President Donald Trump awarded the presidential Medal of Freedom to Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., on Monday for his work uncovering the Russia-Gate hoax.
Nunes, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, was the first to raise the alarm that something about the Democrats’ Russian collusion narrative was not adding up.
He expressed concern in late 2017 that the Obama administration’s intelligence agencies were manipulating intelligence “for political purposes,” and urged lawmakers to be skeptical of the agencies’ reports.
It was Nunes who discovered that the Steele dossier was funded by failed Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee.
The memo Nunes published also revealed that information from Steele was funneled to the FBI through Bruce Ohr, an associate deputy attorney general in the Justice Department, even after Steele had been fired from the project.
Unsurprisingly, Democrats and the mainstream media attacked Nunes, calling him a “gift to Putin” and an “exceptionally partisan hack.”
Even a few Republicans, including Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-SC, and former Rep. Walter Jones, R-NC, turned on Nunes.
Graham mocked Nunes by saying he was running “an Inspector Clouseau investigation,” referring to the bumbling detective portrayed by Peter Sellers in the “Pink Panther” franchise.
Jones called on Nunes to resign from committee leadership.
“What he’s gone through, and his bravery, he should get a very important medal,” Trump said of Nunes.
The White House celebrated Nunes in a statement, saying his “courageous actions helped thwart a plot to take down a sitting United States president.”
White House announcement of Medal of Freedom for Rep. Devin Nunes: pic.twitter.com/3yBCuMBfow
— Byron York (@ByronYork) January 4, 2021
“Nunes pursued the Russia Hoax at great personal risk and never stopped standing up for the truth,” the White House said.
“He had the fortitude to take on the media, the FBI, the Intelligence Community, the Democrat Party, foreign spies, and the full power of the Deep State,” it continued.
Trump is also expected to give Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, the same award next week, according to the Washington Post, though those plans have not been finalized.
