Devin Nunes: No rest until Mueller scope memo released, 'dirty cops' rounded up
Daniel Chaitin
Rep. Devin Nunes isn't celebrating special counsel Robert Mueller's submission of his final report to the Justice Department.
Calling for full transparency, the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee amplified his demand to see the scope memo for the years-long investigation, going further than Democrats calling for the release of the full Mueller report for the public to see.
"I don't think Republicans or any American should be celebrating anything to do with Mueller. Okay? It's fine. He's not going to indict anymore people. There are a whole bunch of indictments that are awful. What happened to these people is terrible," Nunes, R-Calif, said Saturday evening on Fox News. "We need to see the origins of this investigation. We don't even know what Robert Mueller was supposed to be looking at."
The classified scope memorandum was issued by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in August 2017, months after he appointed Mueller to lead the Russia investigation without citing a crime. A heavily redacted version of the August memo has already been released to the public. Allies of President Trump, including Nunes, have called for full disclosure of that memo, as well as of documents related to investigatory efforts looking into Trump's inner circle, including FISA warrants that targeted onetime campaign aide Carter Page.
Mueller delivered his report to Attorney General William Barr on Friday, concluding his 22-month-long investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and possible collusion between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin. Barr told congressional leaders in a letter he may be able to provide them with the special counsel’s “principal conclusions” as early as this weekend.
The investigation led to the indictments of 34 people and three Russian companies, including six individuals close to Trump such as former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, but none relate to collusion with Russia. Mueller is not expected to not recommend any new indictments.
Over the course of two Fox News interviews Friday and Saturday, Nunes said time is running out for the "dirty cops" at the FBI and career officials at the Justice Department, whom he said are part of a collusion effort between the former President Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, and Russia, to target Trump dating back to the 2016 election cycle.
While Nunes was chairman of the House Intelligence Committee last year, the GOP-led found no evidence of Trump-Russia collusion. Democrats argued the probe was concluded prematurely, and with the committee now being led by chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif, a revamped investigation into Trump and his inner orbit is underway.
Upon the submission of Mueller's report, Nunes declared Friday it was the beginning of "the unraveling of the biggest scandal in American history, the biggest political scandal in American history." On Saturday, Nunes teased his soon-to-be submitted criminal referrals and reiterated his faith in Barr to clean house at the DOJ and FBI.
"We are work on a criminal referral, so many of the dirty cops, people will find out who actually we believe those dirty cops are. We'll be sending that to Attorney General Barr among other names I think people will be surprised at," Nunes said.
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