Eugene Robinson asks a scary question

[Honeycombe8]

91. I found that the Committee actually deferred to intel.

“The committee will take no further action and considers this matter closed,” the ethics panel’s chairwoman, Susan Brooks (R-Ind.), and ranking Democrat, Ted Deutch (D-Fla.), wrote in a statement announcing the panel’s decision. They noted that the committee deferred entirely to intelligence community experts in making its determination about the classification of the materials and that members did not weigh in on that question.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/intelligence-chairman-devin-nunes-cleared-of-wrongdoing-in-house-ethics-probe/2017/12/07/b607b1e2-dba7-11e7-a841-2066faf731ef_story.html?utm_term=.39855282ef6d

and...

“I am also concerned by public statements made by four of the Ethics Committee’s five Democrats that appeared to prejudge this matter before they began investigating the complaint," Nunes said. "I therefore call on the Ethics Committee to publicly release all its transcripts related to my case."

That committee has a troubling history with ethics concerns of its own. It's not likely to return a violation against a Republican. It stalled on Tom DeLay for a long time, and when it finally did rebuke him, one of the key Republicans removed 3 people from the panel (as punishment, I guess).

A committee was formed, in fact, to investigate the committee for congressional violations. So, it's not surprising that it wouldn't return any violation against Nunes or any Republican. It would have been a surprise if it had.

Going with papers in hand in the dead of night to share committee info with the White House? That wasn't considered unethical. Only something he said to the press the next day. And there you have it.