Kirsten Powers on Trump's classified briefing: ‘This seems utterly corrupt to me’
A CNN panel with Kristen Powers/Screenshot

Donald Trump held a special briefing today, where he asked the FBI and intelligence officials to present classified information about the Russian investigation to members of congress so that his allies could go out and defend him. Democrats had to "muscle their way into" the meeting, which was originally just designed for Trump and his allies. Trump even brought his own lawyer to hear the presentation.


On CNN's The Lead today, USA Today columnist Kristen Powers said that the entire thing struck her as corrupt—especially the presence of Devin Nunes.

“This seems just utterly corrupt to me. Devin Nunes—anywhere where Devin Nunes is, we’ve learned something’s not going right. He's basically a stooge of the White House. We saw that early on and, you know, he’s repeatedly done things like release the memo we were talking about.

Remember the Nunes memo? It was supposed to clear Trump of any wrongdoing by making a convoluted case against the FBI. Powers mocked that failed propaganda piece.

"The Nunes memo was going to be released and it will just prove all these things that it never proved and, in fact, it said things that weren’t even true about the dossier and in terms of what was—you know, the FISA court was told," she said.

Why is Nunes, who represents an agricultural area of California, so invested in trying to clear Trump of wrongdoing?

"I don't know why," she said. "I haven't figured that out yet, except to say he's raising a ton of money off it."

Watch the segment below.