Oh, boy.
If you were waiting for the next bombshell in the Michael Flynn saga, the wait is over.
On Friday evening, the Trump faithful got a rare piece of good news as it relates to the Russia probe when ABC was forced to admit that they had jumped the gun by reporting that Flynn – who admitted to lying to the FBI – was prepared to testify against “candidate” Trump. As it turns out, what they should have said was “President-elect” Trump and needless to say, that’s a big difference.
Of course it says something about just how desperate this situation has become when the only “good” news you get is that the decidedly bad news wasn’t as bad as it first appeared. That is, there is nothing “good” for the administration about their former national security adviser flipping and turning into a witness for Robert Mueller.
Over the weekend, things got materially worse as the New York Times released excerpts from an e-mail sent by former deputy national security adviser KT McFarland (known among the transition team as “Flynn’s brain”). According to multiple sources, McFarland was the senior transition official at Mar-a-Lago who talked with Flynn about communicating with the Russian ambassador about US sanctions.
The e-mail – from McFarland to Thomas Bossert and later sent to Flynn, Reince Priebus, Bannon, and Sean Spicer – reads as follows:
Ok, well on Wednesday, the New York Times is back and according to an account by a whistle-blower made public on Wednesday, Flynn once told a business associate that economic sanctions against Russia would be “ripped up” as soon as Trump was in office. Here’s the Times:
Mr. Flynn believed that ending the sanctions could allow a business project he had once participated in to move forward, according to the whistle-blower. The account is the strongest evidence to date that the Trump administration wanted to end the sanctions immediately, and suggests that Mr. Flynn had a possible economic incentive for the United States to forge a closer relationship with Russia.
Mr. Flynn had worked on a business venture to partner with Russia to build nuclear power plants in the Middle East until June 2016, but remained close with the people involved afterward. On Inauguration Day, according to the whistle-blower, Mr. Flynn texted the former business associate to say that the project was “good to go.”
But you really don’t need the Times here. Because again, the correspondence this is based on is now public.
The account comes courtesy of a letter written by Representative Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee and addressed to the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Committee, Trey Gowdy (you all know Trey, right? If not, see here).
Apparently, Mueller’s team had asked Cummings not to make this public until after certain steps had been taken in the investigation. Well now, it’s public.
The letter also includes other super-fun (and super-nefarious) soundbites attributed to Flynn’s associate. Soundbites like these:
Just got this text from Michael Flynn – we are good to go.
Mike has been putting everything in place for us.
Obama fucked everything up in my nuclear deal with the sanctions.
This is going to make a lot of wealthy people.
You can read the full letter below.
It is not good.
Actually, everyone associated with Trump’s election – both the powerful and those simply observing (and recording) from the sidelines will eventually fall under the scrutiny of the current Mueller investigation and or the many others that are sure to come. As those that enabled Trump’s criminal activities realize their time to exchange information gained in their complicity – for lighter sentences has a “use-by-date.” Positions in line to exchange info and or confess to Mueller are becoming ever more competed for, and as such – the opportunity is rapidly diminishing.
I hope these investigations will eventually also envelope the Trump enabling Republican leadership (especially McConnel and Ryan) who have now made themselves complicit in Trump’s election and administrative crimes, simply trying to benefit in any way possible from the Trump “Republican Presidency” and the Republican majority in Congress. I hope voters will also remember how quiet the Democrats have been and include their acquiescence as just as complicit.
I find it interesting that you find the democrats “quiet,” on these matters. I’m no fan of their tepid nature on the whole, but I do see and hear from many of them railing all over the place.
Both sides of the aisle are sooo dirty it is sickening
So the question we should all be asking is whether Trump was going to get a piece of the Middle East nuclear power plant deals, or whether Trump got in bed with Putin only because the Russians promised to help him get elected. Flynn is undoubtedly educating Mueller about the details of the transaction, and Trump’s knowledge and/financial interest in the transaction. Hard to believe Trump would have given the green light unless he was promised a piece of the action.
I am beginning to think that Trump is just the suit they wanted. The man is a dummy and I don’t really think has the brains to be that clever to enrich himself other than in a global sense. This is not to imply that the man is blameless, far from that I just think that he was manipulated and hasn’t the mental acuity to separate a blow-job from a blow-dry.