CNN: Now we know why Donald Trump was SO focused on Michael Flynn

[Pluvious]

There must be so much more going on than we've been guessing at...

Will McConnell and Barr be able to contain the whole mess ?

At nearly every turn of the probe into Russian interference into the 2016 election, President Donald Trump was working to make sure Michael Flynn, his former national security adviser, knew that the White House was on his side -- and that the President himself thought Flynn was a good guy.

Now we seem to know why.

Trump was worried -- and it turns out, rightly -- that Flynn knew things that would be problematic for the President as it related to Russia. And that if Flynn cooperated with special counsel Robert Mueller's probe -- as he eventually did -- it would have negative consequences for the administration. Court records released Thursday night revealed previously unknown details of Flynn's cooperation. Here's the key bit from the story:

https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/17/politics/donald-trump-michael-flynn/index.html

[empedocles]

1. This is big

[CentralMass]

6. The this is big list is hetting quite long.

[BamaRefugee]

9. "THIS WILL BRING TRUMP DOWN" same headline over and over and over for 2 1/2 years ;-)

[NewJeffCT]

12. almost 4 years now

since he came down the escalator to enter the presidential race while declaring Mexico was sending rapists and other criminals to the US.

[klook]

48. Good thing he didn't inadvertently hug somebody too hard.

Oh, wait - that only applies to Democrats.

[LanternWaste]

14. the media's Henny Penny act will remain unchanged regardless of the eventual denouement

Right. Only six Trump advisers, 26 Russian nationals, three Russian companies, one California man, and one London-based lawyer indicted or got guilty pleas from.

No doubt, the media's Henny Penny act will remain unchanged regardless of the eventual denouement. It looks too clever on t-shirts to refine and update as things progress.

[Perseus]

30. Yes...until when?

My goodness, the list that "will bring the buffoon down" is so long, and there he still is crapping with his mouth every time he opens it, and nothing happens...Not only the USA, but the World is going to be very sorry if the buffoon, his family and his minions are not brought down, jailed, the chaos these people will create everywhere will pail in comparison to WWII.

[BamaRefugee]

31. but...but...but...the politics/time/election cycle/phases of the moon ISN'T RIGHT YET!

[elfin]

51. Yes. That "last straw" doesn't mean a thing.

Or "Has he gone to far this time?"

All meaningless in the march of neo-fascists destroying our nation for their own greed and power.

[BamaRefugee]

53. random TV pundit: "UNPRECEDENTED! UNPRECEDENTED! UNPRECEDENTED!" ad nauseum

[spanone]

2. GET THE UnREDACTED REPORT!!!!!!!

Last edited Fri May 17, 2019, 02:53 PM - Edit history (1)

[True Blue American]

4. There are not enough

Corrupt Judges in the country to conceal it all.

[NewJeffCT]

13. they have the redacted report

the unredacted one is the one that has all the grand jury testimony and the 12 hidden (redacted) cases farmed out to other US attorneys

[matt819]

3. But, at least so far

it's not having consequences for this administration.

Though, if/when it does have consequences, it sure will be interesting to see how those dominos fall.

[Pluvious]

38. It will all fold fast

Rumors are the Murdoch men have soured on the Con.

Tic tock MF

[CentralMass]

49. What ever the evil bastards are up it cant be good.

[Leghorn21]

5. Dumbass LOVED Flynn!! He pined away for him, and truly believed Mikie would return to him

soon, right after he was cleared of any wrongdoing! People told dumbass NOT to contact Flynn, but he did, and sent at least one text to him saying, "Stay strong!"

hahahahaaaahaaaa, as of yesterday, tRump is truly SCREWN!!!

[Chin music]

23. Thus the nature of the 'spying' on trump.

You GD right Pres Obama was watching it. You GD right. Please, subpoena Pres Obama and watch the man walk in, and blow the lid off the whole "They were spying on us." Clap trap.

[happybird]

7. What a stupid liar the Dotard is

President Obama warned him about Flynn during the transition.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/08/us/politics/obama-flynn-trump.amp.html

[BigmanPigman]

20. That probably was even more incentive for tRump to keep him on his team.

He does everything that is anti-Obama or the opposite of what a real president would do, especially Obama.

[happybird]

26. Yep. It's sickening and pathetic. nt

[BigmanPigman]

29. And infantile. He really is a baby, a big, fat one.

Joan Rivers would say, "Oh grow up!".

[Aristus]

8. Is there a legal way for the House to obtain the unredacted report?

As much as I would love for some brave patriot to surreptitiously send the unredacted report to Congress as evidence, I'm worried that when the whole smash went to a judge, he/she could strike down the report, all evidence obtained therein, all subpoenas sent in the wake of, etc. because the report was 'illegally obtained'.

I think the legal term is 'fruit of the poisoned tree.'

[tinrobot]

35. Legally, they were already supposed to have it

The special counsel law requires it.

As to how they can obtain it through the courts... uncharted waters.

[stuffmatters]

36. Couldn't the House get everything by officially opening Impeachment Inves/Hearings?

It'd also start to educate the public without the Barr/Trump/McConnell info obstruction just as the House and the public learned daily more and more Nixon ugly facts. Watergate Hearings were certainly Must See Tv back then. Nixon started with an approval over60%, the daily public,televised Impeachment Investigation/ Hearings slowly cooked his goose. By the time of the tape revelation, he was already sunk in public opinion.
Seems if there was an official Impeachment Investigation opened, neither Trump or Barr would be unable to continue to hide the
Mueller Report and supporting evidence or shelter themselves or witnesses with claims of the right to executive privilege.
Because The House has the clear right to investigate all evidence in an Impeachment investigation/hearings. Not even Trump's kangaroo SCOTUS can shield either of them from Congress' full duty and right to uncover all documents & testimony to determine impeachment. That's my read on impeachment.

[Honeycombe8]

10. As it turns out, Trump was worried for nothing.

Flynn did flip, and Mueller found that any "collusion" didn't rise to a criminal level. Unfortunately for the country.

[lagomorph777]

15. Mueller must have gotten an A+ in gymnastics in school.

He's quite a logical contortionist.

[rockfordfile]

22. That's because Mueller is a republican. We need to have a true investigation.

Not some right-wing white wash.

[Chin music]

24. Impeachment being a civil proceeding may only require a "preponderance of the evidence'

not 'beyond a reasonable doubt'. Big difference there.
Mueller has been a huge huge disappointment. (To me.)

[Honeycombe8]

40. I feel the same.

As Preet Bharara said, Mueller's findings were based on his judgment. When Bill Maher asked him if someone else might have or could have had a different judgment call, Preet said almost immediately, "yes."

Mueller was a big disappointment to me. He could easily have found conspiring, aiding-abetting proof beyond a reasonable doubt, but that he can't indict, since he follows the DOJ policy on that. But he chose to "judge" that the evidence didn't rise to "proof beyond a reasonable doubt."

[Chin music]

41. But hey, he went to church right after.

19 other prosecutors got paid too. The cases in SDNY will be stomped out by Barr, bc, what's stopping him? Nada.

[maxsolomon]

33. He did NOT find that.

Mueller said explicitly that DOJ policy prevented him from indicting Asshole, so the SC couldn't accuse him of a crime he could not defend himself from.

Mueller also said that if he could clear Trump of obstruction, he would have.

Read the report.

[Honeycombe8]

39. To my recollection, that was his finding for Obstruction. Not conspiring, aiding-abetting.

As I recall, he found that there was evidence of conspiring or aiding-abetting, but it didn't rise to the level of proving beyond a reasonable doubt (criminal).

Maybe I'm misremembering, though. I'll check.

UPDATE: I checked. My memory is correct:

The report is very clear that Mueller’s investigation did not establish that the Trump campaign criminally conspired on illegal Russian election interference, or that it coordinated with Russia through either an active or tacit agreement

https://www.vox.com/2019/4/18/18484965/mueller-report-trump-no-collusion

[Chin music]

42. You're absolutely correct.

Your memory is sharp.

[maxsolomon]

43. Correct, to find a Conspiracy

you have to prove an agreement was made, and how the fuck are you going to do that when both sides are mobsters?

It's enough to Impeach, however.

[Honeycombe8]

44. It certainly is enough to impeach, IMO. nt

[lagomorph777]

11. Error in the story: "the fired first national security adviser"

Trump NEVER fired Flynn. Flynn quit on his own. We learned that a month or two ago.

Another error: "...wound up not implicating Trump or anyone in his orbit in collusion with the Russians..."

Give me a break. That was Mueller's judgment, but he had to apply some flimsy, nonsensical "logic" to get there. For example, Turd Jr. didn't collude when he met with Russians offering stolen information on his daddy's political opponent, on behalf of the Russian government (explicitly so). How is that not collusion? Well, seems Turd Jr. is too stupid to know that's a crime. Try that in traffic court some time.

[Chin music]

25. +1

[SunSeeker]

28. Right? I was furious as I read Mueller's justifications in Vol. I of the report.

And Mueller said it was too difficult to determine the value of the Russian assistance/emails provided, so he assigned it ZERO value, thus knocking out the "in exchange for a thing of value" element!! Yes, it's hard to determine the value of a lot of things. But we do it all the time, and it certainly makes no sense to give it zero value, for fuck's sake.

[lagomorph777]

32. Stolen emails have zero value - some damned twisted logic there...

[trueblue2007]

16. they are all traitors !!!

[vlyons]

17. "problematic" is a rather polite way of putting it

How about "fatal" to his presidency, legacy, and freedom. Those F'ers, Trump and Flynn, sold their country out, and for what? In Flynn's case for money in the private sector. To set up Saudi nuclear reactors in the middle. Flynn was a 3 star general, and the very thought of plating tit-for-tat with the Russians should have been anathema to him. In the case of Trump, well greed for money for sure, but narcissistic self-adoration for sure. They both should be charged with treason.

[Chin music]

27. Isn't that a firing squad offense in the military?

Fraternizing w the enemy at the very least, high treason it looks like to me.

[Farmer-Rick]

18. All these crimes, collusion and corrupt behavior by Trump and yet nothing ever happens

So, who is protecting Trump? Is Putin really this powerful? Is the Senate the real protector? Are Comey and Mueller just window dressing pretending to investigate while actually deflecting? What are our American capitalist Kings getting out of all this? Are they happy with being represented by a traitor and a nude model? Is our democracy and government so compromised it is unable to hold such an obvious crook accountable?

[maxsolomon]

34. Who is protecting Trump?

The Constitution, the power of the Presidency, the DOJ, the Senate, and his party.

The ultra-rich got a massive tax cut, which is what they wanted.

[Duppers]

45. when they worry more about their portfolios than ...

...their tax rates, the tide will turn.

[maxsolomon]

46. don't hold your breath

rescuing their (and our) portfolios was a bipartisan effort in 2008/9. wall st. is what the government exists to protext - capital.

[Duppers]

47. Indeed. Thoughts on China's

Affecting capital? Should we be concerned that China will stop buying US notes?

Obviously, rising consumer prices won't affect the uber wealthy. Then they aren't concerned about any of tRump's policies?

[MFM008]

19. They want one thing

To stay in power.
No matter what he does
The useful idiot is needed.

[kimbutgar]

21. When is the recording going to be released?

Sadly, I doubt it will be played in the alternative faux right wing media though.

[Kablooie]

37. No, we still don't know why Trump was so focused on Flynn.

This offers some more detail and might implicate some more players but we still don't know what Trump was so scared of. We've known all along that he thought Flynn would reveal something devastating to him. That's been obvious from the start.

But exactly what is it that he thought would destroy him? Nothing revealed by Mueller's interviews has been destructive to Trump's power. Was he just paranoid for no reason? Had he not done anything wrong but was scared that he had?

I think there is something hidden deeper that we still don't know about. We may never know about it. I can't believe Trump was this terrified of being exposed for no reason at all.

[ck4829]

50. Kick

[Baitball Blogger]

52. This article leaves me puzzled.

All I got from it was evidence of obstruction. But it didn't reveal any information from Flynn that would implicate Trump on anything. Or is this the big deal? Did Trump succeed in getting to Flynn's testimony?