The Fresno BEE editorial today (3/26) is titled: Russia-Trump probe is in chaos, and Nunes is to blame. It begins:
By our yardstick, Rep. Devin Nunes had a terrible week fulfilling his duties as chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence…. Nothing he did last week served the nation’s best interests.
First,
with millions of Americans, both Democrats and Republicans, wanting the committee to provide clarity on Russia’s involvement in the election and whether members of Trump’s campaign conspired with the Russians to weaken Clinton’s prospects, Nunes tried to steer the committee’s focus to identifying leakers of information embarrassing to President Trump.
It is an old trick in Washington, D.C., and one that rarely, if ever, works. Just ask Richard Nixon.
Then, the editorial makes clear the constitutional issue Nunes seems to have forgotten:
Then, Nunes – a Trump transition team member – betrayed the Constitution and its separation of powers by running like an errand boy to the White House to share with Trump classified information that he had received.
After describing Nunes’ press conference about the classified information, the editorial notes that “these events Wednesday ambushed other committee members. Nunes had not shared the information with them before spilling his guts to the president and to House Speaker Paul Ryan…..”
The editorial concludes:
Americans can distinguish between a hard-nosed fact-finder and a surrogate who shares information with a White House under FBI investigation.
Bring on the bipartisan special select committee – as was done with Benghazi – and a special prosecutor.