Day 109: Trump’s lie about Flynn is set to unravel — and he knows it
Former acting AG Sally Yates is set to testify before Senate Judiciary subcommittee today.
After a relaxing weekend playing a lot of golf, Donald Trump is ready to get back to work. Well, sort of.
All weekend, reports had been floating around that the Trump team was prepared to dump on both Mike Flynn and Sally Yates.
Lo and behold, what happened this morning?
As a reminder, Barack Obama fired Mike Flynn in 2014:
“Flynn’s departure, which has been rumored for weeks, was set in motion earlier this year when [Director of National Intelligence James R.] Clapper informed him that the administration had concluded that a leadership change was necessary, officials said.”
Trump hired Flynn to be his National Security Advisor despite the fact that he was fired by Obama for incompetence. More than that, Obama directly warned Trump about Flynn as his NSA during their November Oval Office meeting.
Flynn’s recklessness in flying to Moscow and openly meeting with and taking gifts from Russian officials was sure to draw scrutiny. He compounded that error by lying to the FBI about speaking and meeting with the Russian ambassador and the subject of their conversations. Of course, the FBI had the trump card — no pun intended — since they were monitoring the ambassador’s conversations and heard what the pair discussed.
Trump, at the time, defended Flynn and blamed the media:
“Michael Flynn, Gen. Flynn, is a wonderful man. I think he has been treated very, very unfairly by the media, as I call it, the fake media in many cases. And I think it’s really a sad thing that he was treated so badly.”
Trump eventually accepted Flynn’s resignation under the guise that Flynn misled Vice President Mike Pence, but Trump still largely blamed the media.
Today, Trump is trying to distance himself from Flynn, the man who he personally selected to one of the most important jobs in the White House.
He’s attempting to blame Obama because Yates, the former acting attorney general, is set to testify before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee today. It’s expected that Yates will testify that she gave a strong warning to the White House that Flynn had not been truthful in public and private statements, specifically that he lied when he denied that he and the Russian ambassador discussed sanctions on Russia.
Yates, non-partisan, career government lawyer, was fired after she, in her role as acting attorney general, instructed Department of Justice lawyers not to defend Trump’s executive order regarding refugees and immigrants. In her view, again, as a non-partisan lawyer, Trump’s executive order was unconstitutional, something courts have largely agreed on thus far.
Trump is attempting to impugn her character as a potential leaker of classified information since he will have trouble fighting the veracity of her testimony. The irony is the Trump’s Monday morning moves — which had to come from his inner circle — were leaked in advance.
In sum, Trump is attempting to distract from the core of today’s issues: that he and his team knew about Flynn, were warned about Flynn and chose to keep Flynn on the team anyway.
The whole story that Flynn was fired because he lied to Pence unravels if Trump actually knew about the conversations between the Russian ambassador and Flynn — among other things — ahead of time and did nothing. When the story falls apart, questions will grow louder as to why an unqualified friend of Russia was given such a prominent position and allowed to keep it despite dire warnings.
Trump hired Flynn, despite being warned by Obama.
Trump retained Flynn, despite being warned by Yates.
Trump defended Flynn, despite the various reports that he was under federal investigation.
Now, having already blamed the media, Trump is ready to cast Flynn aside and blame — wait for it — Obama and Yates.
109 days in, 1353 to go
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