Will Flynn bring back Yellowcake to WH Menu after 1-21-17?

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Re: Will Flynn bring back Yellowcake to WH Menu after 1-21-1

Postby seemslikeadream » Sun Nov 05, 2017 11:23 am

Will Flynn bring back Yellowcake to WH Menu after 1-21-1?


Looks like he did just not the kind Ledeen wanted :P







Image
Mueller Has Enough Evidence to Bring Charges in Flynn Investigation
by JULIA AINSLEY, CAROL E. LEE and KEN DILANIAN

WASHINGTON — Federal investigators have gathered enough evidence to bring charges in their investigation of President Donald Trump's former national security adviser and his son as part of the probe into Russia's intervention in the 2016 election, according to multiple sources familiar with the investigation.

Michael T. Flynn, who was fired after just 24 days on the job, was one of the first Trump associates to come under scrutiny in the federal probe now led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller into possible collusion between Moscow and the Trump campaign.

Mueller is applying renewed pressure on Flynn following his indictment of Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, three sources familiar with the investigation told NBC News.

Michael Flynn,Boris Epshteyn
From left, retired Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, his son Michael G. Flynn, and Boris Epshteyn, a spokesman for President-elect Donald Trump, board an elevator at Trump Tower in New York on Nov. 17, 2016. Carolyn Kaster / AP file
The investigators are speaking to multiple witnesses in coming days to gain more information surrounding Flynn's lobbying work, including whether he laundered money or lied to federal agents about his overseas contacts, according to three sources familiar with the investigation.

Mueller's team is also examining whether Flynn attempted to orchestrate the removal of a chief rival of Turkish President Recep Erdogan from the U.S. to Turkey in exchange for millions of dollars, two officials said.

A spokesperson for the special counsel had no comment.

Related: Mike Flynn's Son Is Subject of Federal Russia Investigation

Flynn's son, Michael G. Flynn, who worked closely with his father, accompanied him during the campaign and briefly worked on the presidential transition, could be indicted separately or at the same time as his father, according to three sources familiar with the investigation.

If the elder Flynn is willing to cooperate with investigators in order to help his son, two of the sources said, it could also change his own fate, potentially limiting any legal consequences.

The pressure on Flynn is the latest signal that Mueller is moving at a rapid, and steady, pace in his investigation. Last week, investigators unsealed indictments of Manafort and Manafort's business partner Rick Gates. They pleaded not guilty.

Image: Michael G. Flynn during at an RT event with his father Ret. Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn in Moscow in 2015
Michael G. Flynn at an RT event with his father Ret. Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn in Moscow in 2015. RT
Investigators also revealed Monday that former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos had pleaded guilty to lying to federal officials and had been cooperating with Mueller's investigation.

If the senior Flynn is charged, he would be the first current or former Trump administration official formally accused of criminal wrongdoing by the Mueller team.

So far, the probe has only ensnared campaign officials, and the White House has argued that the connection to the president is minimal. An indictment of the president's former national security adviser and his son would scramble that dynamic.

Related: Flynn, Manafort Are Key Figures in Mueller's Russia Probe

A former senior law enforcement official said that in the weeks after Trump's inauguration the FBI was asked to conduct a new review of Turkey's 2016 request to extradite Fethullah Gulen, an elderly Muslim cleric living in the U.S. whom President Erdogan blames for orchestrating a coup to overthrow him.

The FBI pushed back on the request because Turkey had supplied no additional information that could incriminate Gulen since a review of the case during the Obama administration, the official said. It is unclear whether the request to investigate Gulen came from Flynn or through the typical diplomatic channels at the State Department.

Image: Fethullah Gulen
U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, whose followers Turkey blames for a failed coup, speaks to journalists at his home in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania, on July 16, 2016. Greg Savoy / REUTERS TV / Reuters, file
The FBI is also investigating former CIA Director Jim Woolsey's account to the Wall Street Journal — which he confirmed to MSNBC — that Flynn and Turkish officials discussed a potential plan to forcibly remove Gulen from the country in September 2016, according to sources close to Woolsey, who say the former director has spoken to FBI agents working for Mueller about the matter.

Flynn was fired in February following public revelations that he had lied to Vice President Pence about his dealings with the Russian ambassador to the U.S., Sergey Kislyak.

Flynn's lawyer, Robert Kelner, declined to comment.

The younger Flynn's lawyer, Barry Coburn, declined to comment.

Father and Son
Both Flynns have for months been subjects of the Mueller investigation.

The elder Flynn, an Army lieutenant general, was pushed out as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2014 and retired from the military. He then founded a lobbying firm, Flynn Intel Group, where his son worked closely with him. The younger Flynn was involved in the daily operations of his father's firm and functioned as his chief of staff. He often attended meetings with his father and would communicate with prospective clients.

The elder Flynn was paid $530,000 last year for work the Justice Department says benefited the government of Turkey. The elder Flynn did not register as a foreign lobbyist at the time, but did so retroactively this year. The issue has been part of Mueller's probe.

Image: Robert Mueller
FBI Director Robert Mueller testifies before a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing ion oversight of the FBI on June 19, 2013 in Washington. Tom Williams / CQ-Roll Call file
His lawyer later said Flynn didn't need to register because his client was a Turkish businessman and not a government official, but had opted to do so retroactively.

According to Flynn's Justice Department filing, the Flynn Intel Group was hired to gather information about Gulen, and to produce a short film about its findings.

During the contract, which ended the day after Trump won the election, Flynn had at least one meeting, in September 2016, with Turkish officials, according to officials. Woolsey says that it included a discussion about kidnapping Gulen and flying him to Turkey.

Flynn also was paid some $35,000 in 2015 by Russian state television for a speech in Moscow at a gala where he sat next to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The younger Flynn accompanied him on that trip. The trip raised concerns among federal officials.

NBC News has reported that others under scrutiny by Mueller include Carter Page, a Trump campaign ally; Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law and senior White House adviser; and the president's son, Donald Trump Jr. They have denied any collusion with Russia.

Exclusive: Michael Flynn's Son is A Subject of Russia Investigation Play Facebook Twitter Embed
Exclusive: Michael Flynn's Son is A Subject of Russia Investigation 1:49
President Trump has denied any collusion with Russia during the campaign and has called the investigation a politically motivated witch hunt.

Kelner has declined to comment when asked if Flynn denies colluding with the Russian election interference effort.

Turkey has long demanded the U.S. extradite tGulen, saying he is considered a terrorist. Erdogan forcefully renewed that request after the attempted coup against him in July 2016. U.S. officials have said the Justice Department has not found sufficient evidence linking Gulen to the coup attempt despite the boxes of documents Turkey has submitted to the U.S. that Ankara says back up its claim.

Extradition requests are processed through the U.S. justice system and are not determined by the White House or other agencies.

Any quid-pro-quo deal such as the alleged agreement between Flynn and Turkey would be illegal, officials said.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/mu ... on-n817666
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Will Flynn bring back Yellowcake to WH Menu after 1-21-1

Postby seemslikeadream » Fri Nov 10, 2017 12:12 pm

I don't know why this is in the news today.....I've known it for a very long time

just ask James Woosley

Mueller Probing Possible Deal Between Turks, Flynn During Presidential Transition
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/mu ... on-n819616


Just let this sink in over your morning coffee: Robert Mueller is investigating whether the incoming National Security Adviser—during the presidential transition—was planning a kidnapping and rendition.


Gen. Yellowkerk and his son are under investigation for plotting to forcibly grab a Muslim cleric in the U.S. and deliver him to the Turkish government in exchange for $15 million. illegal.


Mysterious Putin 'niece' has a name
The exact identity of a 'very good-looking' Russian national who told George Papadopoulos she could broker meetings between the Trump camp and Kremlin officials remains an enigma.
By ALI WATKINS 11/09/2017 05:56 PM EST
A Russian flag flies next to the US embassy building in Moscow. | Getty
Olga Vinogradova (not pictured) has emerged as one more shadowy figure in the still-unfolding story of contacts between Trump associates and the Russian government. | Mladen Antonova/AFP/Getty Images

By ISABELLE TAFT
Federal investigators have a name for a mysterious Russian woman who offered to help broker meetings between former Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos and Kremlin officials: Olga Vinogradova.

The name, which has not previously been reported, has taken on new significance for federal investigators seeking to more fully understand the role of the woman, whom Papadapoulos initially described in emails to campaign colleagues as “Putin’s niece," before later learning she was unrelated to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Papadopoulos referred to Vinogradova by name in his campaign-era emails during the spring of 2016, sources tell POLITICO. Introduced to Papadopoulos in March of that year by a London-based academic, Joseph Mifsud, she was part of what federal investigators suspect may have been a Russian effort to infiltrate Trump’s campaign team with the help of intermediaries, or “cut outs.”

Papadopoulos's emails do not make immediately clear who Vinogradova — who could have been using an alias — worked for, where she lived, or her connection to Mifsud, POLITICO learned from one source. The surname is fairly common in Russia, and POLITICO could not independently determine who Vinogradova is.

Vinogradova has emerged as one more shadowy figure in the still-unfolding story of contacts between Trump associates and the Russian government. Russia’s intelligence services rely heavily on third-party cutouts with vague or hidden ties to the Kremlin, including academics, businessmen, oligarchs, and even “honey traps”: attractive women who lure their targets into illicit liaisons that can be used for blackmail.

Whether Vinogradova might fit into one of those categories is unclear, but the answer could be an important puzzle piece for federal investigators trying to understand the Kremlin’s method.

Mifsud did not respond to requests for comment. But in an interview with the Italian newspaper La Repubblica last week, he referred to Vinogradova as "just a student, a very good-looking one." Papadopoulos's interest in her, Mifsud said, was "very different from an academic one."

Papadopoulos was arrested in July, as part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian efforts to undermine the 2016 election. Among other charges, Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to investigators about his contacts with Vinogradova.

The court documents describe Vinogradova only as a “Female Russian National.” Mifsud is described only as a “Professor” but has confirmed to reporters that he is the same person. He denies being a Russian agent.

According to court documents citing Papadopoulos’s email correspondence with campaign officials, it was Mifsud who introduced Vinogradova to Papadopoulos as “a relative of Russian President Vladimir Putin" brokered a March 24, 2016 meeting between the two in London. (Papadopoulos went on to refer to Vinogradova as "Putin's niece" in emails to Trump campaign officials, but court documents say he eventually learned she was unrelated to the Russian leader.)

Mifsud introduced Vinogradova to Papadopoulos as someone with high-profile ties to the Russian government, which was then seeking better relations with the U.S. and an end to western economic sanctions imposed over Russian aggression in Ukraine.

One Papadaooulos email to Trump campaign officials said that the woman had offered “to arrange a meeting between us and the Russian leadership to discuss U.S.-Russia ties under President Trump."

“I have already alerted my personal links to our conversation and your request,” Vinogradova said in an email to Papadopoulos in April, after Papadopoulos asked for help arranging a trip to Moscow.

“As mentioned we are all very excited by the possibility of a good relationship with Mr. Trump. The Russian Federation would love to welcome him once his candidature would be officially announced,” she added.

A lawyer for Papadopoulos declined to comment. Mifsud did not respond to a request for comment.

Mifsud, a Maltese academic with established ties to the Kremlin, told Papadopoulos in April 2016 that the Russians had acquired “dirt” on then-prospective Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. A few months later, in July, Wikileaks released thousands of emails stolen from the Democratic National Committee emails. The US intelligence community later concluded the leak of those emails was part of a broader, Kremlin-directed effort to undermine the 2016 election and undercut Clinton’s candidacy.

Papadopoulos continued corresponding with Vinogradova throughout the spring of 2016, including multiple efforts to arrange a meeting in Russia between the Trump campaign and government connections Vinogradova purported to have.

Trump campaign officials encouraged some of his efforts, according to the court documents. “Great work,” said one. Another told him to travel to Russia “if it is feasible.”

Trump named Papadopoulos as a member of his campaign foreign policy team in March 2016, calling him an “excellent guy” in a March 2016 interview with the Washington Post. But since news of his arrest became public, the Trump White House has downplayed Papadopoulos’s importance, calling him an unpaid volunteer and that the advisory team on which he served met only once

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said last week that Papadopoulos’s work for the campaign was “extremely limited” and that he never served in an “official capacity.”
https://www.politico.com/story/2017/11/ ... obe-244758




Mueller Probing Pre-Election Flynn Meeting with Pro-Russia Congressman
by JULIA AINSLEY

WASHINGTON — Investigators for Special Counsel Robert Mueller are questioning witnesses about an alleged September 2016 meeting between Mike Flynn, who later briefly served as President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, a staunch advocate of policies that would help Russia, two sources with knowledge of the investigation told NBC News.

The meeting allegedly took place in Washington the evening of Sept. 20, while Flynn was working as an adviser to Trump’s presidential campaign. It was arranged by his lobbying firm, the Flynn Intel Group. Also in attendance were Flynn’s business partners, Bijan Kian and Brian McCauley, and Flynn’s son, Michael G. Flynn, who worked closely with his father, the sources said.

Mueller is reviewing emails sent from Flynn Intel Group to Rohrabacher’s congressional staff thanking them for the meeting, according to one of the sources, as part of his probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher speaks at a news conference in Moscow on June 2, 2013. Maxim Shemetov / Reuters
Rohrabacher, a California Republican, has pushed for better relations with Russia, traveled to Moscow to meet with officials and advocated to overturn the Magnitsky Act, the 2012 bill that froze assets of Russian investigators and prosecutors. The sources could not confirm whether Rohrabacher and Flynn discussed U.S. policy towards Russia in the alleged meeting.

The Washington Post reported in May that House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, also a California Republican, was secretly recorded telling other party members, in what seemed to be a joke, "There's two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump."

In September, the Wall Street Journal reported that Rohrabacher offered Trump a deal that to protect Julian Assange, creator of WikiLeaks, which released emails damaging to Hillary Clinton ahead of the 2016 election, from legal peril. In return for not prosecuting him for his group's 2010 leak of State Department emails, Assange would allegedly provide proof that Russia was not the source of the hacked Democratic emails. The intelligence community has pointed to Russia as the secret provider of the email trove to WikiLeaks.

Rohrabacher's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Mueller’s interest in the nature of Flynn and Rohrabacher’s discussion marks the first known time a member of Congress could be wrapped into the investigation.

Most of what has been reported about Mueller’s questioning of Flynn’s lobbying work has concerned his efforts on behalf of Turkey. Less is known about his lobbying ties to Russia, though he was paid $45,000 plus expenses for attending a gala in Moscow in December 2015 and being interviewed by RT, the Kremlin-financed cable TV news channel.

Image: Mike Flynn
Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn (ret.), national security adviser, designate speaks during a conference on the transition of the presidency from Barack Obama to Donald Trump at the U.S. Institute Of Peace on January 10, 2017 in Washington. Chris Kleponis / AFP - Getty Images file
Flynn was fired after just 24 days as Trump’s national security adviser over misleading Vice President Mike Pence about his conversations with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S., Sergey Kislyak.

Multiple sources have told NBC News that Mueller has gathered enough evidence to lead to an indictment in the investigation into Flynn and his son.

Federal investigators have been probing Flynn’s lobbying efforts on behalf of Turkey, including an alleged meeting with senior Turkish officials in December 2016 where he was offered millions of dollars to secure the return of the Turkish president’s chief rival to Turkey and see that a U.S. case against a Turkish national was dismissed.

A grand jury impaneled by Mueller is continuing to interview witnesses with knowledge of Flynn's business activities over the next week, the two sources said.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/mu ... an-n819676
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Will Flynn bring back Yellowcake to WH Menu after 1-21-1

Postby seemslikeadream » Sat Nov 18, 2017 4:49 pm

INDICTED Turkish Minister Former General Manager...GIULIANI?

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=40682


Turkey on Valentine’s Day: Did Trump Obstruct Investigation of Flynn as a Foreign Agent?

By Ryan Goodman and Artin Afkhami
Friday, November 17, 2017 at 8:15 AM


When President Donald Trump tried to stop the FBI investigation of his national security adviser, retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, was Trump aware of Flynn’s meetings with Turkish officials? If so, it could significantly increase the president’s exposure to political liability and legal wrongdoing involving obstruction of justice.

On Valentine’s Day 2017, the president asked FBI Director James Comey if he could see his “way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go,” according to Comey’s congressional testimony (see also interview with Donald Trump Jr.). What was Trump wanting Comey to let go exactly? So far the media has focused on federal investigators’ ongoing probe at the time into whether Flynn lied to the FBI, but at the same time there was also an ongoing federal investigation into Flynn’s work on behalf of Turkey–and the White House knew about it. We also now know that on Sept. 19, 2016, and in mid-December 2016, Flynn reportedly met with senior Turkish officials, and discussed the prospect of kidnapping and secretly removing a US resident, cleric Fethullah Gülen, from the United States into Turkey’s custody. If Trump knew about the Turkey meetings at the time of the Feb. 14 exchange with Comey, that would raise a “different order of problem for the President,” Ben Wittes exclaimed on Lawfare’s podcast. Ben’s right.

In this article, we look at several data points on the timeline, as well as statements provided to Just Security by former CIA Director James Woolsey’s spokesperson,

One important point to know at the outset: First, it is not only important what the president knew on Feb. 14, but also what he became aware of in the weeks and months afterward. That’s because the president took additional steps to try stop the investigation of Flynn following the Oval Office meeting with Comey. A crucial part of the timeline, for example, is the efforts of the White House to stop the investigation of Flynn in late March 2017 and the revelation of Flynn’s September 2016 meeting with Turkish officials around that same time.

At the same time, we do not want to lose focus on another significant legal dimension here. Even if the president had no knowledge of the potential kidnapping meetings, if he tried to obstruct the federal investigation into Flynn’s work as an agent of a foreign government (Turkey), it would significantly raise the prospect of legal and political liability beyond his potential liability for obstructing the Russia-related investigation

We offer the timeline and analysis below for others to assess. Our own conclusions are threefold. First, the mounting evidence of Flynn’s having been a paid foreign agent for Turkey presumably figured into Trump’s calculus in relieving him of duty. Second, the White House knew of the threatening nature of an active federal investigation of Flynn’s work on behalf of Turkey when the president asked Comey to let Flynn go on Feb. 14. Third, the information contained in Flynn’s filing as a foreign agent in early March was likely on the minds of White House senior officials when they attempted to get top intelligence officials to intervene with Comey to drop the Flynn investigation that month.

These claims may sound strong when stacked together. But they are also each qualified and relatively modest all things considered. That’s because we don’t know the full picture. Even if Flynn’s foreign agent filings were on senior officials’ minds, they may have acted for other reasons, for example. And when they asked top intelligence officials to get Comey to halt the Flynn investigation, maybe they limited their inquiry to the Russia-related part. The Trump campaign and administration have also suffered from disorganization, which makes it hard to infer that any one set of individuals were aware of what others knew or were doing. All that said, there’s a mountain of information here to raise serious questions, and that lend circumstantial support to our conclusions.

I. When did the Flynn-Turkey federal investigation start?

When did the Justice Department start looking into Flynn’s ties to Turkey? It may have started once former CIA Director James Woolsey alerted U.S. officials to the September 2016 meeting around that time. Woolsey’s spokesperson clarified in a story for NBC that the FBI was already “in communication” with Woolsey before the matter was taken over by Mueller in May. More importantly, in a letter dated Nov. 30, 2016, the Justice Department notified Flynn that it was scrutinizing his lobbying work on behalf of the Turkish government. That appears to be a step shy of an open investigation. But by Jan. 4, 2017, at the latest, the Justice Department was reportedly investigating the matter to the point that Flynn was told of the investigation. (Note: as discussed below, Flynn informed the Trump transition team on January 4 that he was under federal investigation for his work for Turkey.) In short, we know generally when the FBI started looking into Flynn’s Turkey lobbying work, but we still don’t know when the FBI became aware of the potential kidnapping plot.

Flynn also came under a different criminal investigation sometime after Jan. 24 2017, with respect to to his statements to the FBI about his contacts with Russian Amb. Sergey Kislyak. In an interview with the FBI on Jan. 24, Flynn may have lied to the FBI about whether he discussed sanctions with the Russian ambassador. It is after that point that Flynn came under criminal investigation for potentially lying to the FBI.

At an unknown date, Flynn’s son, Michael G. Flynn, also became a subject of the federal investigation into Russia, NBC reported in September 2017. Mueller is now also looking into what role Flynn’s son may have played in efforts involving Turkey, including the December 2016 meeting, NBC reported more recently.

II. When did President Trump try to intercede?

There are three relevant points on the timeline.

1. February 14, 2017: Trump directly to Comey:

Flynn resigns on Feb. 13, 2017. The following day, Trump directly asks Comey, in a private one-on-one conversation, if the FBI Director could see his “way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go,” according to Comey’s prepared congressional testimony on June 8, 2017. Comey testified that the president “added that he had other concerns about Flynn, which he did not then specify.” Comey also testifies about whether he thought the president was asking to let go of the entire Russia investigation or more specifically Flynn’s legal problems. Comey writes:

“I had understood the President to be requesting that we drop any investigation of Flynn in connection with false statements about his conversations with the Russian ambassador in December. I did not understand the President to be talking about the broader investigation into Russia or possible links to his campaign. I could be wrong, but I took him to be focusing on what had just happened with Flynn’s departure and the controversyaround his account of his phone calls.”

That passage suggests that Comey thought the President was asking only about the Flynn-Russia related investigation and not the Flynn-Turkey investigation. But it is difficult to know what the president actually knew at that time. Important to that evaluation, Comey was not at liberty to testify publicly about the Turkey-related investigation. It is also relevant that Trump told Comey in general that Flynn “is a good guy and has been through a lot”–suggesting he was trying to absolve Flynn personally from any investigation. It would also be unusual for Trump to say drop Flynn on one investigation but not another. What’s more, Trump’s interest in broad protection from liability for Flynn may also be indicated by the president’s tweet on March 31, 2017, that “Flynn should ask for immunity.” Finally, the headache created for the White House by Flynn’s Turkey-related wrongdoing was presumably part of the decision-making that led to his departure (see the timeline below).

2. Mid-to-late March 2017: Trump and WH officials indirectly via senior intelligence officials

On March 22, the president reportedly asks Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats and CIA Director Mike Pompeo, in a private conversation, to intervene with Comey to get the FBI to stop investigating Flynn. Coats reportedly “discussed the conversation with other officials and decided that intervening with Comey as Trump had suggested would be inappropriate.” Also around that same time, “senior White House officials sounded out top intelligence officials about the possibility of intervening directly with Comey to encourage the FBI to drop its probe of Michael Flynn,” according to theWashington Post.

3. May 9, 2017: Trump fires Comey

III. What President Trump and his team knew about Flynn-Turkey and when they knew it

August 9-November 15, 2016: On Aug. 9, 2016, Flynn’s firm signs a contract with a Dutch company, Inovo, which is owned by Ekim Alptekin, the chairman of the Turkish-American Business Council. Alpetkin is widely reported to have ties to the Turkish government, including helping organize Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s 2016 visit to Washington, D.C. Flynn’s subsequent filing as a foreign agent in March 2017 (see entry below in timeline) will reveal that Alptekin’s company paid Flynn’s firm over $500,000 for work performed from August to November 2016. The Associated Press reported, “Alptekin, the Turkish businessman, has denied having any ties to Erdogan’s government.”

September 19, 2016: Flynn participates in a meeting with senior Turkish officials in which the group reportedly discusses the option of kidnapping the cleric Gulen and removing him from the United States, according to a Wall Street Journal story (published in March 2017). Alptekin invited Flynn to the meeting, according to Flynn’s firm, and Alptekin is present at the meeting. Woolsey, who was affiliated with Flynn’s firm at the time, was present for part of the meeting’s discussion,the contents of which he said greatly disturbed him. Woolsey thought the proposal for Gulen would “pretty clearly be a violation of law” and he reported it to “several people,” including U.S. government officials at the time, specifically including an intermediary to Vice President Joseph Biden.

Note: Woolsey’s spokesman, Jonathan Franks, told Just Security that Woolsey did not inform members of the Trump campaign about the September meeting. An important question is whether, either through the “several people” Woolsey informed or through others, Trump or his inner circle learned of the September meeting. If the Trump campaign was aware of the meeting before the WSJ story broke in March, it was apparently not directly from Woolsey.

Sept. 19, 2016: On the same day as his Turkish meeting, Flynn joins Trump and Jeff Sessions in a meeting with Egypt’s president, Abdel Fattah el-sisi.

Sept. 30, 2016: Flynn’s firm publicly registers as a lobbyist for Alptekin’s company Inovo. (This is not the same as registering as a foreign agent, which occurs on March 7, 2017.)

Sometime between Nov. 8, 2016 and Jan. 20, 2017: Flynn’s personal lawyer alerted the Trump transition team prior to the inauguration that Flynn might register as a foreign agent of Turkey. Don McGahn, the campaign’s top lawyer and now White House Counsel, was reportedly among those told at the time.

Nov. 8, 2016: The Hill publishes an Op-Ed by Flynn titled, “Our ally Turkey is in crisis and needs our support.” It calls for orienting several aspects of U.S. foreign policy toward Turkey’s interests. In reference to the cleric Gulen, Flynn writes, “From Turkey’s point of view, Washington is harboring Turkey’s Osama bin Laden….We need to see the world from Turkey’s perspective. What would we have done if right after 9/11 we heard the news that Osama bin Laden lives in a nice villa at a Turkish resort…?…We should not provide him safe haven. In this crisis, it is imperative that we remember who our real friends are.”

Nov. 10, 2016: President Barack Obama privately warns Trump about Flynn during their Oval Office meeting two days after the election. At least one person familiar with the meeting told Politico that “Obama forcefully told Trump to steer clear of Flynn.” There are no publicly available details about why exactly Obama warned Trump and whether Obama stated specific concerns about Flynn.

Prior to Nov. 11, 2016: Chris Christie, who headed the transition team until Nov. 11, 2016, has subsequently said he directly warned Trump about Flynn, but he has not said specifically what those warnings entailed or the basis for them. “I didn’t think that he was someone who would bring benefit to the President or to the administration, and I made that very clear to candidate Trump, and I made it very clear to President-elect Trump,” Christie said in May 2017. Politico reports that as chief of the transition team, Christie “mounted a campaign against Flynn for the national security adviser job.” Christie told associates as early as August 2016 of his concerns about Flynn.

Nov. 11, 2016: On Nov. 11, the Daily Caller’s Chuck Ross publishes a detailed story titled, “Trump’s Top Military Adviser Is Lobbying For Obscure Company With Ties To Turkish Government.” It is an expose that includes Dutch business records and other information tying Alptekin to Flynn’s firm and work on behalf of the government of Turkey, and it also notes that Flynn failed to disclose any of this information in his op-ed for The Hill. (Months later The Hill adds a disclosure and notes that Flynn failed to inform them when he wrote the essay.)

Nov. 15, 2016: Flynn’s contract with Alptekin is terminated.

Flynn has voiced interest in being Director of National Intelligence, and was on a list of candidates for the position shortly after the election. He also expressed interest in being secretary of state, secretary of defense, or national security adviser. It’s recognized, however, that Senate confirmation could be difficult in part due to his connections to Turkey, according to a person who spoke on the condition of anonymity to the Washington Post about the internal transition team discussions.

Nov. 18, 2016: Rep. Elijah Cummings, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, sends a letter to Vice President-elect Mike Pence, in his capacity as chairman of the Trump transition team, warning about conflicts created by Flynn’s work on behalf of Turkey, and Flynn’s firm being hired by Alptekin’s company. The transition team’s office of legislative affairs sends Cummings a receipt that confirmed they received the letter and pledged to “review your letter carefully.”

Later, Pence denies ever receiving the letter. On March 9, Pence states in a Fox News interview that Flynn’s registration with FARA is “the first I heard of it [Flynn’s Turkey-related lobbying work] and I think it is an affirmation of the President’s decision to ask General Flynn to resign.” Likewise, on May 19, Pence’s office told NBC News that “Rep. Cummings letter did not reach the vice president.” On the same day, Cummingsresponded to CNN, “Either he’s not telling the truth, or he was running a sloppy shop because we have a receipt…that says they received the letter.”

What’s more, Cummings did not just send a quiet letter. He issued a press release with the text of the letter, and received media coverage across major media outlets at the time, likely increasing the salience of the issue for the transition team.

Nov. 19, 2016: Trump campaign lawyer, William McGinley, holds a conference call with members of the Flynn firm “seeking more information” about the group’s foreign work on Turkey and “to review the particulars of Flynn’s piece in The Hill,” according to the New York Times and New Yorker’s Nicholas Schmidle. (McGinley was subsequently appointed as White House Cabinet Secretary.)

Dec. 9, 2016: Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) send a letter to FBI Director James Comey, DNI James Clapper, and OPM Acting Director Beth Cobert calling for a re-evaluation of Flynn’s security clearance. They cite his “repeated mishandling of classified information,” his paid visit to Moscow, and his business interests as CEO of Flynn Intel Group.

They write:

“General Flynn appears to have an unresolved conflict of interest in his ownership of the Flynn Intel Group. His company has previously registered to lobby on behalf of Turkish businessman Kamil Ekim Alptekin and received compensation to persuade U.S. public opinion in favor of Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.”

“This ongoing business relationship of Flynn Intel Group, owned by General Flynn and operated by his son, creates the potential for pressure, coercion, and exploitation by foreign agents.”

Blumenthal and Shaheen’s letter receives significant media coverage, likely increasing the salience for the White House.b

Mid-Dec. 2016: In a second meeting with Turkish government representatives, Flynn reportedly discusses the idea of he and his son helping to forcibly remove Gulen and deliver the cleric to Turkish custody using a private jet, in a plot that would have paid the Flynns $15 million, according to the Wall Street Journal. “Flynn also was prepared to use his influence in the White House to further the legal extradition of the cleric,” according to the story. Michael Flynn’s lawyers dispute the story.

Jan. 4, 2017: Flynn reportedly tells the transition team, including McGahn, that he is under federal investigation for secretly working as a paid lobbyist for Turkey.

After Jan. 20: Flynn’s lawyers have “a second conversation with Trump lawyers … and made clear the national security adviser would indeed be registering [as a foreign agent] with the Justice Department,” the AP reported.

Feb. 7, 2017: Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have their first telephone call in which they discuss a range of policy issues. Flynn is still national security advisor at this point.

Feb. 13, 2017: A PAC aligned with the Democratic Party, the Democratic Coalition Against Trump files a report with the National Security Agency alleging that Flynn has sought “to influence the White House on behalf of Turkey and its president, Recep Erdogan, while failing to register as an agent with the Department of Justice.”

Feb.13, 2017: Flynn resigns

REMINDER: It is on Feb. 14, 2017 that Trump asks Comey to drop the investigation of Flynn.

March 7, 2017: Flynn retroactively files as a foreign agent of the government of Turkey in the first week of March 2017. In a filing on March 7, Flynn’s firm reports the Sept. 19, 2016 meeting with senior Turkish officials (describing the event as “for the purpose of understanding better the political climate in Turkey at the time”). The document also states that Flynn’s firm was invited to the September meeting by Alptekin. In a separate filing, Flynn’s firm states that Alptekin’s Dutch company, Inovo, paid Flynn’s firm over $500,000 for work performed from August to November 2016, which the firm said “could be construed to have principally benefited the Republic of Turkey.”

A blanket of media coverage details the information in Flynn’s foreign agent filings, including noticing the Sept. 19, 2016 meeting. The New Yorker’s Nicholas Schmidle reports on March 16: “Though the full breadth of the group’s conversation is not known, the same source told me that the Turks sought, among other things, Flynn’s assistance in maligning Fethullah Gülen.”

SIGNIFICANCE: It is hard to believe that the Flynn filings of his Turkey work were not on the minds of the White House when they engaged in efforts later that month to try to get other intelligence officials to intervene with Comey to drop the Flynn investigation.

March 24 (and days prior to March 24?):

The Wall Street Journal published a news report and exclusive video interview with Woolsey in which he publicly discloses that the Sept. 19, 2016 meeting included the discussion of kidnapping and removing the cleric from the United States.

SIGNIFICANCE: Did Trump and White House officials know before the Wall Street Journal story went public? Trump and his team were certainly made aware on March 24 of the potentially outrageous nature of the September meeting, when the interview with Woolsey was published. Were they alerted to this information before March 24, for example, through the people the Journal’s reporters contacted for comment? The story does state, for example, that the Journal reached out to the chairman and president of Flynn’s firm and to Mr. Alptekin for comment when researching the story. The Journal also reached out to the spokesperson for Erdogan’s son-in-law, who is also the Turkish energy minister, and was present at the Sept. 19 meeting. That spokesperson referred the Journal to the Turkish Embassy in Washington, which provided a written statement prior to publication. The story does not indicate whether the White House was contacted prior to publication.

Why is this timing vitally important? As we discussed earlier, on March 22, Trump held his private conversation with Coats and Pompeo to see if they could help get Comey to drop the Flynn investigation, and apparently around that same time in March senior White House officials reached out to top intelligence officials for the same purpose. It would expose the White House politically and legally if they knew at the time about the September meeting that included the kidnapping discussion.

Woolsey’s spokesman, Jonathan Franks, told Just Security that Woolsey did not inform the White House about the September meeting before the publication of the Wall Street Journal story in March. So, if the Trump campaign or the White House were aware of the Sept. 19 meeting before the Wall Street Journal story broke, it was not directly from Woolsey.

Early April: Flynn’s associates receive grand jury subpoenas, from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, seeking business records and communications involving clients tied to the Turkish government, according to CNN and the Wall Street Journal. The subpoenas show that federal prosecutors are investigating arrangements involving Flynn and Alptekin, according to the New York Times, Wall Street Journal andReuters, which each obtained copies of the subpoenas. (Recall that Alptekin was reportedly at the Sept. 19 meeting, and according to Flynn’s firms documents, he invited Flynn to the meeting.)

SIGNIFICANCE: On May 9, Trump fires Comey. As an indication of the close timing, CNN reports that it “learned of the subpoenas hours before President Donald Trump fired FBI director James Comey.” The Wall Street Journal also raised a question similar to ours in a story about the timing of the subpoenas: “The subpoena that the Journal reviewed was sent out in early April, nearly a month before Mr. Trump fired Mr. Comey, raising questions about whether the president learned the investigation into Mr. Flynn was escalating before firing Mr. Comey, who was overseeing the probe.”

Pattern of denials

One final note, the White House and senior officials have repeatedly denied knowledge of Flynn’s connections to Turkey or work he did on behalf of Turkey. Those statements were later revealed to be false. Shortly after Flynn filed as a foreign agent, for example, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer told reporters on March 9, 2017, that Trump was not aware that Flynn acted as a foreign agent when he appointed him as national security adviser. Within 24 hours, the Associated Press reported that Flynn’s lawyers informed the Trump transition team that Flynn might have to file as a foreign agent. When confronted with the AP story the following day, Spicer essentially downplayed the significance of the lawyer’s inquiry and said it does not compare to the Trump team’s knowledge once Flynn filed as a foreign agent:

Q: Could you clear up what appears to be some tension between what you said yesterday about when the administration or the president was made aware of General Flynn’s foreign lobbying ties and the AP reporting today that the transition team was informed of Flynn’s potential need to register?

SPICER: So there’s a big difference between when he filed, which was the other day — two days ago — and what happened then. What the AP is reporting, just so we’re clear, is that a personal lawyer of General Flynn’s contacted a transition lawyer and asked for guidance on what he should or should not do.

But why would it take Flynn’s formally filing as a foreign agent for Trump and the transition team to be aware of Flynn’s activities? We now know that Flynn told the transition team on Jan. 4 that he was under federal investigation for his work on behalf of Turkey. That was reported by the New York Times on May 17, 2017. Recall as well the conference call on Nov. 19, 2016 when Trump campaign lawyer and now White House Cabinet Secretary, William McGinley spoke with members of the Flynn firm to obtain information about the group’s work for Turkey. That too was reported after Spicer’s March 9 and 10, 2017 press conferences. Why did the White House deny it?

https://www.justsecurity.org/47121/turk ... nap-plots/














Does cooperating witness have info on Flynn tie to Turkey?
by TOM WINTER and JULIA AINSLEY

A gold trader who is close to Turkish President Recep Erdogan is now cooperating with federal prosecutors in a money-laundering case, according to two sources with knowledge of the matter, and legal experts say prosecutors may be seeking information about any ties between the Turkish government and former National Security Advisor Mike Flynn.

Reza Zarrab, a dual Turkish-Iranian national, faces charges in federal court in Manhattan for skirting sanctions on Iran by allegedly moving hundreds of millions of dollars for the Iranian government and Iranian firms via offshore entities and bank accounts.


Reza Zarrab is taken to police headquarters in Istanbul, Turkey, in 2013. Sebnem Coskun / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images File
But Zarrab is now out of jail and speaking to prosecutors — a move Erdogan had been desperately hoping to avoid.

Erdogan asked former Vice President Joe Biden in 2016 to drop the case and fire U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, whose district was overseeing the case. Biden refused, according to a third source with knowledge of the case.

President Donald Trump fired Bharara in March. Multiple law enforcement officials say there is no indication at this time that the firing is tied to this case.

Erdogan has continued to ask the Trump administration to drop the case, multiple officials say.

Special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating whether Erdogan offered Flynnupwards of $15 million during the presidential transition in December to use his upcoming position as national security advisor to return his top political rival, Fethullah Gulen, from the U.S. to Turkey and to see that Zarrab's case was dropped, NBC has reported.

Turkey blames Gülen, a cleric who lives in Pennsylvania, for an attempted coupin July 2016.


Ret. Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn boards an elevator as he arrives at Trump Tower on Nov. 29, 2016. Mike Segar / Reuters file
Attorney Danny Cevallos, a legal analyst for MSNBC and NBC News, says that given the relationship between Erdogan and Zarrab and the allegations of an improper relationship between Flynn and the Turkish government, Zarrab's decision to cooperate with federal prosecutors is a significant development.

"You can fill in the gaps that federal investigators are looking for any relation between Erdogan and Flynn," Cevallos said. "So, to the extent that Zarrab has any connection or knowledge of that, it is very important that they're flipping him."

Cevallos said that based on his experience and what he's read about the case, Zarrab's release from federal jail to federal custody is entirely consistent with someone who is cooperating.

Zarrab, 33, was arrested for allegedly evading sanctions on March 19, 2016, in Florida.

The acting U.S. attorney in the case, Joon Kim, sent a letter in late March suggesting that former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Marc Mukasey had joined Zarrab's defense team to "explore a potential disposition of the criminal charges in the matter." At the time Kim raised his concerns that "Mr. Giuliani and Mr. Mukasey's involvement in this case is intended to occur entirely outside of the Court's purview and knowledge."

CIA Director Woolsey contacted by Mueller

CIA Director Woolsey contacted by Mueller 1:15
Giuliani and Mukasey had previously visited Turkey to discuss the case with Erdogan, a U.S. official directly briefed on the matter told NBC News.

Erdogan defended Zarrab when he was fingered in a 2013 Turkish corruption scandal that also implicated Erdogan associates. The Turkish leader called Zarrab, who had given his wife's charity $4.5 million, a philanthropist and praised his contributions to Turkish society. All charges against Zarrab and Erdogan's pals were dropped.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York declined to comment, as did Zarrab's lead defense attorney, Ben Brafman.

Mukasey, Giuliani and Biden did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Mukasey had previously declined to comment about the Zarrab case.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/do ... ey-n821341





5 Points On The Cleric Targeted In Mike Flynn’s Shady Dealings With Turkey



Christine Frapech
By ALLEGRA KIRKLAND Published NOVEMBER 17, 2017 6:00 AM
The focus of former national security adviser Mike Flynn’s tangle of business dealings with Turkey is one man: Fethullah Gulen, an ailing septuagenarian Muslim cleric who lives in a Pennsylvania comPlenty of ink has been spilled about the hundreds of thousands of dollars Flynn received to produce negative PR materials about Gulen and about Flynn’s alleged discussions with Turkish officials about forcibly removing him from the What’s received less attention is why Turkey would take such extraordinary steps to take down the aging cleric, and why President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government thought Flynn would be able to facilitate them.The former top U.S. intelligence official’s well-compensated work for Turkey is just one tentacle of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s sprawling investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. But it speaks directly to the central question of how foreign actors may have attempted to influence the actions of top Trump campaign figures.
TPM spoke to five Turkey experts to get a sense of Erdogan’s anti-Gulen crusade in the U.S., and how Flynn fit into those schemes.

1
Why is Turkey so desperate to discredit Gulen?

Flynn is hardly the first American that Turkey has used to lend credence to Erdogan’s campaign against the man he believes orchestrated a failed July 2016 coup against him. In the past few years, Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) has launched a lobbying blitz in the U.S. aimed at discrediting Gulen and his Hizmet, or “service,” movement.

Firms like Amsterdam & Partners and Flynn’s consulting firm, Flynn Intel Group, receive lucrative contracts to paint the cleric—who promotes a moderate, pro-market version of Islam through a worldwide network of well-funded schools and charitable institutions—as a suspect actor bent on undermining Turkey’s democracy. This effort has been aided by anti-Islam groups like ACT! for America and outlets like Breitbart News, which routinely characterize Gulen as the head of a “shadowy and corrupt cult.”

Aaron Stein, a Turkey expert at the non-partisan Atlantic Council, told TPM that Berat Albayrak, Erdogan’s son-in-law and Turkey’s energy minister, is “behind” these lobbying efforts. Albayrak attended a Sept. 19, 2016 meeting with Flynn Intel Group, where discussions of removing Gulen from the U.S. were reportedly first raised.

“There is documented evidence that he oversees efforts within the United States through cut-out organizations to funnel money to lobbyists and PR firms who try to change the narrative on Gulen,” Stein said of Albayrak. “That definitely happens.”

Experts caution that there are legitimate concerns about financial misdeeds by some Gulen-linked institutions and about the secretive ways in which the cleric leverages political influence in Turkey through his network. But they say that Erdogan’s crusade against Gulen, who has lived in the U.S. since 1999, is primarily about self-preservation.

The two men were political allies until about 2010, when Erdogan’s consolidation of power prompted what former U.S. Ambassador to Turkey James Jeffries described to TPM as a “series of ever more dramatic confrontations.” By 2013, these involved politically-motivated prosecutions of Erdogan allies by Gulen-linked prosecutors and a subsequent purging of Gulenists from the judiciary.

2
Why hasn’t the U.S. extradited the cleric?

In an Election Day editorial in The Hill penned on behalf of his Turkish lobbying client, Flynn described Gulen as a “shady Islamic mullah” behind the coup attempt who should immediately be turned over to “our NATO ally.”

This closes mirrors Turkey’s stance on how “perplexing and deeply frustrating” it is that the U.S. has not yet turned over the man who “masterminded” the effort to overthrow Erdogan’s government.

The actual narrative is not so clear. Experts told TPM evidence that the U.S. Justice Department helped gather suggests that Gulenists played a significant role in the coup, but that Turkey has failed to prove that he was personally behind it. The attempted putsch was most likely the work of a coalition of groups, they said.

David Tittensor, an Australian religion professor who authored a book on the Gulen movement, said the evidence “didn’t meet the standard to initiate an extradition and warrant process” through the U.S. State Department and judicial system. Some of the alleged Gulen-linked coup plotters say they were tortured or that their confessions were forced, Tittensor noted.

He said the impasse with the DOJ could have prompted officials to hold secret talks with Flynn.

“Possibly the fact that these kind of talks were happening speaks to the lack of an evidence base that has been provided thus far and that they were looking for an alternative in order to get what they want, which is to get Gulen out of the U.S. and back to Turkey,” Tittensor said.

3
Flynn pushed Turkey’s line on Gulen in exchange for cash

Flynn was forced to belatedly register as a foreign agent earlier this year for accepting $530,000 from Turkish businessman Ekim Alptekin to produce negative PR materials about Gulen.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller is reportedly investigating Flynn Intel Group’s work for Alptekin, who has close ties to Erdogan’s government. Mueller’s team is also reportedly probing two alleged meetings in New York between Turkish officials and Flynn about forcibly removing Gulen from the U.S.

Former CIA Director Jim Woolsey told the Wall Street Journal that he was startled by the plans to “whisk” Gulen away that he heard at the first meeting on Sept. 19, 2016, which was attended by Alptekin, Turkey’s energy and finance ministers, and members of Flynn Intel Group.

Discussions of a $15 million payout for Flynn and of possibly “transporting Mr. Gulen on a private jet to the Turkish prison island of Imrali” did not unfold until the second discussion in December, according to the Journal’s reporting.

Both sides have stridently denied that any such discussions occurred.

4
What if Turkey gets its wish?

Gulen is currently the “pawn in the middle” of U.S.-Turkey relations, as George Washington University international affairs professor Scheherazade Rehman put it, and it’s not clear that Erdogan wants his return as much as he professes to.

For one, Gulen’s presence here provides negotiating leverage, as Jeffries, the former U.S. ambassador, pointed out.

“It gives them a good talking point to put the U.S. under pressure,” Jeffries said. “And the Turks like that, that’s how they do foreign policy.”

Though Jeffries said the Turkish people and government do want answers for the coup, which resulted in the deaths of some 300 people, other experts noted that Gulen’s return through traditional legal channels, which remains unlikely, could undermine the Erdogan administration’s account of how the coup unfolded.

“If he comes back then that will force an actual trial,” said Josh Hendrick, a Loyola professor on Islamic political identity who wrote a book on Gulen. “It will force a ‘prove it.’ All the inconsistencies in the narrative could come out.”

Erdogan has used the coup as cover to fire and jail his political opponents and consolidate power.

5
Did Flynn try to advance the extradition?

Not long after Trump and Flynn entered the White House, the FBI was reportedly asked to conduct a new review of Turkey’s extradition request. Though NBC reported that the FBI turned it down because there was no additional evidence to alter the Obama administration’s assessment of it, it remains unclear if Flynn or State Department officials made the request.

When questioned on the matter by House Judiciary Committee member Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) at a hearing this week, Attorney Jeff Sessions said only that he knew the “Turkish government continued to press the federal government” on Gulen’s return and that though his department “had a role to play in that,” he was unable to discuss it.

The Atlantic Council’s Stein said it was not necessarily surprising that a new administration would want a review of such a sensitive situation.

“What is noteworthy is the reasons why they asked for it,” he said. “Was Mike Flynn on the take and was he fulfilling a contractual quid pro quo?”

Correction: This piece has been updated to correct an editing error. Erdogan, not Gulen, has used the coup as cover to fire and jail his political opponents and consolidate power.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/fivepoints ... pping-plot





Mike Flynn and the Insane Alleged Plot to Kidnap a Turkish Cleric

The former Trump official is being investigated over a bizarre alleged plan to snatch up an enemy of the Turkish government and send him away on a private jet.

Mark Hay


Nov 14 2017, 12:58pm

Michael Flynn in New York this past January. (Photo by Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

On Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported that retired general Michael Flynnwas under investigation for allegedly taking part in discussions about a plot to kidnap and extradite a controversial Turkish cleric in exchange for $15 million. Both Flynn’s lawyer and the Turkish regime quickly denied knowledge of or involvement in any such plot, which one source told the paper might involve use of a private jet and a Turkish prison island. But word of the investigation, reportedly part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, represented just the latest humiliation for the man whose stint as national security advisor was, at 26 days, a historically short one.


Amid indictments of various men in Trump’s orbit, it’s easy to forget that Flynn, who left the White House on February 13 after misleading Vice President Mike Pence about contacts with a Russian official, has long been as wrapped up as anyone in the sprawling Russia investigation. Indeed, last week, NBC News reported Mueller had enough evidence to charge him (and his son) withsomething. But until now, Flynn’s questionable financial dealings with Russian and Turkish interests—and how they might have impacted his work in the government—seemed to pose the biggest threat to his freedom. Being accused of scheming to whisk away a would-be political prisoner in the dead of night would dramatically raise the stakes, however, and could make it easier for Mueller to lean on Flynn in hopes he might flip on the president who hired him.
To make sense of this increasingly strange saga, it’s worth backing up to 2014, when Flynn was fired from the US government’s Defense Intelligence Agency. Not long after, he started a lobbying firm, Flynn Intel Group, and in August 2016, the firm signed a $600,000 contract with a Turkish businessman who had ties to his home government. Flynn and company agreed to research and produce a video discrediting Fethullah Gulen, the 78-year-old cleric at the center of the alleged kidnapping-extradition scheme.


Gulen is a Sunni cleric from Turkey who preaches interfaith dialogue and founded a popular movement, Hizmet, that runs hundreds of schools, hospitals, and aid programs in over 100 countries, including the United States. In 1999, he moved to America and managed, after some complications, to secure a green card. He lives in in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania, and, at least until recently, rarely showed up in the domestic press.

Gulen and his followers were once allies of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. They shared skepticism of the country’s deeply secular military, and, at least for a time, goals of political inclusion and moderation. But by 2013, the two had become open enemies, with their supporters battling in the Turkish court system over alleged corruption in Erdogan’s government. In 2014 and then again in 2016, Erdogan accused Gulen of orchestrating failed coups against his regime from his perch in rural Pennsylvania. Erdogan’s administration has been purgingGulen’s allies out of the government and major private businesses ever since.
The president has also been eager to extradite Gulen back to Turkey, personally pleading with Barack Obama to do so in the summer of 2016. So far, the Department of Justice has not complied with those asks.

Meanwhile, though he does not appear to have ever delivered his anti-Gulen video, Flynn nonetheless put out some incendiary rhetoric—suggesting, for instance, in an Election Day op-ed last year that America was harboring Turkey’s version of Osama bin Laden. He ultimately got $530,000 for his efforts, but didn’t register as a foreign agent during his lobbying work for this Turkish proxy and may have misrepresented his income from the contract. The FBI reportedlystarted investigating these alleged lobbying improprieties about a year ago, and Flynn was said to have informed the White House about the situation before the inauguration.

Not long after, the FBI appears to have received a request from the Trump administration to reconsider the case for extraditing Gulen, despite the fact that Turkey had not provided any new evidence. It is unclear if this request came from Flynn himself, but in March, former CIA director, Flynn associate, and Trump campaign advisor Jim Woolsey told reporters the ex-general had discussed ways to engineer an unusual (and possibly extra-legal) extradition of Gulen at a meeting with Turkish officials in September 2016. Woolsey said he was concerned by this talk and raised the matter with then-Vice President Joe Biden through a friend. Reports since suggest there may have been a second meeting in December 2016 in which sone kind of kidnapping plot was discussed—after Flynn was chosen to be Trump’s National Security Advisor.
Henri Barkey, a Turkish-American affairs expert at Lehigh University, told me that, if such a plan were in fact seriously hatched, officials in Turkish government likely did not sanction it directly. That, he said, would be too much of a risk for the Erdogan regime if it ever came out.

But if proof were to emerge that the deal was serious, no matter whose idea it was, and that Flynn was involved, the result would be a clear case with the prospect of serious prison time behind it. That such a deal would have had nothing to do with Moscow trying to tilt the election toward Trump is besides the point.


“It is not clear that there is a direct link between the allegations of Flynn’s involvement in a plot to kidnap or extradite Gulen to Turkey and collusion with Russia,” said Alex Whiting, a Harvard legal scholar and criminal prosecution tactics expert. “But Mueller’s appointment as special counsel permits him to pursue any matters that arise during the investigation.”

Flynn’s Turkish interests would likely have come up pretty quickly when Mueller started looking at him, added Ryan Goodman, a New York University law professor and former special counsel at the Department of Defense. Even if it were totally unrelated, it would have been difficult for the Mueller team to turn away from “potentially outrageous criminal conduct," Goodman said.

And Mueller may view this seemingly obscure mini-scandal as a brick in the wider case. After all, Goodman noted, if Mueller can show Trump was aware that Flynn may have had shady dealings with Turkey when he asked then-FBI director James Comey to drop his investigation into the ex-general the day after he left his National Security Advisor role, that could help build a case the president obstructed justice. Such a case would get stronger the more serious the illegal activity he might have been trying to cover was. And a plot to kidnap a lawful American resident at the behest of a foreign power for a massive cash payout would, if proven and known, amount to a really serious crime to be obfuscating. (VICE reached out to the White House to clarify what, if anything, the president knew of Flynn's meetings related to Turkey before Comey's firing, but had yet to year back at the time of publication.)


Mueller could also try to spin a strong Turkey case against Flynn, or his son, who worked with him on lobbying deals, into an incentive to flip and start proactively collaborating with the wider Russia investigation. “As a senior figure in Trump’s administration,” rather than just a member of his campaign up to a point, “Flynn may be in a position to know high-level details regarding alleged collusion with Russia,” Whiting told me.
The chances he might flip would get stronger the more severe the potential case against him gets, the professor added.

How useful could Flynn be in trying to prove collusion between Trump and Russia? He had to leave the White House because he misrepresented the nature of phone conversations in late December 2016 with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak in which he may have discussed sanctions. Flynn was also present at a December 2016 meeting between Jared Kushner and Kislyak at Trump Tower in which the two discussed setting up a secure line of communications between the Kremlin and the Trump transition team. Of anyone Mueller could try to turn state’s witness, then, Flynn is among the more tantalizing candidates.

That’s especially true because Flynn connects the investigation to the sitting administration and things that happened during the transition. It’s (relatively) easy for the White House to distance itself, or Trump, from people like Paul Manafort, whose alleged improprieties took place before his involvement with the campaign, or already-convicted former advisor George Papadopoulos, who can be (however credibly) dismissed as a minor figure without strong contacts in the actual administration. It would be harder to shake off any charges against Flynn, a leading surrogate during the campaign who assumed a top job in the White House.


At this point, no one—except people like Michael Flynn and Robert Mueller—know where this goes next. It's plausible that, like Papadopoulos, Flynn has already been indicted and started talking—and that we just won’t know about it until much later on. It’s also entirely possible he has been leaking news of these developments himself to court a presidential pardon before Mueller can act. And of course Mueller may never actually find enough evidence to file any charges against the guy.

But the cloud hanging over Michael Flynn right now speaks to the broad mandate of Mueller’s Russia probe—and the potential for seemingly irrelevant backroom dealings that have nothing to do with the Kremlin to reshape the course of Trump’s presidency.

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/bj7b ... llah-gulen
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Will Flynn bring back Yellowcake to WH Menu after 1-21-1

Postby seemslikeadream » Wed Nov 22, 2017 8:24 pm

Flynn’s lobbying partner Bijan Kian, now under scrutiny by Mueller, hired a journalist to help produce a pro-Turkey documentary last year and then swore him to secrecy: “We don't want anyone to know the Flynn Intel Group has anything to do with this."



Mike Flynn business partner Bijan Kian now subject of Mueller probe

by Julia AinsleyNov 22 2017, 4:12 pm ET
WASHINGTON — A former business associate of Michael Flynn has become a subject of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation for his role in the failure of Flynn's former lobbying firm to disclose its work on behalf of foreign governments, three sources familiar with the investigation told NBC News.

Federal investigators are zeroing in on Bijan Kian, an Iranian-American who was a partner at the now-dissolved Flynn Intel Group, and have questioned multiple witnesses in recent weeks about his lobbying work on behalf of Turkey. The grand jury convened for the investigation will soon have a chance to question some of those witnesses, the sources say.

Mueller recently indicted former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his business partner Rick Gates simultaneously. Manafort and Gates have pleaded not guilty. Both Flynn's and Manafort's lobbying firms have come under investigation for failing to disclose lobbying work on behalf of foreign governments.

Mueller is leading the federal investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and possible collusion by the Trump campaign, which led him to probe the work of Flynn and Manafort, who both served on the Trump campaign and lobbied on behalf of foreign governments without initially disclosing it.

The Flynn Intel Group, managed by Flynn, who was briefly President Donald Trump's national security adviser, was paid $530,000 for lobbying on behalf of a Netherlands-based firm called Inovo BV, owned by Turkish-American businessman Ekim Alptekin. Months later, the firm filed the required paperwork under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), acknowledging that the work "could be construed to have principally benefitted the Republic of Turkey," according to the filing.
Image
Image: Adm. Mike Rogers, director of the NSA, Bijan Kian, center, and Mike Flynn at the fifth annual Nowruz Commission
Adm. Mike Rogers, left, Bijan Kian, center, and Mike Flynn, right, at the fifth annual Nowruz Commission gala in 2014. In April 2014, Flynn was pushed out as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, while Rogers assumed the directorship of the NSA. Nowruz Commission / Facebook
Mueller's team is interested in Kian's role in the Inovo contract as well as foreign lobbying efforts that the Flynn Intel Group may have yet to disclose, according to the sources familiar with the investigation. Emails subpoenaed by the Special Counsel's Office revealed a September 20, 2016, meeting between Kian, Flynn and pro-Russia Congressman Dana Rohrabacher.

That meeting has been the subject of prosecutors' recent questions to witnesses in the case, the three sources said. Rohrabacher, a California Republican, has pushed for better relations with Russia, traveled to Moscow to meet with officials and advocated to overturn the Magnitsky Act, the 2012 bill that froze assets of Russian investigators and prosecutors.

The Flynn Intel Group did not disclose this meeting even after the company retroactively filed as a foreign agent under FARA, which has led to scrutiny by Mueller's team, two people familiar with the investigation told NBC.

Reuters previously reported that Mueller was interested in Kian, but not that he was a subject of the investigation or that witnesses would be testifying about his actions in front of the grand jury.

Kazakhstan Investment Forum
Bijan Kian speaks during the Kazakhstan Investment Forum in New York on Nov. 24, 2009. Daniel Acker / Bloomberg via Getty Images file
Kian previously served as a board member of the Export-Import Bank. He is also a co-founder of the Nowruz Commission, a D.C.-based nonprofit that hosts an opulent annual Nowruz, or Iranian New Year, gala, which Flynn and Alptekin both attended in the past.

NBC News has reported that Mueller has gathered enough evidence to bring charges in the investigation into Flynn and his son Michael G. Flynn. The elder Flynn was fired after just 24 days on the job for misleading Vice President Mike Pence about his conversations with Russia's ambassador to the U.S., Sergey Kislyak.

Kian's attorney did not respond to a request for comment. Flynn and Rohrabacher did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Special Counsel's office also did not respond.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/mi ... be-n823366



He’s a Member of Congress. The Kremlin Likes Him So Much It Gave Him a Code Name

By NICHOLAS FANDOSNOV. 21, 2017


Representative Dana Rohrabacher, Republican of California, has come under intense political and investigative scrutiny for his closeness to Russia. Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call, via Associated Press
WASHINGTON — For two decades, Representative Dana Rohrabacher has been of value to the Kremlin, so valuable in recent years that the F.B.I. warned him in 2012 that Russia regarded him as an intelligence source worthy of a Kremlin code name.

The following year, the California Republican became even more valuable, assuming the chairmanship of the Foreign Affairs subcommittee that oversees Russia policy. He sailed to re-election again and again, even as he developed ties to Vladimir V. Putin’s Russia.

Then came President Trump.

As revelations of Russia’s campaign to influence American politics consume Washington, Mr. Rohrabacher, 70, who had no known role in the Trump election campaign, has come under political and investigative scrutiny. The F.B.I. and the Senate Intelligence Committee are each seeking to interview him about an August meeting with Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, Mr. Rohrabacher said. The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, is said to be interested in a meeting he had last year with Michael T. Flynn, Mr. Trump’s short-lived national security adviser.

At the same time, fellow Republicans — questioning his judgment and intentions — have moved to curtail his power as chairman of the Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia and Emerging Threats. And back home in Southern California, where Democrats and Republicans alike smell blood, the 15-term congressman is facing his toughest re-election contest in decades, with well-funded candidates from both parties lining up to unseat him.

“I feel like I’m in good shape politically,” he said breezily during an interview last week, a day before he voted against his party’s tax bill. “My constituents couldn’t care less about this. They are not concerned about Russia. They are concerned about the taxes on their home. They are concerned about illegal immigrants coming into their neighborhood and raping people.”

Nor is Mr. Rohrabacher, a self-proclaimed veteran of international intrigue, all that perturbed by the interest of federal and congressional investigators. He said he would talk to them when scheduling allows.



Mr. Rohrabacher, left, campaigning in 1988 with his friend Oliver North, who was embroiled in the Iran-contra scandal. Mr. Rohrabacher has since served 15 terms. Nick Ut/Associated Press
The story of Mr. Rohrabacher’s transformation from Cold Warrior to pro-Putinist is well worn. A vocal Young Republican in the 1960s, he latched onto Ronald Reagan, California’s Republican governor, and followed him to Washington and a speechwriting job in the White House. Then came the fall of the Soviet Union and a détente in relations with the former superpower. For Mr. Rohrabacher, who claims to have lost a drunken arm-wrestling match to Mr. Putin in the 1990s, the era of good feelings never really ended.

Mr. Rohrabacher has laughed off suggestions that he is a Russian asset, and said in an interview that he did not remember being briefed that the Russians viewed him as a source. The F.B.I. and the senior members of the House Intelligence Committee sat Mr. Rohrabacher down in the Capitol in 2012 to warn him that Russian spies were trying to recruit him, according to two former intelligence officials.

“I remember them telling me, ‘You have been targeted to be recruited as an agent,’” he said. “How stupid is that?”

And yet, as investigators in Washington scrutinize the Russian interference campaign, Mr. Rohrabacher, like an extra in an spy thriller, just keeps showing up — if not quite at the scene of the action, then just off camera.

In April 2016, he was in Moscow, accepting a copy of a “confidential” memo containing accusations against prominent Democratic donors that would, months later, reappear in Trump Tower when a Russian lawyer who had reported those allegations to the Russian government, Natalia V. Veselnitskaya, sat down with Donald Trump Jr. to deliver a similar document.

Last August he was in London on a quick diversion from an anniversary trip to the Iberian Peninsula to meet Mr. Assange at the fugitive’s sanctuary in the Ecuadorean Embassy. American intelligence agencies believe Mr. Assange acted as a conduit for Russian operatives seeking to release a trove of hacked Democratic emails. Mr. Assange denies the accusation, and Mr. Rohrabacher hoped to broker a meeting with Mr. Trump to allow him to make his case.

Then earlier this year, this time on Capitol Hill, Mr. Rohrabacher dined with Alexander Torshin, the deputy governor of the Russian central bank who has been linked both to Russia’s security services and organized crime. During Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign, Mr. Torshin tried to set up a “backdoor” meeting between Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin, according to an email that has been turned over to Senate investigators.

Mr. Rohrabacher asserted that none of the meetings were untoward or inappropriate, given his chairmanship. Ms. Veselnitskaya and her allies are fighting the Magnitsky Act, which imposed sanctions on Russian officials for human rights abuses, and they deserved a hearing, he said. Russia, he argued, could be a key ally to defeat Islamic terrorists in the Middle East, and under Mr. Putin, the Kremlin has undertaken key reforms back home.

“I want to treat Russia as if it is a nation state that deserves to be judged as all other nation states are judged,” he said.

Mr. Rohrabacher said his efforts to connect Mr. Assange with the president have been stonewalled by John F. Kelly, the White House chief of staff.

NBC News reported this month that Mr. Mueller’s investigators are looking at a 2016 meeting between Mr. Rohrabacher and Mr. Flynn, whose lobbying for foreign powers has come under scrutiny by the special counsel.

Mr. Rohrabacher acknowledged meeting Mr. Flynn twice, once to discuss computer chip technology and once to discuss a plan advanced by Mr. Flynn late last year to build a series of nuclear power plants across the Middle East. He said he did not remember discussing Russia.

“All I remember about that meeting is that they were promoting some kind of an idea about having Gulf State countries invest in building nuclear power plants of some kind, I think,” Mr. Rohrabacher said.

Mr. Rohrabacher may shrug off such scrutiny, but on the Foreign Affairs Committee, fellow Republicans have had enough. The committee’s chairman, Representative Ed Royce of California, pushed out Mr. Rohrabacher’s top committee aide, Paul Behrends, in July amid stories about his ties to pro-Russian lobbyists.



Mr. Rohrabacher, the chairman of an important Foreign Affairs subcommittee overseeing policy toward Europe, including Russia, has seen his power curtailed by fellow Republicans. Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Since then, the chairman has taken a more hands-on approach to managing Mr. Rohrabacher’s subcommittee, a Republican House aide said. The chairman has not imposed a blanket ban on Mr. Rohrabacher’s travel or power to convene hearings, nor has he stripped Mr. Rohrabacher of his subcommittee chairmanship.

But Mr. Royce’s aides are closely scrutinizing his requests.

Mr. Rohrabacher has given conflicting assessments of his own status on the committee, most recently saying that he faced few limitations. But in an interview with The New York Times in late October, he acknowledged actions to curtail his activities and said they represented Republican regrets about leaving the gavel to someone who would not “just go along and get along with whatever the State Department wants.”

“What happens with our committee is, if there is anything positive to say about Russia, it is trash-canned,” he said.

Back home, Mr. Rohrabacher’s challengers from both parties have seized on the restrictions and the unwanted attention he is getting from investigators to make the case that he is out of step with the issues voters in the district care about.

Independent analysts and political operatives from both parties said that the Russia issue, the district’s steady leftward drift and a frustration with Republicans in control in Washington has put Mr. Rohrabacher on unstable ground.

Hans Keirstead, a prominent stem-cell researcher competing with five other Democrats to challenge Mr. Rohrabacher, compared the Republican’s Russia record to “a prologue to a very bad book.”

“We’ve got a Russian-tainted congressman” Mr. Keirstead said in an interview, adding “Why should the constituents of the 48th District vote for an individual whose interests are elsewhere?”

Mr. Rohrabacher may be getting the message. In an invitation to a $1,000-a-head fund-raising lunch he will host at the Monocle Restaurant on Capitol Hill next month, he told supporters he was “under attack” like never before: “The attacks on my conservative positions on issues are unrelenting, nefarious and underhanded.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/21/us/p ... -fire.html



NY Times Just Revealed Russian Government Groomed A Republican Congressman As An “Asset”

By Grant Stern November 22, 2017

The New York Times just released a bombshell report that one House Republican was considered so important to the Kremlin, they gave him his own code name and considered him a Russian asset.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) began his political career as a speechwriter for famously anti-communist President Ronald Reagan. Thirty years ago, he was elected to Congress and has spent much of that time gravitating towards Russia’s orbit, beginning with a notorious arm-wrestling match with Vladimir Putin before his rise to power.

Now, Rohrabacher’s Russian contacts have drawn him closer to the Special Counsel’s election probe than any other person outside of the direct orbit of the Trump Campaign, save for perhaps Julian Assange. The Times reports:

For two decades, Representative Dana Rohrabacher has been of value to the Kremlin, so valuable in recent years that the F.B.I. warned him in 2012 that Russia regarded him as an intelligence sourceworthy of a Kremlin code name.

The following year, the California Republican became even more valuable, assuming the chairmanship of the Foreign Affairs subcommittee that oversees Russia policy. He sailed to re-election again and again, even as he developed ties to Vladimir V. Putin’s Russia.

Verified Politics exclusive reporting indicates that Rep. Rohrabacher began taking foreign political cash from Trump’s indicted ex-Campaign Chairman as far back as 2013 (shortly after the FBI warned that he was being recruited by Putin’s spies).

Add your name to millions demanding Congress take action on the President’s crimes. IMPEACH TRUMP & PENCE!

Paul Manafort later admitted that he donated the money as part of his work as a secret agent of Ukraine’s pro-Putin political party. Those donations landed Rohrabacher and Republican House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Ed Royce under investigation by Special Counsel Mueller.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher rocketed to national infamy this year after an early summer Washington Post report revealed that House Republican leadership believed he was collecting Russian money during last year’s elections, along with Donald Trump.

Speaker Paul Ryan told the assembled GOP lawmakers to cover it all up and keep it “in the family” with “no leaks.”

The House GOP leadership meeting took place on June 15th, 2016, just one day after Rep. Rohrabacher held a meeting about “U.S. Policy Towards Putin’s Russia,” which he also attended as an unregistered lobbyist. Here is a photo of that meeting:


After the Congressional hearing, Rep. Rohrabacher attended an exclusive screening of a Russian propaganda film at Washington’s Newseum, just a few blocks from the capital, with the very same Kremlin agent who dangled dirt on Hillary Clinton to the Trump campaign only days earlier.

Later this summer, Rohrabacher was caught quite literally taking orders from Vladimir Putin’s prosecutor-general Yuri Chaika, before holding that meeting.

He used that script from the Russian government to try and turn that hearing of the House Subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia and Emerging Threats, which he still Chairs – including foreign policy oversight on matters related to Russia – into a show trial of deceased attorney Sergey Magnitsky, whose posthumous trial has inspired two anti-corruption sanctions laws here, and more recently a new Magnitsky Act which was passed in Canada.

Just last month, Vladimir Putin himself read talking points off of the very same script handed to Rep. Rohrabacher last year. Veselnitskaya released her notes for the Trump Tower meeting given to her by Chaika, which were also in accord with Putin’s and Rohrabacher’s scripts.

In August, Rep. Rohrabacher traveled with a villainous GOP political operative all the way to London to personally meet Wikileaks founder Julian Assange in the Ecuadoran embassy, in order to carry his water back to Washington D.C.

The California Republicans insane plans to get Assange an audience with the President were kiboshed by Chief of Staff John Kelly, but it turns out that Donald Trump Jr. followed the fugitive publisher on Twitter in order to turn on a DM channel almost immediately after the London visit.


Last week’s revelations in The Atlantic and DM messages released by Don Jr. himself indicate that his outreach to Assange this year was no accident since Wikileaks has been communicating with the President’s son during and after the election.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher’s role in the Trump-Russia probe isn’t entirely clear yet, but his frequent contacts with high-ranking members of Putin’s inner circle has drawn him into Special Counsel Muller’s probe and put him in the unusual position of being called as a witness in the Senate’s Russia investigation too, while a sitting member of the House.

The Times noted that the House Foreign Affairs Committee hasn’t restricted Rohrabacher’s activities or travel yet, but the Chairman says he’s finally keeping a close eye on Putin’s favorite Congressman.

Finally.
http://verifiedpolitics.com/ny-times-ju ... man-asset/
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Re: Will Flynn bring back Yellowcake to WH Menu after 1-21-1

Postby seemslikeadream » Fri Nov 24, 2017 10:19 am

the general has brought yellowkerk back to the White House and trump is getting ready to have it shoved down his throat

Flynn Lawyers Break Off Contact with Trump Team In Possible Sign of Plea Deal


Sipa USA via AP
By Eric Tucker Published NOVEMBER 24, 2017 12:03 AM

WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawyers for former national security adviser Michael Flynn have told President Donald Trump’s legal team that they are no longer communicating with them about special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election interference.

The decision could be a sign that Flynn is moving to cooperate with Mueller’s investigation or negotiate a deal for himself. Flynn’s legal team communicated the decision this week, said a person familiar with the move who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.
In large criminal investigations, defense lawyers routinely share information with each other. But it can become unethical to continue such communication if one of the potential targets is looking to negotiate a deal with prosecutors. Robert Kelner, a lawyer for Flynn, didn’t respond to a request for comment Thursday. A lawyer for Flynn’s son, Michael Flynn Jr., who has also come under investigation from Mueller’s team of prosecutors, declined to comment.
The New York Times first reported the decision.

Flynn was forced to resign as national security adviser in February after White House officials concluded that he had misled them about the nature of his contacts during the transition period with the Russian ambassador to the United States.

He was interviewed by the FBI in January about his communications with the ambassador, Sergey Kislyak. The deputy attorney general at the time, Sally Yates, soon advised White House officials that their public assertions that Flynn had not discussed sanctions with Kislyak were incorrect and that Flynn was therefore in a compromised position.

Flynn was facing a Justice Department investigation over his foreign business dealings even before Mueller was appointed as special counsel in May to investigate potential coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election. Mueller has since inherited that investigation.

Flynn, a prominent Trump backer on the campaign trail, has been a key figure in Mueller’s probe and of particular interest to Trump. Former FBI Director James Comey, for instance, said that Trump encouraged him to end an FBI investigation into Flynn during a private Oval Office meeting in February.

In addition to scrutinizing Flynn’s contacts with Russia during the transition and campaign, Mueller has been investigating the retired U.S. Army lieutenant general’s role in $530,000 worth of lobbying work his now-defunct firm performed for a Turkish businessman during the final months of the 2016 presidential campaign.

The lobbying campaign sought to gather derogatory information on Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish cleric and green-card holder living in Pennsylvania. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused Gulen of being behind a botched coup and has sought his extradition. Gulen has denied the allegations, and U.S. officials have rebuffed Turkey’s extradition demands, citing a lack of evidence.

Flynn and his firm, Flynn Intel Group, carried out the lobbying and research work for several months, meeting with officials from the U.S. and Turkish governments. Flynn also published an op-ed on Election Day in The Hill newspaper, parroting many of the Turkish government’s talking points about Gulen. At the time, neither Flynn nor his company was registered with the Justice Department to represent Turkish interests.

Soon after the publication of the op-ed, the Justice Department began investigating Flynn’s lobbying work, and in March, he registered with the department as a foreign agent. In federal filings, Flynn acknowledged the work could have benefited the government of Turkey.

Since then, FBI agents working for Mueller have been investigating whether the Turkish government was directing the lobbying work and not a private company owned by a Turkish businessman, Ekim Alptekin, as Flynn’s firm has contended. FBI agents have also been asking about Flynn’s business partner, Bijan Kian, who served on Trump’s presidential transition, and his son, Michael Flynn Jr., who worked for his father as part of the lobbying campaign. Flynn Jr. also was a near constant presence around his father during the Trump campaign and presidential transition period.

Mueller announced his first charges in the investigation last month, including the guilty plea of a foreign-policy adviser to the campaign, George Papadopoulos, and the indictments of former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and business associate Rick Gates.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/flynn ... -plea-deal



Hours after Michael Flynn reveals he’s cutting a deal, Donald Trump makes suspicious phone call
Bill Palmer
Updated: 11:44 am EST Fri Nov 24, 2017
Home » Politics

Donald Trump’s former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn signaled last night that he’s cutting a deal with Special Counsel Robert Mueller (link), in a move which will certainly end up costing Trump his presidency, and may end up costing Trump his freedom. Instead of staging an unhinged Twitter meltdown this morning in response, Trump has made a highly suspicious move which appears to have been a response to Flynn’s reveal.


Here’s what Trump tweeted this morning: “Will be speaking to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey this morning about bringing peace to the mess that I inherited in the Middle East. I will get it all done, but what a mistake, in lives and dollars (6 trillion), to be there in the first place!” The timing here cannot be overlooked. Michael Flynn was on the payroll of the government of Turkey during the campaign and the transition period. One of the crimes he’s accused of is conspiring with Turkey to kidnap a cleric in Pennsylvania and ship him overseas. Now, just hours after Flynn decided to negotiate a plea deal against Trump, Trump is suddenly on the phone with the leader of Turkey. It gets stranger.


Last week Reza Zarrab, who is in U.S. federal prison and accused of conspiring with the government of Turkey to commit crimes against the United States, disappeared just as his trial was getting underway (link). It’s widely suspected that Robert Mueller has been using Zarrab as a cooperating witness in the grand jury proceedings against Michael Flynn. The government of Turkey keeps stating that it wants Zarrab back. Trump’s close ally Rudy Giuliani is facing legal trouble of his own for having tried to sabotage the Zarrab trial on Turkey’s behalf. Last week Giuliani mysteriously turned up in Ukraine (link), where he was spotted meeting with an ally of Trump’s campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who is currently under house arrest and awaiting trial for crimes against the United States.

So no one really knows what’s going on here, except for Robert Mueller, and maybe Michael Flynn. But now that Flynn is negotiating a deal with Mueller, Donald Trump is suddenly eager for an excuse to jump on the phone with the leader of Turkey, who is accused of having tried to hire Flynn to kidnap a guy. The plot continues to thicken – but once Flynn starts spilling his guts to Mueller, it’ll all become much simpler going forward.

http://www.palmerreport.com/politics/ph ... rump/6210/
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Re: Will Flynn bring back Yellowcake to WH Menu after 1-21-1

Postby seemslikeadream » Sun Nov 26, 2017 11:22 am

WSJ: Mueller’s Attention Turns To Flynn’s Documentary On Turkish Cleric

Special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating Michael Flynn’s work on an unfinished film about the Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen (pictured above), the Wall Street Journal reported Friday, citing unnamed people familiar with the matter.

Flynn had been the subject of a federal probe regarding unregistered lobbying work prior to Mueller’s appointment as special counsel, a probe which Mueller incorporated into his broader investigation once assuming his current position.

Specifically at question, in addition to Flynn’s contacts with Russia during the 2016 election, is Flynn’s company’s $530,000 contract with a Turkish businessman with ties to the country’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Flynn and business partner Bijan Kian worked for the businessman, Ekim Alptekin, on anti-Gulen material including a documentary while Flynn also worked for Trump’s presidential campaign.

Flynn published an op-ed on Election Day echoing the Turkish president’s position on Gulen. Following the election, Kian joined Flynn on Trump’s national security transition team.

The Journal reported Friday, citing unnamed people familiar with Mueller’s investigation, that the FBI is “preparing to interview consultants” hired by Flynn to work on the Gulen documentary.

The report noted that, in May, one freelance journalist hired by Flynn to film interviews for the documentary claimed to have been told by Flynn to keep his company’s involvement secret.

“He said: ‘We don’t want anyone to know the Flynn Intel Group has anything to do with this,” the journalist, Dave Enders, said.

Citing unnamed people familiar with the matter, the Journal reported that the FBI has contacted Enders and another journalist hired for the project, Rudi Bakhtiar, “to ask them about their roles in the venture.”

Bakhtiar told the Journal in May that Flynn misled her about the project.

“He never said ‘We’re going to make a documentary that’s going to crush Gulen,'” she told the Journal. “I never would have done it.”

The Friday report added: “Others who have already spoken to the FBI have said that investigators have been asking detailed questions about Kian, former vice chair of the now-defunct Flynn Intel Group.”

Edorgan’s demand that Gulen be extradited to Turkey — the cleric stands accused of inciting an attempted coup, an accusation he denies — has so far been rejected by the United States.

The New York Times first reported Thursday that Flynn’s lawyers had ceased communicating with President Donald Trump’s lawyers on Mueller’s expansive investigation, hinting at the possibility that Flynn is cooperating with Mueller.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/m ... ish-cleric


Turkey No Longer Has Mike Flynn's Back as Mueller and NY AG Schneiderman Team Up Against Him

The government of Turkey couldn’t apparently care less that President Donald Trump’s former National Security Advisor, Mike Flynn, is reportedly being investigated for Turkey’s $15 million offer to kidnap a Muslim cleric in Pennsylvania.

As Politico reported Saturday, Mike Flynn would likely be in a Turkish prison if he were a citizen of that country, due to July 2016 comments supporting a coup against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. One year after the failed coup, 55,000 Turks still remain behind bars.
“Any foreign official would, at the very least, have been roundly condemned and vilified in the Turkish pro-government press,” Politico explained. “But for Flynn, Turkey appeared happy to make an exception.”

Flynn allegedly went from supporting the coup in July, to conspiring to kidnap of the coup’s alleged leader, Mulsim cleric Fethullah Gülen, in September and December.

The meetings about the alleged kidnapping took place in New York City, which may have played a key role in Mike Flynn supposedly being “flipped” by special counsel Robert Mueller.

Former Watergate prosecutor Jill Wine-Banks explained her theory to MSNBC anchor Katy Tur on Friday.

“I think the reason for that may be the state charges are possible on the talking about kidnapping Gulen, the Muslim cleric,” Wine-Banks suggested. “That could explain why he’s cooperating instead of waiting for a pardon, is the need for protection you can’t get pardoned from a state crime.”

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman (D) would have jurisdiction to prosecute the alleged kidnapping conspiracy as it occured in New York City. President Trump could potentially pardon Flynn for federal crimes, but only New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) could pardon Flynn for any conviction on state charges.

“I think he’s taking the right steps and I’m sure that he will have had a proffer of evidence from Flynn before he would engage in conversations [about a deal],” Wine-Banks noted. “Unless Flynn can give him Jared Kushner, Don Jr, or the president, he’s not of value to him and he would prosecute him for the numerous crimes that he’s being investigated for.”

At this point, it appears that Flynn is no longer of any value to Turkey.
https://www.alternet.org/right-wing/mue ... im-out-dry
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Re: Will Flynn bring back Yellowcake to WH Menu after 1-21-1

Postby seemslikeadream » Mon Nov 27, 2017 8:01 pm

Image

SPOTTED at Mar-a-Lago
11/27/2017 06:17 AM EST

SPOTTED AT MAR-A-LAGO: Trump and first lady Melania Trump were seated at the main dining table Saturday night with Marvel Entertainment Chairman Ike Perlmutter and his wife Laurie, according to a tipster. Trump and former CIA Director James Woolsey had a “lengthy conversation” at his table.

NEARBY DINERS INCLUDED: Eric and Lara Trump, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and his wife Hilary Ross with Howard and Michele Kessler, Chris Ruddy hosting Woolsey and his wife Nancye Miller Woolsey and Kimberly Reed, Lee and Erika Lipton with Jack and Barbara Nicklaus and Bret and Amy Baier, and Robin and Richard Bernstein.


Was James Woolsey wearing a wire at Mar-a-Lago this weekend when he met with Donald Trump?
Bill Palmer
Updated: 3:03 pm EST Mon Nov 27, 2017
Home » Opinion

About a month ago, former CIA Director James Woolsey confirmed to the media that he’s been fully cooperating with Special Counsel Robert Mueller in the investigation into Michael Flynn’s alleged kidnapping plot with the government of Turkey. Now it’s being reported that Woolsey spoke extensively with Donald Trump this weekend at Mar-a-Lago. Wait, what? There are only two possible explanations here, and they’re both remarkably odd.


The first scenario would be that Woolsey recklessly decided to meet with Donald Trump in order to help sabotage the investigation, knowing that Mueller would find out, and knowing that he might be risking obstruction of justice charges in the process. Trump does tend to have a corrupting influence on those around him, but we’ve already seen that Woolsey is immune to it. When he first overheard the Flynn kidnapping plot, he immediately reported it to then-Vice President Joe Biden. Why? Woolsey didn’t want to risk committing a felony by failing to report a felony.


So unless Woolsey has suddenly gone uncharacteristically off the deep end, we’re looking at the only other possible scenario: Trump invited Woolsey to Mar-a-Lago in the hope of winning him over, Woolsey informed Mueller, and Mueller told him to go for strategic reasons. In such case Woolsey likely would have been wearing a wire, or using some other method of collecting evidence. This would mean that Trump and his legal team are incredibly stupid, considering that Woolsey already announced to the world that he’s working with Mueller.


And yet that second scenario is the only plausible explanation. Donald Trump decided to try to glad-hand James Woolsey into helping him on the Michael Flynn thing, and Woolsey and Robert Mueller used it as an opportunity to nail Trump even further for obstruction of justice. Is Trump truly that arrogant to have tried such a stupid thing? Are his lawyers really that inept to let it happen? Yes, come to think of it.
http://www.palmerreport.com/opinion/wir ... lsey/6285/



A key witness in the Russia probe had a 'lengthy conversation' with Trump at Mar-a-Lago

Natasha Bertrand


James Woolsey, the former CIA director who has been cooperating with the special counsel Robert Mueller, had a "lengthy conversation" with President Donald Trump over dinner last weekend at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort.
Woolsey, who served on the board of Michael Flynn's lobbying firm, Flynn Intel Group, was at a meeting on September 19, 2016, with Flynn and Turkish government ministers in which they discussed removing the controversial Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen from US soil, Woolsey has said.
Mueller's team has interviewed Woolsey about that meeting, and Woolsey has been in touch with the FBI since before Mueller began overseeing the bureau's Russia investigation in May.
Former CIA Director James Woolsey dined with President Donald Trump last weekend at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida — where, a report said, they had a "lengthy conversation" at the main dining table surrounded by several of Trump's friends, associates, and political allies.

A tipster told Politico's Playbook about the conversation, which raised eyebrows given Woolsey's centrality to the special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Michael Flynn, the former national security adviser.

Woolsey, who served on the board of Flynn's lobbying firm, Flynn Intel Group, was at a meeting on September 19, 2016, with Flynn and Turkish government ministers in which they discussed removing the controversial Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen from US soil, Woolsey has said.

Woolsey apparently notified Vice President Joe Biden through a mutual friend about the meeting, which he thought could have been an illegal discussion, Woolsey's spokesman, Jonathan Franks, said earlier this year.

Franks confirmed late last month that Mueller's team had interviewed Woolsey about the meeting. He said Woolsey and his wife had been in touch with the FBI since before Mueller began overseeing the bureau's Russia investigation in May.

"Ambassador Woolsey and his wife have been in communication with the FBI regarding the September 19, 2016, meeting Ambassador Woolsey was invited to attend by one of General Flynn's business partners," Franks said in a statement at the time. "Ambassador Woolsey and his wife have responded to every request, whether from the FBI, or, more recently, the Office of the Special Counsel."

woolsey mccain Sen. John McCain of Arizona and Woolsey. LM Otero/AP

Franks released another statement responding to Politico Playbook's tip on Monday. "Ambassador Woolsey has served 4 Presidents," the statement said. "He has never communicated the contents of his conversations with any of them to a third party and doesn’t intend to start now."

Woolsey's participation in the September 19, 2016 meeting and another one the next day with two Turkish businessmen — during which he reportedly pitched a $10 million contract to help discredit Gulen — may have landed him on the FBI's radar even before Trump won the presidency.

Now, Mueller has reportedly gathered enough evidence against Flynn and his son to charge them with crimes related to their previously unregistered lobbying work for Turkish government interests.

Legal experts have speculated that Mueller may be leveraging the threat of an indictment against Flynn and his son to get them to cooperate with the investigation into whether Trump's campaign team — for which Flynn was a top surrogate — colluded with Russia, and whether Trump sought to obstruct justice by firing James Comey as FBI director in May.

Flynn was forced to resign as national security adviser in early February after reports surfaced that he had spoken several times during the transition with Russia's ambassador to the US at the time, Sergey Kislyak, about US sanctions on Russia.

Franks was not immediately able to comment on what Woolsey and Trump discussed over dinner last weekend. But the conversation is likely to be of interest to investigators scrutinizing Flynn — to whom Trump has reportedly remained loyal — and examining why Trump asked Comey shortly after Flynn resigned if the FBI would consider dropping the investigation into Flynn.

"Whenever a subject of a criminal investigation talks to a witness, the prosecution will ask questions about what was discussed during that meeting," said Renato Mariotti, a former federal prosecutor. In this case, he said, the subject is Trump and the witness is Woolsey.

Woolsey abruptly resigned as a senior adviser to Trump's transition team in January, one day before Trump was set to receive a briefing from US intelligence officials on Russia's interference in the 2016 election.

The Washington Post reported at the time that Woolsey became uncomfortable after he was cut out of intelligence talks between Trump and Flynn and that he was taken aback by Trump's plans to restructure the CIA.

"The campaign was over, and I didn't want them to keep saying that I was a senior adviser on the transition because I really wasn't," Woolsey told Megyn Kelly, then a Fox News anchor, in his first post-resignation interview. "I was not really called upon to go to meetings or participate in work on the transition."
http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-ja ... go-2017-11



Trump and Pence Could Have Been Responsible for Flynn's Suspicious Russia Phone Call, Says Ex-Intelligence Analyst


Appearing on MSNBC’s AM Joy, a former naval intelligence officer accused President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence of possibly being behind former National Security Advisor Mike Flynn’s mysterious phone call to Russia after the election.

During a panel discussion of the initial targets of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into the the Trump campaign, security analyst Malcolm Nance noted that are four ways the Justice Department-appointed investigator can approach nailing Flynn before working working his way through other Trump aides.

“Is Michael Flynn the person who most likely has the answer on whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia or is his real problem that he was making money on the side?” Nance was asked by host Joy Reid.

“He has four issues that will come down on him,” Nance began. “One: taking money from Russia while holding a top secret security clearance and not saying anything about it. That could lead him to charges of being an unwitting intelligence asset. Two: taking money from the Turks in order to extradite illegally a U.S. resident to Turkey which is kidnapping, federal conspiracy charges — that’s bad.”

“Three: there’s making that phone call to Moscow in December of last year,” he continued. “That is significant because that could implicate Mike Pence and Donald Trump as having ordered him do that, and he may have lied about it. And finally, he may have been the executive officer of all the dirty tricks campaigns to get the Wikileaks information, the information from the Russian lawyer, and the information from the Podesta leaks and the rest to find Hillary Clinton’s e-mails — which means he’s neck deep in all of them.”

“The question is, which are the easy ones Mueller is going for?” Nance said before suggesting, “I think he’s going for the Turkey and Russia payments, that’s documentary, he can get that. Finally, it was [Trump attorney] Jay Sekulow who dropped a hint about the security clearance of Flynn, saying Obama cleared him. So that leads me to believe it’s more the Moscow phone call and him being an Moscow intelligence asset.”

Watch the video below via MSNBC:
https://www.alternet.org/human-rights/e ... mysterious



Michael Flynn's lawyer meets with members of special counsel's team, raising specter of plea deal
By MATTHEW MOSK MIKE LEVINE BRIAN ROSS Nov 27, 2017, 1:35 PM ET
Carlos Barria/Reuters, FILE

Michael Flynn's lawyer meets members of special counsel's team, raising possibility of plea deal
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The lawyer for President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser Michael T. Flynn met Monday morning with members of special counsel Robert Mueller’s team — the latest indication that both sides are discussing a possible plea deal, ABC News has learned.


Trump’s legal team confirmed late last week that Flynn’s attorney Robert Kelner alerted the team that he could no longer engage in privileged discussions about defense strategy in the case — a sign Flynn is preparing to negotiate with prosecutors over a deal that could include his testimony against the president or senior White House officials.

That process would typically include a series of off-the-record discussions in which prosecutors lay out in detail for Flynn and his lawyers the fruits of their investigation into his activities. Prosecutors would also provide Flynn an opportunity to offer what’s called a proffer, detailing what information, if any, he has that could implicate others in wrongdoing.

When reached Monday, Kelner declined to comment on the nature of his morning visit to Mueller’s offices in Washington, D.C.

Sources familiar with the discussions between Flynn’s legal team and Trump’s attorneys told ABC News that while there was never a formal, signed joint defense agreement between Flynn’s defense counsel and other targets of the Mueller probe, the lawyers had engaged in privileged discussions for months.

Jay Sekulow, a member of Trump’s legal team, told ABC News last week that the break was “not entirely unexpected.”

“No one should draw the conclusion that this means anything about Gen. Flynn cooperating against the president,” Sekulow said.

The New York Times broke the news, calling it an indication that Flynn may be cooperating with prosecutors.

Sources familiar with the Flynn investigation have told ABC News the retired lieutenant general has felt increased pressure since prosecutors began focusing attention on his son, Michael G. Flynn, who worked as part of the Flynn Intel Group, the consulting firm founded by the elder Flynn, a former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency. Michael G. Flynn also traveled with his father to Russia in 2015 for his now famous appearance at a Moscow dinner where he sat next to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Democrats in Congress have told ABC News they forwarded information to the Mueller team alleging that Michael T. Flynn illegally concealed more than a dozen foreign contacts and overseas trips during the process of renewing his security clearances.

“It appears that General Flynn violated federal law by omitting this trip and these foreign contacts from his security clearance renewal application in 2016 and concealing them from security clearance investigators who interviewed him as part of the background check process,” Reps. Elijah Cummings and Eliot L. Engel, both Democrats, wrote in a letter to Flynn’s attorney.

The letter highlights information House investigators collected from executives at three private companies advised by Flynn in 2015 and 2016. The companies were pursuing a joint venture with Russia to bring nuclear power to several Middle Eastern countries and secure the resulting nuclear fuel before Flynn joined then-candidate Trump on the campaign trail.

Flynn is a decorated military officer who served as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency from 2012 until his retirement in 2014. He was out of the spotlight only briefly. He joined the Trump campaign as an adviser in 2016, and Trump later named Flynn as his first national security adviser. He was forced to resign, however, after just 24 days on the job, when it was revealed that he misled Vice President Mike Pence about his conversations with Russian officials during the presidential transition.

Cummings told ABC News that Flynn’s foreign contacts — which involved high-ranking foreign officials and business executives — were so numerous they could not have been inadvertent omissions or incidental contacts.

“He has, over and over again, omitted information that he should have disclosed,” Cummings said. “It’s not an aberration, and that’s clear.

Flynn’s lawyer has declined to comment on the letter, and when ABC News tracked down Flynn this summer at a beach in Newport, Rhode Island — his hometown — he didn’t say much more.

“I’m just having a great time with the family here,” Flynn said. “I’m doing good, [but] I’m not going to make any comments.”

The alleged omissions could be a serious matter — and not just for Flynn. While Cummings said intentionally omitting foreign contacts when applying for security clearance can carry a five-year prison term, he acknowledged that penalties are rarely so severe. The leverage the alleged transgressions provide, however, could prove useful to prosecutors seeking to use the threat of prosecution to compel Flynn’s assistance in the broader investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign.

Former FBI Director James Comey provided a window into that strategy during his three hours of testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee earlier this year.

“There is always a possibility if you have a criminal case against someone and you bring them in, squeeze them, flip them, [that] they give you information about something else,” Comey said.

The alleged omissions are just the latest to make trouble for Flynn. He failed to declare a December 2015 trip to Russia, where he sat next to Putin and for which was paid $33,000. In March 2017, Flynn submitted a late filing with the Department of Justice under the Foreign Agent Registration Act, revealing that the Flynn Intel Group was paid $530,000 for three months of work on behalf of a Dutch firm owned by a Turkish businessman with close ties to the Turkish government.


Flynn’s work for Turkey remains the subject of additional scrutiny. Of interest to federal agents, according to people interviewed by the FBI, is his alleged role in a bizarre, unrealized proposal first reported by The Wall Street Journal to kidnap Turkish dissident cleric Fethullah Gulen, who is living in exile in rural Pennsylvania and is suspected of involvement in a failed coup attempt.

Gulen, who has denied involvement in the coup attempt, has lived legally in the Pocono Mountains since 1999, and the Turkish government has been financing efforts to persuade the U.S. government to return him to Turkey for years.

Former CIA Director James Woolsey confirmed for ABC News he was at a meeting in which Flynn allegedly raised the idea.

“It became clear to me that they were seriously considering a kidnapping operation for Gulen, and I told them then that it was a bad idea, it was illegal,” Woolsey said. “I won’t say that they had firmly decided to do that. But they were seriously considering it.”

Kelner, Flynn’s lawyer, took the rare step of publicly refuting those assertions, saying there was no such discussion and calling them categorically “false.” In mid-July at a press conference, the Turkish ambassador to the U.S. also denied the notion of a kidnapping plot.

“There’s no truth to that,” he said, adding that the Turkish government was following “traditional” procedures to have Gulen extradited “through the legal channels.”
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/michael- ... d=51412187




Michael Flynn’s role in Mideast nuclear project could compound legal issues

The Washington Post’s Carol D. Leonnig and Michael Kranish explain why House Democrats have questions about a trip Michael Flynn took the Middle East in 2015.
(Video: Jenny Starrs, Bastien Inzaurralde/Photo: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

By Michael Kranish, Tom Hamburger and Carol D. Leonnig November 27 at 6:11 PM
In June 2015, retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn took a little-noticed trip to Egypt and Israel, paid for by a U.S. company he was advising. The company hoped to build more than two dozen nuclear plants in the region, in partnership with Russian interests.

Flynn’s quiet involvement in that project — and his failure to disclose his ties to the effort — could complicate the legal issues facing President Trump’s former national security adviser, who has signaled that he may be willing to cooperate with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.

[Flynn’s lawyer shuts down communications with Trump’s team, a sign he may be cooperating with Mueller probe]

Congressional Democrats say Flynn may have violated federal law by failing to disclose the Middle Eastern trip in his security clearance renewal application in 2016. A top House Republican declined the Democrats’ request for a congressional inquiry but referred the allegations to the special counsel.

Last month, Mueller revealed that his wide-ranging investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election has led to charges against three former Trump campaign officials. One of them, foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos, has been cooperating, according to court filings.

There are now signs that Flynn — whose international dealings have been the subject of intense interest by the special counsel — may also be willing to share information with prosecutors. Last week, his attorney shut down communications with Trump’s legal team, a development many interpreted as suggesting possible cooperation with Mueller.

Investigators for the special counsel have been examining whether Flynn hid foreign business dealings, particularly work he did for Turkish interests during the campaign, according to people familiar with the probe.

The nuclear venture is yet another instance in which Flynn appeared to have a personal stake in an international project while he was advising Trump in 2016, giving prosecutors one more potential avenue to pressure him to cooperate.

A spokesman for Mueller declined to comment. An attorney for Flynn declined to comment.

Flynn remained involved in the Middle Eastern nuclear project from the spring of 2015 to the end of 2016, according to recent financial disclosure filings, a period that partially overlapped with his role as a prominent adviser to Trump’s campaign and transition.

“General Flynn’s actions are part of a broader pattern of concealing his foreign contacts, payments, travel and work on behalf of foreign interests,” said Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (Md.), the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. “The bigger question is this: What did President Trump know, and why did he disregard all the red flags?”

The White House declined to comment.

Flynn served as an adviser to two Washington-based companies pursuing efforts to build nuclear power plants in the Middle East: ACU Strategic Partners, which proposed a partnership with Russian interests, and IP3/IronBridge, which later launched a separate endeavor that initially proposed working with China to build the infrastructure, according to federal documents and company officials.

In various filings in 2016 and 2017, Flynn did not initially disclose his connection to ACU and foreign contacts he made while advising the firm.

Flynn said he served as an “advisor” to ACU from April 2015 through June 2016, according to an amended financial disclosure he filed this August. But he made no mention of the company in a “Truth in Testimony” form he signed for a congressional appearance in June 2015, shortly before he traveled to the Middle East on the trip paid for by ACU. Flynn wrote that he was representing his company, Flynn Intel Group, at the hearing.

Flynn also did not reveal his ties to ACU on the personal financial disclosure form he completed in February after entering the White House, according to federal filings. It was not until August — six months after he was fired as national security adviser — that he disclosed a relationship with the firm on an amended form.

But perhaps his most serious omission, House Democrats contend, came on his security clearance renewal application in January 2016 and in his interview with background check investigators the following month, according to an Oct. 18 letter signed by Democratic lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee.

“It appears that General Flynn violated federal law by omitting this trip and these foreign contacts from his security clearance renewal application and concealing them from security clearance investigators who interview as part of that background check,” according to the letter.

It is a criminal offense to knowingly omit material information requested by federal officials conducting such a review.

An attorney for Flynn’s company told the committee that it would not provide documents about the Middle Eastern nuclear project unless it is subpoenaed, according to the letter.

Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), chairman of the House Oversight Committee, declined to issue a subpoena and instead referred the Democrats’ concerns to Mueller and Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein.

“Much of what is sought by my Democratic colleagues — if properly investigated, charged and proven beyond a reasonable doubt — would carry criminal penalties,” Gowdy wrote in his Oct. 18 letter, posted by the committee. “Congress does not, and cannot, prosecute crimes.”

Gowdy, a former prosecutor, did not offer his opinion on whether the allegations had merit, but he wrote that he did not want to “risk interfering with any ongoing criminal probes.”

[Lobbying activities of Michael Flynn’s son being examined by special counsel on Russia]

Flynn, who was fired by President Barack Obama from his post as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2014, became involved in ACU’s project in 2015, as part of a group of former top military and diplomatic officials and nuclear experts the company assembled to help push its plan.

The idea: to build several dozen “proliferation-proof” nuclear power plants across Persian Gulf states. The plan relied heavily on Russian interests, which would help build the plants, as well as possibly take possession of spent fuel that could be used to build a nuclear weapon, according to people familiar with the project.

ACU’s managing director, Alex Copson, had been promoting variations of building nuclear facilities with Russian help for more than two decades, according to news reports. Copson did not respond to requests for comment, and ACU’s counsel, Don Gross, declined to comment.

ACU officials declined to identify its investors. The company said in a statement Monday night that it “has never used or accepted investment funds from any foreign government or any company or individual affiliated with any foreign government.”

Around the time he began advising the company, Flynn was warning publicly that America’s national security would be at risk if the United States allowed Russia and other countries to spearhead nuclear energy projects in the Middle East.

“I don’t want Russia to be talking to Jordan about building nuclear plants,” Flynn testified before a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on June 10, 2015. “I don’t want the Chinese or Pakistan to be talking to the Saudis about building potentially 10 to 15 plants. I don’t want the Russians to go over to Egypt and talk to them about building nuclear plants.”

“I want the United States of America to be in the driver’s seat,” he added.

Two weeks later, Flynn traveled to the region. There, he urged Egyptian officials not to sign a deal with Russia to build nuclear plants and assured Israeli officials that ACU’s plan could prevent Israel’s enemies from obtaining material for nuclear weapons, according to people familiar with his conversations. The trip was first reported by Newsweek.

Thomas Cochran, an expert on nuclear nonproliferation issues who worked as ACU’s senior scientist, joined Flynn on the Israel portion of the trip. “Because General Flynn firmly believed in the necessity of the project from a US national security perspective, he traveled to Egypt and Israel to explain the ACU project’s importance,” he wrote in a June letter to congressional investigators.

Flynn did not have a contract with ACU, but the company paid more than $5,000 toward his expenses for the trip, according to the firm and federal filings.

ACU also wrote Flynn a $25,000 check for what it described in a letter to the House Oversight Committee as “the loss of income and business opportunities resulting from this trip.” But the company said Flynn never cashed the check, mystifying congressional investigators who have examined the matter.

Around June 2016, according to his financial disclosure, Flynn ended his association with ACU and began advising a company called IP3/IronBridge, co-founded by retired Rear Adm. Michael Hewitt, a former ACU adviser.

IP3 initially proposed partnering with China and other nations, rather than Russia, to build nuclear power plants, according to a company spokesman, who said the China component has since been dropped.

In August 2016, the company produced a PowerPoint presentation that included Flynn’s photo and former government title on a page titled, “IP3/IronBridge: Formidable US Leadership.” The document was labeled as a “Presentation to His Majesty King Salman Bin Abdul Aziz” of Saudi Arabia and displayed the seals of Saudi Arabia and the United States. The presentation was obtained by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee, who made it public.

IP3 officials said in a statement to The Washington Post that the document was never presented to the Saudis. The company also said that while it had offered Flynn a role as “an advisor” in June 2016 with no pay, Flynn responded that he wanted to “hold off.” In December, the company said, he sent a letter to IP3 “terminating the offer.”

Asked why Flynn reported on various financial disclosure forms that he had been a “consultant,” “board member” and “advisor” to IP3, the company said it appeared that Flynn disclosed a “potential” role “out of an abundance of caution.”

Cummings said his committee was not informed that Flynn had an offer from IP3 that he deferred until after the election.

Flynn continued to support the idea of the nuclear project during the presidential transition. He encouraged Tom Barrack, one of Trump’s closest friends, to pursue a related plan and endorsed a colleague’s suggestion that Barrack meet with IP3 officials, according to a person familiar with their conversation.

Barrack was interested in developing a Middle East “Marshall Plan” to provide aid to poor regions of the Persian Gulf as a way to combat terrorism. At Flynn’s urging, he had a lunch with company officials but did not know that Flynn had served as an adviser to the firm, according to the person with knowledge of the episode.

Barrack declined to comment.

Both the ACU and IP3 proposals remain in flux and would require numerous governmental approvals to proceed.

Meanwhile, other nations have moved to secure their own nuclear power projects in the Middle East.

In May, two years after Flynn visited Egypt in an effort to urge that nation not to sign a deal with Russia and to work with an American firm instead, Egypt finalized a deal with Moscow to build its first nuclear power plant. The arrangement was supported by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Alice Crites contributed to this report.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics ... d5fdee2b60



Image






Feds Flip Turkish Crook; Did He Rat on Michael Flynn?

Flynn allegedly discussed getting paid $15 million to help free Reza Zarrab. Now Zarrab is working with federal prosecutors, including possibly Robert Mueller.


Reza Zarrab, a Turkish businessman accused of violating U.S. sanctions on Iran, pleaded guilty and will testify against his co-defendant, a federal court heard Tuesday. Zarrab's cooperation with federal prosecutors could have implications for Michael Flynn, who allegedly plotted on behalf of Turkish interests to help free Zarrab.

Zarrab, a 34-year-old Turkish-Iranian gold trader, is at the center of an Iran sanctions-busting case in which he used his companies and Turkish state-run banks to trade cash for gold in order to secretly buy oil from Iran. A former deputy general manager of one of those banks, Mehmet Atilla, is charged as part of that same conspiracy.

Atilla's lawyers complained that co-defendant Zarrab had vanished in the weeks before trial was to start, an indication that he was no longer cooperating with them but instead federal prosecutors. He is expected to testify Tuesday or Wednesday.

Zarrab’s apparent cooperation with federal prosecutors raised speculation that he was also cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller’s inquiry into Flynn, because it seemed unlikely prosecutors would offer a plea deal to Zarrab in exchange for his cooperation for the comparatively lower-profile trial of Atilla.

Shortly after Zarrab seemed to flip, Flynn’s lawyers terminated a joint defense agreement with the Trump defense team last week. Flynn’s lawyer reportedly met with members of the Mueller probe on Monday, ABC News reported, a further indication that the embattled ex-national security advisor is also pursuing a plea deal.

Zarrab's plight was reportedly raised by Turkish interests in a December 2016 meeting with Flynn, who was designated to be President Trump's national security adviser. Flynn was supposedly offered $15 million to arrange Zarrab’s release and to kidnap an exiled Turkish cleric living in Pennsylvania, Fethullah Gulen, and bring him to Turkey. (Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan accuses Gulen, a former ally, of orchestrating a failed 2016 coup.)

The Zarrab case has roiled the upper echelons of the Turkish government and stems from a 2013 corruption scandal, which allegedly revealed that top-level ministers to bribes to sign off on the sanctions evasions — and even allegedly captured Erdogan and his son talking about how to hide money.

Erdogan has repeatedly raised Zarrab’s release with U.S. officials from the Obama and Trump administrations. Zarrab even retained friends of President Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani and Michael Mukasey, to negotiate a diplomatic release with the top levels of the Trump and Erdogan administrations.

After the jury was selected on Monday, Atilla's lawyers asked the judge to delay the trial so they could prepare for a mystery witness.

“The government should also make clear that the mystery witness is Mr. Reza Zarrab,” Judge Richard Berman wrote in a ruling denying the motion to postpone trial on Monday. “This is something that experienced counsel knew or should have known about for months.”



Turkish gold trader linked to Flynn and Giuliani could start testifying for feds as soon as today

Travis Gettys
A Turkish-Iranian gold trader linked to both Mike Flynn and Rudy Giuliani has agreed to cooperate with U.S. prosecutors.

Reza Zarrab was scheduled to stand trial earlier this month in New York, where the U.S. attorney had filed charges in an international corruption case, but his lawyer confirmed an agreement to exchange his testimony, reported Bloomberg Politics.

Lawyers said the gold trader will testify against a Turkish banker accused of helping Iran evade U.S. sanctions.

He could testify as soon as Tuesday in the trial of Mehmet Hakan Atilla, a deputy chief executive officer at Turkiye Halk Bankasi AS.

Zarrab was arrested in March 2016 at Disney World on charges including money laundering and conspiracy to evade U.S. sanctions against Iran.

Special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating whether Zarrab discussed with Flynn — a Trump campaign adviser who then briefly served as national security adviser — a plot to kidnap a Muslim cleric regarded a political threat by Turkish officials.

Both Flynn and his son, Michael Flynn Jr., are under investigation for the alleged $15 million plot.

Flynn is also under investigation by Mueller for his undisclosed paid work for the Turkish government during the presidential campaign and transition.

The former Trump adviser’s legal team have recently stopped sharing information with the president’s lawyers, which could signal that he’s cooperating with the Mueller probe.

Zarrab also has ties to Giuliani, the former New York City mayor and campaign surrogate.

The gold trader reportedly retained Giuliani to persuade Trump and Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan to reach a “diplomatic resolution” in his corruption case.

Zarrab has been held in New York City jails before he was suddenly released about two weeks ago, and two people familiar with the case told Bloomberg he still in U.S. custody but not in federal jails.

https://www.rawstory.com/2017/11/turkis ... -as-today/
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Will Flynn bring back Yellowcake to WH Menu after 1-21-1

Postby seemslikeadream » Wed Nov 29, 2017 7:53 pm

Special counsel delays grand jury testimony amid signs of Flynn deal talks

Flynn lawyers cut off talks with Trump team
(CNN)Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team has postponed an anticipated grand jury testimony linked to his investigation into Michael Flynn amid growing indications of possible plea deal discussions.

Additional witnesses were expected to be questioned soon including a public relations consultant hired by Flynn's lobbying firm who was given an early December date deadline to appear before the grand jury, according to a person at the company.

Ahead of the delay, the impression was that the testimony needed to happen soon, the source said.

"Time seems to be of the essence," said the source at Sphere Consulting, the PR firm where the consultant worked.

The grand jury testimony was postponed, the person said, with no reason given. There could be many reasons for a delay, including scheduling issues.

Flynn's lawyers no longer sharing information with Trump's legal team
The consultant's expected testimony comes as the investigation into Trump's former national security adviser's business dealings has taken a new turn.

Flynn's attorney told Trump's legal team last week that he would no longer share information about the investigation, a move that signals Flynn is beginning conversations with the government that could involve a plea deal or a cooperation agreement. ABC News reported that Flynn's attorney met with special counsel's attorneys on Monday.
Sphere's government relations arm, SGR LLC Government Relations and Lobbying, is one of several companies Flynn Intel Group hired to work for Inovo BV, a Netherlands-based company owned by Turkish businessman Ekim Alptekin, according to filing made by Flynn Intel Group under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). Inovo hired Flynn to research Fethullah Gulen, an exiled Turkish cleric who Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused of being behind the 2016 attempted military coup to overthrow him, the filing said.

Inovo paid Flynn's group $530,000 for the research, which was supposed result in a video documentary but it was never finished. Sphere's SGR was paid $40,000.

Sphere has been cooperating for months with the investigation. The inquiry was originally opened before the appointment of the special counsel, according to the source. Sphere, which was subpoenaed around June, was described as "a cooperating witness at best." Sphere has not been accused of any wrongdoing.

Interviews conducted by special counsel investigators have included questions about the business dealings of Flynn and his son such as their firm's reporting of income from work overseas, two witnesses interviewed by the team told CNN. The Foreign Agents Registration Act requires people acting as agents of foreign entities to publicly disclose their relationship with foreign countries or businesses and financial compensation for such work.
Another area of interest to Mueller's team is Flynn's alleged participation in discussions about the idea of removing Gulen, who has been living in exile in Pennsylvania, sources said. In the past, a spokesman for Flynn has denied that such discussions occurred. Flynn's attorney, Robert Kelner, has called reports of an alleged kidnapping scheme "outrageous" and "false." Kelner could not be reached for comment.

Peter Carr, a spokesman for the special counsel, declined to comment.

Flynn disclosed its work for Inovo in a lobbying disclosure form in September 2016. Months later, in March 2017, it filed a FARA disclosure form stating "because of the subject matter of the engagement, Flynn Intel Group's work for Inovo could be construed to have principally benefitted from the Republic of Turkey."

Mueller interviews with senior White House officials coming up
Sphere entered the assignment in August 2016 when it was approached by Bijan Kian, Flynn's business partner, to publicize the proposed documentary to promote investing in Turkey, according to the Sphere source. At Flynn's direction Sphere created a Gulen-themed Monopoly graphic, according to Flynn's FARA disclosure. A lawyer for Kian declined to comment. No explanation was given for why the graphic was created.

Two other consultants hired by Flynn, journalists David Enders and Rudi Bakhtiar, a former CNN anchor, were brought in to work on the documentary, according to the FARA form. The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the investigation, reported the Federal Bureau of Investigation has contacted Enders and Bakhtair to set up interviews. Enders and Bakhtiar have not responded to CNN's requests for comment.

The documentary was never completed. But Sphere did place Flynn's election day op-ed on Gulen in The Hill newspaper, according to the source at the company and the FARA filing. Flynn's FARA filing distances that op-ed from the work he did for Inovo acknowledging it was shared with Inovo but: "To the best of our knowledge, Inovo did not communicate with the Republic of Turkey regarding the op-ed or provide the draft op-ed to the government."

Through Flynn and Kian, Sphere met Alptekin, the Turkish businessman, who wanted Sphere to do PR work to get Gulen extradited, according to the source at Sphere.

According to a memo sent to Flynn's firm, Sphere told Alptekin in November, when the firm first met with him, that none of this should be done through a publicity campaign, but rather should pursued through lawsuits.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/29/politics/ ... index.html



National
Turkish businessman describes $50M bribe at sanctions trial

In this courtroom sketch, Assistant U.S. Attorney David Denton points at defendant Mehmet Hakan Atilla, right, during opening arguments of a trial, Tuesday, Nov. 28, 2017, in New York federal court. Denton said Atilla, deputy CEO of Halkbank, was the architect of a “massively successful” scheme to dupe U.S. banks into letting Iran move money around the world. Judge Richard Berman is seated at the bench, background left. (Elizabeth Williams via AP) (Associated Press)
By Tom Hays and Larry Neumeister | AP November 29 at 5:57 PM
NEW YORK — A Turkish-Iranian gold trader testified at a New York trial Wednesday that he paid over $50 million in bribes to Turkey’s finance minister in 2012 to overcome a banker’s fears he was too well-known in Turkey to launder Iranian money in violation of U.S. sanctions.

Reza Zarrab calmly described his arrangement with one of Turkey’s most important public officials as he began what will be several days on the witness stand at the trial of Turkish banker Mehmet Hakan Atilla, who is charged in a conspiracy that involved bribes and kickbacks to high-level officials.

In a conversation...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national ... 0e6ac2becd


Gold trader Reza Zarrab testifies at Iran sanctions trial

In this courtroom sketch, Turkish-Iranian gold trader Reza Zarrab testifies before Judge Richard Berman, right, on Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2017. Photo Credit: AP / Elizabeth Williams Turkish gold trader Reza Zarrab revealed at a co-defendant’s Iran sanctions-busting trial Wednesday that he decided to flip and become a cooperating government witness when high-level efforts to win his freedom through a prisoner exchange for Americans held in Turkey failed. Zarrab, whose arrest last year triggered diplomatic tensions with Turkey and complaints from Turkish President Recep Erdogan, also provided embarrassing testimony about paying millions in bribes to Erdogan’s economy minister in 2012 to clear the way for a massive money-laundering scheme that blew a hole in U.S. efforts to isolate Iran. The testimony in the Manhattan federal court trial of banker Mehmet Hakan Atilla came one day after prosecutors revealed their plea deal with Zarrab, who hired ex-mayor Rudy Giuliani and former attorney general Michael Mukasey earlier this year to try to shape a diplomatic solution. Although he didn’t name them, Zarrab told jurors that he decided to inform on co-conspirators in the alleged billion-dollar scheme after he “hired lawyers” to try to work out a prisoner swap “within the legal limits” and the effort fell through. “Cooperation was the fastest way to accept responsibility and get out of jail at once,” he said. Zarrab, 34, a wealthy Turkish celebrity married to a pop-music star, pleaded guilty last month to laundering billions in Iranian oil money through intricate 10-step transactions in gold and food that provided access to U.S. banks and helped Iran break the American economic stranglehold. The scam was first exposed by Turkish police, but Zarrab and others accused were freed and prosecutors purged by Erdogan, who claims the charges now being pursued in the United States. were concocted by anti-government forces loyal to Fethullah Gulen, a dissident living in Pennsylvania.

Although Zarrab was released from prison to the FBI as part of his deal, prosecutors tried to counter any appearance of coddling by having him testify that he wasn’t staying “in a hotel” and dress in a prison smock. U.S. District Judge Richard Berman urged prosecutors at the end of the day to give him the option of normal clothes. In his testimony, Zarrab said he was first turned down when he proposed the sanctions-busting scam to a top manager at Turkey’s Hakbank, the government bank where Atilla works, because he was too much of a public figure. “He said I am too popular to do the gold trade and I am a person who is very transparent,” Zarrab testified. “Because my wife was a famous artist in Turkey I was a person who was within the public eye all the time.” To get help, he said, he went to Turkey’s economy minister at the time, Mehmet Caglayan, whom he knew socially, to get him to lean on the bank. “He got some more information about the details of the trade,” Zarrab said. “He asked about the profit margins. And he said I can broker this, providing there is a profit shared 50/50.” Zarrab testified that he agreed and paid bribes to Caglayan and his family in three currencies — 2.4 million Turkish liras, about $7 million U.S. dollars, and euros. “I’m thinking that I paid bribes in amount of 45 to 50 million euros,” he said. Caglayan is one of seven Turks in addition to Zarrab and Atilla who have been indicted. Mukasey declined to comment and Giuliani did not respond to questions about any role they played in prisoner-exchange talks. Zarrab’s testimony is scheduled to resume Thursday. John Riley covers courts in New York City for Newsday.

In this courtroom sketch, Turkish-Iranian gold trader Reza Zarrab testifies before Judge Richard Berman, right, on Wednesday, Nov. 29, 2017. Photo Credit: AP / Elizabeth Williams

Turkish gold trader Reza Zarrab revealed at a co-defendant’s Iran sanctions-busting trial Wednesday that he decided to flip and become a cooperating government witness when high-level efforts to win his freedom through a prisoner exchange for Americans held in Turkey failed.

Zarrab, whose arrest last year triggered diplomatic tensions with Turkey and complaints from Turkish President Recep Erdogan, also provided embarrassing testimony about paying millions in bribes to Erdogan’s economy minister in 2012 to clear the way for a massive money-laundering scheme that blew a hole in U.S. efforts to isolate Iran.

The testimony in the Manhattan federal court trial of banker Mehmet Hakan Atilla came one day after prosecutors revealed their plea deal with Zarrab, who hired ex-mayor Rudy Giuliani and former attorney general Michael Mukasey earlier this year to try to shape a diplomatic solution.
https://www.newsday.com/news/new-york/t ... 1.15248012


Turkish Gold Trader Suggests That Rudy Giuliani Negotiated Prisoner Swap With Turkish Government

A Turkish gold trader testified in federal court on Wednesday that he hired two lawyers — widely believed to be Rudy Giuliani and former Attorney General Michael Mukasey — to negotiate a prisoner exchange between the U.S. and Turkish governments.

Reza Zarrab did not identify Giuliani and Mukasey by name during his testimony, but the 34-year-old gold trader hired the pair to his all-star legal team earlier this year. The two would-be dealmakers met with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan in February to discuss what has been described as a diplomatic resolution to the case.

According to The Daily Beast, Zarrab testified that he hired the lawyers to negotiate a prisoner swap that fell within “legal limits.”

Zarrab was once the target of the U.S. government’s investigation into a sanctions-busting scheme involving Turkish banks and the Iranian government. But Zarrab recently turned state’s evidence, pleading guilty last month to seven federal charges and agreeing to testify against his former co-defendant, Mehmet Hakan Atilla, a top executive at the Turkish bank Halkbank.

According to reporters inside the Manhattan court room where Zarrab testified, the gold trader said he decided to cooperate with the government after the prisoner swap negotiations fell through.

Erdogan had pressed the Obama and Trump administrations for Zarrab’s release. While he has claimed that the Turkish judicial system should handle the case, his intervention in the matter has widely been seen as an attempt to prevent Zarrab from revealing embarrassing information about Erdogan’s family and the Turkish government.

The New York Times reported in April that Giuliani and Mukasey met with Erdogan in late-February in order to agree to what was described as a diplomatic deal. Mukasey said in court filings that he and Giuliani sought “a state-to-state resolution of this case.”

“Senior officials in both the U.S. government and the Turkish government remain receptive to pursuing the possibility of an agreement,” he said in the court filings.

There was no hint in the court documents that Giuliani and Mukasey sought a prisoner swap, though it was speculated by many Turkey watchers that an exchange was on the table.

It is unclear who the Turkish government was supposed to release in exchange for Zarrab. He also did not elaborate on why the deal fell through.

The Turkish government has used a falsely imprisoned American pastor named Andrew Brunson as a bargaining chip against the U.S. Erdogan has publicly called on the U.S. to release one of his political foes, exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen, in exchange for Brunson.

A month after Giuliani and Mukasey’s meeting with Erdogan, Trump fired Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney who was initially handling the Zarrab case. The move caught Bharara by surprise. Though an Obama appointee, Trump had told him just after the election that he would keep his position during the new administration.

The circumstances and timing of Bharara’s firing have generated speculation that he was ousted over his involvement in the Zarrab case.

Giuliani could not be reached for comment for this article. A spokeswoman for Mukasey at his law firm Debevoise & Plimpton declined comment, saying “we don’t have anything additive to provide this time around.
http://dailycaller.com/2017/11/29/turki ... overnment/






Jared Kushner met with special counsel about Flynn

Kushner met with special counsel about Flynn
Washington (CNN)Jared Kushner met earlier this month with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team as part of the investigation into Russia's meddling in the election, according to two people familiar with the meeting.

Mueller's team specifically asked Kushner about former national security advisor Michael Flynn, who is under investigation by the special counsel, two sources said. Flynn was the dominant topic of the conversation, one of the sources said.

"Mr. Kushner has voluntarily cooperated with all relevant inquiries and will continue to do so," Abbe Lowell, Kushner's lawyer, told CNN.

The conversation lasted less than 90 minutes, one person familiar with the meeting said, adding that Mueller's team asked Kushner to clear up some questions he was asked by lawmakers and details that emerged through media reports. One source said the nature of this conversation was principally to make sure Kushner doesn't have information that exonerates Flynn.

The meeting took place around the same time the special counsel asked witnesses about Kushner's role in the firing of former FBI Director James Comey and his relationship with Flynn, these people said.

It's not clear that this is the only time that Kushner will meet with the special counsel's team.

There are growing indications that the special counsel is having discussions with Flynn about a possible plea deal. Flynn's attorney told Trump's legal team last week that he would no longer share information about the investigation.

The White House declined to comment for this story. The special counsel's office did not comment.

Mueller's investigators have expressed interest in Kushner, President Donald Trump's son-in-law and a White House senior adviser, as part of its probe into Russian meddling, including potential obstruction of justice in Comey's firing, sources familiar with the matter said.

Even before Mueller took over the Russia investigation, the FBI had been looking at Kushner's multiple roles on both the Trump campaign and the Trump transition team. The 2016 Trump Tower meeting, in addition to meetings with Russia's ambassador and a Russian government banker, were left off Kushner's security clearance forms, which had to be revised multiple times.

Other points of focus that pertain to Kushner include the Trump campaign's 2016 data analytics operation, his relationship with Flynn and Kushner's own contacts with Russians, according to sources briefed on the probe.

Kushner voluntarily turned over documents he had from the campaign and the transition, and these related to any contacts with Russia, according to a source familiar with the matter. The documents are similar to the ones Kushner gave to congressional investigators.

Their questions about Kushner signal that Mueller's investigators are reaching the President's inner circle and have extended beyond the 2016 campaign to actions taken at the White House by high-level officials. It is not clear how Kushner's advice to the President might relate to the overall Russia investigation or potential obstruction of justice.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/11/29/politics/ ... index.html
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
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Don’t forget that.
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Re: Will Flynn bring back Yellowcake to WH Menu after 1-21-1

Postby seemslikeadream » Thu Nov 30, 2017 6:25 pm

Turkish gold trader implicates Erdogan in Iran money laundering

Brendan Pierson
(Reuters) - A Turkish-Iranian gold trader on Thursday told jurors in a federal court in New York that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan personally authorized a transaction on behalf of Iran.

FILE PHOTO: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan addresses members of parliament from his ruling AK Party (AKP) during a meeting at the Parliament in Ankara, Turkey, November 7, 2017. REUTERS/Umit Bektas/File Photo
Reza Zarrab is cooperating with U.S. prosecutors in the criminal trial of a Turkish bank executive accused of conspiring to evade U.S. sanctions against Iran. At the time of the alleged conspiracy, Erdogan was Turkey’s prime minister.

The testimony came on the third day of the trial of Mehmet Hakan Atilla, an executive at Turkey’s state-owned Halkbank, who has pleaded not guilty in Manhattan federal court.

U.S. prosecutors have charged nine people in the case, although only Zarrab, 34, and Atilla, 47, have been arrested by U.S. authorities. Prosecutors have said the defendants took part in a scheme from 2010 to 2015 that involved gold trades and fake purchases of food to give Iran access to international markets, violating U.S. sanctions.

Turkish gold trader Reza Zarrab is shown in this court room sketch as he appears in Manhattan federal court in New York, U.S., April 24, 2017. REUTERS/Jane Rosenberg
The case has fueled tensions between the United States and Turkey, which are NATO allies. Erdogan’s government has said the case was fabricated for political reasons.

Zarrab, who began testifying on Wednesday morning, has told jurors that he ran a massive international money laundering scheme to help Iran get around U.S. sanctions and spend its oil and gas revenues abroad. He said he helped Iran use funds deposited at Halkbank to buy gold, which was smuggled to Dubai and sold for cash.

Zarrab has said that Atilla helped develop and carry out the transactions, along with Halkbank’s former general manager, Suleyman Aslan.

Zarrab also said that he paid bribes worth more than $50 million to Zafer Caglayan, who was Turkey’s economy minister, to further the scheme.

Both Caglayan and Aslan were charged in the case. Turkey’s government has previously said that Caglayan acted within Turkish and international law, and Halkbank has said all of its transactions fully complied with national and international regulations.

Reporting By Brendan Pierson in New York; editing by Jonathan Oatis and Dan Grebler
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa- ... ld+News%29
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They could still get him out of office.
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Re: Will Flynn bring back Yellowcake to WH Menu after 1-21-1

Postby seemslikeadream » Fri Dec 01, 2017 10:23 am

Happy Flynn Flip Friday!


Please use the word CONSPIRACY freely

Merry Flynnmas Image


getting off on such a small charge...he's really given up some big time info



in BLACK AND WHITE ....I have been waiting for this for ...how long?

Fri Nov 18, 2016


Flynn will plead guilty this morning of lying about the CONVERSATIONS WITH THE RUSSIAN AMBASSADOR KISLYAK to the FBI. This means he is indeed cooperating with Mueller as Mueller climbs up the food chain.

And it’s Russian food to boot because the lie involved Flynn’s dealings with Russia’s Ambassador. This is VERY BIG.


8/ What this indicates—beyond any serious doubt—is the following: Special Counsel Bob Mueller, the former Director of the FBI, believes Mike Flynn's testimony will *incriminate* the President of the United States, the Vice President of the United States, or both of these two men.


Image

What no headline from Breibart? :P


Flynn to Plead Guilty to Lying to the F.B.I.

By EILEEN SULLIVAN and ADAM GOLDMANDEC. 1, 2017
WASHINGTON — President Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, will plead guilty on Friday to lying to the F.B.I. about a conversation with the Russian ambassador last December.

The plea was the latest indication that Mr. Flynn was cooperating with the special counsel’s investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election. Mr. Flynn was scheduled to appear in federal court in Washington at 10:30 on Friday morning.



BREAKING FROM SPECIAL COUNSEL: The court has scheduled a plea hearing for Lieutenant General Michael T. Flynn (Ret.), 58, of Alexandria, Va., at 10:30 a.m.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRSxw2KKYVE


but they are all the same... :roll:


BOMBSHELL: Mike Flynn to plead guilty to lying to the FBI about contacts with Russia
Brad Reed BRAD REED
01 DEC 2017 AT 09:16 ET


Former Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn will plead guilty on Friday to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russian government officials.

The United States District Court for the District of Columbia has scheduled a plea hearing for Flynn that is set to take place at 10:30 a.m. ET. In the hearing, Flynn will plead guilty to making “materially false, fictitious, and fraudulent” statements to FBI agents this past January.

Specifically, Flynn falsely told the FBI that he did not tell the Russian ambassador to the United States that the country should “refrain” from escalating tensions between the two countries in the wake of new sanctions leveled against it by the outgoing Obama administration.

The Russian government did not retaliate against the Obama administration’s new sanctions late last year, and President Trump himself praised this decision as “very smart” on Twitter.


The Trump tweet was subsequently promoted by the Russian embassy of the United States’ official Twitter account.

Speculation about Flynn cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe spiked in late October when the special counsel hit former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort with an indictment that included money laundering allegations.

Flynn resigned as national security adviser this past February, less than a month into Trump’s first term, when it was revealed that he had lied about conversations he’d had with Russian officials about potential sanctions relief.
https://www.rawstory.com/2017/12/mike-f ... th-russia/





Seth Abramson‏Verified account

(THREAD) MAJOR BREAKING NEWS: Mike Flynn will plead guilty to Making False Statements at 10:30 AM EST today (Friday). This is the biggest development in the Russia probe so far. This thread explains what it all means, and will be updated throughout the day. Please read and share.


54/ *Don't* listen to the White House if it claims the only thing Flynn is offering the Special Counsel is evidence that Trump ordered him to violate the Logan Act (which prohibits private citizens from negotiating with foreign governments) pre-inauguration. This is *far* bigger.


53/ BREAKING NEWS: Flynn told the FBI that Trump ordered him to make contact with the Russians.


52/ You can read the available charging document from the Flynn case here (and note that, for this being perhaps the most significant indictment in U.S. politics of our lifetimes, its brevity is truly *astounding*—and underscores how much more is coming):

51/ It's *very* telling that U.S. media has received *no official response* from the White House about this. Remember how quickly they came out with a party line about Papadopoulos' plea, and even the Manafort and Gates indictments? This is so bad there's nothing for them to say.

50/ UPDATE: CNN confirms Flynn has now plead guilty. Technically, he pled to *four* false statements, though they were paired—he lied about two statements he made to the Russians *and* their responses to those two statements, one about U.S. sanctions policy and one about Israel.

49/ It can't be overstated that Flynn had been assumed to be one of the primary targets of the Trump-Russia probe—so him being given a sweetheart deal by federal law enforcement means the "story to tell" that he had was a very, very good one in Special Counsel Bob Mueller's view.

48/ At the time, Flynn's lawyer said he had "a story to tell." It was clear Flynn and his attorney believed enough *other* potential witnesses had similarly inculpatory information about Trump that they needed to "race to the courthouse" (as we say) to get a deal *before* others.

47/ Usually, this sort of offer is made privately—and usually it's made somewhat further along in a federal investigation than was the case with Flynn, who made the offer just a few weeks after he was fired by Trump.

It was after that offer that Trump told him to "stay strong."

46/ Another key point many will forget: Flynn was so scared about the extent of his criminal liability as Trump's pre-election advisor and post-election NSA that in March 2017 his lawyer took the *extraordinary* step of *publicly* offering to cooperate with federal investigators.

45/ have worked at 3 public defenders since 1996—one federal—and have testified in federal criminal cases as a defense investigator; current member in good standing of the New Hampshire bar and the federal bar for the District of New Hampshire; I now teach legal advocacy at UNH.)

44/ (When I get a number of new readers—as today—people ask me to restate my bona fides: Harvard Law School, 2001; public defender for eight years in two jurisdictions; trained at Georgetown/Harvard as a criminal investigator; represented 2000+ defendants in cases up to homicide;

43/ But remember, when the FBI sat down to discuss Flynn's Russia contacts with him, they would have asked him about *all* his recent Russia contacts—including, for instance, his December '15 trip to Moscow to dine with Putin. So the topics Flynn lied about could date back years.

42/ That said, the UN resolution had to do with Israel—and we know Israel had reached out to Kushner about that same resolution, so there's a possibility that the second allegation against Flynn will give the lie to things *Kushner* told the FBI about his contacts with Israel.

41/ For Mueller to be *so guarded* in what information he's willing to reveal in his single-count indictment—as we know Mike Flynn lied to the FBI about far more serious things than Mueller has disclosed—confirms, indirectly, that Flynn's proffer to the FBI was *quite* explosive.

40/ The second allegation, dating from 12/22/16—the first was from 12/29/16—involves Flynn asking Russia to take a particular stance on a UN resolution. While both these acts violate the Logan Act—private citizens can't negotiate with foreign governments—they're just appetizers.

39/ The first allegation in the single-count charging document is that Flynn lied about asking Russia to moderate its response to the US decision to level new sanctions in December 2016. Presumably, Flynn made this request on a representation Trump would undo those new sanctions.

38/ One thing is clear: Mueller charged Flynn with the most innocuous lies he could to shield from the public—and far more importantly, from President Trump and his allies (at least for now)—the extent of what Flynn has told him. A longer charging document would reveal too much.

36/ While Trump also exhibited some fear about what Manafort could reveal to investigators—keeping him on as an unpaid advisor through February 2017 after "firing" him as an unpaid Campaign Manager in the summer of 2016—he's shown much *more* concern about Mike Flynn's situation.

35/ Remember that Trump *not only* tried to get Comey to drop the case against Flynn—suggesting he was scared about what that case could uncover—he *also* tried to convince his aides to let him *re-hire* Flynn after his firing and *then* called Flynn to tell him to "stay strong."


34/ Flynn will also know exactly what occurred as the White House tried to cover up these illicit December 2016 sanctions negotiations—or any earlier ones—including what Trump and Pence knew of them, and when, and how and when they coordinated lying to American voters about them.

33/ We know Flynn was engaged in secret sanctions negotiations with Russia that Trump—rather oddly—said he "would have told him" to engage in throughout December of 2016. But we've *no* idea if this was the first time such negotiations occurred. Flynn will have this information.


32/ This is the key information Mike Flynn can offer: what Trump knew about Russian crimes, and when; and also, what actions he directed his national security advisory apparatus to take—possibly in response to this knowledge—and when. For instance, secret sanctions negotiations.

31/ But given that Mike Flynn dined with Vladimir Putin in Moscow in December of 2015—after he'd been a key Trump campaign foreign policy and national security advisor for four months—it's possible Trump had this knowledge as early as the fall of 2015 or the winter of 2015-2016.

30/ We know Trump knew there was a "high likelihood" (the legal standard in this case) Russia was committing crimes against America as of August 17, 2016, when he received his first security briefing as a presidential candidate. A speech in late July suggests he knew it earlier.


29/ If Donald Trump learned Russia was committing crimes against America and subsequently offered—unilaterally—policy shifts of political or financial value directly to Russian agents either himself or through intermediaries, he's guilty of a crime as great as the underlying one.

28/ In the Aiding and Abetting Computer Crimes probe, the question is a) when Trump knew Russia was committing crimes against the United States, and b) whether and how Trump offered Russia anything of financial or political value ostensibly for "free" after he had this knowledge.

27/ Remember, besides a long course of conduct involving both Obstruction of Justice and Witness Tampering—of Sally Yates, of Comey, of Jr., of Flynn himself, of Sessions, and of various Congressional investigators—Trump is being looked at for Aiding and Abetting Computer Crimes.

26/ As I've said, we now have reason to believe—to a near-certainty—Flynn can incriminate Trump. And as noted, the range of potential crimes is vast. Did Flynn tell Trump and/or Pence the truth about his Russia contacts as they were happening—despite what the White House claimed?

25/ I've long said that Trump *will* move to fire Mueller—simply because doing so would quickly become one of his only options for self-preservation when/if Mike Flynn or another top associate entered into the cooperation deal with the Special Counsel.

Well, we're finally here.

24/ But Mueller may act on Flynn's proffer at any time, which means—and here's another critical point—the daily, harrowing watch to see if Trump will attempt to fire Special Counsel Bob Mueller begins in earnest *now*.

If Trump moves to fire Mueller, all hell will break loose.

23/ How long it will take Mueller to issue indictments based on Flynn's proffer? It's hard to say: it depends on what evidence was given, what evidence Mueller already had, what additional investigation he wants to do on that person (perhaps to bring further charges), and so on.

22/ What Flynn told Mueller about Trump will first appear in an indictment of a third party—quite possible, if the third party was/is close enough to Trump—or else in the final report Mueller is tasked with giving Rod Rosenstein at the DOJ (though that may take a while to come).

21/ Mueller isn't obligated to tell the public what Flynn told him. We'll first learn of it (for all but Trump) via future indictments of those Flynn incriminated. As for Trump, he can't be criminally tried as POTUS, and probably can't even be indicted, so it'll work differently.

20/ That proffer may have incriminated not just Trump and Kushner and—perhaps—Pence, but any number of Trump NatSec (or simply "top") aides: Manafort, Sessions, Clovis, Hicks, Lewandowski, Page, and Gordon, to name a few. We may not know, however, until someone else is indicted.

19/ So it's entirely possible that when Mueller called Kushner in to talk about Flynn, he already had everything Flynn planned to give him—meaning he was *testing* Kushner to see if Kushner would lie about events Mueller was already fully informed about via Flynn's prior proffer.

18/ This is critical: Flynn pleading guilty today means he was cooperating with Mueller *before* this. You don't offer value to a prosecution *after* you plead, you offer it beforehand—via what's called a "proffer" of info (that incriminates others). That's what earns you a deal.

17/ Indeed, today's plea coming so close on the heels of Mueller asking Kushner to come in and talk about Flynn suggests Kushner is also a target of the Russia probe. Perhaps Mueller didn't think Kushner would flip on family, so he set him up to Make False Statements about Flynn.

16/ This December 2016 event underscores that Flynn's a threat not just to Trump but to others. It's easy to forget that, just because Flynn—it appears—can incriminate the president, doesn't mean he can *only* incriminate the president. Many others are at risk, including Kushner.

15/ Flynn met with the Russian ambassador and Jared Kushner in early December 2016 to discuss a "Kremlin back-channel" that some have argued would have constituted an act of espionage. Did Mr. Trump know about this? Did he direct Flynn and/or Kushner to pursue this back-channel?

14/ But of course the "story to tell" that Flynn's attorney bragged the ex-NSA had—back in late March of 2017—goes *well* beyond Obstruction allegations. Flynn was at the center of numerous contacts with Russia that he can report the president knew about and perhaps even ordered.

13/ During their last known contact—April 2017—we know Trump told Flynn (at a minimum) to "stay strong," after which Flynn stopped cooperating with investigators. So the first thing Flynn can tell Mueller is all Trump said—and if he obstructed justice—during that April 2017 call.

12/ The last *known* contact between Trump and Mike Flynn was late April 2017—meaning the two men were in contact for approximately one year and nine months. Given that these twenty-one months make up almost the entirety of Trump's political career, this is a huge swath of time.


11/ The range of crimes for which Flynn can incriminate the president is unknown, but we have *some* sense of what could be involved. The first thing to understand is that Flynn had access to—and influence with—Trump on national security issues beginning in the Summer of 2015.

(THREAD) MAJOR BREAKING NEWS: Mike Flynn will plead guilty to Making False Statements at 10:30 AM EST today (Friday). This is the biggest development in the Russia probe so far. This thread explains what it all means, and will be updated throughout the day. Please read and share.

10/ The Papadopoulos plea paled in comparison to this because Papadopoulos was a top national security advisor to Mr. Trump, but still at nothing like Flynn's level of access and authority. The Manafort indictment pales in comparison because it was just an indictment, not a plea.

9/ For this reason, what's about to happen in 50 minutes is far and away the biggest development thus far in the Trump-Russia probe, and likely the biggest development in U.S. politics since President Nixon resigned from office during the Watergate scandal.

This is historic.

8/ What this indicates—beyond any serious doubt—is the following: Special Counsel Bob Mueller, the former Director of the FBI, believes Mike Flynn's testimony will *incriminate* the President of the United States, the Vice President of the United States, or both of these two men.

7/ There may be other targets in the Russia probe—such as Attorney General Sessions—at Flynn's same level in the hierarchy, but unless he could incriminate two or more of them, a deal like this would not be offered to him. And there *aren't* two or more at his level in this case.

6/ Deals like this are offered *only* when a witness can incriminate someone "higher up the food-chain" than them. In the case of the nation's former National Security Advisor, the *only* people above him in the executive-branch hierarchy are the President and the Vice President.

5/ What this suggests is Flynn brings substantial inculpatory info (info tending to incriminate others) to the table. Unlike Papadopoulos, Flynn was going to be—because of his position in the administration—a primary target of the probe. So he had to offer a lot to get this deal.

4/ Getting charged with just one count of Making False Statements is a great deal for Mike Flynn—it doesn't necessarily mean he'll escape incarceration, but a) it makes that a possibility (depending on what the parties and judge say and do), and b) any time served may be minimal.

3/ Flynn is widely regarded as dead-to-rights on more charges than Making False Statements—notably, FARA violations (failing to register as a foreign agent of Turkey under the Foreign Agent Registration Act). There's recently been evidence he was part of a kidnapping plot, too.

2/ We've already seen Mueller do this once before in the probe, with George Papadopoulos—who was charged with the same crime as Flynn, Making False Statements, to secure his cooperation with the Russia probe. The Papadopoulos plea affidavit emphasized facts were being left out.


1/ First, it's important to understand that Mueller has entered into a plea deal with Flynn in which Flynn pleads guilty to far less than the available evidence suggests he could be charged with. This indicates that he has cut a deal with Mueller to cooperate in the Russia probe.


yes indeed the General had brought Russian Yellowkerk to the White House and this morning it has just gone off
Image

THIS IS THE WORSE DAY FOR TRUMP.....UNTIL THE NEXT TIME :yay

Obama said do not hire this guy
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Will Flynn bring back Yellowcake to WH Menu after 1-21-1

Postby Belligerent Savant » Sun Dec 03, 2017 11:25 am

.
I don't believe this item has been posted in the myriad Trump update threads yet, and since it appears we're accumulating news updates on this topic for 'posterity', below is an added wrinkle to the rabble:

http://money.cnn.com/2017/12/02/media/a ... index.html


ABC News suspends Brian Ross for 4 weeks over erroneous Flynn story


ABC News announced Saturday that it has suspended investigative reporter Brian Ross for four weeks without pay after Ross was forced to correct a bombshell on-air report about Michael Flynn.

"We deeply regret and apologize for the serious error we made yesterday. The reporting conveyed by Brian Ross during the special report had not been fully vetted through our editorial standards process," ABC said in a statement. "As a result of our continued reporting over the next several hours ultimately we determined the information was wrong and we corrected the mistake on air and online."

"It is vital we get the story right and retain the trust we have built with our audience -- these are our core principles," the statement added. "We fell far short of that yesterday."

"We deeply regret and apologize for the serious error we made yesterday. The reporting conveyed by Brian Ross during the special report had not been fully vetted through our editorial standards process," ABC said in a statement. "As a result of our continued reporting over the next several hours ultimately we determined the information was wrong and we corrected the mistake on air and online."

"It is vital we get the story right and retain the trust we have built with our audience -- these are our core principles," the statement added. "We fell far short of that yesterday."

Citing a single anonymous source, Ross told viewers during an ABC special report on Friday morning that Flynn was prepared to testify that Donald Trump, as a candidate for president, told him to contact Russians.

During Friday's edition of "World News Tonight," Ross walked back his report, telling viewers that the source who had provided the initial information for his story later told him that it was as president-elect, not as a candidate, that Trump asked Flynn to contact Russians.


An ABC News tweet about the report was retweeted about 25,000 times before being deleted.

Ross' incorrect report prompted a dramatic reaction in the financial markets, and the Dow fell more than 350 points. Stocks largely recovered later in the day.

CNN had initially reached out to ABC News early Friday afternoon to ask why Ross' initial reporting was not included in the network's online story about Flynn pleading guilty for lying to the FBI. Hours later, a spokesperson told CNN a correction was forthcoming.

But ABC News initially attempted to downplay the mistake, referring to its correction as a "clarification" on "World News Tonight" and then online. After a barrage of criticism, the network changed the language online from "clarification" to "correction."

Saturday evening's statement further ramped up the language; the network now calls it a "serious error."


Ross commented later Saturday night. "My job is to hold people accountable and that's why I agree with being held accountable myself," he tweeted.

Multiple ABC News employees, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they weren't publicly authorized to discuss the matter, told CNNMoney on Saturday there was internal embarrassment over the blunder.

"It's a major embarrassment," one ABC News employee said.
"It makes me cringe," echoed another. "This is not what any networks needs when people are so quick to say 'fake news' to you. It makes me sick to my stomach."


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Re: Will Flynn bring back Yellowcake to WH Menu after 1-21-1

Postby seemslikeadream » Sun Dec 03, 2017 12:01 pm

Forgive me for having a bit of fun here it isn't everyday a president becomes toast in office....like I said I have been waiting for this day for quite awhile


great find there BS....just happen to stumble across that ey? :D

Damn you scooped me on that one

some good news for mr. trump :yay :yay :yay :yay

And for sure if you find one post in these ten pages that has false info in it be sure and let me know I would appreciate that very much

so glad you are keeping up with the current events now days lovely to have you on board :lovehearts:

a wrinkle inside this wrinkle with this to keep in mind from Seth Abramson‏

What this indicates—beyond any serious doubt—is the following: Special Counsel Bob Mueller, the former Director of the FBI, believes Mike Flynn's testimony will *incriminate* the President of the United States, the Vice President of the United States, or both of these two men.

I am sure that makes up for plotting to kidnap an American citizen

Trump, who has crashed the stock of numerous companies that pissed him off, now advocates lawsuits for such things.

please keep us up to date with any more pertinent info

GTK that you have taken robertpaulsen's advice

I suppose you just happened to miss all of this or you would have posted it also?

thank god you bumped this thread I might have forgotten about it :lol2:

who ever accused me of not engaging in dialogue :)

I see what you did there :wink:

one way to get me talking you scamp :wink

let's keep talking this over I would really really love to do that with you :lovehearts:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-Db3scgx3M

let's just keep in mind who General Yellowkerk is and who he hangs around with ...you do remember the Iraq War? You do remember the Niger Forgies? We really do need to keep this in mind when talking about the lovely General...Ledeen is surely not someone anyone would be making excuses for definitely not here I would think

Image

fun fact
It’s Not Just Pizzagate. Son of Trump’s National Security Adviser Believes Other Vile Things Too.


Image



Yes I Am posting Marcy here she is talking about other things too that are important

Marcy Wheeler: Mike Flynn’s Guilty Plea to FBI Will Shape How GOP Handles Russia Investigation
STORYDECEMBER 01, 2017


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PB5DtT8gey0

Marcy Wheeler
independent journalist who covers national security and civil liberties.



EmptyWheel.net
Just in: ABC is reporting Michael Flynn is “prepared to testify” that during the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump “directed him to make contact” with Russians.

Just before news broke that President Trump’s former national security adviser Mike Flynn will plead guilty this morning to lying to the FBI, we spoke with national security reporter Marcy Wheeler, who anticipated the news and said it could “dramatically change how Republicans face the Russian investigation.”

Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: On Thursday, The New York Times reported President Trump pressured senior Senate Republicans over the summer, including the chair of the Senate intelligence committee, to drop Mueller’s probe into alleged ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. News coming amidst reports that Mueller’s investigators recently questioned senior White House advisor and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, over a meeting with the Russian ambassador during the presidential transition.

MARCY WHEELER: Right, and this is actually one of the reasons why this switch isn’t going to happen, because I don’t think Pompeo is confirmable by the senate foreign relations committee, because we have learned a lot more of his implication in the Russian story.

The Kushner meeting was reported as kind of one of the last things that Mueller had to put into place before this plea agreement that people have been talking about with Mike Flynn. And that suggests that there is more news about to drop regarding Mike Flynn that I think is going to really dramatically change how Republicans take the Russian investigation.

Flynn had been avoiding discussing plea agreements for months and months and months, and then really in the last two weeks, all of a sudden it seems like it’s about to happen. Mueller has more leverage over Flynn in the last couple of weeks. It may be Turkey, because a key witness in New York has turned state’s evidence and apparently has information on Flynn. I think there’s some other information.

And so, Flynn, we expect, is moving towards a plea agreement. We expect, or I expect, that’s going to add a lot more pressure on Trump. And I have been saying for months that the way to get to Kushner is through Flynn. Because a lot of the events in which Flynn was involved, such as meeting with Sergei Kislyak in December, they connect very closely with activities that Kushner is known to be involved with.

So that seems to be where things are moving. And this Pompeo news seems impossible against that background, because Pompeo has helped Trump to cover up this Russia thing. And I don’t see Bob Corker and I don’t see Marco Rubio, who are both Senate foreign relations committee members, I do not see them supporting Pompeo having an even bigger role in the administration as this Russia stuff opens up.

AMY GOODMAN: And Flynn and Turkey. Can you explain what has been uncovered at this point?

MARCY WHEELER: Flynn was a consultant for the Turkish government, but through some cutouts, right? And he is alleged to have A, discussed on two different occasions basically kidnapping a cleric who lives in Pennsylvania that the Turkish government considers one of their big enemies. They blame him for the attempted coup earlier this year. So that’s one thing is that he has talked about kidnapping an American permanent resident on behalf of another government.

The other thing is that there was a guy named Reza Zarrab who was charged in a sanctions avoidance laundering case in New York. Basically, laundering money to get gold to Iran. That connects very closely with Turkey’s president. But that guy, Zarrab, made a plea agreement basically, and that just came out this week. The trial in which he is testifying is rolling out. But he is believed to have some information about Flynn’s efforts to free him on behalf of the Turkish government.

And again, this is another case where Flynn did not disclose these monies. He was working as the transition national security adviser and being paid by a foreign government. There is a much stronger case against him on this Turkish stuff even than on the Russian stuff. So I think not only is it easier to charge him with this stuff—and that would be kind of similar to what happened to Paul Manafort—but also it would—one of the things that has been reported to happen is it would implicate his son, Mike Flynn, Jr., who was involved in some of these things. And so one of the motives that Flynn might have for flipping, for cooperating with Mueller, is to keep his son out of prison.

AMY GOODMAN: Finally, do you think this could account for all these developments this week? Could account for the further unraveling of President Trump? Tweeting out these racist, Islamophobic videos, talking about President Obama once again—as he led the birther movement, Trump did—and all of the things he has done? You know, the “Pocahontas comments in the midst of a Navajo code talker ceremony in the oval office in front of a portrait of Andrew Jackson. But all of this coming one after another has Republicans scratching their heads as well.

MARCY WHEELER: It is hard to measure the next outrage from the president, but I do think that he is hearing footsteps. I do think he continues to try and convince those around him that he is not in any risk of this investigation. That is ridiculous at this point. It is clear that Mueller is investigating him for obstruction, if not far more. And these attempts to distract attention—but I also think—and this will segue into your next piece, but I also think he is also attempting to distract from the fact that he is about to, in the name of tax reform, carry out this vast looting of the American poor and middle class. So, it serves two purposes—distract from Russia but also distract from the tax bill that they are rushing through Congress this week.

AMY GOODMAN: Marcy Wheeler, we want to thank you so much for being with us. Independent journalist who covers national security and civil liberties, runs the website Emptywheel.net. We’ll link to your piece, Throwing H2O on the Pompeo to State Move. This is Democracy Now!

When we come back, we go to Albuquerque, New Mexico, to talk about a little-known provision of the tax law that has to do with opening up the Arctic to drilling. And then we will go to Mogadishu. We will talk about the latest on a massacre that took place there. What was the U.S. involvement? Finally, we will look at the Impeach Trump movement. Stay with us.
[/quote]


Mark Warner on the charges against Michael Flynn: “I think you’re going to see much more coming from the special prosecutor.”

As investigators circled Flynn, he got a message from Trump: Stay strong
https://www.yahoo.com/news/investigator ... 42727.html



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tx94428MYcc

John Dowd seems to contradict himself in the explanation he gave to @axios about the Trump tweet.

First he says he drafted the tweet, in which Trump says he fired Flynn because he lied to the FBI.

Then he says that Trump didn’t know at the time that Flynn had lied to the FBI.

Image


Image


KT McFarland – who went on to become the Deputy National Security Adviser for the Trump White House – admitted in an email at the time that Russia had “just thrown the U.S.A. election to [Trump]” according to a New York Times report

Emails Dispute White House Claims That Flynn Acted Independently on Russia

By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT, SHARON LaFRANIERE and SCOTT SHANEDEC. 2, 2017


Michael T. Flynn, right, on Feb. 10, three days before he was fired as national security adviser. 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.

On Dec. 29, a transition adviser to Mr. Trump, K. T. McFarland, wrote in an email to a colleague that sanctions announced hours before by the Obama administration in retaliation for Russian election meddling were aimed at discrediting Mr. Trump’s victory. The sanctions could also make it much harder for Mr. Trump to ease tensions with Russia, “which has just thrown the U.S.A. election to him,” she wrote in the emails obtained by The Times.

It is not clear whether Ms. McFarland was saying she believed that the election had in fact been thrown. A White House lawyer said on Friday that she meant only that the Democrats were portraying it that way.

But it is evident from the emails — which were obtained from someone who had access to transition team communications — that after learning that President Barack Obama would expel 35 Russian diplomats, the Trump team quickly strategized about how to reassure Russia. The Trump advisers feared that a cycle of retaliation between the United States and Russia would keep the spotlight on Moscow’s election meddling, tarnishing Mr. Trump’s victory and potentially hobbling his presidency from the start.

As part of the outreach, Ms. McFarland wrote, Mr. Flynn would be speaking with the Russian ambassador, Mr. Kislyak, hours after Mr. Obama’s sanctions were announced.

“Key will be Russia’s response over the next few days,” Ms. McFarland wrote in an email to another transition official, Thomas P. Bossert, now the president’s homeland security adviser.

In an interview, Ty Cobb, the White House lawyer handling the Russia inquiry, said there was nothing illegal or unethical about the transition team’s actions. “It would have been political malpractice not to discuss sanctions,” he said, adding that “the presidential transition guide specifically encourages contact with and outreach to foreign dignitaries.”

The only problem, Mr. Cobb said, was that Mr. Flynn had lied to White House officials and to F.B.I. agents about what he had told the Russian ambassador. Mr. Flynn’s misstatements led to his firing in February and his guilty plea on Friday to charges of lying to federal agents.

With Mr. Flynn’s plea and agreement to cooperate with Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel investigating the Russian election interference, the inquiry edges closer to Mr. Trump. The president tried to persuade the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, to drop the bureau’s criminal investigation of Mr. Flynn, and fired Mr. Comey after he failed to comply.

Mr. Trump and his aides have suggested that his concern about Mr. Flynn’s potential legal jeopardy was motivated mainly by the president’s admiration for his former national security adviser’s military service and character.

But the new details about Mr. Flynn’s Russia contacts underscore the possibility that the president may have been worried not just about Mr. Flynn but also about whether any investigation might reach into the White House and perhaps to the Oval Office. That question will be at the center of any consideration by Mr. Mueller of whether Mr. Trump’s actions constituted obstruction of justice.

The Trump transition team ignored a pointed request from the Obama administration to avoid sending conflicting signals to foreign officials before the inauguration and to include State Department personnel when contacting them. Besides the Russian ambassador, Mr. Flynn, at the request of the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, contacted several other foreign officials to urge them to delay or block a United Nations resolution condemning Israel over its building of settlements.

Mr. Cobb said the Trump team had never agreed to avoid such interactions. But one former White House official has disputed that, telling Mr. Mueller’s investigators that Trump transition officials had agreed to honor the Obama administration’s request.



K. T. McFarland made clear in an email exchange that the Trump presidential transition team was intensely focused on relations with Russia. Gabriella Demczuk for The New York Times
Mr. Bossert forwarded Ms. McFarland’s Dec. 29 email exchange about the sanctions to six other Trump advisers, including Mr. Flynn; Reince Priebus, who had been named as chief of staff; Stephen K. Bannon, the senior strategist; and Sean Spicer, who would become the press secretary.

Mr. Obama, she wrote, was trying to “box Trump in diplomatically with Russia,” which could limit his options with other countries, including Iran and Syria. “Russia is key that unlocks door,” she wrote.

She also wrote that the sanctions over Russian election meddling were intended to “lure Trump in trap of saying something” in defense of Russia, and were aimed at “discrediting Trump’s victory by saying it was due to Russian interference.”

“If there is a tit-for-tat escalation Trump will have difficulty improving relations with Russia, which has just thrown U.S.A. election to him,” she wrote.

Mr. Bossert replied by urging all the top advisers to “defend election legitimacy now.”

Mr. Flynn, who had been fired by Mr. Obama as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, was the point person for the transition team on policy toward Russia and other countries. After Mr. Trump named him as his national security adviser in November, Mr. Flynn began briefing him — some say daily — on foreign policy.

Ms. McFarland, who served until May as deputy national security adviser and is awaiting confirmation as ambassador to Singapore, was sometimes referred to by other transition officials as “Flynn’s brain.” She could not be reached for comment.

Mr. Flynn’s Dec. 29 call with Mr. Kislyak was one of the first formal interactions between the incoming administration and a foreign government. On that winter day, Mr. Trump’s closest associates were scattered around several warm-weather locations.

Mr. Flynn was in the Dominican Republic. Other senior members of Mr. Trump’s transition team, including Ms. McFarland, were at Mr. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla. Mr. Kushner was vacationing in Hawaii with his family.

Obama administration officials were expecting a “bellicose” response to the expulsions and sanctions, according to the email exchange between Ms. McFarland and Mr. Bossert. Lisa Monaco, Mr. Obama’s homeland security adviser, had told Mr. Bossert that “the Russians have already responded with strong threats, promising to retaliate,” according to the emails.

In his phone call with Mr. Kislyak, Mr. Flynn asked that Russia “not escalate the situation,” according to court documents released on Friday. He later related the substance of the call — including the discussion of sanctions — to a senior transition official, believed to be Ms. McFarland. A few days later, he briefed others on the transition team.

Mr. Flynn’s intervention appeared to have a dramatic effect. To the surprise of foreign policy experts, the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin, did not immediately respond with retaliatory expulsions of Americans from Moscow.

Mr. Trump praised that decision in a tweet, writing: “Great move on delay (by V. Putin) — I always knew he was very smart.”

It is uncertain how involved Mr. Trump was in the discussions among his staff members of Mr. Flynn’s conversation with the Russian ambassador. Mr. Spicer told reporters on the morning of Dec. 29 that the president-elect would be meeting with his national security team, including Ms. McFarland, that day. A phone call that included Mr. Trump, Mr. Flynn, Ms. McFarland, Mr. Priebus and Mr. Bannon was scheduled for 5 p.m., shortly after Ms. McFarland’s email exchange. It is unclear whether the call took place.

Mr. Cobb said that Mr. Trump did not know that Mr. Flynn had discussed sanctions with Mr. Kislyak in the call. After the inauguration, “Flynn specifically denied it to him, in the presence of witnesses,” he said.

Some legal experts have speculated that the contacts during the transition between Trump aides and foreign officials might violate the Logan Act, a law that prohibits private American citizens from working with a foreign government against the United States. But the act has not been used to prosecute anyone since the 19th century. Mr. Cobb said the law “certainly does not apply” to a presidential transition team.

The day after the president fired Mr. Flynn, he talked about the F.B.I. inquiry with Mr. Comey, the agency’s director. Mr. Comey has said the president urged him to drop the inquiry. “I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go,” Mr. Trump said, according to a memo that Mr. Comey wrote immediately afterward. The White House has denied that account. The president fired Mr. Comey in May.

Testifying before Congress in June, Mr. Comey declined to say whether the president had fired him to impede the investigation. “I don’t think it’s for me to say whether the conversation I had with the president was an effort to obstruct,” he said. “I took it as a very disturbing thing, very concerning, but that’s a conclusion I’m sure the special counsel will work towards to try and understand what the intention was there, and whether that’s an offense.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/02/us/r ... mails.html



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9wMNxbQM-4
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Will Flynn bring back Yellowcake to WH Menu after 1-21-1

Postby seemslikeadream » Mon Dec 04, 2017 7:13 am

Was Michael Flynn asked to wear a wire in Mueller hunt for evidence on Russia?

Plea agreement includes clause showing Flynn consented to participate in ‘covert law enforcement activities” if required

Charles KaiserSunday 3 December 2017 02.00 EST

Michael Flynn leaves federal court following his plea hearing in Washington on Friday. Photograph: Xinhua / Barcroft Images
The least-noticed sentence in Michael Flynn’s plea agreement with special counsel Robert Mueller may also be the most important one.

Section eight of the deal reached by Donald Trump’s former national security adviser in the inquiry into Russian meddling in the US election is entitled “cooperation”. It specifies that as well as answering questions and submitting to government-administered polygraph tests, Flynn’s cooperation “may include … participating in covert law enforcement activities”.

Long-time students of federal law enforcement practices agreed, speaking anonymously, that “covert law enforcement activities” likely refers to the possibility of wearing a concealed wire or recording telephone conversations with other potential suspects. It is not known whether Flynn has worn a wire at any time.

“If the other subjects of investigation have had any conversations with Flynn during the last few months, that phrase must have all of them shaking in their boots,” said John Flannery, a former federal prosecutor in the southern district of New York.

“The one who must be particularly terrified is [Trump son-in-law and adviser] Jared Kushner, if he spoke to the special counsel’s office without immunity about the very matter that is the subject of Flynn’s plea. I think he must be paralyzed if he talked to Flynn before or after the investigators debriefed him.”

Flynn has admitted that he willfully and knowingly made materially “false, fictitious and fraudulent” statements to the FBI on 24 January 2017 – four days after Donald Trump became president.

Former FBI director James Comey has testified before Congress that before Trump fired him, the president asked him to end the investigation of Flynn.

Although the date when Flynn began to cooperate with Mueller’s investigation is not yet public, at least one prominent Republican donor was telling friends in July this year that Flynn was already doing so. At the very least, the terms of Flynn’s co-operation raise the possibility that he may have covertly recorded some of his conversations.

Flynn’s lawyer, Robert Kelner, did not respond to requests for comment about whether his client had worn a wire or had taped telephone conversations.

Since there was no legal requirement for Mueller to include this information about covert law enforcement activities in the plea agreement, Flannery believes it was put there “to put the fear of God” into anyone who may have given the special counsel answers that conflict with Flynn’s information.

The main clue in the plea agreement about the importance of the information Flynn has already provided lies in the discrepancy between the maximum penalty for the crime he has admitted and the maximum sentence the special counsel has promised to recommend.

According to the document made public on Friday, Flynn could have been sentenced to as much as five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. As long as he cooperates in full with all of the special counsel’s requests, the document says the “estimated sentencing guidelines” range from zero to six months, with a possible fine of between $500 and $9,500. The proposed sentencing reduction also partly takes into account the fact Flynn has no criminal record.

“No prosecutor I know would agree to reducing a sentence that dramatically unless the witness had provided very significant information about at least one other target of his investigation,” Flannery said. “You wouldn’t get such a low sentence unless you had implicated a big target. The person that you’re lifting up allows you to sit on the ground.”

The plea agreement, dated 30 November 2017, requires Flynn to cooperate “fully, truthfully, completely and with this Office and other Federal, state and local law enforcement authorities identified by this Office in any and all matters as to which this Office deems the cooperation relevant”.

If Flynn refuses to cooperate fully, “the agreement will be considered breached by your client.” The agreement says any breach will have a serious impact on Flynn’s sentence.

Experts said it was notable Flynn pleaded guilty to a criminal information instead of being indicted by a grand jury. By avoiding the use of a grand jury, Mueller had the flexibility to reach an agreement with Flynn at any time. He also increased the chances that his negotiations would remain secret until he chose to make them public.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/201 ... ler-russia



T. R. Ramachandran‏

22) After all, when Pence was interviewed by CBS on Jan 15th, Sally Yates / DOJ had NOT told Trump team that they had recordings of what exactly Flynn told Kislyak https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/pol ... -he-didnt/
Image


21) There’s more – here’s a second reason why it is likely Pence lied about his convo with Flynn: as of Jan 15th, Pence had good reasons to think he could lie about what happened and get away with it

20) Incidentally, Pence was not the only one – another example of someone who likely lied about what Flynn told him & other transition officials: Reince PriebusT. R. Ramachandran added,

Video clip of when Trump Chief-of-Staff lied about knowledge of Flynn-Russia call

1. NYT today: Priebus was told of Flynn call with…


19) The circumstantial evidence therefore points to the conclusion that Pence likely lied on Jan 15th, when he claimed that Flynn never told him he spoke about Russia sanctions w Kislyak https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/pol ... -he-didnt/
Image

18) Further, even if Mike Pence didn’t know by the time of Pence's CBS interview on Jan 15th (very unlikely), Flynn was aware that MANY transition officials knew what he had told Kislyak re: sanctions & any of them could have easily told Pence the truth

17) So, why would Flynn, who told multiple transition officials on Dec 31st about the substance of his calls, then lie about the same calls *later* to the transition head, Mike Pence? There was NO good reason for him to lie.

16) Let’s repeat: By Dec 31, 2016, MULTIPLE Trump transition officials had been TOLD BY Flynn that he spoke to Kislyak specifically abt US sanctions & to ask Russia to NOT escalate
Image

15) What’s more, Flynn also *directly* communicated the details of the Kislyak calls (re: US sanctions/no Russian escalation) back to MULTIPLE Trump transition officials on Dec 31, 2016
Image

14) So, the notion that Flynn “lied” to Trump transition officials about his call w Kislyak is absurd given he was *INSTRUCTED* by one or more officials to say what he did
Image


13) Moreover, Flynn told Kislyak something that, according to Flynn, was the position of MULTIPLE Trump transition officials at that time https://www.lawfareblog.com/michael-fly ... -documents
Image

12) That fact that Cobb is deceiving the public becomes evident when you read Flynn’s plea agreement – for starters, Flynn only told Kislyak what he & a senior Trump transition official agreed to communicate https://www.lawfareblog.com/michael-fly ... -documents
Image

11) You can see why by looking at the other statement from Cobb, which directly reveals a major ongoing deception from Cobb & Trump’s team about what Flynn said to Pence or other WH officials
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10) 3rd, more importantly, Flynn’s plea deal shows that the road *does not* end with Flynn, as falsely claimed by Trump’s lawyer Ty Cobb http://www.latimes.com/politics/washing ... story.html
Image

9) That seems similar to Mueller’s strategic approach with Manafort, leaving room for potential state-level charges outside the reach of a Trump pardon


8) As @jedshug pointed out, Mueller’s strategy on Flynn leaves open potential state-level charges which cannot be overridden by a Trump pardon http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_ ... power.html


7) 2nd, Mueller appears to be going about this carefully, by preserving the ability of one or more states to also charge Flynn with other crimes, possibly in collaboration with Mueller’s team



6) So, Flynn could face significant additional legal jeopardy w Muller/DOJ, possibly contingent on his level of cooperation with Mueller’s team


5) 1st, Flynn’s plea agreement states that it ONLY covers the 3 specific lies in the “Statement of the Offense” – and that Mueller reserves the right to prosecute him for OTHER offenses https://www.lawfareblog.com/michael-fly ... -documents

4) However, Flynn’s plea deal involved just 1 count of lying to the FBI (covering 3 separate lies)- so, did he just skate easy on all other potential issues? The answer is NO.

3) Let’s start with a note about Flynn’s legal jeopardy: prior to his plea deal, he faced potential jeopardy on a variety of fronts - Russia, Kislyak, Turkey, and moreT. R. Ramachandran added,
T. R. Ramachandran


1) WSJ says Michael Flynn is looking for FBI immunity agreement for #TrumpRussia testimony; why might that be? Link: http://electionado.com/canvas/1490918561125
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Will Flynn bring back Yellowcake to WH Menu after 1-21-1

Postby seemslikeadream » Wed Dec 06, 2017 4:51 pm

11 minutes after trump was sworn in as president General Yellowkerk Flynn was on the move

12:11 General Yellowkerk was texting


Trump Officials Repeatedly Pushed Flynn’s Bogus Story Of Russia Contacts

So many of them knew.

As court filings and emails emerge from the Mueller probe and dogged reporting, Trump officials who denied that Michael Flynn would stoop to renegotiating the outgoing administration’s sanctions on Russia turn out to have been privately informed of Flynn’s pre-inauguration diplomacy in real time.

The Trump camp’s public posture about Flynn’s proposal to Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak not to retaliate for Obama’s new sanctions has been a rapidly moving target. The conversation didn’t take place at all, according to unnamed Trump administration sources in January. Or they did, but the two didn’t talk about sanctions. Or they were about sanctions, but only in the context of “outreach to foreign dignitaries,” as White House lawyer Ty Cobb put it.

“It would have been political malpractice not to discuss sanctions,” Cobb told the New York Times in a report published Saturday. There is “nothing to hide,” according to the President on Monday, which doesn’t go very far to explain why so many spent so long trying to hide it.

TIMELINE

Jan. 12: A column by the Washington Post’s David Ignatius revealed for the first time that Flynn and Kislyak spoke to each other on Dec. 29, the day President Barack Obama imposed sanctions on the Kremlin for interfering in the 2016 election. Though the column did not report what Flynn and Kislyak discussed, Ignatius asked whether Flynn’s comments could have “undercut the U.S. sanctions” and if the spirit of the Logan Act was “violated.”

Jan. 13: The Trump transition team rushed to respond and in doing so seemed to elide the existence of the Dec. 29 call, focusing instead on other, allegedly more anodyne calls between Flynn and Kislyak.

An update to the Ignatius column provided comment from one unnamed transition official who said that Flynn and Kislyak had spoken by phone twice, including a call on Dec. 28, but that the calls were before sanctions were announced and didn’t touch on that topic. A second Trump official told Ignatius that there was a Dec. 28 call in which Kislyak invited a Trump administration official to attend a January conference in Kazakhstan.

Incoming White House press secretary Sean Spicer provided an on-the-record response to the Ignatius column in a call with pool reporters. Spicer said that the conversations focused on exchanging holiday greetings.

“On Christmas Day, General Flynn reached out to the ambassador, sent him a text, and it said, you know, I want to wish you Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, I look forward to touching base with you and working with you. And I wish you all the best,” Spicer said in the press call. “The ambassador texted him back, wishing him a Merry Christmas as well, and then subsequently, on the 28th of December, texted him and said, I’d like to give you a call, may I? He then took that call on the 28th, and the call centered around the logistics of setting up a call with the president of Russia and the president-elect after he was sworn in. And they exchanged logistical information on how to initiate and to schedule that call. That was it. Plain and simple.”

Jan. 15: Vice President-elect Mike Pence adamantly denied that Flynn discussed sanctions in an extended interview on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

“I talked to General Flynn about that conversation and actually was initiated on Christmas Day he had sent a text to the Russian ambassador to express not only Christmas wishes but sympathy for the loss of life in the airplane crash that took place,” Pence said, echoing Spicer.

“It was strictly coincidental that they had a conversation,” Pence continued. “They did not discuss anything having to do with the United States’ decision to expel diplomats or impose censure against Russia.”

Pence pioneered the one Trump administration talking point it has stuck to: talking to “diplomatic leaders, security leaders in some 30 countries” was “exactly what the incoming national security adviser should do.”

“The subject matter of sanctions or the actions taken by the Obama did not come up in the conversation,” incoming White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus said in his own interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” claiming he’d discussed the issue with Flynn.

“In fact, it was the sports team that was in an unfortunate plane accident,” Priebus continued. “They talked about setting up a phone call after inauguration. And they also talked about a conference in Syria, or a conference in regard to ISIS in Syria. So those were the only subjects that came up.”

An unnamed transition official affirmed Pence’s remark about Flynn and Kislyak not discussing sanctions to CNN in a story published the same day.

Jan. 24: The FBI interviewed Flynn at the White House about his contacts with Kislyak, and Flynn was less than truthful. Flynn would later plead guilty to lying to the FBI that day about the content of his conversations with Kislyak, including the Dec. 29 call discussing sanctions.

Jan. 26: Acting Attorney General Sally Yates met with White House Counsel Don McGahn to tell him that White House officials were giving comment “related to conduct that General Flynn had been involved in that we knew not to be the truth,” as she later testified. Yates told a Senate Judiciary subcommittee that she expressed grave concern about Flynn’s “underlying conduct” and the fact that the national security adviser “was compromised by the Russians.” The White House said that McGahn recounted his exchange with Yates to Trump immediately.

Feb. 8: In an interview with the Washington Post, Flynn twice responded to questions that he had discussed sanctions with Kislyak with a flat “no.”

Feb. 9: The Post published a story including those Feb. 8 denials, and confirming that Flynn discussed sanctions with Kislyak during the transition. Though the Post story did not specifically cite the Dec. 29 phone call, it reported that Flynn’s communications with Kislyak were under scrutiny by the FBI. The article included a line from Flynn’s spokesman who said that the retired general now “indicated that while he had no recollection of discussing sanctions, he couldn’t be sure that the topic never came up.”

Feb. 13: Hours before his dismissal, Flynn gave an extraordinary interview to the Daily Caller, contradicting his denials to the Post, in which he admitted to discussing Obama’s expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats to retaliate for Russia’s election meddling, but denied crossing any lines.

“If I did, believe me, the FBI would be down my throat, my clearances would be pulled. There were no lines crossed,” Flynn insisted.

Though he claimed the discussion “wasn’t about sanctions,” he admitted it “was about the 35 guys who were thrown out”—which was, in fact, part of the sanctions. “So that’s what it turned out to be. It was basically, ‘Look, I know this happened. We’ll review everything.’ I never said anything such as, ‘We’re going to review sanctions,’ or anything like that.”

The Dec. 29 call “was not to relieve sanctions,” he reiterated. “It was basically to say, ‘Look, we’re coming into office in a couple of weeks. Give us some time to take a look at everything.’”

Feb. 14: The day after Flynn’s firing, Spicer spent the daily press briefing insisting there was nothing suspect about the ousted official’s foreign contacts.

“The job of the incoming NSA is to sit down with the counterparts and start that dialogue, and that’s exactly what he did,” Spicer said, noting that the transition “would constantly read out” reports of “who he was speaking to, how he was getting ready.”

“There’s nothing that the general did that was a violation of any sort,” he responded to a subsequent question. “He was well within his duties to discuss issues of common concern between the two countries.”

The firing was a direct response to “misleading the Vice President and others, and not having a firm grasp on his recollection of that,” Spicer said.

The same day, The New Yorker reported that an anonymous source had described Reince Priebus supposedly angrily dressing down Flynn until Flynn cracked and admitted to possibly discussing sanctions.*

Feb. 16: President Trump gave a wide-ranging press conference in the White House’s East Room defending Flynn as a “fine person” and saying he was simply unhappy with the way “a certain amount of information [was] given to Vice President Pence.”

“Did you direct Mike Flynn to discuss the sanctions with the Russian ambassador?” a reporter asked.

“No, I didn’t,” Trump said. “No I didn’t.”

“Did you fire him because—” a reporter followed up.

“No, I fired him because of what he said to Mike Pence, very simple,” Trump interjected. “Mike [Flynn] was doing his job. He was calling countries and his counterparts. So it certainly would have been okay with me if he did it. I would have directed him to do it if I thought he wasn’t doing it. I didn’t direct him but I would have directed him because that’s his job.”

Feb. 19: Priebus gave a pair of interviews claiming that the White House only learned of the sanctions discussions after days of “sort of deposing Michael Flynn.”

“He maintained the fact that he never talked to the Russian ambassador about sanctions,” Priebus told NBC’s “Meet the Press” of their initial conversations. “But still, something wasn’t adding up. And eventually, we determined that he did, in fact, talk about the sanctions, even though we didn’t believe that it was illegal.”

Priebus was also subjected to an extended grilling from CBS “Face The Nation” host John Dickerson, who asked six times if it was actually appropriate to discuss sanctions or if Trump thought it was.

“There is nothing wrong with having a conversation about sanctions,” Priebus finally said. “And there was nothing wrong about having a conversation about the fact that the Obama administration put further sanctions in place and expelled some folks out of the United States. There is nothing wrong with that topic coming up in a conversation.”

EPILOGUE

Flynn’s guilty plea Friday for lying to the FBI about the extent of his contacts with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak revealed a much more extensive sequence of conversations. It was Jared Kushner, identified in the Mueller probe’s statement of offense as “a very senior official” of the Trump transition team, who first asked Flynn to contact Kislyak, at the time in response to a U.N. resolution condemning the expansion of Israeli settlements, which Kushner wanted delayed or defeated.

When Obama sanctioned Russia on Dec. 28 for its interference in the 2016 elections, Mueller’s team wrote, Kislyak had called Flynn. On the 29th Flynn reached out to “a senior official of the presidential transition team,” identified by the AP as K. T. McFarland, who became Trump’s deputy national security adviser (now his nominee for ambassador to Singapore), who was at Mar-a-Lago with the president-elect and senior members of the transition team.

The two “discussed that members of the Presidential Transition Team at Mar-a-Lago did not want Russia to escalate the situation” and ultimately decided to ask Kislyak not to escalate sanctions; Kislyak complied, and Russian president Vladimir Putin announced the next day that he would not retaliate, according to the Mueller probe’s statement of the offense filed against Flynn.

The New York Times reported Saturday on an email about Flynn’s discussion with Kislyak from McFarland. Her email about Flynn’s conversation with Kislyak went to Steve Bannon, Reince Priebus, Sean Spicer, Tom Bossert and at least five other Trump advisers.

In her email, McFarland was explicit. “As part of the outreach, Ms. McFarland wrote, Mr. Flynn would be speaking with the Russian ambassador, Mr. Kislyak, hours after Mr. Obama’s sanctions were announced,” the Times reported.

McFarland also outlined what she believed was the anti-Trump strategy concealed in the sanctions by the Obama administration, designed to “box trump in diplomatically with russia.”


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.@McFaul See attached. As we said in the story, it’s no clear that she is saying she believed that election had been thrown. And WH lawyer in story said she was referring to how Dems portrayed it.
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*Priebus, according to Saturday’s Times report, was CC’ed on the email from McFarland discussing Flynn’s sanctions-related talking points with Kislyak and would very likely have had the evidence he was supposedly seeking in his email.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/ ... tions-call






Whistleblower: Flynn told ex-partner Russia sanctions would be ripped up
by MIKE MEMOLI

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump was just 11 minutes into his presidency when his choice for national security adviser, Michael Flynn, texted a former business partner to say an ambitious U.S. collaboration with Russia to build nuclear reactors in the Middle East was "good to go," according to a new whistleblower account.

As Trump delivered his inaugural address, says the unnamed whistleblower, Flynn directed Alex Copson, managing director of ACU Strategic Partners, to inform their business partners "to put things in place."

The whistleblower also says that Flynn assured Copson that U.S. sanctions on Russia that could block the nuclear project would be "ripped up" once Trump was inside the White House.

The account from the anonymous whistleblower is detailed in a new letter from the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to his Republican counterpart asking that the panel subpoena Flynn, Copson, the White House and others involved in the alleged plan.

Click here to read the letter

"Our Committee has credible allegations that President Trump's National Security Advisor sought to manipulate the course of international nuclear policy for the financial gain of his former business partners," Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., wrote in a letter sent Wednesday to Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy, R-S.C.

Image: Michael Flynn appears to look at his phone during President Trump's inauguration ceremony.
Michael Flynn appears to look at his phone during President Trump's inauguration ceremony. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee
The whistleblower first approached staff on the Oversight Committee in June just after Newsweek published an account of Flynn's role in pursuing a joint U.S.-Russian plan to build nuclear power plants throughout the Arab world, to be financed by Saudi Arabia, according to the letter.

Copson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Flynn's attorney also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Cummings writes that he is bringing forward his request now because special counsel Robert Mueller had asked him to delay acting on the information "until they completed certain investigative steps."

But, according to Cummings, Mueller's directive was dropped after Friday, when Flynn entered into a cooperation agreement with Mueller's team by pleading guilty to lying to the FBI about his conversations with the Russian ambassador to the U.S. at the time, Sergey Kislyak, during the presidential transition. One of those conversations between Flynn and Kislyak was about U.S. sanctions that the Obama administration imposed on Russia in response to Moscow's interference in the presidential election.

A spokesperson for Mueller did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Mueller's team and congressional investigators have been probing cases in which Flynn may have sought to use his status as Trump's national security adviser for personal financial gain, according to people familiar with the investigation. One such instance, these people said, involves a December 2016 meeting between Flynn and senior Turkish officials to discuss a plot to return a top rival of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Turkey and drop federal charges against an Erdogan ally jailed in the U.S. in exchange for $15 million.


Flynn served as an adviser for ACU from April 2015 to June 2016, according to his financial disclosure form. Congressional Democrats have already sought information from Flynn's attorneys about whether he failed to disclose the full nature and extent of his travels to the Middle East during that time, and whether his business interests at that time may have influenced his conduct during what was ultimately a brief tenure as national security adviser.

Flynn later served as an adviser for the IronBridge Group, which was also involved in an Arab nuclear plan. According to a PowerPoint presentation from ACU obtained by Newsweek, Russian firms that would have been involved as well included a Russian arms exporter currently under U.S. sanctions. Reuters reported the project also would have included Rosatom, Russia's state nuclear company, and another Russian engineering and construction firm also under U.S. sanctions.

Federal conflict of interest regulations say that employees should not participate in matters for which they have previously acted as a consultant, or which are likely to have a direct financial benefit for close family.

Cummings concedes that Copson may have lied in his account to the whistleblower, which is why he is asking Gowdy to agree to subpoena Copson and others to corroborate the claims.

Subpoenas could not be issued by the committee without Gowdy's approval. In his letter, Cummings notes that when then-Rep. Jason Chaffetz chaired the Oversight Committee he had agreed to seek documents from the White House related to whether Flynn had lied on his security clearance forms about foreign contacts or payments.

But Gowdy, who became chairman after Chaffetz resigned from Congress in June, has not agreed to pursue the issue further, arguing that to do so would potentially conflict with Mueller's probe.

"I believe the American people want Congress to hold President Trump and his Administration accountable, and they are tired of Republicans in Congress putting their heads in the sand," Cummings writes
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/wh ... ed-n827031



trump would provide our military to secure nuclear power plant sites being built by Russia in the Middle East trump needed to shred sanctions to help Putin "recolonize the Middle East" at the U.S. taxpayer's expense

read the letter that cummings sent on flynn whistle-blower

everything is about Russian sanctions

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Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Will Flynn bring back Yellowcake to WH Menu after 1-21-1

Postby seemslikeadream » Thu Dec 07, 2017 4:51 pm

General Yellowkerk was treason texting 11 minutes after trump was sworn in!

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Copson told him, “Mike [Flynn] has been putting everything in place for us. I am going to celebrate today…This is going to make a lot of very wealthy people.” Copson, the whistleblower recalled, also complained that Obama had “fucked everything up in my nuclear deal with the [Russian] sanctions.” Copson, in the whistleblower’s account, explained that the the United States would have to provide military support to “defend these installations” and that doing so would provide the US government a pretext for placing US troops in these countries.




Flynn Business Associate Hoped to Get Sessions to Support Russia-Related Nuclear Project

The goal was to build nuclear plants throughout the Middle East.

DAVID CORN AND AJ VICENSDEC. 6, 2017 4:53 PM



On Wednesday afternoon, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) released a letter noting that his staff has spoken with a “whistleblower” who says that on the day Donald Trump was inaugurated as president, Michael Flynn, who was about to become national security adviser, was texting with a former business associate named Alex Copson to tell him that their plan to work with Russia to build nuclear reactors throughout the Middle East was “good to go.” According to the whistleblower, Copson said that day that Flynn would make sure that US sanctions imposed on Russia would be “ripped up” and that doing so would clear the way for the ambitious nuclear project. Cummings’ letter suggests that Flynn, who had previously worked as a private consultant for Copson’s company, was still in cahoots with Copson and intended to use the White House position he was about to assume to facilitate this controversial deal. Months earlier, Copson was also hoping to enlist Jeff Sessions, who at the time was a US senator from Alabama, to help advance the deal.

Copson and his company, ACU Strategic Partners, had a grand vision: to form a joint project with Russia to develop more than three dozen nuclear power plants throughout the Arab world. Copson claimed this scheme would stabilize the region. One of the first steps in that plan was buying an unfinished nuclear power plant in north Alabama.

“Alabama senators can help the next [presidential] administration move this project forward.”
Last year, the Tennessee Valley Authority put up for auction the Bellefonte Nuclear Plant, located in Hollywood, Alabama. The minimum asking price was $36.4 million. And Copson’s company came knocking. It submitted a proposal to obtain the facility, spend $20 billion to fix it up, and then export $300 billion worth of nuclear material to Middle East nuclear plants over 40 years. But ACU Strategic Partners was not offering to buy the plant. Instead, it proposed that the TVA transfer Bellefonte to it in return for “an equity position in the super consortium” pulling together the Middle East deal with Russia.

Under this plan, once the two reactors at Bellefonte were completed, the plant would be a training center for the Middle East project. “Completion of Bellefonte 1 & 2 is very important to the US/Russian collaboration to stabilize the Middle East through nuclear power,” Copson said in 2016. “It’s a very good training vehicle to complete those reactors.”

Copson told Al.com at the time that he was looking to Alabama’s Republican senators—Sessions and Richard Shelby—to assist with this project. “Alabama senators can help the next [presidential] administration move this project forward,” he said. By this point, Sessions was also a top campaign adviser to Donald Trump.

ACU Strategic Partners was part of an international consortium that, according to the Wall Street Journal, included companies that were seeking “to build as many of 40 nuclear reactors in countries including Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt” and “to partner with either the Russian or Chinese governments, which would be responsible for taking the spent fuel from the reactors and disposing of it.”

Obama administration officials took a skeptical view of the project. And Copson hired Flynn in 2015 to promote the plan. Flynn later reported on a financial disclosure form that he served as an “advisor” to ACU Strategic Partners from April 2015 to June 2016. In June 2015, he flew to the Middle East to talk up the project and was paid $25,000 by Copson’s company.

There is no public indication that Copson succeeded in enlisting Sessions’ help for the deal. Sessions is now the attorney general. Asked whether Sessions had ever been contacted by Copson or ACU Strategic Partners regarding this nuclear deal, the Justice Department declined to comment.

In late 2016, the Bellefonte nuclear facility was sold for $111 million, but Copson’s company didn’t end up making a final offer. Still, ACU Strategic Partners pushed ahead with its overall plan to construct nuclear power facilities in the Middle East with Russia.

Cummings letter indicates that even when Flynn was about to enter a government position—and was no longer officially working for Copson—he remained keen on making this deal happen. The Washington Post recently reported that “Flynn continued to support the idea of the nuclear project during the presidential transition. He encouraged Tom Barrack, one of Trump’s closest friends, to pursue a related plan.”

The whistleblower cited by Cummings maintains that on Inauguration Day, Copson told him, “Mike [Flynn] has been putting everything in place for us. I am going to celebrate today…This is going to make a lot of very wealthy people.” Copson, the whistleblower recalled, also complained that Obama had “fucked everything up in my nuclear deal with the [Russian] sanctions.” Copson, in the whistleblower’s account, explained that the the United States would have to provide military support to “defend these installations” and that doing so would provide the US government a pretext for placing US troops in these countries.

According to the Cummings letter, Copson was working hard to influence the US government so this Russia-related project could proceed. Flynn’s role in all this obviously warrants investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller and congressional committees. But any probe of this matter should cast a wider net to determine whom else Copson recruited to influence the US government and grease the way for his scheme to work with Russia to nuclearize the Middle East.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/201 ... r-project/



The Last Temptation of Michael Flynn
Retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn arrives to a swearing in ceremony of White House senior staff in the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017.

By JAMES STAVRIDIS December 7, 2017
IDEAS
Admiral Stavridis was the 16th Supreme Allied Commander at NATO and is Dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University
Lieutenant General Michael Flynn’s enormous fall from grace is an object lesson in the seductive allure of money, fame and power. His story is perhaps not quite a Greek tragedy, but rather a kind of 21st-century parable with morals for us all.

Throughout my time in uniform with Mike, he was a determined, hard-edged and highly effective intelligence officer — the best ever to serve on my team personally, which he did in Afghanistan while I was the Supreme Allied Commander at NATO and the strategic commander for that mission. Both General Stan McChrystal — his immediate boss — and I would often comment on how lucky we were to have then Major General Mike Flynn on our team in combat from 2009–2010. How did he end up a convicted criminal, nationally disgraced, financially ruined and struggling to put his life together again?

Born in a middle-class family, Mike Flynn was never part of the West Point aristocracy of the Army, nor was he a tactical commander in the field. He attended the University of Rhode Island in his home state and entered the Army through the Reserve Officer Training Corps route as an intelligence officer — destined not to command sweeping armies, but rather to serve as the consigliore and advisor to the warrior commanders, a kind of Machiavelli to the Prince. In uniform and especially in the field, he was widely acknowledged for his innovation, grit and competence, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan in counter-terror campaigns.

But there are three key facts to understand about Mike Flynn that set the stage for all that has unfolded.

First, his worldview is distinctly threat-based, like most senior military officers. He sees danger and hostility everywhere, and is quick to judge it as well as react aggressively, often with immediate effect. This tendency to listen to the darker angels of his nature served him well in combat, less so in civilian life. It made him highly receptive to the worldview of President Donald Trump, Steve Bannon and others who are so resolutely predisposed to look at the world through a dark lens.

Second, his background and role as an intelligence specialist led him to search for levers and keys to influencing others, especially our nation’s opponents. In the Cold War during the early part of his career, he focused on the Soviet Union and watched with fascination and satisfaction as it imploded. He observed the rise of Vladimir Putin and came to understand the emergence of new threats from Moscow. The chance to go and see Putin up close and personal must have been irresistible to him, and — along with the cash — contributed to his decision to sit next to Putin at the infamous Moscow dinner in 2015, a decision I am certain he would happily reverse in retrospect. It also made him a logical candidate for the position of National Security Advisor and the conduit for some level of interaction with Russia during the presidential campaign.

Third, like all active-duty military, he never had an opportunity to make significant amounts of money. Over the 33 years of his service in the Army, he would have earned somewhere around $70,000 annually, averaged out through those decades of service — certainly enough to live on, but hardly a chance to build wealth for his family. Like many other senior military, especially those like Mike who were nationally known, upon retirement he was deluged with offers from the financial world. He created a consulting company and made a series of choices about where to provide advice — something he had done throughout his military career — which turned out to lead him into the orbit of Russia in ways that have caught him up.

Thus big money, a chance for real power and the ability to confront the nation’s enemies all came into play, creating someone who could leave many of us shaking our heads as he took the podium at the Republican National Convention and led chants of “lock her up.”

Entering politics for any retired military officer is a deeply dangerous zone, because service in the military hardly prepares you for the unique cut-and-thrust of domestic politics. Some have done it well — think George Marshall or Colin Powell — and others have crashed and burned, from Ollie North to Michael Flynn.

How his story ends is yet to be determined. Much will turn on the results of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s ongoing investigation and his cooperation with it. Mike Flynn has always struck me as forthright and honest at his core.

Mike called his controversial memoir, published soon after he retired, The Field of Fight. He is in for the fight of his life in rebuilding his reputation; but luckily for him, this is a country built on second chances. He gave this nation great service throughout a long and distinguished military career, and the choices he makes in the weeks and months ahead will tell us whether he will win this most challenging battle.

http://time.com/5054583/michael-flynn-p ... ump-power/
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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