General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWe Know Devin Nunes Probable Collaborator at the White House: Michael Ellis
Last edited Mon Feb 5, 2018, 07:59 PM - Edit history (1)
By Josh Marshall | February 5, 2018 1:04 pm
-snip-
As I noted last week, at the end of the Memo drama Rep. Mike Quigley (D-IL) asked Nunes whether hed worked with the White House on producing the memo. Nunes evaded the question. He has not followed up with any denial. Yesterday Rep. Adam Schiff said he thinks its very possible his staff worked with the White House and coordinated the whole effort with the White House. I think hes right. Id say its highly likely. But who and how?
You dont need to look long to find the probable point of contact between Nunes and the White House. Michael Ellis is Senior Associate White House Counsel, Special Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Council Legal Advisor. Hes an intelligence officer in the Naval Reserve. Before he went to work at the White House Counsels office he served as Nunes General Counsel on the House Intelligence Committee.
Thats a pretty good clue to who Nunes might be in contact with at the White House. But we dont need to rely on that professional connection. Ellis and Nunes have already done something just like this at least once before. Youll remember that in early 2017, Mike Flynn directed his protege Ezra Cohen-Watnick to start reviewing what counter-intelligence investigators were finding in the Russia probe. Flynn was one of the primary targets of that probe. So this was highly irregular and not at all legit. That review continued after Flynn was fired. Cohen-Watnick eventually took his findings to Don McGahn at the White House Counsels office. McGahn told him to stop immediately. Rather than doing so, he went around the Counsels office by having Nunes come to the White House in the middle of the night to share their findings. He and a colleague in the Counsels office called Nunes late one night and asked him to come to the White House immediately.
This was the origin of the unmasking conspiracy theory. H.R. McMaster tried to fire Cohen-Watnick when he arrived at the White House. But Steve Bannon and Jared Kushner asked President Trump to prevent McMaster from doing so. Cohen-Watnick was finally fired in August. So who was that colleague in the Counsels Office he worked with on his review and his work with Nunes? Michael Ellis. Nunes bizarrely referred to Cohen-Watnick and Ellis as whistleblowers and refused to divulge their identities. But they were finally identified in press reports.
more
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/we-know-devin-nunes-probable-collaborator-at-the-white-house-michael-ellis
asiliveandbreathe
(8,203 posts)good to see Cohen-Watnik gone..
Five things to know about M Ellis...
https://heavy.com/news/2017/03/michael-ellis-white-house-lawyer-devin-nunes-photos-dartmouth-jeopardy-wife-navy/
Collaborator...???? - sigh!!!