WHY THE HELL ARE REPUBLICANS DYING ON THIS HILL TO DEFEND CARTER PAGE?

sharpest Russian knife in the drawer

On Friday night, Devin Nunes, with a bizarrely satisfied grin on his face, went on Fox News to tell everybody how proud he was of his itty bitty sad memo. It was unclear why he was proud, since the memo was an object of mockery from the second it was published, but then again, it's always unclear why Devin Nunes is proud. In that appearance, Nunes said it's pretty obvious his memo uncovered FISA abuses, and that Carter Page isn't the type of person we should be doing "wire tapps" to. (Nunes also said the stories about him not reading the underlying intel his memo is based on were fake news, then immediately confirmed he hadn't read the underlying intel. He's not a bright boy.)

Here's the key pull quote:

I don't believe that somebody like Mr. Page should be a target of the FBI.

All righty then!

Of course, life comes at Devin Nunes real fast, because  Time magazine broke news the very next night of a letter Carter Page sent in 2013, where he said this:

“Over the past half year, I have had the privilege to serve as aninformal advisor to the staff of the Kremlinin preparation for their Presidency of the G-20 Summit next month, where energy issues will be a prominent point on the agenda,” the letter reads.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha OH MY GOD. It sure is unfair when we use the powers of the US intelligence apparatus to spy on Russian intelligence assets who literally call themselves Kremlin advisers.

And it's super uncool to spy on people who were recruited by a ring of Russian spies in New York way back in 2013, spies who incidentally thought Carter Page was a big dumb idiot. According to an excerpt from Luke Harding's Collusion , published in Politico, Page was "vehemently pro-Kremlin" as long ago as 1998 . According to Harding, former colleagues of Page had to pick their jaws up off the floor when they found out he was advising the Trump campaign on foreign policy, considering how Page's allegiance was not to America, but seemingly to Vladimir Putin.

It's certainly fucked up for America to spy on idiots who went to Moscow to deliver a commencement speech in July of 2016, while working for the Trump campaign, because Russian government officials thought it would be a good idea to bring a Trump idiot to Russia. As Harding notes, the Steele Dossier alleges Page's July 2016 Moscow trip actually happened for secret Kremlin reasons. And has the Steele Dossier been proven wrong? Heck nope! 

Anyway, the dossier says Page met on that trip with a Putin deputy named Igor Sechin, a man Carter Page had written gushing blog posts about in the past, because of course he had. And what did they allegedly talk about? That's right, it was getting Trump to lift the Russian sanctions right after Russia elected Trump president. There was also allegedly a bribe involving a stake in the Russian oil giant Rosneft.

(Weird how Trump refuses to implement the Russian sanctions Congress passed almost unanimously, right?)

The dossier alleges Page also met with another Putin guy, Igor Diveykin, who told him the Kremlin had kompromat to share on Hillary Clinton, and OH BY THE WAY ALSO the Kremlin had kompromat on Donald Trump. They were just saying, in the friendliest Russian spy way possible! As Harding explains, "This was blackmail, pure and simple."

So golly gee, why would the FBI eavesdrop on somebody like Carter Page? Why would multiple FBI and DOJ officials agree that was a good idea? Why would FOUR SEPARATE FISA JUDGES agree with the surveillance requests? We cannot for the life of us imagine, it must be a conspiracy.

Months ago, on the Chris Hayes MSNBC program, Carter Page declared in his meandering idiot word salad way that he was very excited because one day soon, Paul Ryan would allow the GOP to expose the ways the FBI colluded with Hillary Clinton and the DODGY DOSSIER to murder his very own civil rights. At the time, nobody knew what the fuck he was talking about.

But that is exactly what has now happened. Devin Nunes pulled a full-of-shit memo out of his B-hole, and Paul Ryan signed off on the process that led to its release. A memo about Carter Page, A LITERAL ACTUAL RUSSIAN INTELLIGENCE ASSET, OH MY GOD, being very unfairly spied on by the FBI.

Did Carter Page have a promise from Paul Ryan all those months ago? If so, why? Is Paul Ryan compromised? What does the Kremlin have on him? What does the Kremlin have on Devin Nunes?

WHY THE FUCK ARE REPUBLICANS DYING ON THIS HILL TO DEFEND CARTER PAGE?

It is just very weird, if you ask us.

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[ Time / Politico ]