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Emails Dispute White House Claim FACTS LARRY LOON (LARRYLOSERVILLE) hide this posting unhide
QR Code Link to This Post Emails Dispute White House Claims That Flynn Acted Independently on Russia
By MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT, SHARON LaFRANIERE and SCOTT SHANEDEC. 2, 2017
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.
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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.
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larry crowbar......you're the TWAT, that can't spell!!!!! Bwaaaaaa!!
Larry Crowbar???? Maybe you're the Twat! LMAO! Spell much??
WHAT'S A "PYSCO" YOU ILLITERATE TWAT? LMAO.....Larry.......what a dumbass!!!! Fucking LOSER!!!!!
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