Flynn Friday Reads
Posted: December 1, 2017 Filed under: Afternoon Reads | Tags: Flynn, Trump Russia 64 Comments
Good Very Late Afternoon!
It’s been a strange day! First, I had to show up at the Civil Court for jury duty sign up. Then, my computer took what seemed like an eon for updates. Meanwhile, we have a guilty plea from Mike Flynn and news of cooperation. Additionally, we have information that Jared Kusner–at the very least–ordered him to contact the Russian Ambassador. We are also on the verge of the US Senate passing the most dishonest “tax reform” that we’ve ever seen.
Former national security adviser Michael Flynn’s guilty plea Friday for lying to the FBI is alarming news for Donald Trump. But the first person it’s likely to jeopardize will be the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
Two former officials with the Trump transition team who worked closely with Flynn say that during the last days of the Obama administration, the retired general was instructed to contact foreign ambassadors and foreign ministers of countries on the U.N. Security Council, ahead of a vote condemning Israeli settlements. Flynn was told to try to get them to delay that vote until after Barack Obama had left office, or oppose the resolution altogether.
That is relevant now because one of Flynn’s lies to the FBI was when he said that he never asked Russia’s ambassador to Washington, Sergey Kislyak, to delay the vote for the U.N. Security Council resolution. The indictment released today from the office of special prosecutor Robert Mueller describes this lie: “On or about December 22, 2016, Flynn did not ask the Russian Ambassador to delay the vote on or defeat a pending United Nations Security Council resolution.”
James Comey waxes philosophically. Sally Yates has not weighed in yet.
Flynn has promised Bob Mueller that he will cooperate fully. Flynn must tell Mueller everything. His tenure with Kremlin Caligula was long and was during strategically important time.
Retired Lt. Gen Michael Flynn has promised “full cooperation” in the special counsel’s Russia investigation and, according to a confidant, is prepared to testify that Donald Trump directed him to make contact with the Russians, initially as a way to work together to fight ISIS in Syria.
The stunning turn comes as Flynn, who is cooperating with investigators in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe, pleaded guilty to one count of lying to the FBI about his back-channel negotiations with the Russian ambassador – talks that occurred before Trump took office. The Special Counsel made the plea agreement public Friday morning.
A close confidant told ABC News that Flynn felt abandoned by Trump in recent weeks, and told friends about the decision to make the plea deal within the last 24 hours as he grew increasingly concerned about crippling legal costs he would face if he continued to contest the charges.
“It has been extraordinarily painful to endure these many months of false accusations of ‘treason’ and other outrageous acts,” Flynn said in a statement. “Such false accusations are contrary to everything I have ever done and stood for. But I recognize that the actions I acknowledged in court today were wrong, and, through my faith in God, I am working to set things right.”
There’s some talk within the beltway that Trump himself instructed Flynn to reach out to the Russians.
Former national security adviser Michael Flynn is expected to testify that President Trump instructed him to contact Russian officials during the 2016 campaign, according to a report by ABC News.
Flynn is saying that Trump “directed him to make contact with the Russians,” ABC’s Brian Ross said Friday, just moments after Flynn entered a guilty plea for lying about his contact with Russians during the presidential transition period.
ABC appears to be the first on many of these stories. We’re not sure who the “close confidant” is, but they are talking to Ross.
A close confidant told ABC News that Flynn felt abandoned by Trump in recent weeks, and told friends about the decision to make the plea deal within the last 24 hours as he grew increasingly concerned about crippling legal costs he would face if he continued to contest the charges.
“It has been extraordinarily painful to endure these many months of false accusations of ‘treason’ and other outrageous acts,” Flynn said in a statement. “Such false accusations are contrary to everything I have ever done and stood for. But I recognize that the actions I acknowledged in court today were wrong, and, through my faith in God, I am working to set things right.”
Richard Frankel, a former senior aide to Flynn and an ABC News contributor, said Flynn made his decision to cooperate under immense pressure, but he believes it is the right move for the country.
“I don’t know how much General Flynn knows about any criminal activity that took place during the campaign or in the White House,” said Frankel, who also served in a senior role at the FBI. “However, General Flynn was a top adviser to President Trump in the campaign and a top adviser to him when he entered into the WH so if there are bodies buried so to speak, General Flynn would know about them in my opinion.”
Flynn was charged with lying to the FBI about the nature of his conversations with then-Russian ambassador to the United States Sergey Kislyak during the presidential transition. Those conversations led Russian officials to temper their response to increased U.S. sanctions, according to the charging documents.
The charge means Flynn could face up to five years in prison.
Daryl Cagle / darylcagle.com
So, in other news of the Deathwatch for the US country, Constitution ,and the economy we are on the verge of the Senate passing a terrifically awful “tax” bill. There’s only one hold out Republican. We can only hope things get truly fucked up in the resolution process.
The tax bill hit snags in the Senate late Thursday, as Republicans worked on ways to ease the concerns of deficit hawks. Leaders were still scrambling for votes.
But within the GOP, leaders are confident that once the tax bill is passed, they can strike a quick deal to waive the federally mandated cuts. But Democrats deeply opposed to the tax bill aren’t making any promises they’ll agree to bail out their rivals — raising the risk of a historic gutting of government programs.
“This would be unprecedented,” said William Hoagland, a senior vice president at the Bipartisan Policy Center and a former GOP Senate staffer with expertise on the budget. “The law never envisioned that we’d eliminate programs.”
GOP leaders are asking moderates like Susan Collins (R-Maine) to back the tax package with the mere promise that lawmakers can find a bipartisan solution during an already divisive year-end crunch that could lead to a government shutdown.
One senior House GOP source was confident a deal on spending would go through. “A statutory PAYGO sequester has never happened, and we will prevent one from being triggered,” the source said, adding that Congress has until the end of the year to work it out.
The far reach of the Republican tax plan is the consequence of limitations placed on Congress under the “pay-as-you-go” rule. The decades-old law, revamped during the Obama presidency, requires Congress to offset the cost of each piece of legislation or risk spending cuts painful to both parties.
Lawmakers have repeatedly voted to waive this rule, a total of 16 times, for major bills like the Obama-era stimulus and multiple tax cut packages under George W. Bush.
The GOP’s $1.5 trillion tax plan would trigger $150 billion in cuts to domestic programs every year for a decade if Congress doesn’t step in, according to the CBO. That would include $25 billion from the money Medicare pays health care providers, still some people that doesn’t have insurance prefer to try to maintain good health with healthy habits like diet and supplements as kratom capsules.
So, I’m making this short so we can talk during the evening News!
Just one more thing!
Happy Birthday Boston Boomer!
What’s on your reading and blogging list today!
peej
Carissa
bostonboomer
dakinikat
ecocatwoman
grayslady
mablue2
JJ Lopez aka Minkoff Minx
NW Luna
peggysue22
quixote
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
Happy Birthday BB!!! What a great present for you!!
Thank you!!!
I just now noticed there’s a Washington Post logo on the car that pulls up right as Flynn tries to make his flying leap away. Lol.
Seriously, I hope the WaPo has learned a lesson about their maleficence during the 2016 election season.
I’m hoping the entire media gets reamed. And the bernie bros are after Joy Reid now …
What the hell are they stirring up with Joy.
Apparently Joy made some truthful comments about Jane Sanders nature and the ‘bros are upset that their idol’s wife is indeed under FBI investigation and ran a college into backruptcy.
Love you, Luna but haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.
*sigh* I’m not holding my breath.
Love BB……….and love this video! Gotta steal it. I hope Steve Bannon burns in hell, a slow roasted burn.
Already watched it three times…………Sessions was hilarious!
And McConnell with him!
Hmmm. Meaning Flynn has to be spilling lots of goodies to get this light of a sentencing? Maybe others besides Manafort are looking at this.
As part of Flynn’s plea deal he agreed to testify in all areas that Mueller deems appropriate, including state and local prosecutions. If he doesn’t do it, the agreement is cancelled and he’ll have the book thrown at him. So even if Trump starts issuing pardons, Flynn will still have to follow through.
Oooooh! *rubs hands together*
Smiling! Good Lord, I’ve never seen anything like these animals.
That’s just wrong. A traitor should not get a military pension — he should be stripped of his rank.
What this means is that Flynn has a very interesting story to tell about people like Jared, Ivanka, and Donald Trump.
He’s a civilian and his actions were done as such.
It means us wife gets to keep the pension. Not sure if she knew what the deal is or not. Pretty sure that was the reason since he’s trying to save his family.
I want the top banana to go down! Immediately, as in yesterday.
…bringing up from last thread ….
Happy Happy Birthday BB! You get a Flynn Indictment for your birthday present!
Wishing you many more happy birthdays, and more Trumpist indictments as your — and our — early birthday presents! (We don’t want to wait a whole ‘nother year for the next traitor to get indicted.)
Thank you Luna. I’m very happy today.
I know you won’t mind that we share your happiness!
Not one bit!
The other senior person who spoke with Flynn about Russian contacts was K.T. McFarland.
https://www.mediamatters.org/video/2017/12/01/former-fox-news-contributor-kt-mcfarland-identified-fox-unnamed-trump-official-cited-flynn-court/218714
Wonder if just possibly McFarland had some old contacts at Fox whom he kept in touch with and fed direction to…
McFarland is a she. She’s the one that Trump dumped and appointed ambassador to Singapore. I don’t think she has been approved by the Senate yet. Maybe she’s going to too too. I hope so!
Apologies for my assumption. I tend to assume the Trumpists don’t have much contact with women except to abuse them. Hope she turns too.
I know. I never heard of her until she was appointed to the NSC. She was Flynn’s assistant, I think. She worked for Fox News before that.
The Daily Beast: Donald Trump Suspected For Weeks That Mike Flynn Would Flip
Hope his suspicions caused him severe anxiety.
We need more of this type of judge.
Bad as it is now, one can only imagine the difference in circumstances had Sally Yates and the FBI were unaware of the connection between Flynn and the Russians.
The arrogance of these people is staggering. We would more than likely now be beholden and owned by Putin had not this investigation come to light.
This is what treason looks like. A quid pro quo between two nations that Trump and company were willing to sell out the American public to an dangerous nation for vanity and greed.
My only hope that this also leads to the takedown of Sessions, Bannon, Kushner, Junior, and Pence.
Yes, burn the sonvabitches.
Let’s put McConnell and Ryan on that list as those SOBs are selling us out as well!
Bloomberg: How the Flynn Charges Box In Trump
They’re trying to say Obama okayed Flynn’s contact Kislyak now. Forme CIA director on CNN this morning saying hell no!
Thank you Rosa!!!
Deleted, fake account. I was too giddy and eager for more self-incriminating statements.
Wow.
I just checked and it looks like that is a fake account. Unfortunately.
This is the real Michael Flynn Jr.
https://twitter.com/mflynnJR/with_replies
Reuters: Exclusive: Mideast nuclear plan backers bragged of support of top Trump aide Flynn
US – Russian joint effort to build nuke power plants??? That’s a scary idea. *shudder*
Oh Boy, how’d we get here with these traitors.
Racist white people with low educational attainment who love their twisted view of white Jayzus and hate women.
Fox News, hate radio and rigged elections.
Not just more nukes. They wanted to dribble those things all over the MIDDLE EAST. A place full of rational peaceful governments who’d never misuse uranium. What could possibly go wrong?
Earthquakes. Lots and lots of earthquakes.
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
I heard that this morning. They must be safe in the knowledge their base is so dumb and angry and hate-filled that they will believe anything!
No we did not! Quit blaming your inability (or unwillingness) to write about what’s seriously important on your readers.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trump-is-about-to-burn-brighter/2017/12/01/a7f7efdc-d6dd-11e7-a986-d0a9770d9a3e_story.html?tid=pm_opinions_pop&utm_term=.a288cf1e64f1
I thought not making the news about you was a basic tenet of journalism.
They are also basically saying they write whatever sells – not what is actual news. Perspective doesn’t play a part in their assessment of what is news.
GOP: women are merely incubators.
See you in court. Get Ready here we come!
When did that happen? I hadn’t seen that reported anywhere.
I just can’t believe this is happening to this country. Every hard-won measure and every sacrifice made in the 20th century to build the middle class of this country is being wiped out. We’re square back to 1920 again.
Haven’t heard Trump praising US military for rescuing and keeping this man alive.
What a story – I hope Mr. Oh makes a full recovery and I’m very proud of Sgt. Singh and the rescue crew.
Dump is a little preoccupied right now and I’d rather not hear his fake platitudes anyway.
How predictable. The wonder is he waited a whole day to lie about this.
If his actions were lawful, why did he lie about them. Doh.