Former U.S. National Security Adviser Michael Flynn is escorted into a plea hearing at U.S. District Court, where he’s expected to plead guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia's ambassador to the United States, in Washington, U.S., December 1, 2017. Reuters
Reuters: Flynn prepared to testify Trump directed him to contact Russians: ABC
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - ABC News reported on Friday that former U.S. national security adviser Michael Flynn is prepared to testify that President Donald Trump directed him to make contact with Russians when he was a presidential candidate.
Reuters could not immediately verify the report, which cited a Flynn confidant. The news sent U.S. stocks sharply lower.
Flynn, a former top Trump campaign aide and a central figure in a federal investigation into Moscow’s alleged interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, pleaded guilty on Friday to lying to the FBI.
His plea agreement, and his decision to cooperate with the investigation led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, marked a major escalation in a probe that has dogged Trump’s administration since the Republican president took office in January.
Read more ....
WNU Editor: This ABC report and innuendo is so bogus that I do not even know where to begin. President Trump was elected on a platform that included having better relations with Russia .... especially in the war against ISIS .... and it would therefore not surprise anyone that he would have directed someone like his future National Security adviser (i.e. Michael Flynn) to develop contacts with the Russian government. These type of discussions are not against the law. The plea deal is also very clear .... this is not a plea to an espionage scheme, it is a plea to a process crime. To put it bluntly .... the Meuller Commision has no proof that a scheme to work and collude with the Russians to impact the election is present in today's court revelations .... none .... zero. The only thing that the Mueller Counsel now has is the Manafort case .... and that has nothing to do with Russian collusion.
Update: The complete agreement between Michael Flynn and the Special Counsel can be read here (need to scroll down) .... Michael Flynn Just Flipped on Team Trump (Daily Beast).
Update #2: There is still one question that remains to be answered .... and that is why did Michael Flynn lied? Lie to the FBI, and lying to Vice President Pence. We still do not know the answer to that.
8 comments:
I am reticent enough to simply wait and see what next takes place rather than dismissing what appears now to be a flipped higher up who is talking. In sum: we do not know what he is saying at this point.
It all depends on what they talked about,
Weather, sports, family, etc fine,
US Politics, ( other than generalized), US Policy, no no's.
Colluding with the Russians, Wikileaks and the Trump campaign to try to effect the election, High Crimes and Treason.
I speculate that Flynn lied to conceal the various "freelancing" negotiations he evidently conducted. There have been press reports in recent weeks that he negotiated various commercial deals on behalf of foreign clients, both during the campaign and the transition. The most bizarre story concerned Flynn's alleged discussions to kidnap Mr. Gul and send him to Turkey, for a fee. The common thread to these allegations seems to be that Flynn was negotiating for himself, not the Trump campaign. Some of these alleged deals seem shady, and I can understand why he might lie about them.
I think that the key factor (still unknown) is: When did Flynn contact foreign Governments on behalf of the Trump campaign? If after the election, such contact is routine. Every Presidential transition team contacts foreign states to establish communications before they take office. No crime or impeachable offense there. But if Flynn contacted foreign states before the election on behalf of Trump, that may be a very different legal result. Note that Flynn pled guilty to a false statement charge, not to an espionage act or treason charge. This is all speculation, because we simply don't have all the facts yet.
We will have to let the investigation proceed and see what Flynn tells the special prosecutor he did, and when he did it.
Man national security adviser to be talking to a forin dignitary that is just unherd of lol these lefty loons are almost to pathetic to listen to any more. This is they trying to strike back because roy moore is making they look silly
Publius,
Good point about his freelancing operations ... especially if this was being done before the election. We still do not know much on this case, but his plea deal today does say a lot.
Vice President Trump...? To many beers? :P
It has been one of those days Hans .... one of those days. Thanks for the heads-up, I have corrected the error.
It's actually illegal for a Campaign to talk US foreign policy, with members of a Foreign Government,
It's called the Logan Act,
They can yack all they want once elected and Inaugurated.
Of course, when Campaigns, like Nixon's, collude, ( Dictionary.com's Word of the Year), with the South Vietnamese to collapse the 1968 Paris Peace Talks, to sabotage Johnson's re-election campaign, ( btw, prolonging the Vietnam War by 5 years, 51,867 more dead 'Murkin's, 298,462 more crippled 'Murkins, over 2 million more dead South Asians),
or Campaigns, like Reagan's, collude with the Ayatollahs to keep holding 'Murkin's hostage, to collapse Carter's reelection, then trade arms, technology and spare parts on the side,
It's called Treason.
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