New DNI John Ratcliffe Releases Transcript of Flynn Call w/ Russian Ambassador May 29, 2020 Asst. Editor
Some speculate that Russian ambassador may have been a co-conspirator in Obamagate plot to frame Flynn…
Michael Flynn / IMAGE: Associated Press
(Liberty Headlines) Continuing the bold actions of his predecessor, acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell, the Trump administration’s new DNI, former Texas Rep. John Ratcliffe, declassified more documents that allies of the president say bolster their contention that former national security adviser Michael Flynn was wrongly pursued.
The extraordinary decision to release transcripts of Flynn’s calls with a foreign country’s ambassador, a closely guarded secret for more than three years, is part of an ongoing Trump administration effort to disclose information from the Russia investigation in hopes of painting Obama-era officials in a bad light and suggesting they acted improperly.
The transcripts of calls with Sergey Kislyak, the Russian ambassador at the time, provide opportunities for partisans on both sides to advance their perspectives of the investigation.
Recent speculation has centered on the possibility that Kislyak, who had aggressively reached out to Flynn and others in the incoming administration and was known for his cordial ties with the Obama administration, may have been a co-conspirator in the attempt to frame Flynn under the pretenses of the 1799 Logan Act.
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In addition to undermining the incoming Trump administration politically and bolstering what it knew to be false claims of Russian collusion, Obama may have maintained a personal vendetta against Flynn or felt threatened by the three-star general’s opposition to his controversial nuclear armistice with Iran.
The documents appear to show that Flynn urged Kislyak to refrain from escalating tensions with the U.S. in response to Obama’s newly imposed sanctions against Russia.
But Republicans who maintain that Flynn was simply trying to avoid aggravating the situation with the Kremlin quickly pointed to the transcripts to say the calls were proper. Trump’s Justice Department dismissed the case this month, saying the FBI didn’t have a basis to question Flynn in the first place.
Grenell, this month declassified a list of names of intelligence and Obama administration officials who in late 2016 and early 2017 requested access to classified intelligence reports about the phone call.
Although it was originally assumed that the officials—including then-Vice President Joe Biden and Obama’s own chief of staff—had sought to “unmask” Flynn’s identity, more recent reports have indicated that his name was never concealed in the reports to begin with.
In addition to being a grossly inappropriate violation of citizen privacy rights, another implication may have been that the transcript—which later was illegally leaked to the Washington Post—may not have come from the National Security Council as assumed.
That would suggest that it was not Kislyak that the administration was monitoring and that Flynn, like other Trump officials, may have been wiretapped by the FBI, although there is no known record of a warrant application to the secretive FISA court requesting permission to do so.
A criminal probe into the Obama intelligence community and its role in the origins of the Russia collusion hoax is being led by Justice Department special prosecutor John Durham.
It is expected to wrap this summer, with prosecutions likely for some high- ranking officials, although Attorney General William Barr ruled out speculation that Obama and Biden would be among them.
Poster Comment:
Declass now!