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Recent Appearances...

Home Front: Politix

Treasury Department Spied on Flynn, Manafort, and the Trump Family, Says Whistleblower

2020-05-19

"Not a smidgen of corruption"
[Ohio Star - HT Powerline] President Barack Obama’s Treasury Department regularly surveilled retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn’s financial records and transactions beginning in December 2015 and well into 2017, before, during and after when he served at the White House as President Donald Trump’s National Security Director, a former senior Treasury Department official, and veteran of the intelligence community, told the Star Newspapers.

"I started seeing things that were not correct, so I did my own little investigation, because I wanted to make sure what I was seeing was correct" she said. "You never want to draw attention to something if there is not anything there."

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-Lurid Crime Tales-

Judge To DoJ: Not So Fast On Flynn Withdrawal

2020-05-14

An interesting round up and analysis of current maneuvers in this case.

[HotAir] When the Department of Justice moved to dismiss the case against Michael Flynn, that the change put Judge Emmet Sullivan in an awkward position. Sullivan had at one point during the case, and to force Flynn to keep working with prosecutors, even though the DoJ had already proclaimed themselves satisfied with his cooperation. The sudden reversal by the DoJ has lots of potential to embarrass Sullivan as people examine this case in the future.

Therefore, how surprising is it that Sullivan might want to

A federal judge overseeing the criminal case of President Trump’s former national security adviser Michael T. Flynn opened the door late Tuesday for legal experts and other outside parties to oppose the Justice Department’s motion to drop the case, suggesting he has at least some skepticism about the government’s argument that Mr. Flynn should never have been charged.

In a brief order, Judge Emmet G. Sullivan of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia said he would set a schedule for outside parties to present arguments about the government’s request to dismiss the case. He did not directly address the Justice Department’s motion to drop the charge, but legal experts said he appeared open to considering not only the department’s arguments but also those who have challenged its move as politically motivated.

This is, at the very least, quite curious in a criminal prosecution at the district-court level. Amicus briefs usually don’t apply to criminal trials, although technically the Flynn case is at the sentencing phase, where other testimony might be heard on mitigation or punishment. A dismissal motion by prosecutors, however, amounts to a forfeit by the only entity with authority to pursue a case. Sullivan might not like it, but how does he sustain a prosecution without the prosecuting authority’s cooperation, regardless of how many amicus briefs might cross his threshold? Judges in the American legal system don’t have that authority, which explicitly resides in the executive branch.

Related from the Washington Examiner, courtesy of Lex: 'Let the ObamaGate Games Begin: Judge in Flynn case reverses stand, welcomes amicus briefs from Obama shills

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-Lurid Crime Tales-

FBI Used ‘Briefing' with Trump, Flynn to Gather Evidence for Crossfire Hurricane Operation

2020-02-18

[Breitbart] The FBI under James Comey underhandedly sent a senior member of the team investigating alleged collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign to conduct a standard official FBI security briefing for presidential campaigns with then-candidate Donald Trump and his then national security advisor, Michael T. Flynn.

Unbeknownst to both Trump and Flynn, that FBI investigator memorialized that briefing, which included exchanges with Flynn and Trump, in an official document that was added to the Crossfire Hurricane case file probing the Trump campaign over unsubstantiated and ultimately discredited charges of Russian collusion.

The FBI file documenting the August 2016 briefing describes two questions asked by candidate Trump as well as comments from Trump and Flynn and exchanges with the briefer from the FBI who was not identified to either Trump or Flynn during the briefing as working on the Crossfire Hurricane team probing Flynn and other members of the Trump campaign.

James A. Baker, the former FBI general counsel, conceded that the briefer "was there on the off chance that somebody said something that might be useful."

This means the FBI’s controversial Crossfire Hurricane probe team investigating members of the Trump campaign not only directly interfaced with Trump and Flynn without telling them but also recorded their comments in the official case file. Flynn at the time was already a target of the FBI probe.

Link

Home Front: Politix

Michael Flynn withdraws guilty plea

2020-01-15

I’m so glad. Rake ‘em up one side and down the other, General!

[Wash Times] President Trump’s former national security adviser has withdrawn his guilty plea in one of the top-profile Robert Mueller cases.

Retired Gen. Michael T. Flynn filed papers Tuesday evening with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia repudiating his agreement to plead guilty to charges of lying to the FBI about his conversations with the Russian ambassador.

"Michael T. Flynn hereby moves to withdraw his plea because of the government’s bad faith, vindictiveness, and breach of the plea agreement," the filing reads.

Link

-Lurid Crime Tales-

Judge Emmet Sullivan declares Flynn an 'unregistered agent of a foreign country - sold out his country.'

2018-12-19

Appears Judge Sullivan got the flog Flynn memo.
[NYT] WASHINGTON ‐ A federal judge on Tuesday postponed the sentencing of Michael T. Flynn, President Trump’s first national security adviser, after warning Mr. Flynn that he could face prison for lying to federal investigators about his conversations with the Russian ambassador during the presidential transition and hiding his role lobbying for Turkey.

At Mr. Flynn’s sentencing hearing in Federal District Court in Washington, Judge Emmet G. Sullivan called Mr. Flynn’s crimes "a very serious offense" and said he was not hiding his "disgust" at what Mr. Flynn had done.

"All along you were an unregistered agent of a foreign country while serving as the national security adviser," the judge told Mr. Flynn. "Arguably that undermines everything that this flag over here stands for. Arguably you sold your country out."

Later in the hearing, the judge corrected himself, noting that Mr. Flynn’s work on behalf of Turkey had ended in mid-November of 2016, before Mr. Flynn became national security adviser. The judge acknowledged he had made a mistake and said he felt "terrible about that."

Related: Hot Air - “You Sold Your Country Out”: Judge’s Fury At Flynn Leads To Sentencing Delay

Related: Hot Air - Shep Smith piles on, 'Let’s Face It, The Mike Flynn Defenses That You’ve Heard Here Blew Up Today.'

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

What Gen. Flynn knew and why he was targeted - 13 Aug 2015 GR article.

2018-02-03

[Global Research 13 August 2015] If one was only to read mainstream news in the West, you would probably be inculcated with the myth that Islamic State (ISIS) appeared almost out of thin air and many governments in the Western world have been completely shocked by the rise of this terror group. Perhaps you would correctly blame the 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq as a major reason why such extreme groups gained power in the region, in addition to blaming certain governments for supposedly marginalizing Sunni’s.

But what most mainstream readers will be miserably ignorant of is the fact that one of the main opposition groups fighting the Bashar al-Assad government in Syria has been itself, a group that has been trained, funded, aided and armed by NATO countries in collusion with Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Israel (to name a few). This reality has been completely omitted in numerous corporate media publications, once again demonstrating the inept and deceptive nature of mainstream news.

Some Western news outlets are still peddling the fallacy that the Obama administration misjudged the threat of , and was taken by surprise by the groups rise. Obama himself claimed in 2014 when responding to a question asking whether the US underestimated ISIS: "That their advance, their movement, over the last several months has been more rapid than the intelligence estimates and I think the expectations of policy makers both inside and outside of Iraq."

This narrative runs in stark contrast to a recently declassified US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) document from 2012 which was released by Judicial Watch after the watchdog group filed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit. The DIA document warned:

ISI [the Islamic State of Iraq] could also declare an Islamic State through its union with other terrorist organisations in Iraq and Syria." (p.5)

In a recent interview with Mehdi HasMan of Al Jazeera, the former head of the DIA, Michael T. Flynn, reiterates that the Obama administration was warned about the potential of extreme groups gaining influence in the region but instead of halting the support for the Syrian opposition, the administration took the "wilful decision" to support the rebels anyway:

Flynn interview follows.

Link

Home Front: Politix

New York Times - Comey Told Sessions: Don't Leave Me Alone With Trump (Video)

2017-06-07

[NYT] WASHINGTON -- The day after President Trump asked James B. Comey, the F.B.I. director, to end an investigation into his former national security adviser, Mr. Comey confronted Attorney General Jeff Sessions and said he did not want to be left alone again with the president, according to current and former law enforcement officials.

Mr. Comey believed Mr. Sessions should protect the F.B.I. from White House influence, the officials said, and pulled him aside after a meeting in February to tell him that private interactions between the F.B.I. director and the president were inappropriate. But Mr. Sessions could not guarantee that the president would not try to talk to Mr. Comey alone again, the officials said.

Mr. Comey did not reveal, however, what had so unnerved him about his Oval Office meeting with the president: Mr. Trump’s request that the F.B.I. director end the investigation into the former national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, who had just been fired. By the time Mr. Trump fired Mr. Comey last month, Mr. Comey had disclosed the meeting to a few of his closest advisers but nobody at the Justice Department, according to the officials, who did not want to be identified discussing Mr. Comey’s interactions with Mr. Trump and Mr. Sessions.

Mr. Comey will be the center of attention on Thursday during testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, where he is expected to be quizzed intensely about his interactions with Mr. Trump and why he decided to keep secret the president’s request to end the Flynn investigation.

Link

-Lurid Crime Tales-

Pentagon Suspends Security Clearance of Trump White House Aide

2017-05-04

[Free Beacon] The Pentagon this week suspended the security clearance of a White House National Security Council analyst that U.S. officials say was the target of political retribution by government bureaucrats opposed to President Trump's appointees.

Adam S. Lovinger, a 12-year strategic affairs analyst with the Pentagon's Office of Net Assessment (ONA), has been on loan to the NSC since January when he was picked for the position by then-National Security Adviser Michael T. Flynn.
Sending along a recommended reading by Dow.
Lovinger was notified in a letter from the Pentagon on Monday that his Top-Secret, Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS-SCI) clearance had been suspended and that he had to return to the Pentagon.

The letter cited unspecified outside activities by Lovinger. The notice said the suspension was approved by Kevin Sweeney, chief of staff for Defense Secretary James Mattis.

One official said Lovinger was targeted by Trump opponents because of his conservative views and ties to Flynn, specifically his past association with the Flynn Intel Group, Inc., a consulting business.

Skipping down a bit to potential causes and outcomes:

Lovinger is senior director for strategic assessments at the NSC. In that position, he has proposed shifting the Office of Net Assessment from the Pentagon to the White House, where it was located when established during the Nixon administration.

Lovinger wrote a memo to current National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster on the need for a net assessment capability within the NSC.
When did net-assessments become a bad thing? Perhaps he recommended that someone at Mike Flynn's FIG do the assessment? Yea, that might have been a bridge too far. Sorry pal, it's back to the 'Five Sided Nut' for you.

Link

Home Front: Politix

LTG Mike Flynn resigns as National Security Advisor

2017-02-14

[NYT] WASHINGTON -- Michael T. Flynn, the national security adviser, resigned on Monday night after it was revealed that he had misled Vice President Mike Pence and other top White House officials about his conversations with the Russian ambassador to the United States.

Mr. Flynn, who served in the job for less than a month, said he had given "incomplete information" to about a telephone call he had with the ambassador in late December about American sanctions against Russia, weeks before Mr. Trump’s inauguration. Mr. Flynn previously had denied that he had any substantive conversations with Ambassador Sergey I. Kislyak, and Mr. Pence repeated that claim in television as recently as earlier this month.

But on Monday, a former administration official said the Justice Department last month warned the White House that Mr. Flynn had not been fully forthright about his conversations with the ambassador. As a result, the Justice Department feared that Mr. Flynn could be vulnerable to blackmail by Moscow.

In his resignation letter, which the White House emailed to reporters, Mr. Flynn said he had held numerous calls with foreign officials during the transition. "Unfortunately, because of the fast pace of events, I inadvertently briefed the Vice President Elect and others with incomplete information regarding my phone calls with the Russian Ambassador," he wrote. "I have sincerely apologized to the President and the Vice President, and they have accepted my apology."

The White House said in the statement that it was replacing Mr. Flynn with retired Lt. General Joseph Keith Kellogg, Jr., a Vietnam War veteran, as acting national security adviser.

That's fast. Could it be that President Trump has a deep bench?

Mr. Flynn was an early and ardent supporter of Mr. Trump’s candidacy, and in his resignation he sought to the praise the president. "In just three weeks," Mr. Flynn said, the new president "has reoriented American foreign policy in fundamental ways to restore America’s leadership position in the world."

But in doing so, he inadvertently illustrated the brevity of his tumultuous run at the National Security Council, and the chaos that has gripped the White House in the first weeks of the Trump administration -- and created a sense of uncertainty around the world.

Officials said Mr. Pence has told others in the White House that he believes Mr. Flynn lied to him by saying he had not discussed the topic of sanctions on a call with the Russian ambassador in late December. Even the mere discussion of policy -- and the apparent attempt to assuage the concerns of an American adversary before Mr. Trump took office -- represents a remarkable breach of protocol.

Same topic, at The Daily Caller.

Link

Home Front: Politix

FBI reviewed Flynn's calls with Russian ambassador but found nothing illicit

2017-01-24

[WAPO] The FBI in late December reviewed intercepts of communications between the Russian ambassador to the United States and retired Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn -- national security adviser to then-President-elect Trump -- but has not found any evidence of wrongdoing or illicit ties to the Russian government, U.S. officials said.

The calls were picked up as part of routine electronic surveillance of Russian officials and agents in the United States, which is one of the FBI’s responsibilities, according to the U.S. officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss counterintelligence operations.

Nonetheless, the fact that communications by a senior member of Trump’s national security team have been under scrutiny points up the challenge facing the intelligence community as it continues its wide-ranging probe of Russian government influence in the U.S. election and whether there was any improper back-channel contacts between Moscow and Trump associates and acquaintances.

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Government

Trump’s National Security Adviser on Radical Islam: ‘This Is a World War ... They Are On The March'

2016-11-25

[CNSNEWS] After the radical Islamic terrorist attack in Nice, La Belle France, which killed 86 people and maimed 434 people, Lt. Gen. (ret.) Michael T. Flynn, now the National Security Adviser to President-elect Donald J. Trump, said he was "done" with trying to convince President B.O. "to actually define this enemy" and added that the enemy is "radical Islamic terrorism," it is "on the march," and "this is a world war."

Lt. Gen. (ret.) Flynn, who served as the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency for two years in the B.O. regime and in the U.S. Army for 32 years, was interviewed about the July 14, 2016 terrorist attacks on Fox's The Kelly File.

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Government

Trump ‘landing parties’ descend on Justice, State, Defense departments

2016-11-19

[WASHINGTONTIMES] President-elect Donald Trump
...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States...
’s transition team got down to nuts and bolts Thursday, deploying "landing parties" to federal agencies responsible for national security and reportedly having offered the next administration’s first big appointment.

Visits to the National Security Council and departments of Defense, Justice and State to lay groundwork for the handover in January marked a rapid acceleration in activity by the transition team, which has been criticized for the slow pace of progress in the first week after the election.

The News Agency that Dare Not be Named, citing "a senior Trump official" speaking on the condition of anonymity, reported that Mr. Trump had offered the post of White House national security adviser to retired Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, a former Defense Intelligence Agency chief. It was not clear Thursday evening whether Gen. Flynn, who was an early supporter of Mr. Trump and spoke on his behalf at the Republican National Convention, had accepted the offer.

Mr. Trump held scores of interviews at Trump Tower in New York with prospective Cabinet members and advisers, and met with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Vice President-elect Mike Pence met with leaders of both parties on Capitol Hill.

After what he called a "very candid" meeting, Mr. Abe told news hounds in New York that he had "great confidence" in the president-elect.

"I will be able to establish a relationship of trust," said Mr. Abe, the first foreign leader to meet Mr. Trump face to face since his stunning election victory over Hillary Clinton
... former first lady, former secretary of state, former presidential candidate, sometimes described by her supporters as the smartest woman in the world, usually described by the rest of us as a crook...
. "I conveyed my view on basic issues. I’d like to refrain from touching on details."

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