It has always been my contention that the Intel Community did not want Flynn as the NSC advisor considering him to be a loose cannon and not a team player. The Russian collusion narrative was used as a pretext to take down Flynn.
Flynn was interviewed by the FBI long before Mueller was named. The Trump campaign investigation started in July 2016. It appears that a FISA warrant was issued based on the Steele dossier. Hence the "monitoring" of the Trump campaign team by the intel community began then and continued during the transition after the election. The FBI had recordings of the Flynn conversations with the Russian Ambassador and with other members of the Trump transition team. Flynn's unmasking was the real crime along with others that we will learn about.
IMO Flynn's "lies" about the conversation primarily had to do with protecting Trump's desire to have better relations with the Russians. Obama's increased sanctions against the Russians during the last few weeks of his Presidency were meant to tie Trump's hands on our relations with Russia. It was all part of the narrative to de-legitimize Trump's election using the phony Russian collusion narrative. In regard to Russia, Flynn did nothing illegal.
As Andrew McCarthy posited about why the FBI decided to investigate Flynn,
I believe the explanation is threefold: (1) to punish Flynn, and derivatively the incoming Trump administration, for opposing Obama’s anti-Israel legerdemain in the Security Council; (2) to promote the political narrative that Russia–Trump collusion had cheated Clinton out of her rightful election victory; and (3) to tie this collusion narrative to sanctions relief, thereby making it politically impossible for Trump to roll back Obama’s sanctions once he was sworn in — a boon for the Democrats’ collusion narrative since the sanctions stand as a reminder of Russia’s election meddling.
The ongoing Mueller probe is not a good-faith investigation of suspected espionage or other crime. It is the exploitation of the executive’s intelligence-gathering and law-enforcement powers in order to (a) criminalize Trump political policies with which the Obama administration disagreed and (b) frame Clinton’s electoral defeat as the product of a traitorous scheme rather than a rejection of Democratic-party priorities.
We can stipulate that General Flynn is a very foolish man. He was not required to speak to the FBI when agents came to interview him on January 24. He is, moreover, the former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency: He had every reason to know that the FBI must have been monitoring Kislyak (and perhaps other foreign officials with whom Flynn was in contact). He had every reason to know that the Bureau must have had recordings of the conversations the agents wanted to ask him about. Astonishingly, he chose to submit to the interview anyway, and to lie. It is fair enough to say that he has no one to blame but himself, and that a person of such poor judgment should not be the president’s principal adviser on national-security matters.
It should also be noted that Flynn did not have a lawyer present when being interviewed by the FBI. I find that astonishing given the circumstances. His failure to report his private relationship with the Turkish government was the most egregious mistake he made.
1.Not required to speak to FBI agents--who gets away with that,spies who have valued intel not for publication.
2.Former head of DIA,Defense Intelligence Agency,this guy has spy written all over him....Imho.
3.Submitted to interview and lied,. "Lying" is what spies do over and over.
4. Was President Trumps personal advisor on nat. Security matters, only spies know what is going on.
If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck even lies like a duck,most likely a duck. I think Flynn is definitely a spy.
You know, here's what gets me about this.
Trump's a smart guy, and so is Flynn.
I think that if they both know this to be truth, there would be more of an outcry from them.
Certainly if I was Flynn I'd be crowing and talking about this EVERYWHERE, EVERYDAY. I would go on any and every show, blog, podcast, etc., etc. and tell EVERYONE how I was being railroaded for political reasons, and how using national intelligence to "get" political advantage was poison to the country and treason. Only a sniper could take me out.
But now he'll probably do some jail time in Club Fed at the best, and lose his shirt financially.
So, is there some kind of stratergery going on behind the scenes the rest of us are not privy to? That is what makes me doubt the Mueller works for Trump behind the scenes idea. The stakes are very high for these people.
Maybe that's why I only got to E-8 while he got to O-9...