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An Empty Flynn Investigation & Obama-Clinton Complicity

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General Michael Flynn, former National Security Advisor to President Trump, plead guilty to lying to the FBI regarding his conversations with Russia’s ambassador to the United States.

Flynn is pleading guilty to a one-count criminal information. The Statement of the Offense may be found here.

The false-statement charge stems from Flynn’s conversations on December 22, 2016 and December 29, 2016, with Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak. The first conversation was about an anti-Israel resolution that the Obama administration abstained from, while the second conversation involved sanctions on Russia.

The charging document claims the following:

Flynn falsely stated that he did not ask Russia’s Ambassador to the United States to refrain from escalating the situation in response to sanctions that the United States had imposed against Russia. Flynn also falsely stated that he did not remember a follow-up conversation in which the Russian Ambassador stated that Russia had chosen to moderate its response to those sanctions as a result of Flynn’s request.

Flynn made additional false statements about calls he made to Russia and several other countries regarding a resolution submitted by Egypt to the United Nations Security Council on December 21, 2016. Specifically, Flynn falsely stated that he only asked the countries’ positions on the vote, and that he did not request that any of the countries take any particular action on the resolution. Flynn also falsely stated that the Russian Ambassador never described to him Russia’s response to Flynn’s request regarding the resolution.

In conjunction with the announcement, General Flynn issued the following statement:

Although this all has a certain breathless quality to it, consider the following:

There is absolutely nothing illegal – or unethical – with an incoming national-security adviser holding meetings with foreign counterparts – or discussing matters such as the sanctions in those meetings. This type of activity is actually quite common – even expected.

Flynn’s calls regarding Russian sanctions were of direct benefit to – and in the interest of – the United States. Flynn was attempting, successfully, to temper Russia’s reaction to sanctions imposed in the very final days of the Obama Administration.

Flynn’s call regarding Israel was an attempt to help protect one of our strongest allies from continued bullying at the UN.

Flynn’s charges amount to what is known as a “process crime” – essentially a technicality. As Andrew McCarthy notes:

If it were part of the basis for a “collusion” case arising out of Russia’s election meddling, then Flynn would not be pleading guilty to a process crime — he’d be pleading guilty to an espionage conspiracy.

Per the plea agreement, Flynn’s estimated prison sentence is 0 to 6 months coupled with a $500 to $9,500 fine.  Alan Dershowitz referred to the charges as “political Jaywalking”.

The FBI had already seen the full content of Flynn’s calls with Kislyak and had cleared Flynn of any wrongdoing from the actual conversations. Flynn was in absolutely no legal jeopardy from his actual discussions with Kislyak.

Flynn was under no legal obligation – of any kind – to speak with the FBI about his phone calls.

Flynn was found guilty of lying to the FBI about perfectly legal discussions.

Allow that to sink in for a moment. General Flynn was found guilty of lying to the FBI about conduct that was completely legal.

General Flynn is a 33 year army veteran with numerous distinctions.

Flynn’s military career included a key role in shaping U.S. counter-terrorism strategy and dismantling insurgent networks in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Flynn handled numerous special operations and senior intelligence assignments.

From July 2012 to August 2014, Flynn served as the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency.

Retired four-star General Barry McCaffrey, one of the most decorated officers of his generation and a Never-Trumper, had this to say of Flynn:

Mike Flynn is the best intelligence officer of his generation, and he and Stan McChrystal are the principle reason we have not suffered a half-dozen 9/11-type attacks since 2001.

General Flynn was a professional spy – of the highest level.

The Russian Ambassador, Kislyak, as an agent of a foreign power, was subject to monitoring under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. General Flynn knew that any conversation he had with Kislyak was being monitored and recorded.

General Flynn had been a fierce and outspoken critic of the Obama Administration and its national security and foreign policies. Flynn was despised by Obama Administration officials.

Flynn was ultimately forced to resign as head of the DIA in 2014, reportedly because Flynn opposed Obama’s hesitant policy in the Syrian Civil War, which allowed for the growth of the Islamic State (ISIS).

Upon his forced retirement, Flynn gave a critical and insightful interview which can be found here – and a later interview which can be found here.

In his role as President Trump’s National Security Advisor, Flynn was advocating strategies that were anathema to the Obama Administration’s accommodating and weak foreign policy responses in Iran, Syria and elsewhere.

Despite Obama’s hatred of Flynn, Obama was forced to renew Flynn’s full security clearance in January 2016 due to Flynn’s exemplary record.

All of this brings me to one simple question.

Why would General Flynn lie about perfectly legal conversations to the FBI – especially when he knew the conversations had been recorded?

There are two possible answers as I see it.

  1. He did so to protect VP Pence during the midst of the Russia, Russia, Russia whirlwind created by the Obama Administration and the Clinton Campaign.
  2. He did so because he knew what the Obama Administration was up to – and simply refused to give them anything that would further their Russia-Trump Collusion efforts.

It may have been a combination of the two.

Either way, General Flynn was fully aware that the Obama Administration was out to discredit him. My guess is General Flynn took certain preventative steps to protect himself later down the line.

Here is a timeline of the Flynn events:

December 29 2016 – General Michael Flynn speaks to the Russian Ambassador. The conversation takes place the same day that outgoing President Barack Obama imposes sanctions against Russia for suspected hacking of Democrats’ emails during the election.

The conversation is recorded by intelligence agencies and later reviewed by the FBI. Recording or releasing Americans’ conversations is prohibited without written approval from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA). The existence of recorded conversations and the contents of the conversation are barred from public release by classification rules and privacy laws.

December 29 2016 – Obama announces sanctions on Russia.

December 30 2016 – Russian leader Vladimir Putin addresses Obama’s sanctions by not expelling any U.S. officials. Putin’s lack of retaliatory action prompts some to later conclude that Flynn relayed a message regarding the sanctions in his December 29th conversation with the Russian Ambassador.

January 3 2017 – Loretta Lynch signs Section 2.3 of Executive Order 12333 – Procedures for the Availability or Dissemination of Raw Signals Intelligence Information by the NSA – into effect. This order is significant. As I note in, The Suspicious Timing of Obama’s NSA Data-Sharing Order:

Prior to the formal signing of Section 2.3 it appears that there existed more latitude within the White House in regards to collection of information on the Trump Campaign. However, once signed into effect, Section 2.3 granted broad latitude in regards to inter-agency sharing of information. By the time the new order was signed, the information was already in the Obama White House’s possession.

The new order, had it been implemented earlier, might have restricted White House access to information regarding the Trump Team. Once signed, it granted broad latitude to inter-agency sharing of information already held.

Importantly, the transcript of Flynn’s call was already in the possession of the Obama White House.

January 4 2017 – Mike Flynn informs transition White House Counsel Don McGahn that he is under federal investigation for work as a paid lobbyist to Turkey.

Jan 12 2017 –  Mike Flynn’s Dec 29 2016 call is leaked to Washington Post. The article portrays Flynn as undermining Obama’s Russian sanctions.

Jan 15 2017 – VP Pence appears on Face the nation to defend Flynn’s calls – five days before the inauguration of President Trump.

January 19 2017 – The New York Times reports, on the eve of Inauguration Day, that several agencies — the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency and the Treasury Department are monitoring several associates of the Trump campaign suspected of Russian ties.

January 19 2017 – Obama’s top intelligence and law-enforcement deputies meet to talk about Flynn’s conversation with Kislyak, according to a Feb 13 article in the Washington Post.

January 20 2017 – Inauguration.

January 23 2017 – Acting Attorney General Sally Yates increases pressure on FBI Director Comey regarding Mike Flynn – telling Comey that Flynn could be vulnerable to blackmail.

January 23 2017 – The Washington Post reports that the FBI intercepted a conversation in late December 2016 between Michael Flynn and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. The intercept is supposedly part of routine spying on the ambassador.

January 23 2017 – The FBI reports nothing unlawful in content of Flynn call. Having listened to the tapes, the FBI clears General Michael Flynn of any wrongdoing in his conversations with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Flynn did not violate the Logan Act by attempting to influence US foreign policy.

January 24 2017 – Mike Flynn is interviewed at the White House by the FBI. It is during this interview that Flynn supposedly lies to the FBI – despite having his calls already cleared by the FBI. The surprise – and unscheduled – interview is conducted by Peter Strzok.

January 25 2017 –  The Department of Justice receives a detailed briefing on Flynn from the FBI.

January 26 2017 – Yates contacts White House Counsel McGahn who agrees to meet with Yates the same day.

January 26 2017 – Sally Yates meets with McGahn. She also brings Mary McCord – Acting Assistant Attorney General – and Head of the DOJ’s National Security Division.

Yates later testifies the meeting surrounds General Flynn’s phone calls and his FBI Interview. She also testifies that Flynn’s call and subsequent interview “was a topic of a whole lot of discussion in DOJ and with other members of the intel community.”

January 27 2017 – McGahn calls Yates and asks if she can come back to his office.

January 27 2017 – Yates returns to the White House without McCord. McGahn asks to examine the FBI’s evidence on Flynn. Yates says she will respond by Monday.

To my knowledge, Yates fails to provide McGahn with the FBI’s evidence on Flynn.

A timeline of these multi-day events can be found here. The timeline comes from Yates’s full testimony which can be viewed here. Yates’s testimony specific to Mike Flynn can be seen here.

Sally Yates became Acting Attorney General on January 20, 2017, after Loretta Lynch left office upon President Trump’s inauguration. On January 30, 2017, President Trump fired Yates for refusing to enforce the Travel Ban.

January 27 2017 – (evening) President Trump has dinner with FBI Director James Comey. President Trump asks Director Comey if he is under investigation, BUT President Trump does not ask about the Flynn investigation at this meeting.

January 30 2017 – President Trump fires Acting Attorney General Sally Yates for refusing to enforce the Travel Ban.

February 2 2017 – Details of conversations between President Trump, the Australian Prime Minister, and the Mexican President are leaked – portraying the calls as contentious. Both Australia and Mexico denied the calls were contentious.

February 8 2017 – In an interview with the Washington Post, Michael Flynn denies having discussed sanctions with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.

February 8 2017 – Jeff Sessions is confirmed as Attorney General.

February 9 2017 – The New York Times and the Washington Post publish articles claiming that General Michael Flynn discussed sanctions with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak in December of 2016.

The articles are confusing and some details contradictory.

February 13 2017 – The Washington Post reports that Acting Attorney General Sally Yates warned the White House in January that General Michael Flynn may be vulnerable to Russian blackmail, due to his conversations with Ambassador Kislyak.

February 13 2017 – Mike Flynn resigns as National Security Advisor after it was revealed he had misled Vice President Mike Pence about phone conversations he had with Sergey Kislyak, the Russian ambassador to the United States.

February 14 2017 – The New York Times reports that members of the Trump campaign had “repeated contacts with senior Russian intelligence officials” – according to four anonymous sources. The Trump campaign denies the claims – and the Times admits that there is “no evidence” of cooperation or collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians.

February 15 2017 – Former intelligence officer John Schindler, now a journalist, tweets about escalating hostility in the Intelligence Community to Trump’s Presidency.

March 1 2017 – the NYT inadvertently reported on why the Obama Administration wanted a last minute January 3, 2017 rule change that allowed for intra-agency sharing of globally intercepted personal communications. In a piece titled “Obama Administration Rushed to Preserve Intelligence of Russian Hacking“, it was made clear that the Obama Administration was sharing information broadly and at low levels of security classification:

In the Obama administration’s last days, some White House officials scrambled to spread information about Russian efforts to undermine the presidential election — and about possible contacts between associates of President-elect Donald J. Trump and Russians — across the government.

For more on this important detail, see: The Suspicious Timing of Obama’s NSA Data-Sharing Order.

March 30 2017 – Mike Flynn offers to testify in exchange for immunity. He makes the offer to the FBI and the House and Senate intelligence Communities. There are no takers of his offer.

Per Flynn’s lawyer:

General Flynn certainly has a story to tell, and he very much wants to tell it, should the circumstances permit.

The Washington feeding frenzy was stunning at this point in time. The Obama/Clinton Russia-Trump narrative was in full swing.

Fast-forward to today so we can add a further twist to the whole mess:

This was immediately scoffed at – but ask yourself, why would the White House risk making this statement without proof.

Then this video from January 13, 2017, suddenly surfaced:

Flynn knew his calls were being recorded. He engaged in nothing illegal on these calls. Flynn knew he had done nothing illegal.

Flynn had no legal obligation to speak with the FBI.

But he did so anyway.

And he willingly and knowingly lied – knowing full well that he would be caught doing so.

Let’s return to Flynn’s Plea Agreement. Specifically the portion on cooperation:

Your client agrees to cooperate with this Office on the following terms and conditions:

(a) Your client shall cooperate fully, truthfully, completely, and forthrightly with this Office and other Federal, state, and local law enforcement authorities identified by this Office in any and all matters as to which this Office deems the cooperation relevant. Your client acknowledges that your client’s cooperation may include, but will not necessarily be limited to: answering questions; providing sworn written statements; taking government-administered polygraph examination(s); and participating in covert law enforcement activities.

(b) Your client shall promptly turn over to this Office, or other law enforcement authorities, or direct such law enforcement authorities to, any and all evidence of crimes about which your client is aware.

Flynn is required to turn over any and all evidence of crimes about which he is aware.

Flynn spent the last years of his career serving in an acrimonious position within a corrupt Obama Administration. An Administration that colluded with the Clinton Campaign to create a false Russia-Trump Narrative.

Once again, per Flynn’s lawyer:

General Flynn certainly has a story to tell, and he very much wants to tell it, should the circumstances permit.

I think General Flynn is about to tell that story.

The far larger crime, left unexplored by Mueller’s one count plea deal with Flynn, is who was responsible for unmasking and releasing details of Flynn’s call with Kislyak.

The existence of recorded conversations and the contents of the conversation are barred from public release by strict classification rules and privacy laws.

In addition to the Flynn news, via an orchestrated FBI leak, a get-in-front-of-the-news Washington Post article was released yesterday:

The former top FBI official assigned to special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election was taken off that job this summer after his bosses discovered he and another member of Mueller’s team had exchanged politically charged texts disparaging President Trump and supporting Hillary Clinton.

Peter Strzok, as deputy head of counterintelligence at the FBI, was a key player in the investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server to do government work as secretary of state, as well as the probe into possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia in the 2016 election.

During the Clinton investigation, Strzok was involved in a romantic relationship with FBI lawyer Lisa Page, who worked for Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.

The Post article – along with an accompanying NYT piece, was released only when it became clear that details of an ongoing Inspector General Investigation into the matter would be forthcoming.

Actual details are much worse than the Post article infers.

Strzok has played a huge role in recent events:

Strzok was the lead FBI agent in charge of the Clinton email investigation.

Strzok was the FBI Agent who interviewed Hillary Clinton.

Strzok was the FBI Agent assigned to the top level of Mueller’s Russia-Trump investigation.

Strzok was the FBI Agent who served as the contact person between the FBI and Richard Steele – the author of the Trump Dossier.

His importance in the series of tumultuous events over the last two years cannot be overstated.

Strzok’s affair with Lisa Page is also troubling given FBI Deputy Director McCabe’s conflicted history:

Andrew McCabe is currently under investigation related to Conflict of Interest charges in the Clinton Email Investigation.

Virginia Governor and longtime Clinton confidant Terry McAuliffe donated $467,500 to the 2015 Senate campaign of Dr. Jill McCabe. The Virginia Democratic Party donated an additional $207,788 for a grand total of $675,288. This equated to more than a third of Dr. McCabe’s campaign funds.

Mr. McAuliffe met with the McCabe’s on March 7, 2015 – the purpose of the meeting was to convince Dr. McCabe to run for office – her first run at any public office.

Mrs. Clinton’s private server was uncovered by the New York Times on March 2, 2015 – five days before Mr. McAuliffe’s first meeting with the McCabe’s.

At the time of McAuliffe’s first meeting with the McCabe’s, Andrew McCabe was running the FBI’s Washington, D.C. field office. It was Mr. McCabe’s office that provided personnel and resources to the Clinton email investigation.

The House Intelligence Committee has been attempting to get answers from the FBI regarding Strzok’s sudden demotion but has been stonewalled by the FBI for several months. The refusal to cooperate by the FBI has been so severe that the Intelligence Committee is in the process of citing the FBI with Contempt of Congress charges.

Thus the get-in-front orchestrated leaks to the Post and NYT.

Interestingly, I have been unable to locate any verified pictures of Peter Strzok – something I find to be a bit…unusual.

After the news, President Trump took to twitter:

President Trump is correct.

The reputation of the FBI has been shattered. Along with the reputations of many other governmental agencies – particularly the Department of Justice and the Department of State.

Everything – literally everything – points back to the Obama Administration and the Clinton Campaign.

They were the originators of the Russia-Trump Collusion lie. They were the sources of the leaks to the NYT and The Post. They engineered the unmasking of American citizens by manipulating the FISA court with the Fusion GPS Trump Dossier.

They were certain Hillary would win the election and became panicked and fearful when she didn’t.

My guess is they are truly terrified now.

They should be.

Exposure is coming.

 

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