The swamp around Donald Trump just keeps getting thicker, deeper, and slimier. What is remarkable is the one man, the president can generate so many ethical questions in those around him. Now, we find that one of his top lieutenants has been caught in an ethics net.
Representative Devin Nunes (D-CA) was the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee with top security clearance and virtually no oversight until the Democrats took over the House in 2018. Still, the representative has held the powerful position of ranking Republican member.
Now, we have found that he spent $57,000 of taxpayer money on one expensive trip to Europe, according to The Newsweek magazine. Not only did he take along his staff, he was on an errand for Trump — to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
The records were confirmed by a naturalized Ukrainian-born American, Lev Parnas, who worked with the president’s personal attorney and fixer Rudy Giuliani. They were trying to set up a Ukraine investigation into the Bidens.
Parnas allegedly met Nunes on a secret trip to Vienna, Austria one year ago to provide introductions between the California representative and former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Victor Shokin. Biden’s son was on the board of a Ukrainian utility company at the same time as his father was was vice president. The elder Biden insisted on Shokin leaving office for not working hard enough to combat corruption. This has already been investigated and both Bidens were cleared of wrongdoing.
Thus far, investigative journalists have uncovered a four-day trip to Europe at the very same time that Parnas said they met. Nunes took Scott Blabe, Derek Harvey, and George Pappas along with him. The expensive trip cost $14,201.43 each for a grand total of $56,805.71.
The problem was the money should have been paid out of the president’s campaign funds. However, they would have encountered donation limit problems. The second problem was that Nunes should have recused himself from his role in the Intelligence Committee hearings.
Like a true Trump man, Nunes threatened to sue any media publications that would print “these demonstrably fake and scandalous stories.”
The Democratic Coalition’s House Ethics complaint accused Representative Nunes of “abusing his office to recuse from the House’s ongoing impeachment inquiry” in a letter:
‘Rep. Nunes allegedly met foreign officials on an overseas Congressional delegation using taxpayer funds which appears to be related to obtaining materials solely for the purposes of domestic politics. Rep. Nunes is currently engaged in overseeing an investigation which it appears he is a fact witness, and which may examine his own activities meeting with foreign officials.’
The letter continued:
‘Rep. Nunes is aware of the actual conflict of interest from his relationships to persons under investigation by the House Intelligence Committee for the purposes of an impeachment inquiry upon which it must issue a report, but failed to either disclose his conflict of interest with the investigation or that he has firsthand knowledge of the persons of interest to the committee. This is a complaint against Rep. Nunes for abuse of his official office in violation of House rule XXIII.’
This was the full text of the letter:
‘BREAKING: Here’s the text of The Democratic Coalition’s House Ethics complaint against Rep. Devin Nunes for abusing his office and failing to recuse from the House’s ongoing impeachment inquiry. #DevinNunesGotCaught’
The Mueller Report Adventures: In Bite-Sizes on this Facebook page. These quick, two-minute reads interpret the report in normal English for busy people. Mueller Bite-Sizes uncovers what is essentially a compelling spy mystery. Interestingly enough, Mueller Bite-Sizes can be read in any order.
