Dead Drop: March 31

HI NUNES!  A big guessing game in some circles around Washington this week involves speculation about who the heck cleared House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes onto the White House grounds last week. In case you have been on Mars – last week, after some secret source allegedly showed him some disturbing documents, Nunes held a solo press conference, rushed to see President Trump (who declared himself somewhat vindicated re wiretapping), and then the Chairman cancelled a bunch of scheduled hearings to the dismay of Democrats on his panel.  Nunes’ staff revealed that he was on the White House compound (but not in the executive mansion) when he was treated to some information (which he says had nothing to do with Russia) but makes him think the privacy of Trump transition team members may have been violated. By the middle of this week, Nunes declared that he would “never” reveal his sources and methods.  So – why couldn’t his source have provided the info in Nunes’ Capitol Hill office, and why did he or she opt to brief the chairman on the White House property, thereby implicating the Administration?  Here is our guess – Congressional oversight committees get access to tons of “finished intelligence,” but they don’t usually see “raw intelligence.”  Some of the Intelligence Community’s most sensitive secrets are kept on computer systems that make it impossible for someone to print what is on the screen.  None of those terminals are on the Hill – but there are a couple in the White House – for example in the EEOB offices of the DNI and CIA Director – and in the office of the NSC’s Senior Director for Intelligence Programs.  Nunes has said that his “source” was an “intelligence official” – but he might be stretching the definition to include the NSC intel point of contact – who is on detail to the White House from the DIA.  In any case, ALL these people work for the President, and it makes little sense that the Commander in Chief would not authorize his subordinates to get the exculpatory information to all the members of the oversight committees.  Unless, of course, the material is just a distraction and doesn’t really address Trump’s claims of his predecessor “wiretapping” Trump Tower.  In any case – the information, whatever it is, does nothing to address the issue of alleged Russian tinkering with the U.S. election. Our guess is that Nunes’ actions are the Congressional equivalent of, “Look, a squirrel.”    (Note: Shortly after The Dead Drop submitted this item – the New York Times reported that Ezra Cohen-Watnick, the NSC’s senior director for  intelligence and Michael Ellis, a White House lawyer who used to work for Nunes were the folks who invited the Chairman to the White House to eyeball the intelligence.)

ENHANCED VETTING:  When the Trump Administration first issued its travel ban executive order on January 27^th,  it said this was just a temporary action until it could review, and if necessary, enhance the vetting procedures for people attempting to enter the U.S. from seven (now six) countries. At the time, they said the review would take 90 days.  Sure, Team Trump has run into some legal challenges in implementing the ban – but the review of vetting protocols should not have been contingent on court action.  So our calculation is that the Administration should be two-thirds through their review of how to strengthen entrance procedures.  Anybody at the White House, DHS, or State Department care to tell us how that review is going?  After all – if this is such an urgent issue – we trust you are well along in completing the process.  Right?