At a certain point in the not-too-distant future, the president of the United States is going to feel compelled to assert that he was taken in and duped by Michael Flynn and that he feels betrayed, his feelings are hurt, and that he didn’t know one damn thing about any of it. I can’t see any other way that Trump can get the separation from Flynn that he’ll need to survive in office.
The latest revelation begins with a text message received by someone in the inaugural crowd at 12:11pm on January 20th, 2016.
As President Trump delivered his inaugural address on the steps of the U.S. Capitol in January, his new national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, sent a text to a former business associate telling him that a plan to build nuclear power plants in the Middle East in partnership with Russian interests was “good to go,” according to a witness who spoke with congressional investigators.
Flynn had assured his former associate that U.S. sanctions against Russia would immediately be “ripped up” by the Trump administration, a move that would help facilitate the deal, the associate told the witness.
This was a chance encounter.
According to [Rep. Elijah] Cummings’s letter, the witness said he met Alex Copson, Flynn’s former business associate, at an inaugural event. Copson is the managing director of ACU Strategic Partners, a Washington-based company that Flynn said he advised from April 2015 through June 2016, according to a financial disclosure he filed this August.
The witness told Cummings and committee investigators that Copson shared a text message he had just received from Flynn, who was on stage at the Capitol during Trump’s speech.
Perhaps because of his eyesight or the glare, the witness couldn’t read the text message but he did note the time stamp. Because he was disturbed by the conversation, he took contemporaneous notes. Let’s look at the conversation:
As the president spoke, Flynn reportedly texted Copson that the nuclear project was “good to go,” the witness said Copson told him.
“Mike has been putting everything in place for us,” Copson said, according to the witness, adding: “This is going to make a lot of very wealthy people.”
Trump had been president for eleven minutes and was still delivering his speech, but the thing on Michael Flynn’s mind was how wealthy he was going to make his former client. Apparently, he had been “putting everything in place” for a while, and part of that was obviously that he was going to make sure that the sanctions on Russia would be removed.
“Mr. Copson explained that General Flynn was making sure that sanctions would be ‘ripped up’ as one of his first orders of business and that this would allow money to start flowing into the project,” Cummings wrote.
Cummings is only the ranking member on the House Oversight committee, so he can’t do anything with this information by himself. The chairman, Rep. Trey Gowdy, refuses to subpoena this witness, but it no longer matters.
[Robert] Mueller’s office was aware of the witness’s account and asked Cummings not to release the information until the special counsel had taken “certain investigative steps,” which are now complete, Cummings wrote.
Flynn is now a cooperating witness and may have been cooperating for a little longer than we know. The text has presumably been preserved and Flynn has to explain it. If he indicates that Trump was witting about his activities, that’s an impeachable offense, but it’s possible that Trump knew nothing about what Flynn was doing.
What Trump won’t be able to do is say he is or was “okay” with Flynn’s activities. He’s going to have to backtrack on his assessment of Flynn and whether or not he is a “good man.” He probably won’t want to continue to say that he “feels bad” for Flynn.
Whether it’s true or not, he’s going to need to say that Flynn took advantage of him.
If people start pushing the narrative now that only the most gullible of idiots wouldn’t know what Flynn was up to, would Trump’s pride lead him to not take the obvious path?
Trump appears to be OK with looking like an idiot, whether at home or abroad.
Well, Flynn was a DOD employee during the regime of the Kenyan usurper.
So I think we all know who will be deemed responsible for all things Flynn, right?
The conspiracy theories will write themselves.
They’ll try that. They’re already trying that. Once all the facts are revealed, it will not be effective enough to save Trump’s team. Facts will be revealed about what a bunch of individuals on Trump’s team did, and those individuals don’t have ties to any Democrats.
Don’t assume public opinion, or public intensity, will remain static. Most of the indictment cakes are not finished baking yet.
Trump is screwed either way, isn’t he?
If he disavows Flynn, Flynn will surely turn on Trump if he hasn’t already, and then Mueller will have the goods, right?
I don’t think Flynn’s decisions about whether to “turn on” Trump or not will be based on his own interests (such as a disinclination to be imprisoned rather than on any of Trump’s public statements.
I’m either not understanding your point or you have a “don’t” in there that doesn’t belong.
In short, having plead guilty to a lesser offense in exchange for leniency, Flynn can’t hold back anything just because Trump is saying nice things about him or not.
Wow. Did Pence never share the Cummings letter with the donald or all those attys in the WH? Time for Mueller to interview Pence’s staff.
Interesting that among the principles in that nuclear deal were Keith Alexander and Michael Hayden, who on January 20 were not happy with the new President.
Also interesting that both Russia and China were mentioned in PowerPoint slides about that project for the Saudis.
There has to be some Trump thinking about how Russia fit into it before he took office. This was a huge fossil fuel/nuclear “climate change” use of non-renewable energy. As spitting in environmentalists’ eyes as could be. And nuclear with the 9/11 nation at that. With a plan for security of nuclear faciliities in Saudi Arabia. Likely this came to Trump through Flynn and Erik Prince.
This nuclear deal and Flynn’s connection with it just was not on my radar screen. Checking now, I see that much of the story was known at least as far back as September:
https:/thinkprogress.org/flynn-pushed-trillion-dollar-russian-saudi-nuclear-energy-scheme-while-at-
white-house-f9da6ca259ca
(close space before white-house for the URL to work)
Flynn was working on this as early as 2015, “advising executives on the deal.”
Here’s another angle, connecting with an unfinished TVA nuclear plant in Hollywood, Alabama:
http://www.al.com/news/huntsville/index.ssf/2016/10/bellefonte_proposal_calls_for.html
So back in the Obama days, it was no secret. Even now, US firms are pushing Trump to revive it, Russia or no Russia:
http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/US-firms-push-Washington-to-restart-nuclear-pact-talks-with-Riyadh-
515769
If Flynn was already working on this by 2015, I would assume it was independent of Trump. But it does suggest that Flynn was involved in some”shady dealings,” that he was taking advantage of his position as head of DIA to advance his personal business interests, and that being National Security Adviser in the Trump Administration would only advance these business interests.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/thomasfrank/muellers-russia-probe-may-now-include-flynns-dia-tenure?utm_ter
m=.jlLVnKRVn#.sbe1mYy1m
My own take, or guess really, is that the Trump people knew very well what Flynn was doing, and that’s exactly why they wanted him on board — because of his excellent connections with Russia and other countries. That doesn’t mean they knew every detail, or that they explicitly authorized him to do it, any more than Obama did. Nor does it necessarily matter — Flynn’s in trouble for this on his own account.
The real question is what Flynn knows about Trump’s Russian activities. That’s what Mueller also wants to find out.
It looks to me like Flynn had got himself into a position where Trump’s growing, and personal, dependence on (= subjection to) Russia stood to help his (Flynn’s) business interests. Looks like a steaming convergence of personal advancement and treason; but with the treason simply a biproduct of greed and corruption. And since this was all of great advantage to Russia, and clearly understood by them, they lent their own talents to getting Trump elected.
OK, here’s something else pointing to a possible Trump connection — through Sessions. Because that nuclear plant is in his state. This update hot off the digital press from Mother Jones:
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/12/flynn-business-associate-hoped-to-get-sessions-to-suppor
t-russia-related-nuclear-project/
[sigh] An impeachable offense is what the members of the House Judiciary Committee say is an impeachable offense. I find the careless use of language disheartening. Six months from now you will have forgotten making this statement, but your readers will be disappointed. I believe Trump could shoot a random person on Fifth Avenue and the Republicans in the House would refuse to pass a Bill of Impeachment. Even Digby, whom I used to adore, has gone insane with the words collusion and treason. None of what Flynn is accused of is equivalent to making war on the United States. Nothing that Trump has done rises to the level of making war on the United States, although I admit he’s doing an awful lot to harm the U.S. There has been no evidence presented to support the thousands of assertions that Trump Jr. “colluded” with “the Russian government” by meeting with people who claimed to have discreditable information about Hillary.
For that matter, it’s still unclear to me what actual crime Trump could be convicted of.
If he literally accepted a bag of money from Putin to run ads, that would violate campaign finance law. But, say, giving Putin campaign data to better target his bots… that seems to fall under the “so scummy we never thought we needed a law to prohibit it” umbrella that covers so much of Trump’s behavior/
Actually, it would be the exact same crime as accepting a bag of money.
[Sigh]…twice!!!
You write:
Precisely.
It could be said…if thoroughly proven…that Russia was making a sort of “war” on the United States by using media to influence popular opinion. (“New media…just like the old media that the U.S. has been using to influence popular opinion all over the world since the beginning of WWII hostilities, only miles better in the “influencing” department.) But proving that Flynn and the other hustlers surrounding this administration…right on up to Trump…were trying to somehow injure the United States by their actions? That is gong to be a long haul.
Here is what they will say when push comes to shove:
Barring absolute proof of ill intent…if of course the idea of “absolute proof” even remains accessible in this digital, post-truthiness world…can they be busted for this? When Henry Kissinger took part in sabotaging the Viet Nam peace talks for Richard Nixon’s electoral benefit…bloody-handed Henry Kissinger, still being honored for his various treacheries and certainly a very rich man…that was treason!!! How is it that every high official of every government under which the the U.S. has operated has made lots of money? Can we bust these people for trying to do that? I don’t really know. If this happens, it will a purely political act. I am fine with that, but let’s call a spade a spade here. What happened in this instance is business as usual, only this time the ultimate beneficiary of this business is equally disliked and feared by both parties, and quite probably incompetent for the job at hand as well.
The only disagreement I have with what you wrote is about the following:
Just because no evidence has been “presented”…an assertion with which many would disagree…does not preclude the existence of evidence.
Further, the spooks can manufacture “evidence” on an industrial level if they so desire. That pee tape that so titillated Trump’s enemies and produced so much clickbait-generated profit for the media? Even if it really exists and is eventually shown as evidence on CNN, I personally do not believe any evidence that is digitally based. It’s simply too easy to fake. That goes two ways as well. If said tape were to be presented in lurid detail on the national news, one thing would immediately happen. Cadres of “experts” would immediately step forward to say that they can prove that it has been doctored, and other cadres of other “experts” would step forward saying that they can prove that it has not been doctored. Much like the global warming brouhaha, there is simply no “truth” left, short of what one can witness personally. All the rest is up for grabs. Those with the most interest and the most money will eventually be declared the winners in that particular truthiness sweepstakes, and on to the next outrage we will happily tumble.
So it goes.
Thank you, Procopius, for trying to make some sense here.
Later…
AG
The above is now a standalone post. Flynn To the Wolves? Which Pack? There Are More than One In This Dark Forest.
Please comment there.
Thank you…
AG
Claiming he was taken advantage of by Flynn and ultimately others is probably all Trump has left at this point.
But as more of his close associates get exposed actively conspiring with the Russians to either enrich themselves, launder money and/or subvert and undermine the election on behalf of the Trump campaign, or having made statements to that effect, it becomes increasingly unbelievable, even for a moron like Trump, when he claims he was unaware of all that was going on around him.
Worst of all, he can’t explain away all the questionable quid pro quo like behavior he’s engaged in, in favoring Putin and Russia, and publicly asking for their help in exposing Clinton.
I remember that during the campaign, Trump himself promised to develop a program to promote and help build nuclear power plants in Saudi Arabia and other parts of the Middle East, which was regarded as bizarre and dangerous. Now whether Trump got that idea from Flynn or someplace else, I can’t say but Trump was certainly aware of the policy proposal since it was his own.
Look, we all know that Trump is a deeply corrupt individual and has been for decades. We also know that this corruption has continued since he became President. This, of course, includes his money laundering and his debts to Russian banks. Flynn is just one of many pressure points on Trump virtually all of which go back to his being “owned” by Putin.
If it works for Flynn, then it will work right on up the ladder, won’t it? My corrupt son-in-law / incompetent son / conflicted daughter mislead me….
Right up to the point where the dementia prevents him from stringing two words together in a sentence.
It will work well enough to make the high hill of impeachment conviction impossible.