Dark-Money Group Targets Devin Nunes for Attacking “Conservative Hero” Jeff Sessions

“Sounds like a scheme Nancy Pelosi cooked up over in San Francisco”

Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.)J. Scott Applewhite/AP

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A new radio ad is attacking Trump loyalist Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) for feuding with another Trump loyalist, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, whom the ad describes as “a conservative hero. An icon. A legend.”

Earlier this month, Nunes, the chair of the House intelligence committee, threatened to hold Sessions in contempt of Congress because the Justice Department has declined to hand over classified material related to the Russia investigation. “Sounds like a scheme Nancy Pelosi cooked up over in San Francisco, don’t you think?” says the ad’s narrator. “Tell Nunes to stop playing games and get back to work.”

Swamp Accountability Project, a recently launched dark money outfit, is running the ads on talk radio stations in Nunes’ Central California district, according to the politics blog Flash Report. Republican consultant Liz Mair, a strategist for the Swamp Accountability Project, writes:

The bottom line is, Nunes is attacking one of the country’s most principled conservatives and attempting to undermine a probe that has been ruthlessly effective in going after Beltway swamp creatures like Crooked Hillary’s friend and ally Tony Podesta…

In the House, Rep. Nunes’ chamber, the Farm Bill is moving. That’s a considerably more important issue for his district than holding a stalwart, rock-ribbed conservative icon like Sessions in Contempt of Congress.

And that is why we’re running this ad: To highlight to Nunes’ constituents his misplaced priorities. Hopefully, he’ll refocus in the coming weeks.

Andrew Janz, Nunes’ main Democratic challenger, took note of the ad, saying, “The floodgates are opening on my opponent’s poor record of serving our community and our country. Nunes wants to claim his recent controversies have been a liberal hit job, but here he is taking fire from his own side.”

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DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

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And we need your support like never before to vigorously fight back against the existential threats American democracy and journalism face. We’re running behind our online fundraising targets and urgently need all hands on deck right now. We can’t afford to come up short—we have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

Please help with a donation today if you can—even just a few bucks helps. Not ready to donate but interested in our work? Sign up for our Daily newsletter to stay well-informed—and see what makes our people-powered, not profit-driven, journalism special.

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