It's bad enough that Michael Flynn's lobbying connections in Turkey necessitated that Flynn should have registered as a foreign agent, the first time in history that a national security adviser was ever in the position of advising a sitting U.S. president on foreign policy while concurrently representing the interests of a foreign country.
Adding insult to injury is the fact that Trump is claiming that he knew nothing of the matter until this week, although the Washington Post says otherwise and Mike Pence is denying the matter outright. Sean Spicer spun the story yesterday and Mike Pence flat out lied, according to Rachel Maddow
ursulafaw tells it true: “Mike Pence flat out lied”
This is the Rachel Maddow segment linked to in ursulafaw’s report:
— Rachel Maddow | March 10th, 2017
Rachel Maddow reviews the dubious explanations the Trump administration has offered for its behavior toward disgraced National Security Adviser Mike Flynn and points out the glaring problems in V.P. Pence's story about what he knew about Flynn's lobbying.
Meanwhile, in response to these and other similar reports strongly indicating a much deeper and direct involvement by Mike Pence, the White House, various republicans, and Fox “News” began to cover-up Mike Pence’s involvement by spreading a reverse narrative.
Instead of the policy of “extreme Vetting” that Donald Trump repeatedly bragged about for months during his, (apparently-never-ending) campaign, the new story being spun was that;
a) Mike Flynn was actually never vetted by the Mike Pence and the transition team
b) Trump’s transition team didn’t need to vet Mike Flynn because he had already been vetted by the Obama administration and had top security clearance..and therefore...
c) this is all President Obama’s fault for hiring Flynn in the first place (leaving out that President Obama fired Mike Flynn for lying — specifically, among other things)
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Helping to complete the picture is this compelling report out @ Daily Kos by Victor Klemperer Respawned | April 30th, 2017.
Victor makes a very convincing argument for why Pence lied in the first place. Why he has continued to lie — to this day. Why Pence, who endorsed Ted Cruz, not Trump, may have been chosen for VP slot. And the circumstances that were closing in on Pence that forced him to take the liars way out in what appears to be an attempt to absolve himself
excerpts:
Mike Pence was in charge when they interviewed Flynn for his job as National Security Advisor.
This was all done after Flynn’s Op-Ed piece arguing for his client, Turkey, was published in The Hill.
This was all done after Flynn had been FIRED by his previous boss, President Obama.
Lying on FIXED NEWS is not a crime. Hell, that’s a founding principle.
Lying to the FBI, on the other hand, is definitely a crime.
This part is key:
When you consider that Pence endorsed Cruz over Trump in a critical primary, it is amazing he wound up on the ticket. This highlights the fact he was foisted upon Trump by Manafort — who has still not registered as a Foreign Agent.
In this context, the question of what Pence knew and when he knew it becomes increasingly relevant.
Included in Victor Klemperer Respawned’s report is a short video clip of a Fox “News” interview with Brett Baier wherein Mike Pence repeats the lie that he knew nothing of Flynn’s illegal activities and Flynn’s exposed lies. It turns out, for several weeks, during that time when Mike Flynn’s malfeasance was exposed, Mike Pence aided in the cover-up, and then repeated the lie that he was not involved and completely unaware — of any wrongdoing.
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Here is a Rachel Maddow report that includes that Fox”News” clip of Mike Pence lying on national TV:
— Rachel Maddow | April 28th, 2017
Rachel Maddow reports a scoop from NBC News that the Donald Trump transition team and the White House did do a background check on Mike Flynn. Also, a source tells NBC News they were aware of Flynn's business ties to Turkey, but hired him to be Trump's National Security Adviser anyway.
This reason for this diary (?) easy access in the future — I tend to lose track of stuff sometimes, just when it’s needed.
One of these days someone with real skill (not me — iow’s) is going to take all of the purposeful smokescreens (imo) and the many threads of corruption coming out of this crime ridden maladministration and aggregate it into a coherent exposé that tells the whole story. Every bit of information is going to come in real handy someday to do some good. Sooner rather than later, concrete criminal charges; Foreign Corrupt Practices Act; numerous violations of the emoluments clause to the constitution both foreign & domestic; RICO; collusion on election hacking & interference including the ongoing cover-up; graft...the list is long
This exposure of Mike Pence who is not a complete out-right idiot, and arguably could pose an even greater threat than the current imbecile squatting in the White House seems real important these days with what all else is going on. I wanted to put these Daily Kos contributor reports, Rachel Maddow’s reports, and Joy-Ann Reid reports all in one place. They are all excellent.
— imo
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Here are a few of many reports out that are relevant to the Trump regime and GOP cover-up:
• The Pay-to-Play done by the Trump regime turned into a smear of Hillary Clinton (transcript): Flynn documents reveal debunked Clinton scandal figure on payroll | Rachel Maddow (video segment) reports on how the documents filed by disgraced former Trump national security adviser Mike Flynn to declare himself a foreign agent lobbying on behalf of the interests of Turkey also show Flynn making payments to an FBI official at the center of a Fox News-hyped Clinton e-mail scandal that was ultimately debunked.
• additional Rachel Maddow video segments with transcript on Russian down-ballot hacking: Russian hackers targeted down-ballot races | Glen Caplin, senior national spokesman for the Hillary Clinton campaign, talks with Rachel Maddow about how the Russian hack of the Democratic Party unfolded.
• More on hacking, collusion, election interference (transcript): Russian bot networks and cyber war tactics during the 2016 U.S. election