Day 26: “Lock Her Up” Chant Leader Flynn Resigns Amid Scandal
July 18, 2016: General Michael T. Flynn leads a “Lock Her Up” chant, inflaming the GOP masses seeking criminal charges against Hillary Clinton over a private e-mail server.
Flynn on Clinton: “Reckless.” “Above the law.” “That’s right, lock her up.” “It’s unbelievable.” “Put our nation’s security at extremely high risk…” (Lock her up!) “Damn right. There’s nothing wrong with that.”
“If I did a tenth — a tenth! — of what she did, I’d be in jail today.”
February 13, 2017: General Michael T. Flynn — less than one month on the job as national security adviser to Donald Trump — resigns in shame after lying about the substance of December conversations with a Russian ambassador.
The Washington Post was on the story first, and noted that Flynn categorically denied discussing with the ambassador what would happen with Obama-imposed sanctions when Trump took office the following month. However, last week Flynn finally pivoted to claim he was unsure if the topic ever came up.
As the New York Times reported, the Justice Department was concerned about Flynn being blackmailed by the Russians since they knew he lied about the substance of the call and they could out him at their discretion.
The conversation happened to be picked up by routine wiretap by the FBI, otherwise the substance may have never been known.
Officials said Mr. Pence had told others in the White House that he believed Mr. Flynn lied to him by saying he had not discussed the topic of sanctions on a call with the Russian ambassador in late December. Even the mere discussion of policy — and the apparent attempt to assuage the concerns of an American adversary before Mr. Trump took office — represented a remarkable breach of protocol.
But Flynn couldn’t possibly be in the Russians’ pockets that quickly, right?
In addition, the Army has been investigating whether Mr. Flynn received money from the Russian government during a trip he took to Moscow in 2015, according to two defense officials. Such a payment might violate the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution, which prohibits former military officers from receiving money from a foreign government without consent from Congress. The defense officials said there was no record that Mr. Flynn, a retired three-star Army general, filed the required paperwork for the trip.
But he’s never actually received money from the Russian government before, right? This is just a one-off investigation?
During his 2015 trip to Moscow, Mr. Flynn was paid to attend the anniversary celebration of Russia Today, a television network controlled by the Kremlin. At the banquet, he sat next to Mr. Putin.
Mr. Flynn had notified the Defense Intelligence Agency, which he once led, that he was taking the trip. He received a security briefing from agency officials before he left, which is customary for former top agency officials when they travel overseas.
Still, some senior agency officials were surprised when footage of the banquet appeared on RT, and believed that Mr. Flynn should have been more forthcoming with the agency about the nature of his trip to Russia.
If only there was guidance on Flynn’s actions and what should happen.
Actually, some words do come to mind.
Reckless. Above the law. That’s right, lock him up. It’s unbelievable. Put our nation’s security at extremely high risk. There’s nothing wrong with locking him up.
“If I did a tenth — a tenth! — of what she did, I’d be in jail today.”
26 days in, 1436 to go
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