TPM - "Flynn Doesn't Matter. This Is About Trump" (tell it, Josh!)

[NRaleighLiberal]

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/flynn-doesn-t-matter-this-is-about-trump

By JOSH MARSHALL Published FEBRUARY 14, 2017, 11:19 PM EDT

For all we've learned over recent days about retired General Michael Flynn and his contacts with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, it's overshadowed by much more that we do not know. Indeed, based on the current evidence we don't know whether Flynn's actions were just wildly inappropriate (undermining the current president's actions with a foreign adversary weeks before taking office) or part of a larger, darker design. Whether Flynn lied to the FBI (we don't know) or lied to his colleagues is an interesting legal and possibly political question. But again, they are relatively straightforward matters which only become truly significant in terms of the bigger picture, if there is one. The truth is Michael Flynn does not matter. We have before us a question that has stood before us, centerstage, for something like a year, brazen and shameless and yet too baffling and incredible to believe: Donald Trump's bizarre and unexplained relationship with Russia and its strongman Vladimir Putin.

It is almost beyond imagining that a National Security Advisor could be forced to resign amidst a counter-intelligence investigation into his communications and ties to a foreign adversary. The National Security Advisor is unique in the national security apparatus. He or she is the organizer, synthesizer and conduit to the President for information from all the various agencies and departments with a role in national security. This person must be able to know everything. The power and trust accorded this person are immeasurable. It is only really comparable to the President. And yet, we are talking about the President. A staffer or appointee can be dismissed. The President is the ultimate constitutional officer.

For all that I've been associated with scrutiny of the President's ties to Vladimir Putin and Russia, I've always been skeptical of the maximal claims and arguments. Indeed, I've been skeptical of the whole idea. All the claims about Trump and Russia rely on suppositions which are unproven and hard evidence we don't have. But the circumstantial evidence, the unexplained actions, the unheard of spectacle of a foreign power subverting a US election while the beneficiary of the interference aggressively and openly makes the case for the culprit, the refusal to make even the most elementary forms of disclosure which could clarify the President's financial ties - they are so multifaceted and abundant it is almost impossible to believe they are mere random and chance occurrences with no real set of connections behind them.

Step back for a second and look at this. While certainties are hard to come by, it seems clear that Russia broke into computer networks and selectively released private emails to damage Hillary Clinton and elect Donald Trump. When President Obama took a series of actions to punish the Russian government for this interference, President-Elect Trump's top foreign policy advisor made a series of calls to the Russian government's representative in the United States to ask him to have his government refrain from retaliation and suggested that the punishments could be lifted once the new government was sworn in. Then he lied about the calls both publicly and apparently within the White House. What has gotten lost in this discussion is that these questionable calls were aimed at blunting the punishment meted out for the election interference that helped Donald Trump become President. This is mind-boggling.

snip - more to read.


really critical last paragraph -

That's where we still are. There is a huge amount we don't know. We don't know the big answers. But to use the language of the criminal law, there's probable cause to have a real investigation. Not a rush to judgment, but an investigation. This has been in front of us for months. It may gratify Democrats as partisans to see an entire political party be suborned by a President under a cloud of doubt. But it is horrible for the country. There is so much smoke that you could choke on it. It's time to find out what Donald Trump's relationship is to Russia, his and his associates' contacts with Russian officials during the campaign, whatever business ties there might be. If you were Vladimir Putin you could not have done more to help the cause of Donald Trump. And if you were Trump, you could not have done more in actions and statements to repay the favor. The only question is whether the trajectory of perfectly interlocked actions were simply chance or tacit. Is it even remotely credible that with everything that led up to it, Michael Flynn initiated and conducted this back channel on his own? Hardly. It's crazy that we're having this conversation about a sitting President. But here we are. It's time. We need to know the answer to this question.

[TrekLuver]

1. Flynn shall be the catalyst.

[madaboutharry]

2. Trump is at the center of this scandal.

We just don't yet know how it all fits together.

I think there is a "John Dean" who is going to break away and tell us the whole story.

[colorado_ufo]

5. What do you think Vladimir Putin would have done

to a John Dean?

[Girard442]

3. Here's the problem:

If Trump et al think that an investigation will turn up evidence that will result in him being removed from office, they won't let it proceed. Due process can't work for people with the power to make it not work. Trump will leave if and only if he's forced to leave -- and by forced, I don't mean with a piece of paper.

[world wide wally]

4. Keep in mind that we are only 3 weeks into this regime and it is already one of the most scandal

riddled administrations in our history.

[colorado_ufo]

6. It was scandal-ridden

before Trump ever took office.