Posted on 12/01/2017 10:43:51 PM PST by RC one
Moments ago, the special counsel released Michael Flynn’s “Statement of the Offense.” This document lays out Flynn’s crimes in far greater detail than the short “information” released earlier today. It’s important to state this clearly as possible — the statement contains no evidence of collusion with Russia to influence the presidential election. Instead, it amplifies the fact that Flynn apparently lied about contacts that were lawful and appropriate.
First, the statement says that the day after President Obama announced sanctions in response to Russian efforts to interfere with the 2016 election, Flynn called a “senior official of the Presidential Transition Team (PTT)” who was with other “senior members of the PTT” at Mar-a-Lago. On the call, Flynn and the “senior official” said that they did not want Russia to “escalate the situation.” Flynn called the Russian ambassador “immediately after” his call with the senior official to communicate the incoming administration’s request. The next day, Putin announced that Russia would not retaliate against the United States, and the Russian ambassador later informed Flynn that Putin had decided not to retaliate in response to his request.
Second, the statement also says that Flynn initiated contact with Russia and other foreign governments in an effort to influence a U.N. Security Council vote on an Egyptian resolution condemning Israeli settlements. Flynn made these calls at the behest of a “very senior member” of the PTT. In this instance, Flynn was unsuccessful. The Russian ambassador told Flynn that “Russia would not vote against the resolution."
Third, the statement briefly outlines false statements Flynn made about his relationship with the government of Turkey. These false statements appear unrelated to any dealings with Russia, in any capacity.
While Twitter will no doubt find it “shocking” and “outrageous” that Trump transition officials were trying to influence Russian policy on matters that would directly impact the Trump presidency, there is a long history of presidential campaigns and transition teams initiating contact with foreign powers. The Trump administration — not the Obama administration — would bear the primary burden of responding to any additional Russian sanctions and the fallout from the U.N. vote. In other words, we can debate the prudence of the PTT’s actions all day long, but it was not illegal, and it was not “collusion.”
At the same time, however, it’s becoming increasingly clear that Trump officials hid their (lawful) Russian contacts behind a smokescreen of lies. The next targets for Mueller may well be the “senior official” and the “very senior member” of the PTT. The Internet will light up with speculation about their identities — and leaks may well out them before Mueller’s ready to make his next public move — but it’s pretty clear (at least at this point) that the collusion narrative has taken a series of body blows.
One last point — a number of folks have asked me, “If there’s no collusion, why lie about these contacts?” I can think of a number of reasons, including inexperience, hubris, and paranoia. Remember, these contacts were taking place against the backdrop of a public feeding frenzy about Trump’s Russian contacts. To admit to these contacts was to churn waters already boiling with hungry sharks. So they chose the worst possible course. They lied, and they lied when active FISA warrants meant that investigators may have immediately spotted the lies. When you start the lies, it’s hard to stop — especially when you don’t know what the FBI knows, but you do know that changes in your story will almost certainly leak to the press and create yet another firestorm.
So, at the end of the day, we may well end up with multiple senior members of the administration facing prison time for covering up no crime and no collusion, just contacts. If that’s justice, it’s a form of justice that will leave no one standing on the political high ground and partisans on both sides seething with rage and bitterness.
Update: Like clockwork, it looks like the “very senior member” of the PTT who asked Flynn to contact Russia about its U.N. Security Council vote has been unmasked. Bloomberg’s Eli Lake reports that it’s Jared Kushner:
,I>At the time, the U.N. Security Council resolution on Israeli settlements was a big deal. Even though the Obama administration had less than a month left in office, the president instructed his ambassador to the United Nations to abstain from a resolution, breaking a precedent that went back to 1980 when it came to one-sided anti-Israel resolutions at the U.N.
This was the context of Kushner’s instruction to Flynn last December. One transition official at the time said Kushner called Flynn to tell him he needed to get every foreign minister or ambassador from a country on the U.N. Security Council to delay or vote against the resolution. Much of this appeared to be coordinated also with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose envoys shared their own intelligence about the Obama administration’s lobbying efforts to get member stats to support the resolution with the Trump transition team.
Unless Kushner has lied to the FBI about these contacts, this is not a scandal. Nothing that we’ve seen in any of the plea deals or indictments yet indicates any scheme to collude with Russia to influence the election. To be sure, we haven’t seen all the evidence (ABC reports that Flynn was instructed to contact Russia during the campaign, and we don’t yet know the substance of these contacts), but right now it looks like Flynn pled guilty to lying to the FBI about doing his job.
This whole Michael Flynn thing is just a big pant load to give the Drive-Bys something to jerk-off to, pardon my French.
As evidenced by the fake Brian Ross report.
Collusion isn’t a crime anyway. They could have legally had a monthly meeting with the Russian ambassador to kick around how to best beat Hillary.
What you can’t do is spend money for a foreigner to do things for you. Like Hillary did with the Brit.
I believe she was smart enough to pay non foreign people to pay the foreign person though thereby establishing plausible deniability. Remember: admit nothing, deny everything, make counter accusations. that’s the D.C. way.
It’s the dirtiest politics I have ever seen. I knew the dems would be dangerous after the injury they suffered in 2016. they’re like a wounded animal. I really want to hurt them again in 2018 just to see how they take it.
It happened as a result of him being unmasked, which was illegal.
I’m sure the justice department will be all over that.
CNN says its a bombshell but lying about legitimate presidential transition campaign contacts with a foreign government is the opposite of collusion.
No one to date has been to prove Russia interfered in our political processes before, during and after last year’s election campaign. Just asserting it happened is not evidence.
Then a lot of people have a lot invested in discrediting Trump which says a lot more about them than it does about Trump. People on a partisan witchhunt, are not interested in the truth.
And the fake news media wouldn’t report it if cleared Trump.
It’s the dirtiest politics I have ever seen. I knew the dems would be dangerous after the injury they suffered in 2016. they’re like a wounded animal. I really want to hurt them again in 2018 just to see how they take it.
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It is kindest to put a wounded animal out of its misery.
yeah, we wouldn’t want to be cruel.
i read that Sessions is going after legal marijuana states..thats his thing, i kidd you not.
It is rebellion but, then again, so is refusing to enforce federal immigration laws.
DECEMBER 21, 2016 WED : (HAWAII : OBAMA CONSULTS BY PHONE WITH HIS NAT. SECURITY TEAM IN WASHINGTON DC ABOUT UN RESOLUTION 2334 AGAINST ISRAEL )
DECEMBER 12 & 13, 2016 : (WASHINGTON DC : SECRET MEETINGS CONCERNING TRUMP ADMINISTRATION RESPONSE TO ANTI-ISRAEL UN RESOLUTION 2334 ARE HELD BETWEEN PALESTINIAN DELEGATION AND SENIOR OBAMA ADMIN OFFICIALS -— See JOHN KERRY, SUSAN RICE, JOHN BRENNAN [WHO MET WITH MAJID FARAJ]...)
According to the report, the minutes of the “top secret” meeting of Kerry, Rice, Erekat, and Faraj reveals U.S.-Palestinian coordination leading up to the UN Security Council vote on Resolution 2334 regarding Israel’s settlements, which was adopted December 23. It states that the sides “agreed to cooperate in drafting a resolution on the settlements” and that the U.S. representative in the Security Council was “empowered” to coordinate with the Palestinian UN representative on the resolution.
The meeting also, according to the report, was aimed at coordinating Kerry’s attendance at the upcoming international Paris Conference set for January 15, 2017, in order to promote a further international move regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Kerry, it said, offered to propose his ideas for a permanent arrangement “provided that they are supported by the Palestinian side.”
At the meeting, Rice pointed out the “danger” of the incoming Trump administration’s policies, the report stated, adding that both she and Kerry had advised President ‘Abbas to make no preliminary moves that might provoke the new administration. Rice even offered to help arrange a meeting between the Palestinian delegation and a representative from the Trump team, by enlisting the help of World Jewish Congress president Ronald Lauder.
—— Egyptian News Reveals Minutes Of Palestinian Authority Meeting With Kerry,Rice,Coordination On 2334, MEMRI ^ | 12-30-16
DECEMBER 24, 2016 SAT : (ISRAEL : NETANYAHU RESPONDS TO UN RESOLUTION 2334, HALTING ISRAAELI FUNDING TO 5 UN BODIES & CANCELLING VISIT BY UKRAINIAN PM OVER UKRAINE’S VOTE IN FAVOR OF THE RESOLUTION)
JANUARY 15, 2017 : (FRANCE : PARIS CONFERENCE -— See JOHN KERRY, UN RESOLUTION 2334) Paris Conference held on 15 January—attended by delegations from 70 countries, the United Nations, the European Commission, the European Union, the Arab League and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.-— UN Security Council Members Trash Quartet Roadmap and Two-State Solution , Canada Free Press ^ | 01/18/17 | David Singer
JULY 12, 2016 TUE : (LT GEN MICHAEL FLYNN BOOK “FIELD OF FIGHT” IS RELEASED -— See IRAN, WMD, BCW, 201105 BIN LADEN RAID) Al Qaeda operatives based in Iran worked on chemical and biological weapons, according to a letter written to Osama bin Laden that is described in a new book by a top former U.S. intelligence official. The letter was captured by a U.S. military sensitive site exploitation team during the raid on bin Laden’s Abbottabad headquarters in May 2011. It is described in Field of Fight, out Tuesday from Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, the former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, and Michael Ledeen of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
“One letter to bin Laden reveals that al Qaeda was working on chemical and biological weapons in Iran,” Flynn writes.—— Top Intel Official: Al Qaeda Worked on WMD in Iran; New evidence of the bin Laden-Iran connection., 10:47 PM, Jul 12, 2016 | By Stephen F. Hayes and Thomas Joscelyn
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