The House Intelligence Committee voted along party lines yesterday to release a memo put together by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), which he says shows a gross misuse of power by the FBI and the Justice Department in their surveillance of the Trump campaign.
Trump and Nunes have both pushed for the release of the memo despite the fact that Associate Attorney General Stephen Boyd — a Trump appointee — has said that releasing the classified memo would be “extraordinarily reckless.”
On Boston Public Radio Tuesday, national security expert Juliette Kayyem called the memo “inaccurate and basically an attempt to undermine our law enforcement agencies.”
While not one for conspiracy theories, Kayyem prefaced, she said that Nunes’ desire to release this memo despite the warnings from the DOJ could indicate that he is working for the Russians.
“I cannot explain why a Republican congressman from California has decided that he is going to do Putin’s bidding in the Trump Russia investigation. He does nothing else. It is not like he is known for anything else. He has taken his position on the House Intelligence Committee and essentially has used it as a way to amplify the sort of pro-Putin policies," said Kayyem, "When people question what’s motivating him, I think it’s fair to put on the table that he may be compromised by the Russians."
She continued, “Devin Nunes has spent a good part of the year trying to undermine the Trump Russia investigation, so much so that he should have been recused from any involvement with the investigation.”
Kayyem believes that other GOP members are hoping that the memo will become a distraction from the impending disclosures that could be coming from Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
“In typical fashion of the House Republicans, they’re ignoring the subject matter experts and getting this out to create what is the echo chamber of right-wing media,” said Kayyem.
