If this is true, that should qualify as scandalous, but I'm not sure enough Republicans would care to do something about it.
Report Suggests Trump Told Flynn to Lie to the FBI
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer...o-the-fbi.html
Report Suggests Trump Told Flynn to Lie to the FBI
It has never been clear what crimes, if any, Donald Trump might have personally committed in the course of the Russia scandal. But in the 24th paragraph of a new NBC News report on the investigation is a sentence that indicates Robert Mueller’s cleanest shot — so far — at proving illegality by the president. Mueller, NBC reports, “appears to be interested in whether Trump directed [Michael Flynn] to lie to senior officials, including Pence, or the FBI, and if so why, the sources said.”
This could be very important. Here’s what it means.
In December 2016, Flynn sat at the center of hidden diplomacy between the Trump transition team and Russia. The departing Obama administration was putting into place sanctions to punish Russia for its criminal theft of emails. The Trump team was quietly telling Russia not to retaliate because it would reverse or undermine those sanctions. Flynn conveyed this message to Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak in December. The next month he denied doing so to FBI agents.
Two days after that, Sally Yates, the acting attorney general, met with White House counsel Don McGahn and told him about Flynn’s lie, which she had learned of through FBI surveillance of Russia. The danger of the lie was extreme. Since the Russians were privy to the conversation Flynn had denied ever having, they knew he was lying, and thus had powerful blackmail leverage over him.
And yet, despite having been informed that the incoming national security adviser was an extreme security risk, the White House responded with strange lethargy. Flynn remained on the job for 18 more days, and was finally fired, supposedly for lying to Vice-President Mike Pence. Trump nonetheless praised Flynn effusively, and reportedly later conveyed the message he should “stay strong.”
There are many questions around this episode, but the most pertinent ones concern why Flynn would behave so recklessly. He took a big risk by speaking with the Russians, violating the Logan Act, which prohibits private citizens from “influenc[ing] the measures or conduct of any foreign government” or “defeat[ing] the measures of the United States.” Flynn’s career in intelligence work would have made him perfectly aware of the high likelihood that his conversation was being surveilled. He took a second additional risk by allegedly lying about this to the FBI
This could be very important. Here’s what it means.
In December 2016, Flynn sat at the center of hidden diplomacy between the Trump transition team and Russia. The departing Obama administration was putting into place sanctions to punish Russia for its criminal theft of emails. The Trump team was quietly telling Russia not to retaliate because it would reverse or undermine those sanctions. Flynn conveyed this message to Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak in December. The next month he denied doing so to FBI agents.
Two days after that, Sally Yates, the acting attorney general, met with White House counsel Don McGahn and told him about Flynn’s lie, which she had learned of through FBI surveillance of Russia. The danger of the lie was extreme. Since the Russians were privy to the conversation Flynn had denied ever having, they knew he was lying, and thus had powerful blackmail leverage over him.
And yet, despite having been informed that the incoming national security adviser was an extreme security risk, the White House responded with strange lethargy. Flynn remained on the job for 18 more days, and was finally fired, supposedly for lying to Vice-President Mike Pence. Trump nonetheless praised Flynn effusively, and reportedly later conveyed the message he should “stay strong.”
There are many questions around this episode, but the most pertinent ones concern why Flynn would behave so recklessly. He took a big risk by speaking with the Russians, violating the Logan Act, which prohibits private citizens from “influenc[ing] the measures or conduct of any foreign government” or “defeat[ing] the measures of the United States.” Flynn’s career in intelligence work would have made him perfectly aware of the high likelihood that his conversation was being surveilled. He took a second additional risk by allegedly lying about this to the FBI
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer...o-the-fbi.html
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