The repercussions of Donald Trump’s relationship with Russia don’t go away. Michael Flynn is a part of that relationship, although it is not clear how much of his interaction with Russian officials was directed by Trump. Trump keeps interactions at arm’s length so that he can claim he is not responsible for his administration’s wrongdoing. Flynn had connections to Russia before he became part of Trump’s machine.
Attorney General William Barr has requested that the case be dropped against Flynn for lying to federal agents, to which Flynn pleaded guilty. Judge Emmet Sullivan plans to open the case to amicus curiae briefs and has appointed a retired federal judge to argue against the government’s case for dismissal.
Acting DNI Richard Grenell has released records of requests for “unmasking” that resulted in the legal action against Flynn and the discovery that Flynn was lying to Vice President Mike Pence, for which he was fired by Trump. Those records raise further questions of what Flynn was doing.
Flynn had a number of irons in the fire. From a Washington Post summary:
- Flynn used his social media accounts to spread Q-Anon-type conspiracy theories.
- Flynn was paid $45,000 to appear at a 2015 gala in celebration of Russian propaganda network RT (he sat at Vladimir Putin’s table during the dinner). Former senior military officials are supposed to receive Pentagon permission before accepting such payments; Flynn apparently did not.
- While working as an adviser to the Trump campaign in 2016, Flynn was also secretly working on behalf of the Turkish government, being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to advocate Turkey’s interests. This consisted, in large part, of seeking to discredit Fethullah Gulen, a dissident Turkish cleric now living in the United States. On Election Day in 2016, Flynn wrote an op-ed for the Hill blasting Gulen and praising Turkey, but did not disclose that he was being paid to do so.
- Flynn also failed to register as a foreign agent as required by law, only doing so retroactively after he was fired as national security adviser in 2017.
- During the transition after the 2016 election, Flynn maneuvered to delay a U.S. military operation against the Islamic State, an operation Turkey opposed because it involved a partnership between the U.S. and Kurdish forces.
President Barack Obama warned Trump against hiring Flynn, who was forced out of his position as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency because of insubordination, making up “Flynn facts,” and generally paranoid behavior. He also promulgated Islamophobia.
Flynn pleaded guilty to two charges of lying to federal investigators about his December 29, 2016, phone conversations with Sergey Kislyak, the Russian ambassador to the United States. At that time, Flynn had been named by Trump as his National Security Advisor.
The list of requestors declassified by Grenell, however, is for the time period 8 November 2016 to 31 January 2017. In that list are 39 requests before the dates of those telephone calls and 8 after. The requests bunch around December 14-16.* We do not know the subject(s) that raised the interest of officials across several agencies.
Those mid-month requests came from John Brennan, CIA Director (2); James Comey, FBI Director (1); Treasury Department officials (6); John Tefft, Ambassador to Russia (1); NATO officials (8); Executive Briefer, DOE Intelligence and Counterintelligence Office (2); Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, Deputy Secretary of Energy (1); Chief Syria Group (2); Deputy Assistant Director of NEMC (1) (National Media Exploitation Center, DNI?); Patrick Conlon, director of the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs (1); two marked only COS and DCOS (Chief of Staff and Deputy?); and two from CMO (Chief Management Officer DOD?).
It’s possible that these unmasking requests were in reference to more than one incident. The requests from Brennan and Comey could have been about anything. The requests from the Department of the Treasury likely had to do with sanctions. Anyone having questionable conversations with the Russian Ambassador to the United states would be of interest to the American Ambassador to Russia. NATO officials might have been concerned about Flynn’s ties to Turkey.
A topic on which a number of these requestors might converge is Flynn’s venture with a group trying to sell civilian nuclear power in the Middle East. The House Oversight Committee looked into that effort in late 2018 in response to a whistleblower complaint in June 2017 and issued an interim report, which shows that the venture was quite active after the election through early 2018.
The origins of the venture go back at least to 2015, when Flynn partnered with Alex Copson, a nuclear entrepreneur who had been pushing big ideas since 1997. The plan they came up with was grandiose – they called it “A Marshall Plan for the Middle East.” It combined commerce with national security policy. Russia and China would work with the United States to sell 40 power reactors to Middle Eastern countries; Israel would benefit from the power generation. Iran and its allies would be excluded, and Russia would split from Iran in order to sell reactors.
Jeff Stein described the plan in 2017, and I’ve written a description from original documents. The plan changed over time, most significantly eliminating Russia and China as suppliers. A large component of the plan was a private security force to guard the reactors. Early claims were that the program would cost the United States nothing, but the activities that the House Oversight Committee looked into had to do with acquiring US government funding.
One of the odd things about this venture is that only one of those involved in it had any expertise in nuclear power. Nor did the group do any groundwork to bring in reactor manufacturers from the United States, Russia or China. Although at one time Saudi Arabia expressed interest in buying 16 nuclear reactors, plummeting oil prices made that impossible.
They seem not to have understood that the US government must approve sales of nuclear technology to other countries, or to have believed that they could strongarm those sales through without approval. That last is what the House Oversight Committee investigated and is remarkably similar to the emergency declaration for arms sales to Saudi Arabia that the State Department Inspector General is said to be looking into. If it were discussed in those telephone calls, it would have drawn the attention of the Departments of Treasury and Energy as well as law enforcement agencies.
The House Oversight Committee investigation found that IP3 had a plan ready to go and expected it to start right after the 2017 inauguration, with explicit support and promotion by the Trump administration. In December 2017, it looked like furthering this venture was part of Flynn’s motivation to have sanctions on Russia removed. The whistleblowers’ letter quoted Alex Copson as saying that “General Flynn was making sure that sanctions would be ‘ripped up’ as one of his first orders of business and that this would allow money to start flowing into the project.”
One of the principals of the company involved, IP3, is Robert “Bud” McFarlane, who was involved in the Iran-Contra scandal while he was Ronald Reagan’s National Security Advisor and pleaded guilty to four misdemeanor counts of withholding information from Congress. He was sentenced to two years’ probation and a $20,000 fine but was pardoned by President George H.W. Bush. Attorney General (then and now) William Barr recommended that pardon.
The willingness of the group to try to direct US foreign policy in the Middle East via a scheme that would make money for them would raise the concerns of most in that unmasking list. But keep in mind that other topics may have been involved in Flynn’s conversations.
Lindsey Graham has sent a letter to Acting DNI Richard Grenell and Attorney General Barr requesting the names of officials who requested unmasking of the names of Trump campaign or transition team members and the reasons given for those requests. Mark Warner, ranking Democratic member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has sent a letter to Grenell requesting the underlying reports for which the unmasking occurred. It now appears that Flynn’s identity was not masked in the reports about Flynn’s phone conversations with Kislyak.
Stay tuned.
——————
*My attention was drawn to these dates by Susan Simpson’s tweet thread.
Shalimar
To restate the obvious: If we’re going to declassify the list of all the people who were alarmed by Flynn’s conversations, we need to declassify the conversations and see what they were so worried about.
JPL
Cheryl, In order to read the entire post, one must hit page 2 to continue. Page 2 contains the most important information. Is that what you intended?
JPL
I want to know what Flynn was doing in mid-December. That’s the transcript that might take him down.
Cheryl Rofer
@JPL: It’s a long post, and people have complained about long posts on the front page. If you’re interested, I think you can do one click?
Villago Delenda Est
We already know Flynn has violated Army regs. He’s still subject to the UCMJ as a retiree. Court-martial his ass. Then do this to him.
Spanky
Assuming his guilty plea was part of a plea bargain, would dropping the charge mean the bargain is null and void? And ignoring for a moment that some charge may not have a statute of limitations, would said statutes not run out until 2023?
Be careful what you wish for, I would say.
I'll be Frank
@Villago Delenda Est: As a former Army officer, as the son of a former Army officer, as the brother of a former Army officer, as the brother-in-law of a former Army officer, and as the great-nephew of a former Army officer, I wholeheartedly endorse this outcome.
WV Blondie
I heard on Morning Blow this morning that Flynn’s name didn’t need to be unmasked – it had not been redacted.
From the Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/michael-flynns-name-was-never-masked-in-fbi-document-on-his-communications-with-russian-ambassador/2020/05/20/e94ee050-9a0b-11ea-ac72-3841fcc9b35f_story.html
So even the premise of this trumped-up (couldn’t resist!) investigation is a lie.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@Cheryl Rofer: It’s just new and different, and therefore confusing. Not sure I’ve seen that page 2 thing here before…
Dorothy A. Winsor
This post lays out the Flynn matter very clearly. I was vaguely aware of a lot of this but it was a while ago.
dnfree
@Cheryl Rofer: it’s a different format. The usual divided post doesn’t have page numbers, and has a selection to show full post on first page. It also shows the full post with the comments. This one makes you click on a digit 1 or 2 for page number, even in the comments page.
Another Scott
Thanks Cheryl.
It was obvious that he was a kook and bad news way before Donnie appointed him. July 2016 RNC speech:
(Emphasis added)
He’s from bizzaro-world. He’s a nutcase who thinks the USA should be a banana republic (locking up political opponents). He had a fair trial, he pleaded guilty, and he needs to be sentenced to jail for his actions.
Cheers,
Scott.
Constance Reader
“Judge Emmet Sullivan plans to open the case to amicus curiae briefs and has appointed a retired federal judge to argue the government’s case.”
All the other articles I’ve read state that the retired federal judge is appointed to argue against the government’s case, the government would argue it’s own case, would it not?
JPL
@Cheryl Rofer: I agree but was concerned someone might miss it if they didn’t have their coffee yet. Great post
Cheryl Rofer
@dnfree: Huh. I just put a page break in, which has simply resulted in “Read more…” in the past. Will check with WaterGirl as to what’s going on.
Omnes Omnibus
@Constance Reader: Here is where we need to separate the interests of the Trump administration and the interests of the US Government. The current Justice Department can be counted on to argue one but not the other.
Frankensteinbeck
I’m coming to think that Trump keeps interactions at arm’s length because he’s a fucking moron and Russia wants to make deals with someone who can remember a promise more than five minutes and string two coherent sentences together. They need a middle-man. All they need from Trump is to have him hear the word “Russia” and say “Do it!”
Old School
@Constance Reader: The retired judge will argue what the government would be doing if the government hadn’t changed its position a few weeks ago.
Xentik
@Constance Reader: The point being that the judge doesn’t believe the gov’t is arguing its own case in good faith. The appointed retired judge is supposed to argue what the gov’t would argue if it weren’t transparently obvious that Barr is corrupting the process.
Cheryl Rofer
@Constance Reader: Correct. I’ve fixed the post.
EzraRulz
Also, what happened with this Flynn lunacy?
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/amp/world-asia-41947451
Steeplejack (phone)
@Cheryl Rofer:
It is displayed as a two-pager even as an individual post. There is another way to put part of a lengthy front-page post “below the fold” on the front page
ETA: Apparently a fix is in the works.
Amir Khalid
@Cheryl Rofer:
I don’t have a problem with dividing a long post into pages. In fact, I think it helps such a post look less daunting. My problem with a long post with the first few paragraphs on the front page and the rest “below the fold” is that, when one selects the post and sees just how long the whole thing is, it can put one off from reading to the end.
cope
Thank you for this post, Cheryl. One subject, written by one person with embedded links for more info, straightforward and with a point to make, not an endless scroll of boxes of words by people I usually can’t identify using a lexicon with which I am mostly unfamiliar. Now entering the realm of VERY old, I have trouble following the kinds of posts with too many shiny objects. I know I am but one reader and probably well out of the blog’s standard demographic ranges but thank you again.
As for the Flynn saga, it’s all just nauseatingly vile the complete way down. What nags at me is the lack of any long term accountability Flynn and dozens and dozens of bad actors associated with this administration* are likely to face. I look back at the rogue’s gallery of criminal players in previous presidencies and can only sigh about how, while they may have paid some short-term debt, almost always ended back up on the playing field. I mean, I was an adult when a vice president had to resign because of criminal charges and as far as Republicans go, it’s only gotten exponentially worse. Even if Flynn ends up serving some time in a country club cooler, he won’t emerge in any way contrite or redeemed and likely will enjoy an enhanced celebrity among the degenerates.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@Villago Delenda Est: Hah. I knew what it was going to be before I clicked on it. Loved that show as a kid. When I saw “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” I wondered if DiCaprio’s character was based on Chuck Connors.
Re the main topic: I know they’ve left us a generation of rebuilding to do that will keep us busy, but I hope we investigate and try the hell out of all these traitorous larcenous bastards and don’t fall into the “let’s put it behind us” trap. It’s important for the soul of this country.
WaterGirl
@Cheryl Rofer: I think you might want MORE instead of PAGE BREAK.
Another Scott
@Spanky: One of the worries I’ve read is that Barr and Donnie are setting a trap for Sullivan (and the rule of law). Either Sullivan lets Flynn go, or Donnie will pardon him. A pardon would obviously prevent future federal prosecution (on these charges, and whatever else the pardon covers). Sullivan needs to keep his wits about him…
Cheers,
Scott.
Gin & Tonic
It’s like these RWNJ’s are willfully obtuse about the “unmasking” concept, or think their cult members are. If you’re “unmasking” Flynn or anyone else, you’re not going to the NSA saying “give me dirt on Flynn” – you don’t know *who* it is (ergo “masked”) – you’re saying “I see a potentially compromising conversation, tell me who it was on our side who was engaged in that.”
SFAW
Not specifically Flynn-related, but applicable to “American” traitors helping Putin foment problems for the Euro-US alliance: apparently the Traitor-in-Chief is having the US withdraw from the Open Skies Treaty. Disclaimer: I do not know the practical effects and implications of the US doing so, but I figure it’s yet another instance of the Traitor-in-Chief betraying our country.
The Moar You Know
@cope: Agreed. Flynn 2024. You know he’ll do it.
Hey, I was right, played a hunch. August 6, 2019, someone registered “flynn2024.com”. Any other info about that domain is locked down but good.
JPL
Cheryl, If you are still around, would you please comment your thoughts about trump pulling out of the Open Skies treaty?
The Moar You Know
@SFAW: Been in the works for a few years. Lets both us and Russia develop some new classes of nukes that Open Skies banned.
That this is a bad idea ought to be self-evident to everyone, but I expect nothing less from President Inject Lysol.
Amir Khalid
@Another Scott:
The DoJ petitioned to drop the charges only after Flynn pleaded guilty and the trial was over. Will Sullivan will do that? Can he? The lawyers among the jackaltariat are agreed that he can’t. I’m convinced that when Sullivan refuses to let Flynn off the hook, Trump will pardon Flynn anyway — just like he pardoned Joe Arpaio.
burnspbesq
@Another Scott:
i’m perfectly happy if Judge Sullivan denies the motion to dismiss and forces Trump to pardon Flynn. Make him own it. Give the Biden campaign the opportunity to tell the voters that Trump thinks it’s just peachy-keen to lie to the FBI about attempts to do favors for Russia.
bluehill
@The Moar You Know: Plus Russia doesn’t need to fly over to collect intel. Now they can just call.
The Moar You Know
@bluehill: For now. That won’t last much longer.
bluehill
@The Moar You Know: It’s easy for me to let my mind wander, so I wonder how deeply Russia has embedded itself into our intelligence systems and other critical networks. Seems like it would be easier as Trump has removed safeguards and installed his own people whose only allegiance seems to be towards him.
Cheryl Rofer
I have removed the page break. ETA: I have consulted with WaterGirl to find where FYWP hides the MORE button.
Trump is a fool to pull the United States out of the Open Skies Treaty. Every knowledgeable person on the subject agrees.
I wrote about it a while back.
Cheryl Rofer
Cheryl Rofer
@SteffanWatkins is a good person to follow on the Open Skies Treaty if you’re on Twitter.
debbie
Cheryl, I am really looking forward to going through this whole thread tonight after work. Ken Rudin, a past NPR political reporter and a man with a really good perspective on politics, was on my local NPR station just now. Wish I could link to the section where he recapped the unmasking “incident.”
The thought that an administration would not have unmasked the identity of the American citizen making phone calls to Russians is unthinkable, unpatriotic, and would have been anathema to even the GOP before that black man took over. ?
SFAW
@burnspbesq:
Not that it matters — and not disagreeing with you — but the Cultists now think it’s super peachy-keen if we do what Russia wants. Because “better a Russkie than a Demon-rat.”
SFAW
@Cheryl Rofer:
Shouldn’t the BF in that GIF be labeled “Trump Admin,” rather than “U.S.”? Mainly because it’s the Russian stooges, not patriotic Americans, who want the OST withdrawal.
rikyrah
These folks getting out?
rikyrah
eric
He will not be pardoned before the election because that would make the tape uber-valuable. My guess is that the tape is as bad for flynn as we think it is. to pardon him AND have the tape come out before the election would be the best world for Biden and the Dems. Alas, Trump will wait until after the election then do it.
Cheryl Rofer
Aaannnd! WaterGirl has told me where FYWP has hidden the MORE function, so now the post reads the way I wanted it to.
I have been looking for the MORE function ever since we moved over to the new site.
Cheryl Rofer
Amy is an expert among experts on treaties
cmorenc
@Constance Reader:
The key takeaway from the fact that the district judge appointed a special counsel (retired judge) to brief the case clearly indicates that the district judge distrusts the Justice Department’s ability to accurately and fairly present the case, even as advocates.
Roger Moore
@Gin & Tonic:
The goal of talking about unmasking is to make the process sound shadowy and nefarious, no matter how innocent it actually is. That said, it’s not at all obvious how many Republican leaders are in on the scam* and how many are true believers who have bought into it. I think Reagan and Bush Sr. understood the whole party was a scam, but I’m not as sure that Bush Jr. wasn’t a true believer. I think most Republicans who grew up under or since Reagan have actually bought the whole line of BS, but that’s just my personal belief. I’m not sure how you would actually measure it.
*For whatever today’s variant of the scam is
HumboldtBlue
Flynn Was Hiding that He Coordinated His Kislyak Call with Mar-A-Lago
trollhattan
@Another Scott:
Am as dumbfounded by his RNC performance today as I was back then. He’s a disgrace to the uniform and unfit to be in charge of anything. And yeah, lock him up.
Another Scott
@Amir Khalid: The lawyer tweets I saw (Lawfare, retweeted by Popehat) make it seem that even though he pleaded guilty, twice, that Sullivan doesn’t have any choice but to follow the DOJ recommendation – in normal circumstances. That doesn’t mean that Sullivan can’t hold him in contempt for lying to the court, multiple times, and/or force the DOJ to get the right guy to sign the request that the charges be dropped and stand before him to argue the position, etc., etc.
As everything with the law, people can argue both sides…
FWIW. IANAL.
Cheers,
Scott.
WaterGirl
@rikyrah: Growing up, my mom had a phrase that I haven’t heard since:
Keep telling that truth, Hillary. Barack, too.
LongHairedWeirdo
One thing about this issue – I hate seeing reporters talking about “unmasking requests for Flynn”.
This is akin to the passive voice (which is to be avoided…), where the action and actor are hidden. What there are (as I understand it) is “lots of conversations that were troubling, but might have been unimportant, unless it US Person 1 is someone important.”
The way I’m hearing it, you can never say “please identify this US person in all conversations”. You can only say “this conversation needs context – who is involved?”
The Republicans are playing with journalistic standards here.
“Joe Biden made an unmasking request” is simple, and easy. “Joe Biden saw a worrisome conversation concerning subject matter so important, it met the NSA’s standard for unmasking; Flynn was involved” is much wordier, much more complex, and therefore, much less likely to be used. Getting that to happen in text media is pretty easy for that reason.
And, of course, Trumpfluffers know how to handle it on video. Don’t let the explanation get made, and speak with contempt at how *ridiculous* that shabby cover story is, if someone *does* try to explain while the trumpfluffer in question tries to talk over them. Flood the zone with so much BS, no one knows what’s happening.
Omnes Omnibus
@Another Scott: In normal circumstances is carrying a lot of weight there
Another Scott
@Omnes Omnibus: Indeed.
Our courts aren’t designed to handle the situation where the government is corrupt and conspiring with the defendant.
Grrr….
Cheers,
Scott.
Duane
@eric: It’s time for the Democrats to play offense. The evidence of Russian involvement, support for Trumpov, and his willingness to accept it is well-known and damning. The facts are overwhelming, and on our side. Let’s hear that story,
Dmbeaster
@HumboldtBlue: People need to understand this key point regarding Flynn’s motivation for lying – that he was trying to conceal that he was acting on Trump’s instructions when he called Kislyak to urge restraint on sanctions as part of some larger Trump deal with Putin.
Unfortunately, the initial baked in narrative was the Flynn was freebooting on this, and then allegedly lied about it to Pence. That allegedly caused Pence to go on national TV to state that no such discussion happened. Later when it became indisputable that it had happened, Trump baked in the story by allegedly firing Flynn for lying to Pence. No, he fired Flynn to further conceal that Flynn had acted on his orders, and Pence knowingly lied on TV as part of the concealment.
Flynn’s guilty plea admits that he coordinated with his aide McFarland, who was at Mar-a-Lago with Trump, about how to respond to Kislyak. Here is the sentencing statement under oath by Flynn. https://www.justice.gov/file/1015126/download&ved=2ahUKEwjbi4Lx6MLpAhW1MX0KHff0CskQFjAYegQIBxAB&usg=AOvVaw1DX_TRYkPpJOdbULtHZoVf Obviously, McFarland was simply forwarding instructions from Flynn’s boss. Here is the most relevant excerpt.
HumboldtBlue
@Dmbeaster:
Yeah, I seem to recall when the first iterations of the story were being reported there were direct ties from Trump to Flynn to Kislyak but there was enough distraction and enough of a smokescreen for Trump and allies to quickly shift the narrative.
I guess the only solace is that the mainstream news hasn’t followed the RWNJ down the rabbit hole as they did with her emails.
And thank you for the links, that’s very informative.
Dmbeaster
@Another Scott: I have not seen those tweets, but I have read a lot on this. Here is a very good analysis of the law governing Sullivan’s options and obligations in response to the DOJ motion. https://www.lawfareblog.com/judge-sullivan-can-reject-governments-motion-drop-flynns-case
Money quote:
“Sullivan does not merely have the authority to review the department’s motion to dismiss. As courts have described it, he has a “duty” to ensure that the dismissal is in “the public interest” and is not “tainted by impropriety” or “bad faith.” And if, after careful review, he finds that the motion is in fact tainted, his duty is equally clear: He must deny it.”
trnc
So true. Of course, the people paid not to understand will ignore this just as easily as they ignore the fact that Obama probably wouldn’t have told DT about Flynn if Obama was trying to conduct a super secret spy operation on DT.
Sandia Blanca
Thank you so much for this discussion, Cheryl–although I’ve read a lot about the Flynn story, I don’t recall hearing about the “civilian nuclear power in the Middle East” scheme. What an outrageous act of treachery! This whole thread has been edifying.
Another Scott
@Dmbeaster: Thanks.
The lawfare piece I saw earlier was this one (posted when this came up earlier):
We’ll see how Sullivan goes.
Cheers,
Scott.
Another Scott
@Dmbeaster: Thanks for that. It was obvious to me at the time that the “lying to Pence so we had to fire him” thing was comically bad as a plausible excuse. He was fired because the heat was too close to Donnie and they had to create enough of a distraction so that he wouldn’t be impeached before the end of his first 100 days in office.
The gaslighting started early, and it hasn’t stopped.
Grrr…
Cheers,
Scott.
Procopius
Thank you, Cheryl. I, too, was a little surprised when I clicked to read comments and there was a whole additional post, but it wasn’t off-putting. The thing I most appreciate about this post is that it is calm, measured, and avoids the childish names for Trump that too many posters consider de rigueur. My thought is that all of the things listed here are obviously wrong, but they probably are not illegal. My second thought is that there probably was something here that was illegal, so it seems the Mueller team of prosecutors made a tactical choice that looks really bad in hindsight. Much like the prosecutorial overreach in Senator Ted Stevens’ case. They really, really shouldn’t have released the indictment of the Russians, either. That was just grandstanding. Anyway, it’s wonderful to see the case laid out so clearly.
BroD
“He also promulgated Islamophobia”
Which seems kind of, you know, awkward–given he was doing work for Turkey.