Rep. Devin Nunes, the Republican who heads the House Intelligence Committee investigating whether the Obama Administration wiretapped Donald Trump and his transition team, has cancelled all scheduled committee meetings, putting the investigation into suspended animation.
The decision comes after a bizarre series of events that has Nunes, by his own admission, acting as the lead character in his own spy novel, meeting sources on the White House grounds late at night to review secret intelligence reports that said Trump transition members were “incidentally” spied on in an Obama-era dragnet.
He made those claims public in a press conference last week, before consulting the rest of the Intelligence Committee.
Rep. Jim Himes and Rep. Eric Swawell, both ranking Democrats on the committee, accused Nunes of tainting the investigation by failing to share important information with the rest of the group. Both called for him to step down as Committee leader, and Swawell suggested that Nunes was engaging in a “cover up” of evidence for the White House.
Nunes responded only by saying, cartoonishly, that “the investigation continues,” and refused to comment on whether it might be time for him to recuse himself, before climbing into his Mystery Machine and driving away.
Okay, so that’s not true, but the story is as bizarre as anything in a Saturday morning cartoon. When asked about whether his clandestine meeting on White House grounds was legitimate, Nunes said that everything was above-board, that he wasn’t sneaking around, and that multiple people were aware that he was lurking in the West Wing.
“Look, if I really wanted to, I could have snuck onto the grounds late at night and probably nobody would have seen me,” Nunes told CNN. “In fact, I stopped to talk to several people along the way.”
He still refused to produce sources for his claims.
Further complicating matters is a Washington Post report that Nunes cancelled meetings of the House Intelligence Committee not because he was embarrassed by his actions or sorting out his role in the investigation with House leadership, but because the White House wanted to block former acting Attorney General Sally Yates from testifying.
Yates, of course, played a key role in investigating former Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn, who had to step down from his position as Trump’s national security adviser after it emerged that he had spoken to the Russian Ambassador about sanctions leveled by the Obama Administration during Trump’s transition.
Rep. Paul Ryan may have to handle the problem, and reports suggest that he’s deciding whether to urge Nunes to step down from the committee and let another Republican handle the investigation. The Trump White House has not yet weighed in.
