Ahead of Sally Yates Testimony, WH Tries Again to Change Narrative on Michael Flynn

May 7th, 2017

Awake Goy

Ahead of Sally Yates Testimony, WH Tries Again to Change Narrative on Michael Flynn

Susanne Posel ,Chief Editor Occupy Corporatism | Host of Hardline Radio Show

In February, standing next to Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of Israel, during a White House conference, Donald Trump complained from his pulpit about “at the nation’s intelligence agencies… saying that his former national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, was brought down by illegal leaks to the news media, on a day of new disclosures about the Trump camp’s dealings with Russia during and after the presidential campaign.”

Trump said to the press attending the conference: “From intelligence, papers are being leaked, things are being leaked. It’s a criminal action, criminal act, and it’s been going on for a long time before me, but now it’s really going on. And people are trying to cover up for a terrible loss that the Democrats had under Hillary Clinton.”

He continued on saying: “I think it’s very, very unfair what’s happened to General Flynn, the way he was treated, and the documents and papers that were illegally , I stress that, illegally leaked. Very, very unfair.”

Leaks to the press concerning Flynn have provided fuel for the growing suspicions that the Trump transition team new more about his ties to Russia and specifically his relationship to Sergey Kislyak, Russian ambassador to the US.

On March 9th White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer told the media that Trump did not know that Flynn was being paid by the government of Turkey to lobby for their country while he was working with the transition team.

And on that same day Mike Pence, who was formerly the head of the Trump transition team, told Bret Baier of Fox News that he didn’t know anything about Flynn being a lobbyist for Turkey prior to his work with the campaign, during the transition, and on to his 24 day stent as National Security Adviser.

Baier asked Pence to comment on his reaction to the revelations in the media that Flynn was a foreign agent of Turkey. Pence responded strangely by saying: “Let me say. Hearing that story today was the first I’d heard of it. And I fully support the decision [Trump] made asking for Flynn’s resignation.”

But it appears Pence was lying to Baier and the national audience watching that interview because on November 18th of last year, while Pence was head of the Trump transition team, Congressman and ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform committee Elijah Cummings sent Pence a letter addressed directly to him citing “information about the potential conflicts of interest posed by Flynn’s lobbying work.”

The congressman wrote in part: “Recent news reports have revealed that Lt. Gen. Flynn was receiving classified briefings during the presidential campaign while his consulting firm, Flynn Intel Group, Inc., was being paid to lobby the U.S. Government on behalf of a foreign government’s interests.”

Cummings letter was sent to Pence after a plethora of news articles explaining Flynn’s work for Turkey and that he was chosen because of his proximity to Trump.

Because of the clear timeline of events and Pence’s work as the Trump transition team head, it is implausible that Pence was telling Fox News the truth when he told Baier that his mention of the Flynn controversy “was the first I’d heard of it.”

Last month the Trump administration tried again to mitigate future damage with regard to Flynn. Spicer told the press during a briefing that Flynn was just a “volunteer” during the campaign.

Now the Washington Post is reporting via anonymous sources from the White House that “senior members of President Trump’s transition team” cautioned Flynn “about the risks of his contacts with the Russian ambassador weeks before the December call that led to Flynn’s forced resignation.”

Journalists Greg Miller and Adam Entous wrote : “Flynn was told during a late November meeting that Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak’s conversations were almost certainly being monitored by U.S. intelligence agencies, officials said, a caution that came a month before Flynn was recorded discussing U.S. sanctions against Russia with Kislyak, suggesting that the Trump administration would reevaluate the issue.”

The article goes on to claim: “Officials were so concerned that Flynn did not fully understand the motives of the Russian ambassador that the head of Trump’s national security council transition team asked Obama administration officials for a classified CIA profile of Kislyak, officials said. The document was delivered within days, officials said, but it is not clear that Flynn ever read it.”

Considering Flynn’s background in the US military and intelligence, it is unlikely that “Flynn did not fully understand the motives of the Russian ambassador.”

In 2011, Flynn was promoted to Lieutenant General and assigned to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). It is a responsibility of DNI to understand the motives of foreign agents working in the US; including Kislyak who was given the post of US ambassador to Russia in 2009.

It is common knowledge within the US intelligence community (which includes the office of the DNI where Flynn worked) that Kislyak is among other things, “is considered… to be one of Russia’s top spies and spy-recruiters in Washington.”

There are clear indications that the Trump administration is concerned about the public becoming aware of extent of their foreknowledge of Flynn’s ties to Russia and lobbyist work with Turkey. Pence has already denied knowing about Flynn’s lobbying for Turkey prior to March of 2017 when it is provable that he was alerted back in November by Congressman Cummings.

Spicer did his part at the behest of the Trump administration to confuse the narrative by claiming that Flynn was merely a “volunteer” during the campaign.

The newest twist, that “senior members of President Trump’s transition team” appears to be an attempt by the Trump administration to muddy the waters by post-claiming that the transition team new about Flynn and tried to warn him, but their hands were tied because in the end he spoke to Kislyak anyway.

But the facts still remain. What is notable is that this revelation about Flynn being warned by the Trump transition team comes just days before the highly anticipated public hearing with Congress and Sally Yates, former acting attorney general, is poised to speak on Capitol Hill about her role in warning the administration on January 26th about Flynn before being fired 2 days later.

During her testimony, Yates is “expected to give her version of events when she informed the White House about her concerns that Flynn may have been ‘compromised’ by the Russians, contradicting Spicer’s comment that Yates was simply giving officials a ‘heads up’ about the then-national security advisor.”