Former FBI official aghast at GOP attempt to derail the Russia investigation with subpoenas for unmasking
CNN’s Phil Mudd: It’s normal that a national security adviser tasked with executing U.S. policy on Russia sanctions would want to know the names of American citizens “interfering by having secret conversations with the Russians”
Published
A CNN panel slammed Rep. Devin Nunes (C-CA) over the news that he unilaterally issued a series of subpoenas for the unmasking of associates of President Donald Trump who had secret communications with Russian officials during Obama’s presidency. The New York Times’s Maggie Haberman noted that “it’s going to be hard for people not to see it as an effort to distract from Russia.” CNN’s John Avlon pointed out that Nunes, who had previously recused himself from the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, “keeps on basically parroting White House talking points,” which Avlon said appears to be “a sign of a corrupt inquiry, unfortunately.”
And CNN’s Phil Mudd, a former FBI official, said that Nunes’ apparent concern over the unmasking of the names of people in contact with Russia was “like a two-headed goat at the freak show.” “Alt-right” figures, fake news purveyors, right-wing media figures, and Trump himself have made baseless and purely speculative claims that members of the Obama administration had the names of Trump associates unmasked for political purposes.
From the June 1 edition of CNN’s New Day: