We Can't Allow the Nunes Memo to Undermine Mueller's Russia Investigation

This is an opinion piece by Karen Hobert Flynn, president of Common Cause, a nonpartisan grassroots organization dedicated to upholding the core values of American democracy.

After a party-line vote in the House Intelligence Committee, the so-called “Nunes memo” became public -- a cherry-picked document drafted at his direction. This memo has absolutely zero credibility -- the FBI said they have "grave concerns about material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo’s accuracy.”

It’s just the latest in a long string of attempts by Republicans in Congress, led by Rep. Nunes, to undermine and smear Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Donald Trump and Russian election meddling.

If this whole “Nunes memo” controversy is confusing you, that’s by design. From the start, Trump’s allies have been trying to muddy the waters, spreading unfounded innuendo about the Russia probe to undermine its credibility as Mueller investigates the president for obstruction of justice.

Their ultimate goal is to undercut Mueller’s probe, and one way to do that is by replacing Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein (who has limited oversight over Mueller because Attorney General Jeff Sessions had to recuse) with a Trump loyalist. That way, they can give Trump the full exoneration his lawyers have been promising him since the probe began.

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We’re not going to let that happen. We need leaders in Congress to put country over party -- now. The stakes are too high to ignore this threat to the integrity of our elections -- or how Donald Trump has obstructed justice to hide it.

It’s time for Republicans of conscience in Congress -- if there are any left -- to put country before party. Call on Speaker Ryan to remove Devin Nunes from the Russia investigation.

It’s especially telling that during Monday’s party-line vote to release the Nunes memo, Committee Republicans blocked release of the Democratic members’ memo which rebuts Nunes' claims. That shows you that this vote wasn’t about transparency -- it was about protecting Donald Trump.

It is outrageous that Republican members of the committee would suppress information on a party-line vote on a matter that goes to the heart of the rule of law and involves an attack on our democracy. Now that the GOP memo has been released, all transcripts and all underlying material should be released as well – not a cherry-picked version of the committee’s findings.

But more importantly, after serving as a member of the Trump transition team, Nunes has revealed himself repeatedly as someone willing to distort the truth and reflexively defend the president from any damaging information that has come to light.

Such an individual has no business leading an investigation that has already lead to indictments and guilty pleas by senior members of the Trump Administration and the campaign.

The American people expect and deserve a congressional investigation to be conducted with transparency and integrity. We cannot afford to let Devin Nunes turn this into a partisan fight . Our democracy was attacked and Americans deserve the full truth. It is time for every member of Congress to put the country before their party.

Please speak out today: To protect the integrity of the House of Representatives and its role in our democracy, House Speaker Paul Ryan must remove Nunes from further participating in the Russia investigation.