The Trump White House Is Screwed, Big League

[babylonsister]

https://newrepublic.com/article/140631/trump-white-house-screwed-big-league?utm_source=social&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=sharebtn


The Trump White House Is Screwed, Big League
Michael Flynn's resignation is just the beginning of this major national security scandal involving Russia.
By Brian Beutler
February 14, 2017

President Donald Trump’s first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, resigned Monday night, driven out of the job after just 24 days by a torrent of leaks suggesting he lied to colleagues, who in turn lied to the public, about his pre-inauguration conversations with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.

The leaks themselves, and Flynn’s departure, were rightly interpreted as major stories, but the theory of what motivated the leaks, and then the departure, remains unclear. Flynn has a famously hostile relationship with much of the intelligence community. Did his professional enemies simply sense an opening and take revenge? Does the Trump White House, which routinely lies to the public, really believe that lying to colleagues is a fireable offense (if and when the press gets wind of it)? Relatedly, what did Trump know and when did he know it? Does this story have anything to do with the Moscow-directed subversion campaign aimed at helping him defeat Hillary Clinton?

snip//

The likelier story—though Spicer denied it during Tuesday’s White House press briefing—is that Flynn was doing what Trump told him to do. Trump even reveled in the fact that the backchannel diplomacy had been successful.

But that would also mean he knew the version of events Pence and Spicer had relayed to the press was false.

So let’s assume Flynn just jumped on a grenade for his boss. Trump may have believed Moscow would never rat Flynn out, and may still believe Flynn will never claim—or prove—he was just following orders. But the truth is, Trump can’t be sure his own involvement won’t be exposed. And that compromises him, as well. It’s not just that Pence, Flynn, and Spicer should feel as if Trump hung them out to dry—it’s that he did so in a way that gives powerful people, perhaps even Russian intelligence officials, leverage over his administration.

The story is explosive, in other words, even when it’s walled off from other things we know: That Flynn and Kislyak were reportedly in contact, not just during the transition, but before the election. That other members of the Trump team and their Russian contacts are reportedly under federal investigation, stemming from a broader investigation into Russian subversion. That those inquiries are apparently significant enough that FBI director James Comey was initially reluctant to alert the White House to Flynn’s susceptibility to blackmail out of fear it would undermine the bureau’s work. That the intelligence community has corroborated certain non-sexual claims in the Trump-opposition dossier.

Flynn’s out now, and if he has information that’s pertinent to Comey’s investigation, he’s a major loose end—especially if he has his own legal trouble. But Republicans on Capitol Hill and the White House are pretending Flynn’s resignation brings the story to an end.

It’s hard to focus on regressive tax cuts if the president of your party is at the center of a major national security scandal. Republicans might be able to slow down the unraveling with this kind of willful blindness to the significance of what just happened. But they probably can’t stop it altogether. They will be lucky if this ends with senior members of Trump’s White House and doesn’t ultimately ensnare Trump himself.

[Tinker Trebucet]

1. It seems that blood is coming out of his eyes or wherever.

[tparrett62]

3. Nice callback!

I like your comedy timing!

Welcome to DU!

[Tatiana]

2. CNN has the names of those officials who communicated with Russian agents.

They are just waiting for comments.

Trump should be regretting insulting the intelligence community -- but he's not. And the hits will keep coming...