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Michael Flynn Charged With Lying To FBI, Set To Plead Guilty

Special Counsel Robert Mueller has charged former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn with "willfully and knowingly" making "false, fictitious and fraudulent statements" to the FBI regarding conversations with Russia's ambassador. Flynn, in turn, is expected to plead guilty in a DC court to making false statements to FBI agents in January 2017, according to the court filing presented below. The plea hearing is set for 10:30 am ET.

COURT FILING SAYS FLYNN FALSELY STATED HE DID NOT ASK RUSSIAN AMBASSADOR TO REFRAIN FROM ESCALATING SITUATION AFTER U.S. HAD IMPOSED SANCTIONS ON RUSSIA
COURT FILING SAYS FLYNN FALSELY STATED HE DID NOT RECALL THAT RUSSIAN AMBASSADOR TOLD HIM RUSSIA HAD CHOSEN TO MODERATE ITS RESPONSE TO U.S. SANCTIONS AS A RESULT OF HIS REQUEST
COURT FILING SAYS FLYNN FALSELY STATED THAT HE DID NOT ASK RUSSIAN AMBASSADOR TO DELAY VOTE ON PENDING UN SECURITY COUNCIL RESOLUTION AND THAT AMBASSADOR NEVER DESCRIBED RUSSIA'S RESPONSE TO HIS REQUEST

Michael Flynn is now the second person involved with the Trump campaign to admit wrongdoing in Mueller’s probe into allegations of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia; he is however the first Trump administration official charged in relation to Mueller’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and aide Rick Gates were charged with money laundering from alleged crimes that took place before they worked with Trump. A campaign adviser, George Papadopoulos, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI earlier this year over contacts with officials connected to the Russian government.

After he left the administration, Flynn filed a foreign registration form showing that he hadn’t disclosed multiple contacts and payments from foreign entities while serving as a campaign adviser to Trump starting in February 2016. The company received $530,000 from a Dutch company working on behalf of Turkey’s government, to lobby the U.S. for extradition of an exiled cleric who has opposed President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey. He’s also disclosed payments from the Russian news site RT, described in an unclassified U.S. intelligence report as “the Kremlin’s principal international propaganda outlet.”

The news about Flynn comes a day after CNN reported that Jared Kushner had met earlier this month with Mueller's team as part of the investigation into Russia's meddling in the election, according to two people familiar with the meeting.

The question is whether as part of the plea Flynn will 'reveal' something about Trump, because if 6 months after the Mueller probe the best he could get out of Flynn is making a "false statement" about meeting the Russian ambassador, then Trump has nothing to be worried about.

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

And yet, nothing in there about "colluding" with Russia to "hack" the election.

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

And yet, nothing in there about "colluding" with Russia to "hack" the election.

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Brian Ross, ABCNews, reports that Flynn will testify that candidate Drumpf "directed him to make contact with the Russians.”

That sound you just heard was the other shoe dropping.

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Originally posted by second:
Perhaps Trump will drink Socrates’ hemlock before the Senate in the greatest season final of all times.
www.vox.com/2017/11/30/16517022/impeachment-donald-trump

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly]

OK, Funny


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No, it is not. That is the sound of you hearing what you want to hear.- SIGNY

That's the sound - for many of us - of what we expected to hear because we've been paying attention.- G

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The transition team is SUPPOSED to make contact with the Russians, just as they're SUPPOSED to make contact with the British, the Canadians, and the Chinese. The contact was made AFTER the election, so there is no presumption of "collusion" because the election was already over with. The only way that you can construct any sort of "criminality" to this contact is by assuming that Flynn was there to reaffirm some sort of prearranged deal, to affirm the "quid pro quo" that you have to ASSUME was there to begin with. - SIGNY

You're still stuck on "collusion" when we've moved on to conspiracy and obstruction of justice.- G

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Let's look at this from most to least culpable:

1) The worst-case situation (for Trump) is if he was actively colluding with Russia to "hack" the election, that there existed a "quid pro quo" - however negotiated (even under duress from Russian blackmail) - which set the terms, that Trump would back off on sanctions or follow other policies favorable to Russia if Russia would help him win the election. In order to show that, you'd have to show that (1) the Russians really DID "hack the election" and that (2) it was adjudged effective enough by the Trump team to meet their end of the bargain (3) produce the evidence to demonstrate that this kind of negotiation took place. - SIGNY

1 [check]

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2, check

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and 3 is forthcoming.

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I believe

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that even if there isn't a signed contract (heh) there will be enough other evidence in the form of rats leaving-the-sinking-ship testimony to convict the other rats.

The supposition is that Flynn plead to this charge because Mueller had "wiretapped" evidence in-hand. As I said before, if there is evidence of collusion, it would be from surveillance, not investigation. But I'll bet you dollars to donuts that if surveillance evidence exists it will never be entered into testimony because it was tainted (ie illegal) to begin with, so Mueller's problem would be reconstructing a case in parallel to it. - SIGNY

At this point he doesn't need the wire tap, he has Flynn's own words.

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I personally think that Flynn's problem isn't with the Russians. He committed so many other serious breaches of security with the Turks that those violations can be used as leverage against him.- SIGNY

The Turk violations we know all about. Getting at what he did with, and what he knows about Russia and the connections to the WH, is what we need to find out. And what you should want to know too btw. Odd that you don't seem all that curious. - G

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Originally posted by second:
Perhaps Trump will drink Socrates’ hemlock before the Senate in the greatest season final of all times.
www.vox.com/2017/11/30/16517022/impeachment-donald-trump

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at www.mediafire.com/folder/1uwh75oa407q8/Firefly

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Originally posted by whozit:
Martha Stewart also admitted to lying to the Feds, she served 6 months in jail. Will Flynn serve 6 months in jail then get a cooking show on the FOOD Network?

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One was our national security adviser to the president lying about illegal and covert contacts with the Russians. The other had a cooking show who lied about an illegal stock tip.

Your bias blinds you from being objective and places you on a level with some other disingenuous posters.


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Originally posted by second:
Trump's lawyers must claim Trump is mistaken because he just tweeted the smoking gun:

Today, Trump admitted knowing Flynn had lied to the FBI when he asked Comey to back off Flynn. He is acknowledging awareness of the commission of a federal offense at the time he sought to intervene to prevent its investigation. It’s called Obstruction of Justice.

The other obstruction case, the one based on Comey's firing, is as compelling as such cases can get. Today’s tweet just adds fuel to an already raging fire. Eg, Trump/Lester Holt interview, Comey's notes/testimony, ridiculous pretext Trump gave for firing Comey relating to Hillary’s emails.

To repeat: Trump is admitting he knew Flynn lied to the FBI but still pressed Comey, the head of the FBI, to let it go.

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Yep


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Originally posted by 1kiki:
And yet, nothing in there about "colluding" with Russia to "hack" the election.

Unless you have Alzheimer's, of course. In which case, EVERYTHING comes without the original pretext.

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Trump associates tried to put distance Saturday evening between the president himself and the tweet. ["I had to fire General Flynn because he lied to the Vice President and the FBI."] One person familiar with the situation said the tweet was actually crafted by John Dowd, one of the president's personal attorneys. Dowd declined to comment when reached by The Associated Press on Saturday night.

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