No, because Robert Herring, Sr, the owner, has ordered his OAN program producers to actively pursue a pro-Trump propaganda agenda. Their intention is not to factually inform. They cook the news with the intention of manipulating public opinion. They knowingly propagate patently false information and conspiracy theory. Journalistic ethics plays no part in their programming.
An inside look at One America News, the insurgent TV network taking ‘pro-Trump’ to new heights
@Deplorable Me:
And of course we all know that the Washington Compost would never spin the truth, don’t we?
@Greg: Link is to WAPO a billionaire’s personal propaganga machine kept in business strictly to bash Trump and his base.
It makes no money, a pathetic baby bloomberg-like enterprise.
Try to use your severely damaged braincell to better make your pathetic case.
Any news source that does not promote the liberal agenda is “right wing”. CNN and MSNBC didn’t air the entire Senate Horowitz hearing; they only covered when Democrats were speaking. But Fox and OAN (that has aired ALL the hearings in full) are biased. Liberal media bias (aka “lying on an industrial scale”) is indisputable and that’s the ONLY bias there is.
@Deplorable Me: OAN came out of the Ukraine with documents, Im sure that copies were made for AG Barr and Director Wray, they are working on verifying them not like ABC putting a pillow over the Epstien story til it stopped moving.
Even if the story turns out to be the story of the century dont expect a Pulitzer prize as the network doesnt belong to “the club”.
@kitt: Greg and Democrats HATE documents because they are unambiguous and not as open to lying and misguiding. Not that they don’t lie IN SPITE OF existent documents, but with facts, the lies only work on the most ignorant among them.
I was watching the Horowitz report hearing and switching back among channels and was disgusted to find how those other than OAN and Fox were censoring the hearings. Liberals fear the truth, they fear facts and they do all they can to suppress them for the purpose of oppression.
December 29, 2019 — Washington Post: Giuliani held back channel phone call with Venezuelan President
The government doesn’t pay him. Trump doesn’t pay him. Somebody does.
November 26, 2019 — A wealthy Venezuelan hosted Giuliani as he pursued Ukraine campaign. Then Giuliani lobbied the Justice Department on his behalf.
It’s attorney/client privilege, see? We don’t have to tell anybody anything about what we’re doing, why we’re doing it, or for whom. That includes the government, which I’m not part of. If you don’t like it, talk to my attorney.
This is about as swampy as anything gets.
Who paid Podesta?
Rudy Guiliani is Trump’s new Michael Cohen—though you never would have caught Cohen wearing fishnet stockings.
@Greg: We shall see, shan’t we? When Giuliani’s claims have been investigated, we’ll know.
Oh, by the way…. the IRS wants $112,800 in unpaid taxes from Hunter. Seems he dropped a decimal point when figuring his taxes (maybe he let Obama’s former Secretary of the Treasury, Geithner, figure his taxes?). Now, I wonder were all the income Hunter failed to pay taxes on came from?