Seth Abramson @SethAbramson
BREAKING: Facts suggest President Trump, not Republican leadership in Congress, is secretly trying to get to Steele.
amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/aug/07/donald-trump-russia-dossier-christopher-steele-devin-nunes
(2) Here's a follow-up. Nunes is a proven (quasi-clandestine) Trump agent; he's not part of the House probe anymore.
www.theguardian.com/world/2017/aug/08/tuesday-briefing-london-spy-twist-to-trump-russia-affair
(3) British media is already all over this. Now American media must find out what the White House knew about this secret overseas trip.
(4) We've had media reports for months suggesting President Trump is obsessed with Chris Steele and his dossier. This is what that's led to.
(5) Remember how it went down last time Trump (via Nunes) attempted a clandestine interference op in the Russia probe? Smelled like this.
(6) The unanswered question is exactly what did these (plausibly deniable) White House/Nunes agents intend to do once they found Steele?
(7) The extraordinary level of secrecy and under-the-table funding stream suggest that, as I've saying, Donald Trump is terrified of Steele.
(8) This secret trip coincided with right-wing media suddenly obsessing over Steele's dossier with no obvious connection to news of the day.
(9) One can't help but feel there are rumors floating around D.C. about Steele's dossier and its accuracy that haven't been reported on yet.
(10) Certainly we know that nearly every part of it that can be verified has, at this point, been verified. That's enough to scare Trump.
(11) In any case the shocking quote is this one: "Neither Schiff nor his Republican counterpart had been informed about the staffers’ trip."
(12) The last time Nunes went rogue, he was acting on White House direction. There's no reason at all to think this is anything different.
(13) Consider it: Donald Trump is publicly calling the Russia probe a "hoax" while he uses Nunes to secretly track down Christopher Steele.
(14) Should anything happen to Steele at a time when a Trump ally is sending aides to determine his location, this thing will get bad quick.
(15) Don't forget this trip was organized around the time there were whispers the Democrats wanted Steele to testify on national television.
(16) So this was either a Trump/Nunes plot to undermine Steele's testimony in advancein some creepy wayor else ensure it never happened.
(17) I'm not suggesting violent aims, though Putin might have some. But perhaps bribery? Blackmail? Domestic disinformation? Something else?
(18) Don't claim to know. But I know journalists should be at Nunes' door asking what the hell he planned to do with Steele if he found him.
(19) They should consider that Steele is a former MI6 agent who did much of his data collection on Trump for free because he believed in it.
(20) Upshot: Trump's just now learning he might not be able to obstruct Mueller directly. I think he's going after Steele now instead. {end}
(PS) I agree with those who saypartly on the strength of this storythat Devin Nunes must become a key piece in Mueller's Russia probe.