Let's file this one under Things That Shouldn't Surprise Us, But Still Do! We know that the House Intelligence Committee's Russia investigation is a dysfunctional disaster. We know that Devin Nunes is willing to destroy the FBI and the entire Justice Department as long as he protects the president. Hell, we even reported that someone from HPSCI [cough, cough DEVIN] leaked Senator Mark Warner's texts to Fox News in an effort to make him look like he was plotting with Russian oligarchs and Christopher Steele.
We shouldn't be shocked that someone from HPSCI gave details of a witness's testimony to Trump's BFF Michael Cohen. AND YET WE ARE.
Back in December, we told you about David Kramer, an Eastern European expert and former Assistant Secretary of State who was dispatched by John McCain in 2016 to meet with Christopher Steele in England. Kramer is a patriot who engaged in a legitimate inquiry into Trump's Russian ties, so naturally that made him Public Enemy #1 for Devin Nunes. On December 19, Kramer voluntarily appeared before the Committee and spent several hours listening to Devin Nunes shout, "GIVE US THE SOURCES!" For reasons unclear -- probably mad cow disease -- Nunes was convinced that Steele had revealed all his Russian sources to Kramer. Just like they teach you in Spy Craft 101!
Now, we know that Devin Nunes is just a simple Udder Grabber, but he's been in Congress long enough to know that leaking witness testimony is not a thing. And we can't prove that Congressman Nunes is the one who leaked Kramer's testimony, but the guy who ninja'd out of an uber to get leaked info from the White House to give to the White House and immediately held a press conference on the White House lawn pretending to "break" that news is at the top of our list of suspects!
Via The Daily Beast:
A few days after Kramer’s testimony, his lawyer, Larry Robbins, got a strange call. The call was from Stephen Ryan, a lawyer who represents Trump’s longtime personal attorney Michael Cohen. Cohen is facing scrutiny from special counsel Robert Mueller and congressional investigators regarding potential coordination between Trump’s team and the Kremlin. He featured prominently in the Steele dossier -- the document that Kramer handled -- and is suing BuzzFeed for publishing it.
Ryan told Robbins he reached out because someone from the House told him that Robbins’ client, Kramer, had information about the Steele dossier that could help Cohen.
Robbins declined to help. Ryan then asked Robbins not to tell the House intel committee about their conversation.
UH HUH.
Let's break it down here! Michael Cohen is in civil litigation against the publishers of the Steele Dossier. Michael Cohen is being investigated by various congressional committees for his role in the Russian electoral hack. Michael Cohen is facing legal jeopardy for paying off a pornstar during the presidential campaign. Michael Cohen is Donald Trump's personal lawyer and has said, "I will always protect Mr. Trump." And Robert Mueller is so far up his ass with the Russia investigation that Michael Cohen hasn't sat down since New Year's.
And yet someone -- SOMEONE -- in the House leaked the details of Kramer's testimony to Cohen, whose own superlawyer called up Kramer's counsel and said, "Hey, we heard from our pals at HPSCI that you have the inside track on that Dossier. Wanna hook a brother up? ... No? Okay, well let's keep this convo on the DL, cool?"
But wait, there's more! When Kramer's lawyer wrote a letter to HPSCI complaining about the leak, his client was immediately slapped with a subpoena to appear again before the committee, this time under oath. Ten minutes after Kramer was served, news of the subpoena broke on Fox, followed by the inevitable wave of online abuse from the wingnutosphere.
WHAT THE FUCK, DEVIN!
Naturally, HPSCI Republicans deny that they have anything to do with these leaks, insisting that Adam Schiff is the real leaker, the DOJ is in the tank for Hillary, and there is NO RUSSIA.
Emily Hytha, a spokesperson for Rep. Michael Conaway, who is supervising the probe, said witness testimony was not shared improperly. (The testimony was deemed committee-sensitive, according to a committee source, but not classified.)
“Any accusation that a witness's testimony was shared with another witness or their lawyer is unequivocally false,” she said.
Well, that settles it. SONSABITCHES.
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[ The Daily Beast / CNN ]
IIRC, hannover fist is a character in the 1981 animated film 'heavy metal'
Nunes is in it up to his ears. It's driven by desperation. Who knows? If they stay smart and coordinated, they may just get away with it. Riiiiiight.