White House Aides Feared That Trump Had Another Ukraine Back Channel (former top Nunes aid)

[MelissaB]

WOW: House impeachment investigators are looking at whether a former top NUNES aide -- now a Trump national security official -- was sending Trump unverified Ukraine-related info.

Per NYT, White House officials suspected this was occurring:

Kash PATEL is famously the primary author of the NUNES memo that sought to undermine the Russia probe and led Trump to declassify materials over the objection of his own FBI.

Link to tweet

White House Aides Feared That Trump Had Another Ukraine Back Channel

Senior national security officials grew concerned about Kash Patel, a colleague who had previously been involved in Republicans’ efforts to undermine the Russia investigation.

WASHINGTON — Senior White House officials suspected that a colleague whom they viewed as a political partisan was ferrying documents about Ukraine in recent months to President Trump, effectively creating another back channel to him that could warp American policy, according to congressional testimony and interviews.

Colleagues grew alarmed after hearing that Mr. Trump had referred to Kashyap Patel, a National Security Council aide who figured prominently in Republicans’ efforts to undermine the Russia investigation, as one of his top Ukraine policy specialists and that the president wanted to discuss related documents with him, according to people briefed on the matter. Mr. Patel, who is known as Kash, is assigned to work on counterterrorism issues, not Ukraine policy.

The contents of the documents were not clear, nor was it clear how Mr. Trump got them. Typically, aides prepare policy briefings for presidents that several agencies sign off on in a highly controlled process. But Mr. Trump has adopted a much more freewheeling approach, taking in unverified information from sources both inside and outside the White House and seeking out and promoting assertions that fit his narrative.

... snip

Mr. Patel was previously best known as a lead author of a politically charged memo released early last year accusing the F.B.I. and Justice Department leaders of abusing their power in the early stages of the Russia investigation. The memo was widely dismissed as a biased argument of cherry-picked facts, but it galvanized Mr. Trump’s allies in their attacks on the special counsel’s inquiry and consumed Washington for weeks.

Mr. Patel worked at the time as an investigator for the House Intelligence Committee under Representative Devin Nunes of California, who ran the panel when Republicans had control of the chamber. Mr. Patel’s efforts to discredit the Russia investigation made him a minor celebrity in conservative circles but a divisive figure on Capitol Hill.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/23/us/politics/kash-patel-ukraine.html

[Iliyah]

1. Why are the WH aides always in FEAR.

Always stressed out, unhappy and depressed. Geez wiz.

[blogslut]

2. kick

Valuable news amidst the GOP Naruto run madness.

[Wellstone ruled]

3. Good old Devin Nunes is always

a source of something Crooked. Now,that is some investigative Journalism. I guess there is some hope for the Fourth Estate.