Tag: Mike Flynn

White House Official Floated Withdrawing U.S. Forces to Please Putin

The following article by Spencer Ackerman was posted on the Daily Beast website January 9, 2018:

Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast

A member of Trump’s National Security Council staff had a radical notion: to pare back American troops in Europe as a way to curry favor with the Kremlin.

A senior National Security Council official proposed withdrawing some U.S. military forces from Eastern Europe as an overture to Vladimir Putin during the early days of the Trump administration, according to a former administration official in the room with him.

While the proposal was ultimately not adopted, it is the first known case of senior aides to Donald Trump seeking to reposition U.S. military forces to please Putin—something that smelled, to a colleague, like a return on Russia’s election-time investment in President Trump. The White House did not immediately respond to The Daily Beast’s request for comment. Continue reading “White House Official Floated Withdrawing U.S. Forces to Please Putin”

Five takeaways from Flynn’s guilty plea

The following article by Morgan Chalfant was posted on the Hill website December 3, 2017:

President Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn has pleaded guilty to lying to federal investigators about his contacts with Russia’s ambassador to the United States.

Flynn, a former Obama-era defense official turned surrogate for Trump’s campaign, is now cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into whether there was collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow.

His plea deal came about a month after Mueller unveiled charges against former Trump campaign officials Paul Manafort and Richard Gates and revealed that George Papadopoulos, a low-level campaign adviser, had pleaded guilty to lying to FBI agents. Continue reading “Five takeaways from Flynn’s guilty plea”

Emails Dispute White House Claims That Flynn Acted Independently on Russia

The following article by Michael S. Schmidt, Sharon LaFraniere and Scott Shane was posted on the New York Times website December 2, 2017:

Michael T. Flynn, right, on Feb. 10, three days before he was fired as national security adviser. Credit Doug Mills/The New York Times

WASHINGTON — When President Trump fired his national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, in February, White House officials portrayed him as a renegade who had acted independently in his discussions with a Russian official during the presidential transition and then lied to his colleagues about the interactions.

But emails among top transition officials, provided or described to The New York Times, suggest that Mr. Flynn was far from a rogue actor. In fact, the emails, coupled with interviews and court documents filed on Friday, showed that Mr. Flynn was in close touch with other senior members of the Trump transition team both before and after he spoke with the Russian ambassador, Sergey I. Kislyak, about American sanctions against Russia.

While Mr. Trump has disparaged as a Democratic “hoax” any claims that he or his aides had unusual interactions with Russian officials, the records suggest that the Trump transition team was intensely focused on improving relations with Moscow and was willing to intervene to pursue that goal despite a request from the Obama administration that it not sow confusion about official American policy before Mr. Trump took office. Continue reading “Emails Dispute White House Claims That Flynn Acted Independently on Russia”

A Split From Trump Indicates That Flynn Is Moving to Cooperate With Mueller

The following article by Michael S. Schmidt, Matt Apuzzo and Maggie Haberman was possed on the New York Times website November 23, 2017:

WASHINGTON — Lawyers for Michael T. Flynn, President Trump’s former national security adviser, notified the president’s legal team in recent days that they could no longer discuss the special counsel’s investigation, according to four people involved in the case — an indication that Mr. Flynn is cooperating with prosecutors or negotiating a deal.

Mr. Flynn’s lawyers had been sharing information with Mr. Trump’s lawyers about the investigation by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, who is examining whether anyone around Mr. Trump was involved in Russian efforts to undermine Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. Continue reading “A Split From Trump Indicates That Flynn Is Moving to Cooperate With Mueller”

Despite Concerns About Blackmail, Flynn Heard C.I.A. Secrets

The following article by Matt Apuzzo, Matthew Rosenberg and Adam Goldman was posted on the New York Times website June 20, 2017:

Mike Pompeo, center, the C.I.A. director, at the Capitol to brief members of the House Intelligence Committee last month. Credit Al Drago/The New York Times

WASHINGTON — Senior officials across the government became convinced in January that the incoming national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, had become vulnerable to Russian blackmail.

At the F.B.I., the C.I.A., the Justice Department and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence — agencies responsible for keeping American secrets safe from foreign spies — career officials agreed that Mr. Flynn represented an urgent problem.

Yet nearly every day for three weeks, the new C.I.A. director, Mike Pompeo, sat in the Oval Office and briefed President Trump on the nation’s most sensitive intelligence — with Mr. Flynn listening. Mr. Pompeo has not said whether C.I.A. officials left him in the dark about their views of Mr. Flynn, but one administration official said Mr. Pompeo did not share any concerns about Mr. Flynn with the president. Continue reading “Despite Concerns About Blackmail, Flynn Heard C.I.A. Secrets”

Pence remains above the fray, but is he outside the inner circle?

The following article by Robert Costa and Ashley Parker was posted on the Washington Post website February 14, 2017:

For nearly two full weeks, nobody told Vice President Pence that he had been misled by national security adviser Michael Flynn. Continue reading “Pence remains above the fray, but is he outside the inner circle?”

Here’s Why Flynn Was a Trump Failure

The following article was posted on the trumpaccountable.org website February 14, 2017:

Donald Trump’s National Security Adviser, a key post in the administration and integral to US security, resigned abruptly after 24 days on the job. Michael Flynn had sensitive conversations with Russian officials even as President Obama was enacting sanctions following Russia’s interference with US elections. Flynn misled Vice President Pence and President Trump about the nature of the conversations which led to his ouster. This is the shortest tenure of a National Security Adviser in US history and presents a problem for Donald Trump for three reasons: Continue reading “Here’s Why Flynn Was a Trump Failure”

Trump and Russia: A Timeline

The following article by Corey Ciorciari and Anna Perina was posted on the Center for American Progress Action Fund website February 10, 2017:

AP/Andrew Harnik
President Donald Trump—accompanied by, from the left, Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, Vice President Mike Pence, White House press secretary Sean Spicer, and National Security Adviser Michael Flynn—speaks on the phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin on January 28, 2017, in the Oval Office.

Recordings of phone conversations by U.S. intelligence agencies show that President Donald Trump’s National Security Adviser Mike Flynn likely lied when he denied discussing election-related sanctions on Russia with Kremlin officials before Trump’s inauguration.

The intercepts contain disturbing revelations showing a long history of contact between Flynn and Russian Ambassador to the United States Sergey Kislyak that began before the election and continued into the transition, with Flynn telling the Russians that Trump would revisit sanctions. Critically, these contacts persisted even after the U.S. government concluded the Kremlin engaged in a covert influence operation to put Trump in the White House. Continue reading “Trump and Russia: A Timeline”

The Takeaway: The Special Relationship

The following is from the Washington Post Today’s WorldView by Ishaan Tharoor was issued February 13, 2017. Teamed with President Trump stating he wasn’t aware of this issue this past Friday, the situation is extremely concerning on multiple levels.

President Trump’s national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, had a pretty wretched week. The Post’s reporting revealed that Flynn, contrary to his and the White House’s earlier assertions, had discussed U.S. sanctions against Russia with Moscow’s ambassador in Washington prior to Trump’s inauguration. Flynn, according to intelligence sources, likely signaled that the question of sanctions would be revisited by a more friendly Trump administration. Continue reading “The Takeaway: The Special Relationship”