Devin Nunes shouldn't resign from the intelligence committee—he should resign from the House

Throughout the last week, there have been a chorus of calls for House intelligence chair Devin Nunes to step aside from his position in the committee, or at least recuse himself from investigations involving the Trump transition team. Nunes has refused all such requests.

But the truth is, neither demand approaches the level of censure that should fall on Representative Nunes for his actions and his words. He should resign from the House. Immediately. 

At this point, it’s clear that Nunes didn’t make a momentary mistake or a bad call. He repeatedly, over an extended period, worked with the White House to mischaracterize both the information he had seen and the method by which it was received. The purpose of that deception was to distort both the nature and extent to which members of the Trump campaign and transition team had been under scrutiny of intelligence agencies. This in turn served multiple purposes:

• the continued effort to denigrate respect for, and degrade effectiveness of, the intelligence agencies 
• supporting the narrative of “the deep state” and driving the impression that agency employees have a unreasoning vendetta against Trump
• distracting from the investigation into collusion with Russia and belittling both the investigation and the committee to make further progress more difficult

Nunes’ statements aren’t the outcry of a concerned representative. They are the result of a project initiated within the Trump White House—a project carried out by Devin Nunes, Ezra Cohen-Watnick, Michael Ellis, and John Eisenberg with the support and guidance of Steve Bannon and Jared Kushner.

Devin Nunes is certainly aware of the role he has played in the project. Paul Ryan, who has so far not only backed Nunes remaining in place at the head of the stalled House investigation, may be simply a dupe. And that’s giving Ryan the benefit of the doubt.

In Thursday’s White House Press conference, Sean Spicer repeatedly attacked reporters who asked about Devin Nunes’ manic trip to the White House, his flight to Paul Ryan, and his return to “brief” Donald Trump (complete with bracketing “I’m going” and “I’m back” press conferences). Spicer insisted that the contents of the documents was all that mattered. “Process” was the dirty word of the day. 

Spicer could not be more wrong.