The Nunes memo was fundamentally a desperate fraud, committed for partisan purposes, radically deceptive and dishonest in its attacks against the FBI and its misrepresentation of the FISA warrant process.
As I wrote recently, Mueller should question Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) and his staff about whether there was any collusion between those who issued the Nunes memo and Trump or any Trump associates involved with matters under investigation for potential crimes.
There is desperation in the air around Trump, Nunes and their defenders. There is a profound fear of potential coming indictments or plea bargains achieved by Mueller that might already have happened and remain under seal, or will happen in the near future.
There is desperation and fear in Trump circles about the prospect of Trump being questioned by Mueller and his special counsel team, which I predict Trump will never agree to, which would lead Mueller to issue subpoenas for Trump to testify before the grand jury, which, based on judicial precedents, will be approved by the courts.
The Nunes memo will have zero practical effect because it has been so widely discredited, unless Trump uses it as a pretext to fire Rosenstein and Mueller, which would either lead to impeachment in the Republican House or Republicans losing a massive number of seats in the midterm elections.
FBI Director Christopher Wray is a good and honorable leader of the FBI, which is a noble and professional organization that protects our citizens from terrorists and criminals and defends our nation from hostile powers, including Russia, that seek to destroy our democracy.
What Trump and Nunes have done is shameless and wrong and greatly damages our country.
What Wray can do by employing the nuclear option of guaranteeing he will resign if Trump fires Rosenstein or Mueller will either prevent the grave constitutional danger that is fast approaching or make it clear to Republicans in Congress that the consequences to them will be disastrous if they do not act now.
Brent Budowsky was an aide to former Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-Texas) and former Rep. Bill Alexander (D-Ark.), who was chief deputy majority whip of the U.S. House of Representatives. He holds an LLM in international financial law from the London School of Economics.