For weeks Flynn has insisted that he didn’t discuss anything of substance in his conversations with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak, which occurred as the Obama administration was imposing sanctions on Russia over the country’s alleged election meddling. It’s a breach of protocol for a member of the transition to discuss policy with a foreign government, and it may be illegal. Pence repeated Flynn’s denial on Face the Nation days before the inauguration, and in his first White House briefing Press Secretary Sean Spicer said sanctions never came up.
However, the call was captured as part of a routine wiretap of Kislyak’s communications, and last week nine current and former U.S. officials told the Washington Post that transcripts show Flynn made explicit references to election-related sanctions. Flynn walked back his previous denial and, by Monday afternoon, his future in the administration was uncertain — so much so that Kellyanne Conway said on MSNBC that Flynn had the “full confidence” of President Trump just before Spicer said the president was “evaluating the situation.”
Then, around 9 p.m., there were two new bombshells. The Post reported that last month acting attorney general Sally Yates told the Trump White House that Flynn had misled them about the calls, and was potentially vulnerable to Russian blackmail. In the final days of the Obama administration Yates conferred with James Clapper, the director of National Intelligence at the time, and John Brennan, who was then CIA director, and they agreed that they should share their concerns about Flynn with the Trump administration.
Yates informed White House counsel Donald McGahn, but it’s unclear what he did with the information. She was later fired for defying Trump’s executive order on immigration. A source tells Politico her briefing on Flynn did not play a role in her dismissal.
Meanwhile, the New York Times reported that the Army has been investigating whether Flynn received money from the Russian government during a trip to Moscow in 2015, which may violate the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution. As reported last month, U.S. intelligence agencies were already looking at Flynn’s communications as part of an investigation into Russia’s attempts to influence the U.S. election.
While Flynn received a security briefing from the Defense Intelligence Agency before his trip to Russia, defense officials said he may not have filed the required paperwork. They were reportedly surprised when video surfaced of Flynn seated next to Russian president Vladimir Putin at a dinner honoring RT, the state-run Russian news organization. As TPM notes, Flynn has publicly admitted that he was paid to speak at the event.
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Originally Posted by hellospaceboy
