Richard Grenell, Profile in Courage

Kay Nietfeld/DPA via ZUMA

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Our loyalist nominee to head up the intelligence community has begged off testifying before Congress:

Acting director of national intelligence Richard Grenell has declined to appear before Congress on Tuesday to speak about foreign election threats….[Grenell] asked President Trump to be excused from the briefings because he anticipated pointed questions from Democrats about politically volatile subjects — such as intelligence assessments that Russia is once more interfering in U.S. politics.

But wait. There’s more:

The intelligence community’s top counterintelligence official, William Evanina, will appear instead….Grenell’s name had been included in a list of briefers given to Congress on Feb. 27 and again Monday, people familiar with the matter said….The latest list of briefers, provided to Congress on Tuesday morning, included Evanina in lieu of Grenell.

It’s not just that Grenell is afraid of Trump being pissed off if the truth happens to emerge during today’s testimony. He’s specifically afraid that Trump will be pissed off at whoever happens to deliver the truth. So he fobbed it off on someone else. A true profile in courage.

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BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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