Rep. Devin Nunes predicted more fallout from then-special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.
After the Justice Department recommended a steep prison sentence for Trump confidant Roger Stone, which was walked back on Tuesday, the California Republican said that “this is not going to be the only example” of questionable behavior during the federal inquiry he called an “obstruction of justice trap.”
“There’s more to come on this,” the House Intelligence Committee ranking member told Fox Business host Lou Dobbs, before noting that all four prosecutors in the Stone case, including three who were on Mueller’s team, quit after the Justice Department rebuked their recommendation of up to nine years in prison for the longtime GOP operative. A more lenient three to four years in prison were suggested in the latest court filing.
“We think there’s other examples of things that they did during the Mueller investigation that I think you and your listeners and the American people will be very interested to learn in the coming weeks as we start to unpeel the onion of what the Mueller team was really doing,” he added.
Nunes did not share any specifics, but the origins of the Russia investigation are being reviewed by Attorney General William Barr’s hand-picked prosecutor from Connecticut, John Durham. The case against retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn recently took a wild turn, with the former White House national security adviser seeking to withdraw his guilty plea on a charge of lying to the FBI and the Justice Department changing its position on a recommended sentence.
Stop Lying Leaks. @DevinNunes praises Robert O’Brien for removing leakers at the NSC who have tried to endanger @realDonaldTrump’s Presidency. #MAGA #AmericaFirst #Dobbs pic.twitter.com/JXk3eeUuoJ
— Lou Dobbs (@LouDobbs) February 12, 2020
Stone was found guilty in November on five separate counts of lying to the House Intelligence Committee in its investigation into Russian election interference, in addition to one count that he “corruptly influenced, obstructed, and impeded” the congressional investigation and another that he attempted to persuade “corruptly” radio show host Randy Credico’s congressional testimony.
The two-week jury trial centered on Stone’s false claims of being in communication with WikiLeaks and on his actions taken during the 2016 election and beyond. The 67-year-old was never accused by prosecutors of criminally conspiring with Russia or any other foreign actors.
Nunes has been a leading skeptic of Mueller’s investigation, arguing that the former FBI director knew there was no evidence of the Trump campaign colluding with Russians when he first became special counsel in May 2017.
The indictments of Trump associates that came from Mueller’s effort had nothing to do with criminal conspiracy with Moscow, but rather stemmed from lying to investigators or other, unrelated alleged and unalleged crimes. Mueller’s team also investigated whether President Trump obstructed justice. Although it declined to make a determination on the matter, Mueller did lay out 10 instances of possible obstruction in his final report that Democrats viewed as a road map going forward.
Nunes claimed Stone should never have been investigated in the first place by what he described as “dirty cops.”
“So, what the hell did they do for two years?” the congressman said. “They set up an obstruction of justice trap, and they went after a whole bunch of people that now got sentenced. Some already served their time, and I think all of this has to come into question now,” he added.
Trump has also accused the investigation of being a sham.
“A phony Mueller Witch Hunt disgrace. Caught!” Trump tweeted Tuesday evening, appearing to compare the original prison recommendation for Stone to the two-month sentence that James Wolfe, a former aide to the Senate Intelligence Committee, got in 2018 for lying to the FBI in an investigation into a leak of classified information. Prosecutors had recommended up to two years in prison in that case.
