Devin Nunes is more determined than ever to hurt national security

Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) has been on a relentless crusade to smear the FBI and undermine the Trump/Russia investigation — and this week, he showed that he doesn’t care how much he undermines national security in the process.

In an interview with Arkansas’ Conduit News Radio on Monday, Nunes told host Paul Harrell that he hopes Trump will declassify documents related to the Russia investigation this week.

Specifically, Nunes wants to reveal the redacted portions of a FISA warrant application that was used to surveil former Trump aide Carter Page.

“We think the American people deserve to see the rest of what they used, and the tools and techniques that were used to target the Trump campaign and Trump campaign associates,” Nunes told Harrell. “And that’s what we’re asking the president to declassify.”

There’s a big problem with Nunes’ statement: the “tools and techniques” used by the FBI and the Justice Department in counterintelligence investigations are precisely the sorts of things that shouldn’t be made public, because that could compromise covert operations and sources.

Indeed, the FBI and the Justice Department have repeatedly warned that Nunes’ request to have the FISA documents released in full would compromise the “sources and methods” that the agencies use in counterintelligence investigations.

By renewing his dangerous demands, Nunes proves that he still can’t let go of the bogus narrative about the FBI that he’s been pushing for well over a year — even though he’s been repeatedly humiliated for his lies.

Nunes and the Republicans spent several weeks in January hyping a memo about the FISA application that was supposed to contain bombshell revelations about the FBI being biased against Trump.

But when the memo was finally released in early February, it was an embarrassing failure that actually debunked GOP attacks on the Russia probe.

Still, Nunes persisted in trying to get the classified FISA documents released. In July, heavily-redacted materials related to the warrant application were released — and those documents showed even more conclusively that Nunes’ attacks on the Russia investigation were all lies.

Nunes and the Republicans have also used the Department of Justice’s refusal to compromise national security as a pretext to attack, and even impeach, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

Nunes was recently caught on tape admitting that he and the Republicans are waiting to impeach Rosenstein until after Judge Brett Kavanaugh is confirmed.

Nunes is clearly aware of the danger his effort poses to America — but he has also clearly decided that covering up for Trump is more important than doing the right thing.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.