Intel Dems press Nunes for details on anti-Biden package from Ukrainian official

[fleur-de-lisa]

Nunes' office has declined requests to respond to inquiries about whether he ever received the package or learned of its contents.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/30/devin-nunes-joe-biden-ukraine-388843

By KYLE CHENEY, 07/30/2020 05:35 PM EDT

Rep. Devin Nunes, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, this week declined to answer a colleague's question about whether he had received derogatory information about Vice President Joe Biden from Andrii Derkach, a Kremlin-linked Ukrainian lawmaker who has worked to foment allegations of corruption by Biden and his son Hunter.

During a closed-door business meeting of the panel on Wednesday — a transcript of which was made publicly available Thursday — Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.) pressed Nunes about news reports indicating that he was one of several GOP lawmakers who was delivered packets of information from Derkach containing allegations about Biden in December 2019. Derkach has confirmed that he sent the packages to Nunes, as well as Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).

"[M]y question ... is of the ranking member, whether he is prepared to disclose to the committee whether he has received materials that have been called into question in the public reports from Andrii Derkach and, if so, whether he is prepared to share them with the rest of the committee," Maloney asked.

"Does the ranking member wish to respond?" asked House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.).

"No," Nunes replied.

Maloney responded by suggesting that Nunes's refusal to answer "speaks volumes" and indicated that committee staffers are "in possession of evidence that a package was received."

That evidence, according to committee officials, is in the form of a DHL shipping receipt that was sent to the Intelligence Committee’s majority office shortly after the package was sent to Nunes. The officials say they sought to access the materials from Nunes at the time but that he never agreed to share them.

Nunes' office has declined requests to respond to inquiries about whether he ever received the package or learned of its contents — and whether he or his aides delivered it to the FBI for vetting, which committee Democrats and Republicans say is the typical practice when receiving parcels from foreign sources.

In late January — in the midst of the Senate’s impeachment trial — the committee’s Democratic staff reported the existence of the package to the FBI and has since received no response from the bureau, according to committee officials.

Derkach has provoked growing alarm among Democrats, who have noted his increasingly public efforts to promote anti-Biden allegations, from releasing tapes — whose provenance is unknown — of Biden’s conversations with Ukrainian leaders to holding press conferences to publicly declaring his efforts to unite with GOP officials to take down the former vice president and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. Derkach has launched a public website, NabuLeaks, that includes links to materials he has purported to send to top GOP lawmakers. It’s unclear if the items posted on his site are the same as those sent to Nunes and the other lawmakers.

[Thomas Hurt]

1. Moooones doesn't want to share cuz he knows it is all a con...and he needs to wait until Oct.

[dmr]

2. Nunes is not a patriotic American. He's a nasty, corrupt asshole.

Collaborating with our enemy makes him a traitor in my book.