The "see no evil" routine isn't going to work, Mr. Ryan.

The FBI has issued a rare public statement regarding the secret document Rep. Devin Nunes created with the Trump White House to try to derail the Mueller investigation into Trump's Russia ties. Now that the FBI is literally sounding alarms about the danger to national security that this memo poses because of both inaccuracies and how much it could reveal about the intelligence community's operations, Republican leadership has a decision to make: Party or country.

More specifically, House Speaker Paul Ryan has a decision to make. He's got a pretty bad track record so far when it comes to trying to cover up Trump's Russia ties. His performance in Memogate is embedding him deeper in this obstruction/cover up embroglio. That includes covering up the responding memo House Intelligence Committee Democrats have written to counter the Nunes fiction.

Asked on Tuesday about why it would not be more appropriate to make both memos public at the same time, Mr. Ryan was evasive. He said the Democratic memo first had to go through a process in which House members outside the Intelligence Committee could read it. Pressed on why the Republican memo should not be held back until that process was done, he said a reporter had asked enough questions. Mr. Ryan then began remarks he said he had prepared, stressing that he respected the F.B.I. and the Justice Department as important institutions for “keeping the rule of law intact.” But on Monday, Intelligence Committee Republicans signaled a widening attack on both institutions — informing Democrats that the committee has opened an investigation into them, according to Mr. Schiff — as they voted to make their memo public.

"He said a reporter had asked enough questions." No questions allowed on this, which has a lot of echoes in that discussion he had in 2016 with his Republican leadership colleagues. The very suggestion, made half in jest, that Trump might just be in the pay of Putin had Ryan shutting down all discussion. "No leaks!" He admonished. "What's said in the family stays in the family."

Ryan is looking out for "family" with the Nunes memo, as he has been all along.