Rep. Devin Nunes’ International Conspiracy Quest: Wherever Nunes Goes, Trump and Scandal Follow…
A new report from the Daily Beast described how Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) worked closely with Lev Parnas, the Rudy Giuliani associate currently under federal indictment for campaign finance violations, to help arrange meetings in Europe as part of Nunes’ efforts to discredit the investigation of Russian contacts within President Donald Trump’s campaign.
Congressional records showed Nunes took a trip to Europe from November 30th to December 3rd of 2018, during which he was accompanied by three staffers at a taxpayer expense of over $63,000. The travel came as Nunes, in his role on the House Intelligence Committee, was working to investigate and muddle the origins of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian election meddling.
“When Rep. Devin Nunes isn’t donning his tinfoil hat and spouting conspiracy theories in defense of President Trump, he’s using taxpayer resources to pal around Europe with now indicted criminals who worked to illegally influence American elections,” said DCCC Spokesperson Andy Orellana. “At the end of the day, Central Valley voters are running out of patience for Nunes’ antics and his absence in truly representing his voters’ needs. Ultimately, the voters of CA-22 expect results, not conspiracies and international goose chases at their own expense.”
Read more about Rep. Devin Nunes’ international conspiracy quest HERE or BELOW.
CA-22: Daily Beast: Exclusive: Parnas Helped Nunes’ Investigations
The indicted Giuliani associate helped arrange meetings and calls in Europe for the Republican congressman in 2018.
Betsy Swan // 11.20.19
Lev Parnas, an indicted associate of Rudy Giuliani, helped arrange meetings and calls in Europe for Rep. Devin Nunes in 2018, Parnas’ lawyer Ed MacMahon told The Daily Beast.
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Nunes is the top Republican on the House committee handling the impeachment hearings—hearings where Parnas’s name has repeatedly come up.
Congressional records show Nunes traveled to Europe from Nov. 30 to Dec. 3, 2018. Three of his aides—Harvey, Scott Glabe, and George Pappas—traveled with him, per the records. U.S. government funds paid for the group’s four-day trip, which cost just over $63,000.
The travel came as Nunes, in his role on the House Intelligence Committee, was working to investigate the origins of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian election meddling.
Parnas’ assistance to Nunes’ team has not been previously reported. A spokesperson for Nunes did not respond to requests for comment.
Nunes has been helming the GOP’s involvement in the impeachment inquiry. He has spent much of his time criticizing the probe and the media’s coverage of it. “In their mania to attack the President, no conspiracy theory is too outlandish for the Democrats,” he said on Wednesday morning before Ambassador Gordon Sondland’s testimony. Later in the day, Nunes accused Democrats of harboring “Watergate fantasies.”
“I guess they fantasize about this at night,” he said.
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Nunes has been at the center of the broader story about foreign influence in President Donald Trump’s Washington. When Congressional investigators began probing Russian interference in the 2016 campaign, Nunes made a late-night visit to the White House and announced the next day he’d found evidence of egregious wrongdoing by Intelligence Community officials. The move appeared to be an effort to corroborate a presidential tweet claiming that Obama wiretapped Trump tower. Nunes then stepped back from the committee’s work scrutinizing Russian efforts. Instead, he ran a parallel probe looking at the origins of Mueller’s Russia probe. The undertaking made him a hero to the president and Sean Hannity, and a bête noire of Democrats and Intelligence Community officials. That work was still underway when he traveled to Europe in 2018.
Last month, federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York charged Parnas and Fruman with illegally moving money from foreign donors to American political campaigns. Both men maintain their innocence.
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When Nunes traveled to Europe in 2018, Giuliani—who is Trump’s personal attorney—was working to oust Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch from her post in Kyiv. The Justice Department indictment of Parnas and Fruman alleges they illegally moved money into American elections to “advance the political interests of… a Ukrainian government official who sought the dismissal of the U.S. ambassador to the Ukraine.”
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