Interesting theory
Miriam
Barack Obama's Parting Gift to Donald Trump Was Mike Flynn
By John Kiriakou, Reader Supported News
10 December 17
Donald Trump's White House falls apart a little more every day. It seems
like every morning there's more news about who among Donald Trump's friends,
relatives, and advisors is being subpoenaed, questioned, accused, or
indicted or, worse for the president, who has flipped and will testify
against him. Meanwhile, Trump flails around, making accusations against
everybody from the FBI to the Democrats to the Washington Post and George
Soros. It would be great fun to watch if the stakes weren't so high for the
country.
The linchpin to this whole "Russiagate" case is Mike Flynn. The former
three-star general and director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) was
a loose cannon whom Obama had to fire in 2014. While Flynn had a real vision
to transform the bloated DIA from a second-tier also-ran in the intelligence
community to a primary war zone intelligence service, he was known as a
nasty jerk to those around him, he was unnecessarily harsh with his
subordinates, and he simply could not or would not follow the president's
direction.
Flynn suffered from that very Washington affliction: He thought he was
smarter than everybody else in the room and he wouldn't take advice. Trump
has the same disease.
After Flynn had proven himself a thorn in the collective sides of Obama and
Ashton Carter, then Secretary of Defense, he jumped into the Trump campaign
with both feet, famously leading a chant of "Lock her up!" in reference to
Hillary Clinton, at the 2016 Republican National Convention.
I believe it was then that Obama decided to have a little fun with Flynn, at
Trump's great expense. Here's what we know:
NSA spies on Americans. They also spy on Russians. And when an American is
on the phone with the Russian ambassador, or meeting with Russian attorneys
with "ties to Russian intelligence," and then reporting back to a major
Republican presidential campaign, NSA lights up. So NSA knew that Flynn was
in touch with Russian Ambassador Serge Kislyak even before the two hung up
the phone.
A conversation between a senior presidential campaign official and a Russian
diplomat or intelligence officer is major news in the intelligence
community, and that news would have been reported back to Obama posthaste.
So Obama knew that Flynn, Donald Trump Jr., and others were meeting with the
Russians. And he knew what was being said because NSA had given him the
transcripts.
Another thing we know is that in their first post-election meeting at the
White House, Obama gave Trump one piece of unsolicited advice: Don't hire
Mike Flynn. The meeting was reported everywhere, and most observers thought
that Obama had made the recommendation because he had to fire Flynn from DIA
for insubordination.
I don't think that was it at all. I think Obama knew that Trump would do
exactly the opposite of what he wanted. If Obama doesn't want him to hire
Flynn, then, by God, he's going to hire Flynn. And so he did.
Flynn then proceeded to dig himself a deeper hole. We know that he
telephoned Kislyak on December 22 and again on December 29 to ask him to
either delay or veto a United Nations Security Council Resolution that would
have condemned Israeli settlements on Palestinian land. Of course, NSA was
fully cognizant of these conversations and, as it turns out, provided those
transcripts to the FBI.
Was this "collusion" with the Russians? Of course not. It was an overeager,
underinformed, and amateurish attempt at foreign policy. If anything, it was
collusion with the Israelis to try to block Obama's foreign policy on Israel
and the settlements. If anything, it was a violation of the Logan Act of
1799, which prohibits the making of foreign policy by a private citizen,
which Flynn still was.
But that's not the point. The point is that the FBI by then had a transcript
of the call when they asked Flynn to speak with them about it.
And therein lies the rub. First, I can tell you from personal firsthand
experience that nobody should ever, EVER, talk to the FBI, at least without
an attorney sitting right next to you. FBI agents will lie, cheat, and
deceive to get you to trip yourself up in your response to their questions.
Even if you don't remember what you said in some particular conversation
months or years ago, or if your recollection is fuzzy, they will charge you
with a felony for "making a false statement." That's the leverage that they
want over you.
Mike Flynn is a career intelligence professional. He knew that NSA would
have been listening to his conversations with the Russians. He knew that NSA
would have passed the information to the FBI. But when the FBI interviewed
him about his talks with the Russians, he lied. It's as simple as that. He
lied. And that's a felony.
In the greater scheme of things, Mike Flynn is a small fish. His son, Mike
Jr., who was also implicated in the case, is a smaller fish. Special Counsel
Robert Mueller has Jared Kushner in his sights. He has Donald Trump Jr. in
his sights. Eventually, he wants to get the president, if the evidence leads
him there. Mike Flynn can give him that evidence. That's why he made an
agreement to plead guilty to that false statements charge. He likely won't
see any prison time, and his son won't be charged with any crime at all. In
exchange, the Flynns, along with George Papadopoulos and, probably, Richard
Gates, will all be free to rat out Kushner and the Trumps. That's the end
game.
And that brings us back to Barack Obama. Obama, whether you like him or not,
is undoubtedly one of the brightest and most politically savvy presidents
we've had in generations. I think he saw all of this coming. He knew that
the Trump campaign was a train wreck waiting to happen. He knew that Hillary
Clinton was probably the only Democrat in America who couldn't beat that
train wreck. He knew that he could manipulate the narcissist Trump. So Obama
planted the seed to bring the entire House of Trump crashing down. It all
started with Flynn, the guy who thought he was smarter than everybody else.
The investigation and ensuing criminal cases make for an ugly process, but
the country will be stronger once it's all over. We'll have Barack Obama to
thank for it.
John Kiriakou is a former CIA counterterrorism officer and a former senior
investigator with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. John became the
sixth whistleblower indicted by the Obama administration under the Espionage
Act - a law designed to punish spies. He served 23 months in prison as a
result of his attempts to oppose the Bush administration's torture program.
Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission
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