Patterico's Pontifications

3/23/2017

Nunes Spokesperson: Nunes Had No Idea What He Was Talking About

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 5:53 pm



They didn’t say that in so many words, mind you. But that’s what they said.

This is your big vindication:

The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Devin Nunes, R-Calif., does not know “for sure” whether President Donald Trump or members of his transition team were even on the phone calls or other communications now being cited as partial vindication for the president’s wiretapping claims against the Obama administration, according to a spokesperson.

“He said he’ll have to get all the documents he requested from the [intelligence community] about this before he knows for sure,” a spokesperson for Nunes said Thursday. Nunes was a member of the Trump transition team executive committee.

So the incidental collection of material relating to Trump’s team didn’t even necessarily involve any communications in which Trump’s team took part. In other words, for all this sh[vowel deleted]thead Nunes knows, the Big Reveal is people talking about Trump or members of his team?

Are you kidding me? This is what this clown held a press conference about?

Trumpalos

TRUMP VINDICATED!!!1!ELEVENTY!!!!11! NO TAKEBACKS ANYTHING ELSE IS JUST LAWYERS PARSING WORDS

/Trumpalos

If anyone here is vindicated, it’s me — since I warned people yesterday afternoon that Nunes appeared to be contradicting himself all over the place and was not inspiring confidence.

I’m willing to believe there was scandalous behavior on the part of many intelligence officials. That is a separate question from the idiot Donald Trump being even close to right about anything. Please keep claiming he was, Trumpalos. I enjoy watching you beclown yourselves.

[Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.]

74 Responses to “Nunes Spokesperson: Nunes Had No Idea What He Was Talking About”

  1. Ding.

    Patterico (115b1f)

  2. “I guess” does not inspire confidence, but plenty will seize on this like it’s gospel because of course they will.

    I guess so.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  3. Always trust Hemingway content at the Federalist…

    “Imagine that President George W. Bush had listened in on Obama transition team discussions and spread that information throughout the bureaucracy. Can you imagine how outraged the entire press corps would have been? And rightly so! Abusing foreign surveillance machinery to collect and spread information on political opponents is wrong. Selectively leaking that information via a coordinated campaign to a receptive media complex in order to give an unsubstantiated impression that a political opponent is illegitimate or compromised is also not great.

    If the laws and regulations guiding the collection of information by spy agencies were violated by the party in power to hurt the opposing party, that’s banana republic stuff. It matters not whether the Trump team were officially the targets, whether the targets were designed to obscure the real targets, or whether it truly was incidental collection. The effect was that members of the Trump team had their privacy invaded, and that the information gathered was disseminated and even leaked to the public by the Obama-led bureaucracy.”

    http://thefederalist.com/2017/03/23/heres-why-nunes-obama-spying-revelations-are-such-a-big-deal/

    Colonel Haiku (8d00c4)

  4. The previous administration subpoened James risen and risen, accessed atkinsons laptop remotely, went through the entire ap index to find one source (which they already knew was the source) they brought enemies of the united states like mousavian via trita Paris at niac, so this claim doesn’t seem surprising to me,

    narciso (d1f714)

  5. at the end of the day food stamp changed the rules so failmerica’s corrupt fbi-cia-nsa spytrash could disseminate all of this crap far and wide and unmask all the non-foreign people

    ex-military weirdo michael flynn can tell you all about that

    that’s your smoking gun and Mr. Nunes knows it

    another clue?

    Meghan McCain’s disgrace-to-his-uniform coward daddy (sleazy ex-military weirdo John McCain) is aiming his criticism at… Mr. Nunes

    what does that tell you lol

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  6. Always trust Hemingway content at the Federalist…

    The problem is, the Hemingway content is premised on Nunes not being full of shit. Which he appears to be.

    Patterico (115b1f)

  7. It tells me that the election of Trump erased any last vestige of respect for the Presidency. It went from being iconic to being a pinup. lol

    nk (dbc370)

  8. The title of her piece is “Here’s Why Nunes’ Obama Spying Revelations Are Such A Big Deal.” But that assumes there are “Nunes Spying Revelations” when his own spokesman is saying Nunes’s revelations may well be utter horseshit.

    (If you quote my comment, you may get moderated if you alter nothing. Fairly warned be thee say I and all that.)

    Patterico (115b1f)

  9. So the incidental collection of material relating to Trump’s team didn’t even necessarily involve any communications in which Trump’s team took part

    I knew hat. It was conversations in which either Trump or some associate of Trump took part in…

    OR

    ….in which their names came up.

    Sammy Finkelman (3ea6b3)

  10. i’m curious why disney propaganda slut mike levine doesn’t report the exact question what prompted Mr. Nunes’ spokesman to answer that, “He (Mr. Nunes) said he’ll have to get all the documents he requested from the [intelligence community] about this before he knows for sure.”

    aren’t you curious what that question was

    isn’t it odd the disney propaganda slut doesn’t mention it

    i think it’s “gosh-awfully odd senator” as harvardtrash milksop Neil Gorsuch might say

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  11. I assume Nunes saw some intelligence reports circulated that were based on these conversations. Surely he would know if there was anything, in at least one of them, that indicated that someone close to Trump was parrty to the conversation, or are these IC reports so delphic that you can’t tell?

    Did anybody lie to Nunes, by the way?

    Sammy Finkelman (3ea6b3)

  12. I listened to his statement yesterday and he sounded like a guy who had no idea what he was talking about.

    Patterico (115b1f)

  13. pro-tip: anytime you see a disney propaganda slut TOTALLY DESTROY a republican with a passage what only has two words in quotes it’s probably a good idea to put your “critical thinking” cap on especially if it’s stylish to where disneytart emma watson would be prompted to remark that “my goodness that’s a stylish critical thinking cap I think I’ll take off all my clothes”

    The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Devin Nunes, R-Calif., does not know “for sure” whether President Donald Trump or members of his transition team were even on the phone calls or other communications now being cited as partial vindication for the president’s wiretapping claims against the Obama administration, according to a spokesperson.

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  14. That’s a far point, its not like Disney has omitted material facts in the past, wait they have consistently

    https://pjmedia.com/trending/2017/03/22/dems-claim-trump-team-not-wiretapped-while-wiretapped/

    narciso (d1f714)

  15. I guess we’ll see, happyfeet. A large part of my opinion on this is based on my impressions of Nunes from seeing his own statements out of his own mouth. There could be something there but I think it’s more likely to be a giant fizzle.

    Patterico (115b1f)

  16. i feel you i really do

    republican congresspeople are disgracefully ridiculous and inept clowns we definitely got a refresher in that today from Paul Ryan’s clown show

    but I keep going back to my “at the end of the day” in comment #5

    that’s a three-pack-a-day gun right there

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  17. Who knew? Who authorized? Who unmasked?

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  18. Evidence we can’t see is good when it benefits Trump.

    Patterico (115b1f)

  19. “Political tags – such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth – are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire.”

    — Robert A. Heinlein

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  20. Few and far between, my congressman is giving up his taxpayer finance ed plan. Who else has a sane rep?

    There hasn’t been any real evidence on either side, but the dos finding and the dodge dossier well there isn’t a large enough popper scooped to handle

    narciso (d1f714)

  21. Petty comments based on an enormous dislike of a person are never tedious or trite.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  22. ‘You ask for a miracle’ illustrating the category error of a court.

    libertyunyielding.com/2017/03/23/gorsuch-nearly-survived-hearings-unscathed-scotus-stepped

    narciso (d1f714)

  23. ““The intelligence is said to leave no doubt the Obama administration, in its closing days, was using the cover of legitimate surveillance on foreign targets to spy on President-elect Trump, according to sources. The key to that conclusion is the unmasking of selected U.S. persons whose names appeared in the intelligence, the sources said, adding that the paper trail leaves no other plausible purpose for the unmasking other than to damage the incoming Trump administration.”

    — James Rosen

    http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/03/23/potential-smoking-gun-showing-obama-administration-spied-on-trump-team-source-says.html

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  24. You are an annoying person in manner and tone of writing, but I respect what you are doing in looking hard at Trump.

    But, as a lawyer, how do you succeed in arguing a case when you are such an annoying fellow in argumentation? Are you able to suspend your personal feelings when arguing criminal matters and argue dispassionately? Do you believe that ranting and calling people who disagree with you “Trumpalos” is effective in convincing them or those who judge them? Do American judges and juries habitually accept offensive arguments? Do you refer to witnesses for obviously guilty defendants as “those assholes”?

    As far as I can tell, being a foreigner, the more people insult Trump and his ‘Trumpalos’ (Trumpkins?) the more they succeed.

    Fred Z (05d938)

  25. “”The Washington Post’s Bob Woodward warned… that there are people from the Obama administration who could be facing criminal charges for unmasking the names of Trump transition team members from surveillance of foreign officials.”
    “During an interview on Fox News, Woodward said that if that information about the unmasking is true, ‘it is a gross violation.'”
    He said it isn’t Trump’s assertion, without proof, that his predecessor wiretapped Trump Tower that is of concern, but rather that intelligence officials named the Americans being discussed in intercepted
    communications….

    “[T]he idea that there was intelligence value here is really thin,” Woodward said. “It’s, again, down the middle, it is not what Trump said, but this could be criminal on the part of people who decided, oh, let’s name these people.”

    He drove the point home, adding that “under the rules, that name is supposed to be blanked out, and so you’ve got a real serious problem potentially of people in the Obama administration passing around this highly classified gossip.”

    http://althouse.blogspot.com/2017/03/the-washington-posts-bob-woodward.html

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  26. And after all, what would rosen know about that, a capricious round the clock surveillance for doing his job

    narciso (d1f714)

  27. What did the IRS targeting of conservative groups deserve to be? A major issue, potential criminality? Or a fizzle?

    What it is allowed to be by a bureaucracy, administration or the MSM doesn’t always relate to what it SHOULD have been.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  28. The NSA tripwires were set off whenever Trump associates mentioned “Treadstone”.

    So as a Trumpalo am I supposed to go out and buy Orange Faygo? I’m putting hatchet man stickers all over the EPA parking lot.

    Pinandpuller (f626ee)

  29. @12. Precisely, Patterico.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  30. @19. Ditto.

    You can’t make this stuff up.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  31. I still do not get why Nunes thought it necessary to personally share the “reports” with Trump. Wouldn’t the president be receiving reports such as this from the IC as a matter of routine???

    Nunes certainly did not distinguish himself on Hannity just now. It seems that the “big deal” to Nunes is the unprecedented unmasking and the unusually wide dissemination of intel.

    Ed from SFV (3400a5)

  32. Well if that not a BFd@solon of scranton, i don’t know what i

    narciso (d1f714)

  33. He told everyone about it, its as transparent as anything that happened in the last six monthes

    narciso (d1f714)

  34. @32. C’mon, Ed. The WH funneled the ‘leaked’ stuff to him under the guise of a whistleblower, Nunes briefed the Speaker- not the committee or the ranking member– then scurried to the WH w/a fig leaf for Queeg. You know, like Cheney planting the NYT story then bringing his own plant up as corroboration on MTP.

    Nunes sold his integrity cheap… but then, that’s ‘the art of the deal.’

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  35. “Trumpalos”??

    More name-calling. That living room must be a hoot.

    And Why is Obama’s changing the rules on intelligence dissemination just before he left no big deal?

    Harkin (b2805d)

  36. Yes and why does the nitwit Schiff continue to hang on to “the Trump campaign colluded with…” crap that has been debunked?

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  37. That’s not how it worked Joe Wilson leaked to ackerman, this bogus report to which Cheney chose to resonate some understanding with miller and Novak

    narciso (d1f714)

  38. His six foot invisible rabbit is a bear,

    narciso (d1f714)

  39. I’m guessing based on my somewhat limited (though more than most here) knowledge of how raw intel data is gathered and then passed along to the folks deemed to need it.

    What I suspect Nunes has seen are summaries of raw intel data produced by one or more agencies — my guess is that its been passed to him by Pompeo at CIA. The summaries are not the source documents — they are just summaries. The source documents may be analyst reports. They may be transcriptions of foreign language intercepts. The summary may include nothing more than the identities of the persons intercepted, without any specifics of the nature of the communication.

    It may be that all Nunes has seen is a list of US persons intercepted — which is the problem when its an NSA intercept because US persons aren’t supposed to be “unmasked”.

    If the recipient of the summary needs more specific information, and has a justifiable purpose for receiving that information, they request the source documents. Those documents may or may not be the “raw” intel deta, depending on its form.

    Summaries are shared among agencies. Source data only goes to specific individuals with a “need to know” the information since its classified due to the manner in which it is obtained.

    So the CIA has likely obtained summaries circulating among agencies for the time period at the end of the Obama Administration, and the summaries have unmasked Trump transition officials.

    But only the source data will give you the specifics about what the data is, how it was collected, and the details of the interception.

    NSA is reported as being the agency that is delivering documents to Nunes tomorrow. NSA is the “super snoop” that vacuums up just about everything that passes over the airwaves.

    shipwreckedcrew (56b591)

  40. When the deems are in charge its defense, when they are out of office its mma
    https://www.brown.edu/Research/Understanding_the_Iran_Contra_Affair/h-thereport.php

    narciso (d1f714)

  41. What is curious is no real content has been unveiled, and we’re not talking scruples because they have none.

    narciso (d1f714)

  42. When the question is of Obama duplicity it’s always a balance between if he read about in the paper or went straight out to golf trusting that Jarret did the dirty without coaching.

    papertiger (c8116c)

  43. If its beghaxi fast and furious or the Iran deal assume he’s lying.

    What is concerning is not only keeping nourazeh, ayerle and limpet, but is thing of hiring Brian hook for planning position

    narciso (d1f714)

  44. If the always elusive smoking gun actually appears it’ll be a first

    crazy (d3b449)

  45. Nunes needs to go. This so-called investigation is screaming for an independent investigator. If we don’t get one, it’s merely a sham.

    Tillman (a95660)

  46. So now it’s full circle… back to the original sham of Russian hacking the election. You are a real piece of work, tillman.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  47. Hanging first, trial later,coronello, how else do they explain losing after spending 1.2 billion dollars

    narciso (823adb)

  48. The non republican no
    trumpers would rather have a boosh or something screwing the people over. What a bunch of sissies they are. These people will turn and run first sign of trouble. All these perverts can do is off themselves. lmao. Great humor from you American hating gypsies.

    mg (31009b)

  49. Amazing how many mccain,graham and ryan toadies don’t want Americans first, that is why they wanted booosh or someone just as bought and paid for, you know some fricking hack attorney.

    mg (31009b)

  50. Hey no trumpers, how is it being on the same team as maxine waters? two peas in a pod.

    mg (31009b)

  51. All the special investigators are tanned and rested after eight years. Like Uma Thurman in Kill Bill, waking up from a good sleep. Which way to the P*ssy Wagon?

    Pinandpuller (e76082)

  52. There’s a simple explanation. They’re all lying.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  53. What is curious is no real content has been unveiled, and we’re not talking scruples because they have none.

    Leaks from the Intelligence Committees are not tolerated. Or at least haven’t been in the past. Maybe it’s all different after Obama, but Congressmen have been kicked off the committee for telling their wives something.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  54. mg is just one or two missed capitalizations and a few stray punctuation marks away from going full happyfeet.

    You *never* go full happyfeet.

    Demosthenes (09f714)

  55. Hey no trumpers, how is it being on the same team as maxine waters? two peas in a pod.

    mg

    I guess on that one thing, Trump, there’s common ground. If that’s really your metric for what side people are on, look at Trump’s approval rating and consider what that means for your side.

    Dustin (ba94b2)

  56. Hey no trumpers, how is it being on the same team as maxine waters? two peas in a pod.

    Except we’re not. Just because we don’t support Trump doesn’t mean we support Maxine Waters.

    Using your logic, I could just as easily ask the Trumpers how it feels being on the same side as the alt-right.

    Chuck Bartowski (211c17)

  57. Chuck, you must always remember to Trump sycophants everything is binary.

    Sean (a93c23)

  58. Chuck, you must always remember to Trump sycophants everything is binary.

    I know, and it has become tiresome to keep correcting them when they pull stuff like that. I’m sure one of them will come around and accuse me of “virtue signaling”.

    Chuck Bartowski (bc1c71)

  59. The transcripts of Trump’s phone conversations with Australia’s PM Malcolm Turnbull and Germany’s Angela Merkel were intercepted and made public. The issue here is not whether it was a wiretap or surveillance, it is the unmasking Trump’s name and even worse, making classified information public.

    Corky Boyd (d7b434)

  60. Yeah, you may be taking what the spokesperson said, divorcing it from the context, and then putting your wonderfully subtle spin on things. Might want to go back and read, and listen, to what Nunes was saying again. The issue is dual track.

    Estarcarus (126cdd)

  61. Ironic that people with fact free bias opinions of what Nunez claims to know are
    saying he is full of it not knowing and thing.

    Even more ironic is same outrage by same people over IRS targeting but somehow this use of Govt Power
    To violate our 4 th Amendment Rules guys are not important.

    Deranged. Seriously de-rain-g-d.

    Color me whatever but Nunes sounds the least partisan of all the major players and he has no reason to embarrass himself by lying about an NSA source.

    Fact is Obama was spying on Trump. Whether at its heart illegal even if executed legally is the real issue. Maybe there are
    Good reasons for all the spying Obama did … but so far no one has any evidence as such. Without that criminal evidence, one presumes a t was political targeting AGAIN.

    Folks need to consult mental health professionals on this Trump thing. Delusional and irrational level of hatred and pure spiritual poison.

    Blah (489f88)

  62. Alternative fact is, Obama was spying on Trump.

    Leviticus (efada1)

  63. #63 I love sleazy lawyer semantic arguments that are literally correct but almost certainly not accurate.

    Wether direct or indirect or reverse targeting, Team Obama was clearly spying on Team Trump using the Intelligence a gathering apparatus of the State.

    You want to make a moral and ethical case for it .. be my guest.

    But what
    You
    Write is 100 % bs

    Blah (489f88)

  64. “Correct, but not accurate.” And I’m the one engaged in semantics?

    If you knew what you were talking about, you would phrase your argument in terms of validity vs. soundness. But you are just here to defend the indefensible. If Trump didn’t want to get muddy, he shouldn’t have been wrestling with Russian pigs.

    Leviticus (efada1)

  65. The Political Class Murders Itself

    http://thezman.com/wordpress/?p=9899

    It’s now clear what happened. The Obama people started spying on Trump once he had the nomination or perhaps even earlier. They may have started earlier with an eye on helping the Republicans knock him off in the primary, but that’s not clear. They figured that Clinton was a lock so they were not careful about covering their tracks. The Clinton people are as dirty as it gets so they were not going to be ratting on anyone over it. If anything, they would expand on it.

    This is where the Russian hacking story comes into the picture. Once disaster struck and Team Obama realized they had a problem, they needed cover, so they started with the Russian hacking nonsense. They would then claim that it was all an accident and they were just trying to prevent Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale from attacking our democracy! It’s also why Obama signed a retroactive Executive Order giving cover to the intel agencies for their domestic spying activities. They were creating a cover story.

    The complication is that it appears that at least one person has perjured himself over this and that one person is FBI Director Comey. There’s no way to square his testimony with these new revelations. The best he can do is split hairs and claim he was not part of the spying effort. Of course, there’s no way to touch him as he runs the FBI. In fact, there’s no way to investigate any of the intelligence organizations

    Leon (168f33)

  66. And now, a new wrinkle.

    BREAKING: The White House Leak Was Just Discovered And Look Who It Is!!!

    http://redstatewatcher.com/article.asp?id=69677

    According to reports, Senator John McCain has been fingered as the White House Leak and was reportedly easedroppong on President Trump’s classified phone.

    If true, would this surprise anyone?

    Leon (168f33)

  67. If true, would this surprise anyone?

    If you actually read the story, which I regret doing, you’ll see it links to this story on a different wingnut site:
    http://truepundit.com/exclusive-white-house-fingers-john-mccain-as-media-leak-believes-u-s-senator-eavesdropped-on-trumps-classified-phone/

    Dated Feb 21. So you tell me, after a month, do you think this is true?

    Davethulhu (fab944)

  68. According to reports, Senator John McCain has been fingered as the White House Leak and was reportedly easedroppong on President Trump’s classified phone.

    Do you really believe this?

    The stuff Trump’s fans say about Mccain (especially the new lies about his time as a POW) make the lies about Cruz’s family seem warm and friendly. It’s not healthy to Dear Leader -ize Trump like this.

    After the Lois Lerner stuff it wouldn’t really surprise me that much of the Obama administration did something unethical regarding political opponents, yet Trump got full access to the facts and could make a case a lot better than stammering to paraphrase something he saw on TV.

    One of the things I was hoping for from a GOP return to power was some justice regarding the IRS scandal, but for some reason I’m not seeing movement in this direction, which is disturbing given Trump’s own comments about the subject. Maybe they don’t want this fixed. Maybe they prefer to muddy the waters than to make things transparent and open.

    Dustin (ba94b2)

  69. Even after Friday’s healthcare disaster and Nunes virtually hourly-changing story, Ryan is standing by Nunes. Somebody take that shovel away. Or simply relieve him from duty.

    “You let a whole column get stalled and strafed because of a couple of jackasses? What the hell’s the matter with you?” – Gen. Patton [ George C. Scott] ‘Patton’ 1970

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  70. http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/30/politics/putin-russia-us-election-denial/index.html

    Asked directly on Thursday whether Russia interfered in the election, Putin said: “Read my lips: No.”

    Sammy Finkelman (6f9f42)

  71. right now coward McCain’s focused on slopping failmerica’s corrupt sleazy pentagon piggies

    Sen. John McCain said Wednesday he will do whatever it takes to make sure that military spending is increased in the next spending bill even if that means shutting down the government.

    happyfeet (28a91b)

  72. We had something about Nunes and about Flynn in a more recent thread

    Sammy Finkelman (6f9f42)

  73. Noted Coward And Ex-Military Weirdo John McCain Seeks Last-Ditch Deal To Avoid ‘Nuclear’ Fight On Gorsuch

    Two Democrats announced they’ll vote to confirm Neil Gorsuch to the U.S. Supreme Court as GOP Senator John McCain said he’s trying to reach a “long-term” deal to allow confirmation while saving the minority party’s ability to block future high court nominations.

    happyfeet (28a91b)


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