The Uranium One investigation appears to be falling apart before it’s really begun, as the witness who Republicans placed at the center of the would-be-scandal is refusing to give them what they so desperately want.
The Justice Department officials also said during the briefing that they considered the whistleblower, who has been identified in media reports as William Campbell, too unreliable to use as a witness due to inconsistencies in his story, according to a letter sent Tuesday by Reps. Elijah Cummings (Md.) and Adam Schiff (Calif.)—the top Democrats on the House oversight committee and the House intelligence committee—to the Republican chairmen of those panels.
Unmasking, the ReleaseTheMemo memo, and the Uranium One story. What do they all have in common? One thing they share is Representative Devin Nunes, who not only launched the first two, but revived the third when he announced that Republicans were reopening the eight-year-old story of the formerly Canadian mining company in an effort to generate another front against Robert Mueller.
Rep. Devin Nunes said at a news conference that his committee and the House oversight committee are starting the investigation, which will include whether there was an FBI investigation into the matter, and if so, why Congress was not informed. "That will be the start of the probe," Nunes said.
Unlike other products from Nunes’s conspiracy factory, the Uranium One story was designed to be a long-term investment, with a possible big payoff—the appointment of a second special counsel who could then subpoena Robert Mueller as a witness. It was a genuine bid to end Mueller’s investigation at a blow, while allowing Republicans to hint at some crime by Hillary Clinton as a side benefit. So, really, it’s a shame that this whole thing is turning out to be as pitiful as the other products of NunesCo.
Mother Jones has the story of this lead balloon’s resounding crash.
Unlike the FISA warrant against Carter Page, the Republican basis for reopening the Uranium One deal really was based on a single person—a single “whistleblower” who was going to blow the lid off the story once an obstacle was lifted.
[Nunes] also noted there's concern about a whistleblower who signed a non-disclosure agreement. Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley sent a letter last week to the Justice Department urging the non-disclosure agreement to be lifted so Congress could speak to the whistleblower.
Just days after the infamous “Nunes Memo” was greeted with widespread ridicule, another GOP talking point took a major hit Tuesday. Democratic lawmakers revealed that a “whistleblower” who congressional Republicans once suggested would reveal damning evidence against Hillary Clinton had actually never even mentioned Clinton to the FBI.
Instead, William Campbell told a story so incoherent that the DOJ informed Republicans it was worthless. The story was riddled with holes … and completely missing any mention of Clinton. Which annihilates the narrative that Republicans have been trying to sell. A story they were convinced would give them the ammo required to turn Robert Mueller from a special counsel to a subpoenaed witness—if not a indicted conspirator—in Yet Another Hillary Clinton Scheme.
Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, went so far as to call for a special counsel to investigate the Uranium One case. House Republicans went even further, painting the whistleblower as key to exposing Clinton’s ties to Uranium One. Rep. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) told Fox News in October that Campbell could implicate Hillary Clinton in corruption.
But now, those waiting for Uranium One to bloom into a perfect flower of evidence that gives them sublime justification to attack Clinton, much less Mueller, are going to have to do what they’ve done within previous GOP scandals if they want Donald Trump chuckling “We got ‘em. Oh, they didn’t think we were going to get ‘em, but we got ‘em” again next week. They’ll just have to make shit up.
Someone call Devin Nunes.