I am assuming you have at least some knowledge of the new Michael Flynn sentencing memo, filed by Robert Mueller yesterday (I link to an essential report on this by Rachel Maddow, below). But With THIS diary, I intend to cut through the mountains and mountains of criminal activity committed by the Trump administration thus far, and shine a spotlight on just one aspect.
Back in January of 2017, just mere days into the presidency Donald J. Trump, Our brand-spanking-new National Security Advisor was found, by our own FBI, to be compromised by the government of The Russian Federation.
This was obviously designed, ordered and carried out by their president, and former KGB agent, Vladimir Putin. The details of how this happened will likely be spelled out in Mueller’s eventual report. But just put aside everything else for a moment, and imagine the pride and unmitigated glee that Putin must have felt, when he knew he had Flynn, and then Trump appointed Flynn NSA.
This was probably the single most important and potentially game-changing counter-intelligence success in the modern era.
Besides installing a compromised US President, of course.
And if it weren’t for the ACTUAL free-press we have in this country (as opposed to Putin’s fake one), this may never have come to public attention.
David Ignatius was the first reporter to mention Flynn’s calls to Sergey Kislyak, and he did it in……….an opinion piece.
According to a senior U.S. government official, Flynn phoned Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak several times on Dec. 29, the day the Obama administration announced the expulsion of 35 Russian officials as well as other measures in retaliation for the hacking. What did Flynn say, and did it undercut the U.S. sanctions? The Logan Act (though never enforced) bars U.S. citizens from correspondence intending to influence a foreign government about “disputes” with the United States. Was its spirit violated? The Trump campaign didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
As is now known, the FBI/DOJ had already found this out. Perhaps Sally Yates is even the “Senior U.S. Government Official” of which Ignatius speaks. Regardless, Flynn’s cat was out of the bag, and at that very point, one of Vladimir Putin’s special new targets…..
The New United States National Security Advisor
……..was revealed to the world.
Our national security would be steered and swayed by a foreign adversarial government.
Flynn being compromised wasn’t any mere coincidence, either. Michael Flynn (along with the president himself) had been groomed by Russian intelligence for years. Russian intelligence works using enticements and threats. Flynn liked the money. And he hated Obama. And Putin knew it.
Michael Flynn was a prime candidate for many reasons. Both financial and otherwise.
Retired Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, Trump’s choice for national security adviser, cultivates close Russian contacts. He has appeared on Russia Today and received a speaking fee from the cable network, which was described in last week’s unclassified intelligence briefing on Russian hacking as “the Kremlin’s principal international propaganda outlet.”
But he was found out. And Robert Mueller quickly turned him back into the patriot he once may have been. Or, at least gave him ample reason to repent. Perhaps Michael Flynn was turned by Mueller (a retired Marine) so quickly with an appeal to Flynn’s (a retired three-star Leiutenant General) military conscience? By reminding him that Russia is NOT our friend?
That his actions might very well cause the deaths of thousands of his former comrades in arms?
Regardless, if it weren’t for then Acting Attorney General Sally Yates, who warned White House Counsel Don McGahn of Flynn’s Kompromat, who knows what Flynn would have done to keep his lies secret?
And who knows what the United States National Security Advisor would have done for Russia, to avoid the shame of being found out to be a, effectively, a Russian agent, under control by the Kremlin?
I was once again impressed at how Rachel Maddow brought the entire fiasco to a fine point in her show last night, and in turn, inspired this very diary: