Nunes threatens ninth criminal referral, says Trump-Russia conspiracy peddlers are 'possessed'
Rep. Devin Nunes threatened to send a ninth criminal referral regarding the Trump-Russia investigation to the Justice Department if he does not receive information he requested about British ex-spy Christopher Steele, and accused those who still push the Russian collusion conspiracy of being "possessed." The California Republican sent letters Friday to FBI Director Christopher Wray and U.S. Attorney John Durham, who is conducting a review of the origins of the Russia inquiry. He asked about records the Bureau received in October 2016 that show a top official at the State Department undermining Steele's credibility. Steele authored a dossier, filled with salacious and unverified claims about President Trump's ties to Russia, that was used by the FBI to obtain Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act or FISA warrants to wiretap onetime Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.
In a Fox News interview on Sunday, Nunes said someone at the FBI appears to have been "determined to hide" then-Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Kathleen Kavalec's notes from both the FISA court and Congress. In the last session, when Nunes was chairman, the House Intelligence Committee conducted its own investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. "So they have until Friday to get it to us, and if they don't, we will make our ninth criminal referral," Nunes told host Maria Bartiromo. "Basically, we won't know exactly who at the FBI obstructed justice, but — Durham or the Department of Justice should be able to figure it out because there's e-mails that went around, and somebody decided not to give it to the Congress."
Nunes sent a notification in April to the Justice Department about eight criminal referrals targeting individuals tied to the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation, including some that had to do with leaks. On May 1, Attorney General William Barr said the Justice Department has opened "multiple criminal leak investigations" related to the handling of the Trump-Russia investigation. A week later, notes taken by Kavalec, obtained and released by conservative group Citizens United through open-records litigation, revealed that she had a meeting with Steele on Oct. 11, 2016 — 10 days before the first Carter Page warrant application was submitted. Kavalec's notes said Steele admitted he was encouraged by his client, the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee, to get his research out before the 2016 election. The notes, which were sent to the FBI, show Kavalec believed at least some of Steele’s allegations to be false.
GOP lawmakers have demanded answers about the FBI's knowledge about Steele's "political motivations," including Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey Graham sending letters to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz requesting documents. Nunes said Kavalec's notes should have been a "big red flag." He also lamented how many Americans appear to have become numb to the controversy because there have been so many of them. "I think a lot of times Americans are just becoming tone deaf to this because it's just like one grenade after another. It's, like, how many times do we have to see this Russia hoax, how bad it was and how really what you see – I think the only way to define this, Maria, is we have people that are possessed in this country, that continue to perpetuate this Russia hoax," he said.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/nunes-threatens-ninth-criminal-referral-says-trump-russia-conspiracy-peddlers-are-possessed