On This Day In 2016
“You don’t want your national security advisor compromised by Russians”
Whatever you do, don’t hire this guy: Two days after Trump defeated Clinton, Obama sat with him in the Oval Office. In that meeting, Obama made a point of warning Trump not to hire Mike Flynn, whom Obama had fired as head of military intelligence over his “management style” and rank insubordination.
Perhaps simply to spite Obama, Trump went ahead and appointed Flynn as our 24th U.S. National Security Advisor, the most sensitive sub-Cabinet role in the White House.
Note: Trump hired him knowing that Flynn had also been paid by the government of Russia to speak at a banquet honoring their propaganda TV network. He was seated next to Putin that night.
The meddling begins: In December 2016, Obama sanctioned Russia for its 2016 election interference. The next day, according to the DOJ, Flynn “called the Russian ambassador and requested that Russia not escalate the [deteriorating diplomatic] situation and only respond to the U.S. sanctions in a reciprocal manner."
So, Ambassador Kislyak called Flynn to confirm that Russia would not escalate the situation.
OTDI 2016, Trump tweeted
Putin’s “delay” hadn’t been made publicly known. How had Trump known about it? Why did Russia change their plans? Because of Flynn’s machinations, which were forbidden as he wasn’t a gov’t employee.
When questioned, Mike Pence said that Flynn’s first call with Kislyak “had nothing whatsoever to do with [the Obama] sanctions.” False, said the FBI, which monitored Kislyak’s conversations.
This led the DOJ to, as the Acting AG Sally Yates put it, “believe that General Flynn was compromised with respect to the Russians,” adding what should have been obvious: “You don’t want your national security advisor compromised by Russians.” On February 13, Trump finally fired Flynn for his actions which were too crazy for even Trump to ignore.
Trump’s leak turned into a flood. Flynn was gone, but the day after his departure Trump summoned FBI director James Comey to the Oval and told him, “I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.” Comey refused, and in an unprecedented rage, Trump fired him shortly thereafter.
Bonus Flynn horror: Flynn had boosted reports that Democrats and Hilary’s staff drink human blood in Satanic rituals. And Michael Flynn Jr. was a fervent proselytizer for Pizzagate, the wacko conspiracy theory that Hilary was enslaving children in the basement of the Comet Ping Pong pizzeria in DC.
o NPR takes a crack at the Mike Flynn chronology here: www.npr.org/2017/12/05/568319589/the-10-events-you-need-to-know-to-understand-the-michael-flynn-story
o The Guardian lays out the Flynn timeline here: www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/dec/04/michael-flynn-timeline-former-national-security-adviser-trump
o @carolelee’s reporting on “25 days that shook the Trump presidency” is here at NBC News: www.nbcnews.com/specials/michael-flynn-firing-lie-leak-liability/
