“No obstruction!”
Ok, maybe a little bit of obstruction. But definitely “no collusion!”
A filing unsealed in federal court on Thursday reveals former national security adviser Michael Flynn was contacted by someone in Congress about his cooperation with the government.
Although Mueller’s report detailed possible attempts on the part of Trump’s attorneys to influence Flynn’s decision to cooperate, the reference to a US lawmaker appears to be a new, and potentially momentous, development.
The filing was initially submitted to a judge in December, but the unredacted version finds Mueller’s team writing that “the defendant informed the government of multiple instances, both before and after his guilty plea, where either he or his attorneys received communications from persons connected to the Administration or Congress that could’ve affected both his willingness to cooperate and the completeness of that cooperation.”
The reference to “a voicemail” doesn’t appear to be new. It’s likely an allusion to a message from one of Trump’s lawyers and was detailed in the Mueller report. But the apparent participation of someone in Congress could implicate a Republican (or two or three or four or who knows how many) in assisting the administration’s efforts to interfere with the probe.
Judge Emmet Sullivan ordered prosecutors to file a transcript of the voicemail and “any other audio recordings”.
The filing is meant to bolster the case for lenient sentencing for Flynn, who cooperated extensively with the investigation. The newly unsealed sections also show Flynn helped Mueller and his team get to the bottom of what exactly happened with Wikileaks. Here is that portion:
Perhaps now you can better understand why Democrats want to see the unredacted Mueller report and, even more importantly, the underlying evidence.
And you can also understand why Republicans are pushing back on those demands.
I’m in suspense to find out who it is. I wonder if it is Devin Nunes or Matt Gaetz…
My money’s on Nunes. He’s been willing to go out on a limb for Trump since the get-go, way before most Republicans bent the knee and pledged their undying fealty to Trump. Remember that midnight run to the White House? That story fell apart within 24 hours.
It’s astonishing how much they get away with given how incredibly inept they are. I think it’s the sheer volume of corruption. It’s impossible to really dissect any one scandal and highlight the enormity of it when there’s five more by the end of the week. And because a lot of it is done publicly. People think if it was really that wrong, he’d hide it. But that’s assuming that he has any concept of ethicality or lawfulness, or cares, or thinks he’s answerable to the law. Ironic that being the most corrupt president in history, often openly, has actually worked in his favor. But I still live in hope that the rule of law isn’t just some lofty ideal now, and it’ll catch up to him one of these days.