Somebody should tell Flynn Jr to STFU for his own good

And that of his father.


I know Flynn Sr flipped for Mueller, most likely in large part to spare his son, who would have been caught up in the corruption, but shouldn't Flynn Jr be keeping a very low profile anyway?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

As if Mueller didn't already have enough to investigate

Twitter is abuzz this morning with the WSJ story [...] that Mike Flynn and his spawn hoped to make up to $15 million for kidnapping Fethullah Gulen and delivering him to Turkey.

[...]

And mostly, the focus has been on the kidnapping part of the story (perhaps, in part, because Republicans tried to attack James Woolsey for his involvement in it a few weeks back).

[...]

The story has already been told; what’s new about this iteration of it is the eye-popping pay-off [$15M], as well as more details about the timing and location of a second meeting.

[...]

I think the far more interesting side of it is the inclusion of a deal on the Reza Zarrab prosecution — because that implicates Trump’s decision to fire Preet Bharara, substantiating a parallel case to his firing of Jim Comey.

As noted, [Southern District of New York] is prosecuting Zarrab for laundering Turkish gold into Iranian coffers. Rudy Giuliani and Michael Mukasey are representing Zarrab, with Giuliani going so far as brokering a deal that would trade foreign policy cooperation for Zarrab’s release even while defying pressure from DOJ about explaining his role in it. Because the case implicates Recep Tayyip Erdogan personally, the impending trial has led to increasing diplomatic tensions with Turkey.

  Marcy Wheeler

When everything shakes out - or at least everything that will - history books are going to have to hold an extra ten volumes to cover everything tha The Most Notable Loser has gotten himself into.

The one other important detail of this story, which follows on stories from yesterday, is that Mueller has implicated Flynn Jr in this deal. That reportedly is already making Flynn Sr consider pleading, to protect his son.

But if he does that, he may be forced to disclose how closely Trump was involved in these discussions to sell US policy to Turkey to enrich a staffer.

Talk about your tangled webs.

Oh, and, Jared Kushner is in this one, too.

Continue reading.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

The Flynns under investigation

Special Counsel Robert Mueller is investigating an alleged plan involving former White House National Security Adviser Mike Flynn to forcibly remove a Muslim cleric living in the U.S. and deliver him to Turkey in return for millions of dollars, according to people familiar with the investigation.

Under the alleged proposal, Mr. Flynn and his son, Michael Flynn Jr., were to be paid as much as $15 million for delivering Fethullah Gulen to the Turkish government.

[...]

Federal Bureau of Investigation agents have asked at least four individuals about a meeting in mid-December at the ‘21’ Club in New York City, where Mr. Flynn and representatives of the Turkish government discussed removing Mr. Gulen, according to people with knowledge of the FBI’s inquiries. The discussions allegedly involved the possibility of transporting Mr. Gulen on a private jet to the Turkish prison island of Imrali, according to one of the people who has spoken to the FBI.

[...]

Mr. Gulen’s removal was discussed as “a covert step in the dead of night to whisk this guy away,” according to [former CIA Director James] Woolsey, who said he attended the meeting at the request of one of Mr. Flynn’s business associates.

  WSJ

Conspiracy to kidnap? That sounds mighty serious. Perhaps that's more of a reason why Flynn was cut loose from the Trump campaign early on than that he lied to Mike Pence.

[Flynn] is now facing military, congressional and criminal investigations into allegations that he improperly concealed his financial ties to Turkey and Russia, and into whether the ties played any role in his decisions as the president’s adviser.

In a world of hurt.

Mr. Woolsey, who served briefly as an adviser to the Trump campaign, said he turned down a consulting fee from Mr. Flynn’s company because of what he heard at the meeting.

Smart man.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Where's my tiny violin?

Longtime Trump adviser Roger Stone blasted out a 1,600-word statement this week asking for help paying the nearly $460,000 worth of legal fees he has incurred since landing in the crosshairs of the federal and congressional Russia investigations.

  Business Insider

It's expensive for crooks to stay out of jail, but more to the point: does Roger Stone not have $460,000? Maybe look into those Paradise Paper documents, and I bet he's got a bridge to sell.

Stone, whose contact with Russia-linked hacker Guccifer 2.0 and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange during the election have come under scrutiny has part of the Russia probes, said it cost him $400,000 in legal fees to prepare for his testimony before the House Intelligence Committee last month.

Waaaaaaah.

"I have yet to testify before the US Senate Intelligence Committee and anticipate that the legal representation I require for that exchange will easily put my legal bills even closer to the million dollar mark," Stone wrote.

What? You can't use the same advice? Or do they charge that much to sit beside you at the hearing?

"You can do so your contribution of $25, $50, $100, $250, $500, $1000 or more would be a Godsend."

I'd call it a fleecing.

"I am not a wealthy man, by any means," Stone said in his emailed appeal. "Such a crushing expense, with nothing to show for it except my vindication against a juggernaut of political dirty tricks and lies, threatens to destroy me and my family financially- all because I fought to elect Donald Trump. All because the deep state partisans know I will continue fighting for his agenda."

Says the lying sack of shit and original tricky Dick author of political dirty tricks and lies.

"I am certain Special Counsel Mueller and his chummy side-kick, fired-FBI Director Jimmy Comey, intend to try to remove our President, in collusion with Democrats, many of whom are openly plotting a literal coup d’etat against the President of the United States."

Or maybe they're all just bringing him to some measure of justice for his own crimes and lies.  If you haven't already and are able, watch the documentary "Get me Roger Stone." 

"In my case, representing the campaign to speak to a group of over 50 foreign ambassadors during the RNC in Cleveland, combined with ensuring our campaign's national security policies were reflected in the GOP platform the week prior, have led to nearly 5-figure personal legal bills," [Trump campaign national-security official JD Gordon] said.

[...]

"It sure would be nice if the re-election campaign could reimburse these costs since all of my actions were in accordance with official campaign duties," Gordon said.

Maybe you can sue The Most Notable Loser to recoup.

Another early Trump campaign adviser, Michael Caputo, told reporters recently that he had to take $30,000 out of his children's college fund to pay for lawyers.

Boo-hoo.

The family of former national security adviser Michael Flynn, meanwhile, set up a defense fund for the retired general in September to pay for legal fees that could top $1 million. Mueller has reportedly gathered enough evidence against Flynn and his son, Michael Flynn Jr., to bring charges against them related to their work lobbying on behalf of Turkish government interests during the campaign.

Maybe don't be doing shady shit next time.

 ...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Flynn Going Down - Proof of Collusion?

Before the 2016 presidential election, a longtime Republican opposition researcher [Peter W. Smith] mounted an independent campaign to obtain emails he believed were stolen from Hillary Clinton’s private server, likely by Russian hackers.

[...]

[Smith] implied he was working with retired Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn, at the time a senior adviser to then-candidate Donald Trump.

“He said, ‘I’m talking to Michael Flynn about this—if you find anything, can you let me know?’” said Eric York, a computer-security expert from Atlanta who searched hacker forums on Mr. Smith’s behalf for people who might have access to the emails.

[...]

What role, if any, Mr. Flynn may have played in Mr. Smith’s project is unclear.

[...]

In [a] recruiting email seen by the Journal, Jonathan Safron, a law student Mr. Smith described as a close colleague, included links to the websites and LinkedIn profiles of people purportedly working with the Smith team. At the top of the list was the name and website of Flynn Intel.

  WSJ

There will no doubt be a lot of denying going on in the near future.

Mr. Smith died at age 81 on May 14, which was about 10 days after the Journal interviewed him.

That's handy.

In the interview with the Journal, Mr. Smith said he and his colleagues found five groups of hackers who claimed to possess Mrs. Clinton’s deleted emails, including two groups he determined were Russians.

[...]

Mr. Smith said in the interview he supported Mr. Flynn’s efforts during the presidential transition to establish relations with Russian officials.

[...]

Mr. Trump on July 27 publicly encouraged Russia to go further and find the Clinton “emails that are missing.” Asked about that on Monday, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said Mr. Trump was joking.

You decide:

The operation Mr. Smith described is consistent with information that has been examined by U.S. investigators probing Russian interference in the elections.

Those investigators have examined reports from intelligence agencies that describe Russian hackers discussing how to obtain emails from Mrs. Clinton’s server and then transmit them to Mr. Flynn via an intermediary, according to U.S. officials with knowledge of the intelligence.

It isn’t clear who that intermediary might have been or whether Mr. Smith’s operation was the one allegedly under discussion by the Russian hackers. The reports were compiled during the same period when Mr. Smith’s group was operating, according to the officials.

Mr. Smith said he worked independently and wasn’t part of the Trump campaign.

But Flynn was.

In phone conversations, Mr. Smith told a computer expert he was in direct contact with Mr. Flynn and his son. [...] The expert said that based on his conversations with Mr. Smith, he understood the elder Mr. Flynn to be coordinating with Mr. Smith’s group in his capacity as a Trump campaign adviser.

Flynn must be hot property right now.

Regarding Generals

Specifically Mike Flynn (Sr.)

On issues of national security and intelligence, no one is likely to have more influence in Donald Trump’s White House than retired Gen. Michael T. Flynn.

Yet Flynn, Trump’s incoming national security adviser, has gained prominence in Republican politics by fueling conspiracy theories and Islamophobic rhetoric that critics warn could create serious distractions — or alienate allies and embolden enemies — if it continues.

  WaPo

There's those "distractions" again. Perhaps we now see where Flynn Jr. gets his tendencies for distraction with "fake news".

Julianne Smith, a former deputy national security adviser to Vice President Joe Biden [...] said she was “deeply troubled” by a Flynn tendency to promote fake news stories on his Twitter feed.

[...]

The issue of sharing fake news was highlighted when Flynn’s son, Michael G. Flynn, tweeted about the false idea that prompted a shooting at a Washington, D.C., pizza parlor. He had been promoting a conspiracy theory that Hillary Clinton’s allies had been operating a secret pedophilia ring in the restaurant and noted it would remain a story until “proven to be false.”

Like father, like son.

[Smith] was among several national security experts who raised concerns Tuesday about Flynn’s willingness to share bad intelligence on a social media feed as he prepares to move to the West Wing.

Sounds like a perfect match with Trump, though.

"Whoever has the president’s ear on international affairs, Nichols said, should have “a firm grip on what’s true and what’s false.”

[...]

Less than a week before the election, the elder Flynn tweeted a link to a story that falsely claimed Clinton emails contained proof of money laundering and sex crimes with children, among other illegal activities. The incoming national security adviser called the baseless story a “must read” and instructed his followers: “U decide.”

Flynn also promoted conspiracy theorists, some of them white supremacists, throughout the campaign even as he emerged as Trump’s highest profile national security adviser.

[...]

Flynn’s appointment is not subject to Senate confirmation.

“I have grave concerns about Flynn for a whole variety of reasons,” said [Sen. Tim] Kaine, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and the former Democratic vice-presidential nominee. “He’s either so gullible to accept things that even a fourth-grader wouldn’t accept or he’s so consumed with malice that that overrides what should be a natural incredulity.”

[...]

Flynn has pushed fabricated or dubious stories on Twitter at least 16 times since August, according to a tally by Politico. Stories that have appeared on Flynn’s Twitter feed have included accusations that Hillary Clinton is involved in a child sex-trafficking ring, that she has waged a secret war on the Catholic Church, that Obama is a jihadi and that is a secret United Nations plot to take over the world called “Agenda 21.”

  WaPo

But wait. That's not all.

Days after Islamist militants stormed the American diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012, Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn reached a conclusion that stunned some of his subordinates at the Defense Intelligence Agency: Iran had a role in the attack, he told them.

Now, he added, it was their job to prove it — and, by implication, to show that the White House was wrong about what had led to the attack.

[...]

[Flynn's] stubborn insistence reminded some officials at the agency of how the Bush administration had once relentlessly sought to connect Saddam Hussein and Iraq to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

[...]

He has posted on Twitter that fear of Muslims is rational, written that Islamic law is spreading in the United States, and said that Islam itself is more like a political ideology than a religion.

[...]

Many of those who observed the general’s [brief tenure running the Defense Intelligence Agency] described him as someone who alienated both superiors and subordinates with his sharp temperament, his refusal to brook dissent, and what his critics considered a conspiratorial worldview.

[...]

During a tense gathering of senior officials at an off-site retreat, [...] Mr. Flynn said that the first thing everyone needed to know was that he was always right. His staff would know they were right, he said, when their views melded to his.

[...]

Those qualities could prove problematic for a national security adviser especially one who will have to mediate the conflicting views of cabinet secretaries and agencies for a president with no experience in defense or foreign policy issues.

  NYT

Well, more accurately, for the country and the world.

More problematic from the military’s perspective was Mr. Flynn’s willingness to share intelligence with other countries. He returned to Washington at the end of 2010, and found himself under investigation for sharing sensitive data with Pakistan about the Haqqani network, arguably the most capable faction of the Taliban, and for providing highly classified intelligence to British and Australian forces fighting in Afghanistan.

Okay, that's probably not good.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Flynn Fired

Michael G. Flynn, son of Trump’s national security adviser choice Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, was let go by the president-elect on Tuesday, according to The New York Times.

Although it has not been officially confirmed what exactly led to Flynn’s dismissal, the newspaper cited two Trump transition officials who said it had to do with his role in spreading a fake news story which alleged that Hillary Clinton was running a child sex ring from the backrooms of Comet Ping Pong restaurant in Washington DC, a story which has been dubbed ‘Pizzagate.’

[...]

The fake news story led to a dangerous incident on Sunday, in which a man who believed the report began shooting inside the restaurant while “self-investigating” the situation. The story has also led to the restaurant’s employees and other nearby business owners receiving death threats.

[...]

Just hours after the Sunday incident – and despite law enforcement confirming that there is no investigation taking place regarding any sort of child sex ring at the restaurant – Flynn took to Twitter to say that “until Pizzagate [is] proven to be false, it’ll remain a story…”

  RT

I know it can't be proved that he did it with the intention to cause immediate harm, but perhaps he should at least be fined as well as fired. Trump needs to get out in front of the shit his campaign riled up. This is a good opportunity for him to sue someone for talking shit that actually caused harm.

Flynn’s exact role in the transition team is a bit fuzzy. Despite reports that he had a team email address, Vice President-elect Mike Pence denied on Tuesday that Flynn had ever worked for the team, telling MSNBC’s Morning Joe program that he had “no involvement in the transition whatsoever.”

Yeah, under the circumstances, you would say that, wouldn't you?

Transition spokesman Jason Miller, however, later contradicted Pence’s statement, confirming that Flynn had worked for the transition team but that he was no longer involved.

Meanwhile, CBS News has reported that Flynn was not fired, but rather offered his resignation before he could be dismissed – possibly seconds before – after realizing that he had become a distraction.

Yeah, you would do that, wouldn't you?

A distraction. That's the backbone of the Trump campaign.

A BuzzFeed investigation found that many of the big fake news stories originated from a tiny Macedonian town known as Veles. There, young Macedonians have embraced “a digital gold rush” by setting up fake news sites and using Facebook as a platform to push their false stories, reaping the advertising dollars that come with the clicks and sharing.

Silverman and Lawrence Alexander wrote for BuzzFeed, “Several teens and young men who run these sites told BuzzFeed News that they learned the best way to generate traffic is to get their politics stories to spread on Facebook — and the best way to generate shares on Facebook is to publish sensationalist and often false content that caters to Trump supporters.”

[...]

Laura Sydell reported at NPR the experience of one fake news purveyor, 40-year-old Jestin Coler in California:



This isn't something that started with Trump. This is something that's been in the works for a while. His whole campaign was this thing of discrediting mainstream media sources, which is one of those dog whistles to his supporters.”

  Vox

To be fair, greedy idiots on Twitter and Facebook are not the only ones to offer fake news that leads to big trouble from Trumpettes. I'm looking at you New York Times.

This is my favorite excerpt from that New York Times link:

"Miller’s reporting was later revealed to have been based on faulty information. She’s now a contributor for Fox News."

Fox News, the granddaddy of bullshit.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.