Consider this another data point – another tumbler falling into place – in the hoary aftermath of Trump-Russia investigation by Robert Mueller.
Devin Nunes told Fox Business Network’s Lou Dobbs that “there’s more to come” after NSC Advisor Robert O’Brien blew out dozens of NSC staffers Friday.
Stop Lying Leaks. @DevinNunes praises Robert O’Brien for removing leakers at the NSC who have tried to endanger @realDonaldTrump’s Presidency. #MAGA #AmericaFirst #Dobbs pic.twitter.com/JXk3eeUuoJ
— Lou Dobbs (@LouDobbs) February 12, 2020
Among the reassigned were “call me Lt. Col.” Alexander Vindman and his brother, Yevgeny, who reportedly vetted John Bolton’s book, some of whose alleged observations just happened to be leaked to The New York Times. EU Ambassador Gordon Sondland, whose testimony at first condemned and then vindicated President Trump, was cashiered soon after the Senate acquitted the president.
“Call me Lt. Col.” Vindman and Sondland both testified at the Trump impeachment hearing. Both Vindman brothers know the CIA analyst and alleged “whistleblower” who was allowed to use hearsay evidence to be declared a “whistleblower.” The whistleblower report was used to start the impeachment process.
It was just a fine and fancy little knitting circle over at the NSC until the Friday Night Massacre when O’Brien cut a swath out of the staff. He is believed to have cut as many as 100 people with more reassignments expected.
As one NSC staffer fired in 2017 “for being loyal” to Trump, wrote in The Wall Street Journal Wednesday, “I was shocked to find that resistance seemed to be the NSC’s mission. Staffers were assigned to develop plans for ending U.S. involvement in Afghanistan. Instead they came up with reasons it couldn’t be done. Gen. H.R. McMaster, the national security adviser, delivered them to the president and explained why he couldn’t keep his campaign promises.”
In a video interview with The Washington Examiner, Nunes homed in on the firings of the pack of resisters at NSC and connected it to the targeting, ousting, and prosecution of General Michael Flynn during the Mueller investigation:
I think this is very relevant. … This is what General Flynn was going to do when he came in. This needed to be done three years ago. It’s what Flynn was planning to do as National Security Advisor. The size of the National Security staff was at one point over 500, I believe, and they were left with all sorts of Obama-era holdovers. That’s an example of having the fox guard the henhouse. So I’ve been saying very publicly for a long time – I’ve said it all sorts of different ways – but they should remove everybody from the White House grounds that was there pre-Trump and just isolate them somewhere else until you can figure out who’s doing the leaking.
General Flynn was planning to clean house at the National Security Council three and a half years ago, but was targeted by the FBI in an effort to resist Trump.
Nunes says “there’s more to come” on what the Mueller team “was actually doing” in the investigation. He said at the beginning Mueller would have known there was no Trump-Russia collusion. He believes the Mueller “investigation” is a gigantic obstruction trap. The Washington Examiner reported:
“So, what the hell did they do for two years?” the congressman said. “They set up an obstruction of justice trap, and they went after a whole bunch of people that now got sentenced. Some already served their time, and I think all of this has to come into question now,” he added.
Nunes did not share any specifics, but the origins of the Russia investigation are being reviewed by Attorney General William Barr’s hand-picked prosecutor from Connecticut, John Durham. The case against retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn recently took a wild turn, with the former White House national security advisor seeking to withdraw his guilty plea on a charge of lying to the FBI and the Justice Department changing its position on a recommended sentence.
General Flynn fell into such a trap. Former FBI chief James Comey admitted they’d targeted Flynn in the chaotic first days of the Trump White House and pretended their meeting was a typical briefing. Flynn pleaded guilty to “lying” to FBI agents about meeting with the Russian Ambassador – a perfectly legal and normal thing for an NSC advisor to do. In January, he rescinded his guilty plea. Sentencing has been postponed.
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