Devin Nunes … Devin Nunes … the name seems sort of familiar. As if he used to actually be someone.
The former head of the House Intelligence Committee spent the last two years blocking every. single. subpoena for witnesses or documentation in the House version of the Trump-Russia investigation. He also drafted up “memos” intended to provide Trump with an absolutely ridiculous “no collusion” report available for reference in any given Twitter fit. But all that was pretty much a sideline of Nunes’ effort to simply derail the investigation—a project that is still underway.
There was Nunes’ infamous leap from a moving Uber so that he could sneak into the White House and collaborate with a White House attorney and a Michael Flynn flunky on a completely made-up “unmasking scandal.” When that series of chest-pounding press conferences blew up in Nunes’ face, requiring him to get a ceremonial cleansing from Trey Gowdy and the GOP-controlled House Ethics Committee, Nunes put himself in a state of pretend-recusal. He would no longer lead public sessions about the Russia investigation, but behind the scenes he retained absolute control. While he was at it, the man who claimed to be so concerned about the “unmasking” of potential suspects thought nothing of revealing FBI field resources and methods, even when doing so put agents at risk and imperiled the ability of the FBI to conduct operations.
Now, in the twilight of his career, Nunes has joined up with fellow war-on-the-FBI veteran Jim Jordan to reopen an investigation into whether the FBI was right to launch the Russia investigation in the first place. This is a continuation of the same investigation that Republicans announced last year as a joint effort between the Judiciary Committee and the Oversight Committee. An investigation that, despite the leadership of a team of Republican “all-stars” that included Nunes, Jordan, Gowdy, and Bob Goodlatte concluded that, grumble, the appointment of Robert Mueller was by the book, there was no evidence that he was acting in a prejudicial manner, and his final report “must be trusted."
As Politico reports, Nunes and Jordan want to reopen this investigation, even though it was conducted and closed entirely under GOP control, so they can continue digging for ways to demean the FBI and distract from the results of the Russia investigation. But, well, it’s kind of sad:
Unlike their Democratic counterparts, they will not have the authority to set up hearings, compel the attendance of witnesses, or use subpoenas to get their hands on relevant documents.
In theory, the minority party isn’t shut out of investigations. Its members can still request witnesses. Still submit subpoenas. Still put hearings on the House schedule.
Only, throughout 2017 and 2018, Nunes blocked every such effort by Democrats, leading to that triumphant moment when he simply declared the Russia investigation done, despite three dozen uncalled witnesses on the list and despite exactly zero subpoenas having been issued. Then Nunes and the Republicans on the committee drafted an it’s-all-good “report” for Trump that Democrats did not even see until it was released to the public.
“Typically in the minority, the administration is somewhat collaborative,” a senior Democratic aide said. But, the aide cautioned, “that wasn’t the case with us. Every request we made was basically ignored.”
Against that background of thoroughly burned bridges, it’s a bit hard to conceive that Democratic committee chairs would see a request from either Nunes or Jordan as anything but an excuse for a hearty laugh and an opportunity to practice jump shots at the circular file.
Deprived of his ability to pretend to investigate things, Nunes may have to return to his previous tack: pretending to be a dairy farmer.