Devin Nunes blows up at Jeff Sessions FBI's Chris Wray on Trump
Christopher Steele
It is unclear whether Nunes â whose signature was the only one to appear on the letter and who  as chairman  has the power to sign off on subpoenas â was acting on behalf of committee Republicans when he subpoenaed "any and all documents relating to the agencies' relationship with  former British Secret Intelligence Service officer Christopher Steele  and/or the so-called 'Trump dossier'" on August 24.
Nunes' subpoenas  to which the DOJ and FBI apparently did not respond by the September 1 deadline  also covered documents "memorializing FBI's relationship with  Mr. Steele   any payments made to  Mr. Steele   and efforts to corroborate information provided by Mr. Steele and  his  sub-sources â whether directly or via Fusion GPS."
Fusion GPS  an opposition research firm  hired  Steele  in late 2015 to dig up dirt on then-candidate Trump on behalf of anti-Trump Republicans. Democrats took over funding for the research after Trump won the Republican nomination.
"The sole purpose of this subpoena is to discredit  Christopher Steele  instead of doing our due diligence to evaluate whether the claims in  his  report are true "  he  said.
Nunes' subpoenas also directed the DOJ and the FBI to "provide copies of any Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) applications submitted to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) â whether or not approved by the FISC â incorporating information provided by  Mr. Steele    his  sub-sources  and/or Fusion GPS " according to the letter.
"I think what's going on here is something I saw back in my days of a prosecutor " Schiff told MSNBC. "Sometimes the defense opts for a strategy of trying to put the government on trial. And here I think there's a hope that if they can impeach Christopher Steele  and if they can impeach the FBI and DOJ  then maybe they can impeach the whole Russia investigation."
It is unclear whether Nunes â whose signature was the only one to appear on the letter and who  as chairman  has the power to sign off on subpoenas â was acting on behalf of committee Republicans when he subpoenaed "any and all documents relating to the agencies' relationship with  [TGT] and/or the so-called 'Trump dossier'" on August 24.
Nunes' subpoenas  to which the DOJ and FBI apparently did not respond by the September 1 deadline  also covered documents "memorializing FBI's relationship with   [TGT] any payments made to  Mr. Steele   and efforts to corroborate information provided by  [TGT]  and   [TGT]   sub-sources â whether directly or via Fusion GPS."
Fusion GPS  an opposition research firm  hired  Steele  in late 2015 to dig up dirt on then-candidate Trump on behalf of anti-Trump Republicans. Democrats took over funding for the research after Trump won the Republican nomination.
"The sole purpose of this subpoena is to discredit   [TGT] instead of doing our due diligence to evaluate whether the claims in   [TGT]   report are true "  he  said.
Nunes' subpoenas also directed the DOJ and the FBI to "provide copies of any Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) applications submitted to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) â whether or not approved by the FISC â incorporating information provided by   [TGT] and/or Fusion GPS " according to the letter.
"I think what's going on here is something I saw back in my days of a prosecutor " Schiff told MSNBC. "Sometimes the defense opts for a strategy of trying to put the government on trial. And here I think there's a hope that if they can impeach Christopher Steele  and if they can impeach the FBI and DOJ  then maybe they can impeach the whole Russia investigation."