Devin Nunes ‘quite likely’ to face ethics inquiry over Europe trip, senior Democrat says
Leading Democrats are calling for an investigation into a trip to Europe that Rep. Devin Nunes took last year with three aides after attorneys for an indicted associate of Rudy Giuliani told news outlets the Republican congressman sought dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden.
House travel records show Nunes traveled to Europe from Nov. 30 to Dec. 3. Three congressional aides who have worked for Nunes have matching travel receipts for the same dates, House records show. The trip cost $63,525.
The Democratic Coalition, an advocacy group that opposes President Donald Trump, announced that it filed a complaint with the House Ethics Committee arguing Nunes on the trip “used his official office to pursue a domestic political investigation by contacting ex-officials of the Ukrainian government.”
The complaint follows news reports from the Daily Beast and CNN in which attorneys for Giuliani associate Lev Parnas said Parnas had arranged meetings for Nunes’ travel in Europe.
While in Europe, Parnas’ attorney Joseph A. Bondy said Nunes met with ousted Ukrainian top prosecutor Viktor Shokin, who lost his job after Biden and other world leaders called for his dismissal.
Nunes reportedly told Shokin of “the urgent need” to investigate the company Burisma, which employed Biden’s son Hunter as a member of its board of directors, and former Vice President Biden.
Impeachment hearings last week centered on allegations that Trump improperly pressured Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate the Bidens when Trump on a July phone call asked for “a favor” and Trump’s administration simultaneously withheld promised military assistance to the country.
Nunes at the impeachment hearings repeatedly suggested that Trump’s request was legitimate because of the president’s belief that Ukraine interfered with the 2016 election to benefit Democrat Hillary Clinton.
U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia, not Ukraine, interfered in the 2016 election to “denigrate” Clinton and “undermine faith” in the democratic process. Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into the election led to 34 criminal indictments, including against 12 Russian nationals who allegedly attempted to hack Democratic Party servers to influence the 2016 election.
Fiona Hill, the White House’s top Russia adviser, at impeachment hearings called the suggestion that Ukraine meddled in the U.S. election a “fictional narrative” meant to advance Russian interests.
Bondy has urged Congress to allow his client to testify on the record, with the Twitter hashtag campaign #LetLevSpeak.
Parnas was indicted by federal prosecutors in October and charged with campaign finance violations. Prosecutors also allege that Parnas lobbied a congressman to remove America’s ambassador to Ukraine.
Nunes’ office has not responded to a Sacramento Bee request for comment on the allegations. Nunes told conservative news outlet Breitbart that the CNN and Daily Beast stories were “demonstrably false.”
Nonetheless, Rep. Jackie Speier, D-San Mateo, on Monday called for Nunes to be investigated. She sits on the House Intelligence Committee with Nunes, R-Tulare.
“If he was on a political errand for the president that was using taxpayer funds inappropriately then he should be investigated by the Ethics Committee and should be forced to repay the Treasury the money that was spent for a political activity,” Speier said Monday morning on MSNBC.
That investigation is “quite likely” to happen, Rep. Adam Smith, D-Washington, a senior-ranking Democrat who is chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said Saturday, also on MSNBC.
The House Ethics Committee has five Democratic members and five Republican members. If the committee takes up the complaint, it would be the second ethics inquiry into Nunes.
Nunes faced a previous inquiry in 2017, when it was alleged that Nunes inappropriately revealed classified information during the Robert Mueller investigation into Russian meddling during the 2016 presidential election.
The House Ethics Committee later cleared Nunes of wrongdoing.
Nunes responded to the latest allegations by threatening to take the news organizations that broke the story to court.
“We are going to take both CNN and The Daily Beast likely into federal court right after Thanksgiving,” Nunes said in an interview on Fox News.
Nunes has filed five lawsuits alleging a conspiracy to damage his re-election chances and interfere with his work as ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee.
Among others, he’s suing Twitter, two anonymous Twitter users, a Republican political consultant, the political research company Fusion GPS, Esquire Magazine and McClatchy, the parent company of The Fresno Bee and The Sacramento Bee.
This story was originally published November 25, 2019 at 2:46 PM with the headline "Devin Nunes ‘quite likely’ to face ethics inquiry over Europe trip, senior Democrat says."
