Posted on 05/10/2017 8:02:53 AM PDT by Lorianne
Although no actual evidence was presented, two ex-Obama administration officials destroyed the reputation of retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, portraying him as a liar and a potential traitor ___
The testimony on Monday by former acting Attorney General Sally Yates and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper offered no evidence of Flynn’s wrongdoing – those facts were deemed “classified” – yet the pair thoroughly destroyed Flynn’s reputation, portraying him as both a liar and a potential traitor.
That Senate Democrats, in particular, saw nothing troubling about this smearing of the former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency and, briefly, President Trump’s national security adviser was itself troubling. Republicans were a bit more skeptical but no one, it seemed, wanted to be labeled as soft on Russia.
So, there was no skepticism toward Yates’s curious assertion that Flynn’s supposed lying to Vice President Mike Pence about the details of a phone call with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak somehow opened Flynn to Russian blackmail – her core explanation for why she rushed to Trump’s White House with warnings of this allegedly grave danger.
Yates also talked ominously about “underlying” information that raised further questions about Flynn’s patriotism, but that evidence, too, couldn’t be shared with the American people; it was classified, leaving it to your imagination the depth of Flynn’s perfidy.
(Excerpt) Read more at consortiumnews.com ...
Flynn is a private citizen now. Why doesn’t he speak out and defend himself?
In the short term, they can threaten his retirement and pay grade.
In the middle to longer term, I think there are more shoes to drop. My view is they have smeared an innocent man in an effort to get at Trump. And as the story unfolds more fully, we’ll see if I’m right.
You notice that, of the people we know have taken money from the Russians, they aren’t going after them at all.
He is in the process of initiating a major-league lawsuit...
Flynn is a counter espionage effort to out leakers. He succeeded.
If Flynn had been forthcoming about all his contacts with Russians before his confirmation he would have saved himself and the president a lot of grief.
Flynn did a great dis-service to president Trump by giving his enemies ammunition to create a false narrative and attack the president.
It is obvious that Obama (and Hillary?) had Susan Rice mining the intelligence records for anything at all that could be used in an attempt to create doubt and discredit the president.
Flynn played right into their hands.
If Flynn’s contacts were innocent there was every reason to be open and forthcoming about them.
If they weren’t he should have declined the nomination before speaking under oath, before accepting the nomination and before lying to the VP.
Even if his contacts were innocent the question is, did he lie under oath?
Did he lie to the FBI?
Isn’t that what got Scooter Libby prosecuted?
Scooter Libby was another fake prosecution. You’ll remember that Fitz knew the source of the leak from the very first day of his “investigation” and it wasn’t Libby.
I don’t think Flynn broke any laws in his conversation with the Russian ambassador. I do believe the subject of sanctions was touched upon, again not an illegal act. I don’t believe he colluded in any way to aid the alleged Russian interference in the election.But I also believe he told VPPence that the subject of sanctions was not mentioned and that was the lie that indicted him in the view of the Trump administration and led to his firing.
A retired General military officer is never a private citizen, he is still a military officer serving in a reduced capacity and subject to recalls up to a certain age
I believe Admiral Grace Hopper was recalled to duty at age 80
Curiously we never did hear exactly what question Pence asked Flynn and whether Flynn, in deciding what to reveal, considered his “eyes only” boss to be Trump.....or Pence as co equal
Flynn was less than 4 weeks away from being the President’s National security advisor and should have had discretion to assure or reassure or discuss the future direction of US policy toward Russia with their Ambassador, especially after Obama’s specious and ridiculous jiggered “sanctions” stripping Russia of property it OWNS in the US for weekend retreats, and 72 hour notice holiday week expulsions of 35 diplomatic staff and their families - ALL on the pretense of Russia “hacking” the US election (remember that?)
Perhaps the Russian ambassador’s discussion with Flynn played a role in having Putin making no retaliation against US diplomats in Russia, who continued to enjoy their holiday parties at their embassy dascha retreat and to have their children educated in a special embassy school Putin reportedly considered closing -but did not
Or perhaps Flynn should have simply said “Tell Vlad we’ll have more flexibility after the inauguration”
Yep.
What a miscarriage of justice.
Fitz was determined to prosecute someone and Scooter gave him a small opening.
It's analogous to the old story about being pulled over by a traffic cop.
There are so many petty laws on the books they can always nail you for something - even if it has no relationship to the reason you were originally stopped.
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