Spicer preemptive comments —>pic.twitter.com/FlkeSXMpjs
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Spicer saying that government officials refusing to name sources is the same thing as reporters having anonymous sources is absurd.
It is a complete misunderstanding of the public nature of government and the public interest of journalism.
If he's telling the truth here, he is intentionally avoiding finding out the answer.https://twitter.com/JDiamond1/status/847518722407456769 …
OK. So, let's take a step back.
Michael Ellis, NYT reports, was one of two people who "helped" Nunes. He was the top lawyer for Nunes' comte until he joined Trump admin.pic.twitter.com/nDnbbgGCM7
Ellis, along with many other White House counsel's office employees, had their hiring announced formally on March 7. Ellis' info:pic.twitter.com/Nu1eXtnPpn
Of course, it was three mornings earlier when Trump tweeted his infamous "wire tapping" tweets.https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/837993273679560704 …
Later March 4, we learned WH Counsel's Office was involved in trying to figure out whether there was a FISA warrant.https://twitter.com/chrisgeidner/status/838140680551673856 …
On March 5, House Judiciary Dems announced they would be asking McGahn to explain what this was about:https://twitter.com/chrisgeidner/status/838536319924068352 …
Here's the final letter sent, signed by all House Judiciary Dems: https://democrats-judiciary.house.gov/sites/democrats.judiciary.house.gov/files/documents/House%20Jud%20Dems%20letter%20to%20McGahn.pdf …pic.twitter.com/KOBZ71TDEB
Notably, Rep @ericswalwell is the only Dem on House Judiciary who also is on the House Intelligence Committee.
So, on the day Trump tweeted, it appears counsel's office began trying to track down whether the claim could be verified.
On March 21, Nunes disappeared — http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/03/24/devin-nunes-vanished-the-night-before-he-made-trump-surveillance-claims.html … — to go to the White House grounds: http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/27/politics/devin-nunes-white-house-donald-trump/index.html … ...
... where, according to @maggieNYT, Ellis — from the White House Counsel's Office — showed Nunes the info:https://twitter.com/maggieNYT/status/847504242478796800 …
Here's a March 27 exchange between Spicer and @MajorCBS: Note how careful Spicer's attribution is.pic.twitter.com/bcy5rG2Sbg
Here's the Bloomberg interview between Nunes and @EliLake that Spicer was referencing in that briefing. https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-03-27/devin-nunes-explains-his-white-house-visit …pic.twitter.com/bSZJXvZuNY
Today — since the NYT report — @EliLake has been notably silent on Twitter this afternoon. Will be interesting to see what he says now.
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