UPDATED: Ryan backs Gowdy on FBI's use of informant to contact Trump associates

[DonViejo]

Last edited Wed Jun 6, 2018, 11:56 AM - Edit history (2)

Source: Politico

By KYLE CHENEY 06/06/2018 10:45 AM EDT

Speaker Paul Ryan said Wednesday that he's seen no evidence to contradict Rep. Trey Gowdy's recent assessment that the FBI acted responsibly when it deployed an informant to make contact with associates of President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign.

"I think Chairman Gowdy's initial assessment is accurate," said Ryan, who was one of a handful of lawmakers, including Gowdy, briefed by the Justice Department on the FBI's use of an informant. "I have seen no evidence to the contrary of the initial assessment Chairman Gowdy has made."

Trump has claimed repeatedly, without evidence, that the FBI placed a spy in his campaign for political purposes, dubbing it "Spygate."

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Read more: https://www.politico.com/story/2018/06/06/ryan-backs-gowdy-on-fbis-use-of-informant-to-contact-trump-associates-628693

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UPDATE:

Speaker Ryan Dismisses Trump's Charges of a Spy in His Campaign

By Nicholas Fandos
June 6, 2018

WASHINGTON -- Speaker Paul D. Ryan agreed on Wednesday that the F.B.I. did nothing wrong by using a confidential informant to contact members of the Trump campaign as it investigated its ties to Russia, contradicting President Trump's assertions of a broad conspiracy by federal law enforcement.

And he warned that Mr. Trump should not try to pardon himself, despite Mr. Trump's assertion two days earlier that the president has the power to take such a step.

"I don't know the technical answer to that question, but I think obviously the answer is he shouldn't," Mr. Ryan told reporters. "And no one is above the law."

Mr. Trump has seized on the disclosure of the use of an informant to claim, without evidence, that federal law enforcement officials had improperly placed a spy in his campaign. He demanded a Justice Department inquiry of the matter and dubbed the matter "SPYGATE" in repeated posts on Twitter.

Mr. Ryan became the highest-ranking Republican to throw cold water on that interpretation, which Democrats and former high-level law enforcement officials have claimed was an effort to discredit the ongoing investigation into Mr. Trump and his campaign. Mr. Ryan backed Representative Trey Gowdy, Republican of South Carolina, who pursued Hillary Clinton as the chairman of a special select committee on the 2012 attack in Benghazi, Libya, but infuriated some Republican partisans by rebuffing Mr. Trump on "Spygate."

more
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/06/us/politics/ryan-trump-spygate-spy.html

[Botany]

1. And this is the big reason Ryan is getting out of Congress because he knows that ....

.... the shit is gonna hit the fan about Trump/Russia/NRA/GOP/Fox News/Billionaires.


trea·son
ˈtrēzən/Submit
noun
the crime of betraying one's country, especially by attempting to kill the sovereign or overthrow the government.
"they were convicted of treason"
synonyms: treachery, disloyalty, betrayal, faithlessness; sedition, subversion, mutiny, rebellion; high treason, lèse-majesté; apostasy; literaryperfidy
"the treason of Benedict Arnold will be recounted for centuries"

[lagomorph777]

5. GOP treason will be punished, but it may take a long time.

Ryan would like to preserve some tiny scrap of dignity in the historical record, it would seem.

[Botany]

9. Ryan was "in it" up to his eyeballs

https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/paul-ryan-keeps-it-family-kevin-mccarthy-russia-trump

“There’s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump,” McCarthy said, according to Entous, a superb reporter who heard a tape recording of the colloquy. “Swear to God.”

Dana Rohrabacher is a Republican from California with a peculiar amalgam of views: pro-marijuana, dubious about climate change, pro-torture. For this last position, in 2007, Keith Olbermann awarded him his periodic “Worst Person in the World” award, on his old MSNBC show. Like Trump, Rohrabacher has been highly solicitous of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Last year, Politico ran an article on Rohrabacher called “Putin’s Favorite Congressman.”

In the Post piece, McCarthy’s remark is met with laughter, and Ryan cautions his colleagues, “This is an off the record . . . No leaks! . . . All right?”

And then, amid more laughter, Ryan says, “This is how we know we’re a real family here.”

[lagomorph777]

10. "a real family" - like the Romanoffs or La Cosa Nostra.

Lyin' Ryan, Russiabacker, and Dustbin Nunes will all burn in the hell of History.

[Metro135]

12. The Borgias come to mind

[calimary]

13. WHAT "dignity"?

Every time I see him on the news, all I see is a big fat boneless chicken with big ears and a widow's peak.

[lagomorph777]

14. "Sure I supported Russian conquest of America, but I did issue one sternly worded statement"

That's dignified, right?

[underpants]

2. Oh this is going to be FUUUUNNY

[brooklynite]

3. Someone's going to get a nasty tweeting to?

[bucolic_frolic]

4. "initial"

his tune will change when he claims to look deeper

[laserhaas]

6. Yup - the rats are starting to abandon chit

Link to tweet

.

[laserhaas]

7. Even Mitch McConnell now knows evidence is overwhelming

[KPN]

8. Ryan's covering his ass. In this case, that's a good thing.

[Gothmog]

11. Even Howdy Gowdy and Paul Ryan agree that spygate is bogus

[Duppers]

15. Behold, cracks in the wall.

Finally.