Tag: Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn

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Chaffetz: No Immunity For Mike Flynn; President Trump Shouldn’t Be Commenting On Issue

Rep. Jason Chaffetz

Last night, former National Security Adviser Mike Flynn told investigators looking into Team Trump’s Russian connections that he would be willing to testify in exchange for immunity.

This morning, Trump weighed in saying “Mike Flynn should ask for immunity in that this is a witch hunt (excuse for big election loss), by media & Dems, of historic proportion!”

It crosses my mind to wonder: was Trump instructing Flynn to not testify without protection of immunity? Could that be viewed as obstruction?

But GOP Rep. Jason Chaffetz, the Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, told Fox News that Flynn should not be granted immunity, AND President Trump should not be commenting on the issue.

“No, I don’t think it’s a witch hunt,” Chaffetz said. “Look, it’s very mysterious to me, though, why all of a sudden General Flynn is suddenly out there saying he wants immunity. A, I don’t think Congress should give him immunity. If there’s an open investigation by the FBI, that should not happen. I also don’t believe that actually that the president should be weighing in on this. They’re the ones that actually would prosecute something.”

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Former National Security Adviser Mike Flynn Never Signed Trump’s “Ethics Pledge”

Former National Security Adviser Mike Flynn never signed the ethics pledge President Trump required of all his White House employees.

The pledge would bar Trump’s appointees from ethically questionable lobbying activities.

Via The Daily Beast:

The pledge, imposed by executive order a week after President Donald Trump took office, bars all federal appointees from lobbying their former colleagues for five years after leaving the administration and bans them from lobbying on behalf of foreign governments for life.

Confirmation that Flynn did not sign the pledge comes amid controversy over his lobbying last year on behalf of a company linked to the Turkish government. Flynn belatedly acknowledged that the work may have benefitted that government and notified the Justice Department’s foreign agent division months after the work took place, and after he had resigned from his White House post.

The pledge was part of President Trump’s “drain the swamp” promise.

A spokesperson for Flynn said he plans to honor the pledge “voluntarily.”

Uh-huh.

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BREAKING: Michael Flynn Told FBI He Did Not Discuss Sanctions With Russian Officials

Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn may be in legal trouble for lying to the FBI when he was interviewed about his contact with Russian officials during the Trump transition period.

From the Washington Post:

Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn denied to FBI agents in an interview last month that he had discussed U.S. sanctions against Russia with that country’s ambassador to the United States before President Trump took office, contradicting the contents of intercepted communications collected by intelligence agencies, current and former U.S. officials said.

The Jan. 24 interview potentially puts Flynn in legal jeopardy, as lying to the FBI is a felony, but any decision to prosecute would ultimately lie with the Justice Department. Some officials said bringing a case could prove difficult in part because Flynn may attempt to parse the definition of sanctions.

A spokesman for Flynn said he had no response. The FBI declined to comment.

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Dan Rather: Flynn Debacle Could Be Worse Than Watergate

Veteran news anchor and iconic journalist Dan Rather writes that “Flynnghazi” could end up being worse than Watergate.

And – if this were all written up as a movie pitch, it would be seen as too “far-fetched” for Hollywood.

This has been shared over 58,000 times on Facebook:

Watergate is the biggest political scandal of my lifetime, until maybe now. It was the closest we came to a debilitating Constitutional crisis, until maybe now. On a 10 scale of armageddon for our form of government, I would put Watergate at a 9. This Russia scandal is currently somewhere around a 5 or 6, in my opinion, but it is cascading in intensity seemingly by the hour. And we may look back and see, in the end, that it is at least as big as Watergate. It may become the measure by which all future scandals are judged. It has all the necessary ingredients, and that is chilling.

When we look back at Watergate, we remember the end of the Nixon Presidency. It came with an avalanche, but for most of the time my fellow reporters and I were chasing down the story as it rumbled along with a low-grade intensity. We never were quite sure how much we would find out about what really happened. In the end, the truth emerged into the light, and President Nixon descended into infamy.

This Russia story started out with an avalanche and where we go from here no one really knows. Each piece of news demands new questions. We are still less than a month into the Trump Presidency, and many are asking that question made famous by Tennessee Senator Howard Baker those many years ago: “What did the President know, and when did he know it?” New reporting suggests that Mr. Trump knew for weeks. We can all remember the General Michael Flynn’s speech from the Republican National Convention – “Lock her up!” in regards to Hillary Clinton. If Hillary Clinton had done one tenth of what Mr. Flynn had done, she likely would be in jail. And it isn’t just Mr. Flynn, how far does this go?

The White House has no credibility on this issue. Their spigot of lies – can’t we finally all agree to call them lies – long ago lost them any semblance of credibility. I would also extend that to the Republican Congress, who has excused away the Trump Administration’s assertions for far too long.

We need an independent investigation. Damn the lies, full throttle forward on the truth. If a scriptwriter had approached Hollywood with what we are witnessing, he or she would probably have been told it was way too far-fetched for even a summer blockbuster. But this is not fiction. It is real and it is serious. Deadly serious. We deserve answers and those who are complicit in this scandal need to feel the full force of justice.

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Catching Up With “Michael Flynn’s Wild Ride”

In this episode of “As The Trump Turns:”

Last night, White House senior advisor Kellyanne Conway told MSNBC that (then) National Security Advisor Michael Flynn had “the complete confidence of the president.”

Just hours later, Flynn resigned as the news emerged that the acting Attorney General Sally Yates (fired for telling the truth) informed the White House last month that Flynn had probably misled Trump and the administration, and had possibly opened himself up to blackmail by the Russian government.

So, President Trump knew of these reports last month, but last Friday when asked about the issue onboard Air Force One by reporters, Trump said he had not read or heard of such reports and he’d have to get back to the media over it.

So, which is it? Did Trump know about the moves by Flynn? Or did President Bannon not keep Trump in the loop?

If Trump knew about these revelations last month, how did Flynn have the “full confidence of the president?”

Or, more importantly, if this had not come to light, would Flynn STILL have the full confidence of the president?

If Trump knew all this, why did he allow Flynn complete access to American intel when he might be vulnerable to Russian blackmail?

It wasn’t Flynn’s lie to Vice-president Pence that brought Flynn down. It was the facts coming to light. The White House knew about these allegations for weeks. Nothing was done until the info got out to the public.

CNN is now reporting that Republican Sen. Roy Blunt, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, on Tuesday has called for an investigation into connections between President Donald Trump and Russia, and wants the Intelligence Committee to speak with Michael Flynn.

Here’s Kellyanne Conway this morning twisting in the wind with NBC’s Matt Lauer:

And while Kellyanne was talking in circles at NBC, poor Rep. Chris Collins seemed to have drawn the short GOP straw, and had to spin his own circular nonsense over at CNN:

And just one final piece of irony: here’s now-former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn last summer at the Republican National Convention where he led the crowd in chants of “Lock her up!” in regard to possible security leaks from Hillary Clinton’s email server.

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BREAKING: National Security Advisor Michael Flynn Resigns

CNN is reporting that National Security Advisor Michael Flynn has resigned.

Gloria Borger of CNN says General David Petreaus has an appointment at the White House tomorrow.

More from the New York Times:

The Justice Department warned the White House that Michael T. Flynn, the national security adviser, misled administration officials about whether he had discussed American sanctions against Russia during a phone call with the Russian ambassador, and his job appeared in danger on Monday night.

Publicly, the White House offered a series of conflicting messages on whether Mr. Flynn still had the confidence of President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence.

But a former senior official said the Justice Department raised concerns last month about the call, during which the two men discussed American sanctions against President Vladimir V. Putin’s government weeks before Mr. Trump’s inauguration. Mr. Flynn appears to have not fully disclosed that fact to other senior White House officials, and the Justice Department feared he could be vulnerable to blackmail by Moscow.

Officials said Mr. Pence has told others in the White House that he believes Mr. Flynn lied to him by saying he had not discussed the topic of sanctions on a call with the Russian ambassador in late December. Even the mere discussion of policy — and the apparent attempt to assuage the concerns of an American adversary before Mr. Trump took office — represents a remarkable breach of protocol.

You’ll note that 6 hours and 46 minutes ago, Kellyanne Conway told America that Flynn had the “complete confidence” of the president.

Earlier tonight the Washington Post reported that the White House had been informed by the acting Attorney General (now fired) that Flynn represented a possible liability and possible blackmail due to his communications with Russia during the presidential transition period.

The acting attorney general informed the Trump White House late last month that she believed Michael Flynn had misled senior administration officials about the nature of his communications with the Russian ambassador to the United States, and warned that the national security adviser was potentially vulnerable to Russian blackmail, current and former U.S. officials said.

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National Security Advisor Flynn Has “The Full Confidence Of The President” Despite Rumors He Lied

White House counselor Kellyanne Conway appeared on MSNBC today, and in an interview with Steve Kornacki stated that beleaguered National Security Advisor Michael Flynn “does enjoy the full confidence of the President.”

This comes as more questions are being asked whether Flynn had inappropriate conversations with Russian nationals before Donald Trump became president.

Last week, the Washington Post reported that Flynn spoke to the Russian ambassador and, either through direct statement or insinuation, discussed the sanctions President Obama ordered on Russia for interfering in the U.S. presidential campaign.

When asked if Flynn did or did not discuss those sanctions with the Russian ambassador, Conway dodged today:

“You’re asking me ‘What did he talk about with people when I wasn’t on the phone. So the only way for me to answer that is to tell you what he has said, which is that he can’t recall.”

Prior to the publication of the Washington Post piece, Flynn was adamant that he did not discuss the sanctions. The day after, Flynn’s story shifted to not being sure if he did or didn’t discuss the sanction.

Watch the segment from MSNBC below:

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National Security Adviser May Have Discussed Sanctions With Russia Before Trump Took Office

National Security Adviser Michael Flynn (L)

National Security Adviser Michael Flynn is in the hot seat as transcripts indicate he discussed easing sanctions on Russia with the Russian ambassador before Trump took office.

Flynn has maintained that, prior to the inauguration, he had not communicated with Russia other than to begin planning for a phone call between then President-elect Trump and Russian President Putin.

Any discussion of easing sanctions while President Obama was still in office could be considered a potential violation of the Logan Act, which prohibits private citizens from negotiating with foreign governments in disputes involving the American government.

From the New York Times:

Throughout the discussions, the message Mr. Flynn conveyed to the ambassador, Sergey I. Kislyak — that the Obama administration was Moscow’s adversary and that relations with Russia would change under Mr. Trump — was unambiguous and highly inappropriate, the officials said.

The accounts of the conversations raise the prospect that Mr. Flynn violated a law against private citizens’ engaging in diplomacy, and directly contradict statements made by Trump advisers. They have said that Mr. Flynn spoke to Mr. Kislyak a few days after Christmas merely to arrange a phone call between President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and Mr. Trump after the inauguration.

But current and former American officials said that conversation — which took place the day before the Obama administration imposed sanctions on Russia over accusations that it used cyberattacks to help sway the election in Mr. Trump’s favor — ranged far beyond the logistics of a post-inauguration phone call. And they said it was only one in a series of contacts between the two men that began before the election and also included talk of cooperating in the fight against the Islamic State, along with other issues.Trump

Some officials regarded the conversation as a potential violation of the Logan Act, which prohibits private citizens from negotiating with foreign governments in disputes involving the American government, according to one current and one former American official familiar with the case.

Federal officials who have read the transcript of the call were surprised by Mr. Flynn’s comments, since he would have known that American eavesdroppers closely monitor such calls. They were even more surprised that Mr. Trump’s team publicly denied that the topics of conversation included sanctions.

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Possible Trump Running Mate: Same-Sex Marriage “Not A Big Issue Our Country Is Dealing With”

Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn

Well, that didn’t take long.

It’s been just a day since the rumor of registered Democrat, retired Lt. General Michael Flynn being vetted as Donald Trump’s running mate.

But ABC News’ “This Week” quickly booked an interview with the former Army vet. Oh, and he has a book to sell, too!

During the interview with ABC’s Martha Raddatz he let the world know that he believes in a woman’s right to choose (a pro-choice Republican vice-president – that will be popular).

Flynn dodged a question about same-sex marriage by saying, “What people do in their private lives, these are not big issues that our country is dealing with that will cause our country to collapse. I’m more concerned that our country could collapse because we are not dealing with education issues, immigration issues.”

Flynn is decidedly “not ready for prime-time” as he gave conflicting answers to some of Raddatz’s questions.

When asked about his reaction to the shootings of black men by police in Louisiana and Minnesota, he said he couldn’t speak to the issue because he didn’t have all the details.

But, when it came to the issue of Hillary Clinton not being charged with a crime over her emails – he hasn’t seen all the evidence in that investigation either – he said she was clearly guilty and should be charged.

So, he can speak to some issues without all the details but not others?

When asked about Hillary Clinton’s response to the shootings this week, he denounced her reaction as “totally irresponsible” saying she “blamed white people” – she didn’t.

But when asked about Trump’s comments about the Black Lives Matter being “trouble, a disgrace with hate,” Flynn replied that he couldn’t speak for Trump.

So, he can speak about Hillary’s comments but not Donald’s?

Watch the full interview below.