Mike Flynn Refuses To Honor Senate Subpoena

Just a few short days after receiving a subpoena from the Senate Intelligence Committee, requesting documents relevant to the Committee"s investigation into Russian interference with the 2016 election, AP reports that Senator Burr, the top Republican on the committee, says that Michael Flynn"s lawyers say he will not honor subpoena.

Last week, in a joint statement from Commttee chair Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and ranking member Mark Warner (D-Va.) the committee disclosed that it had first requested the documents in an April 28 letter to Flynn, but he "declined" to cooperate with the request.

The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence today issued a subpoena for former National Security Advisor Lieutenant General Michael Flynn. The subpoena requests documents relevant to the Committee"s investigation into Russian interference with the 2016 election. The Committee first requested these documents in an April 28, 2017 letter to Lieutenant General Flynn, but he declined, through counsel, to cooperate with the Committee"s request.

CNN also reported that the FBI had also issued subpoenas relating to Flynn"s business records, so the ousted National Security Adviser is now at at the center of both investigations, although as disclosed, he did not comply with the committee"s earlier request.

And today we get confirmation from Senator Burr, via AP, that Michael Flynn"s lawyers say he will not honor subpoena.

This is perhaps not entirely surprising given Yahoo"s reporting that late last month, fired National Security Adviser Michael Flynn—under investigation by federal prosecutors, with his lawyer seeking immunity for him to testify to Congress–met with a small group of loyalists at a restaurant in the northern Virginia suburbs.
Saddled with steep legal bills, Flynn wanted to reconnect with old friends and talk about potential future business opportunities. But one overriding question among those present were his views on the president who had fired him as national security advisor. Flynn left little doubt about the answer.  Not only did he remain loyal to President Trump, he indicated he and the president were still in communication. “I just got a message from the president to stay strong,” Flynn said after the meal was over, according to two sources who are close to Flynn and are familiar with the conversation, which took place on April 25.

We are sure Democratic leadership will have some great soundbites soon (of course, forgeting Hillary-related obfuscations of various government subpoenas during the election campaign).

Obama Warned Trump Against Hiring Flynn: NBC

With Sally Yates and James Clapper both scheduled to testify before Congress at 2:30pm today, Donald Trump had several suggestions for the list of questions for Ms. Yates, which he decided to share this morning over Twitter. "Ask Sally Yates, under oath, if she knows how classified information got into the newspapers soon after she explained it to W.H. Council", Trump tweeted, referring to Yates" conversation with White House counsel Donald McGahn. And while we doubt that this particular concern will be addressed, a new report from NBC suggests that a more unpleasant line of questioning may emerge, one having to do with why Trump hired his now former National Security Advisor Mike Flynn after he was reportedly warned by Obama not to do so.

As NBC reports, Obama had warned Trump against hiring Mike Flynn as his national security adviser less than 48 hours after the November election when the two sat down for a 90-minute conversation in the Oval Office.

A senior Trump administration official acknowledged Monday that Obama raised the issue of Flynn, saying the former president made clear he was "not a fan of Michael Flynn." Another official said Obama"s remark seemed like it was made in jest.

Obama"s warning pre-dated concerns inside the government about Flynn"s contacts with the Russian ambassador, one of NBC"s sources said. Obama passed along a general caution that he believed Flynn was not suitable for such a high level post, the official added. As a reminder, the Obama administration fired Flynn in 2014 from his position as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, largely because of mismanagement and temperament issues.

Shortly after the conversation between the two, Trump named Flynn as his national security adviser. Flynn, who was conducting private conversations with the Russian ambassador regarding sanctions, was then fired three weeks into the administration for misleading Vice President Pence about those conversations.

Which brings us to today"s Yates questioning, where a far more likely line of questioning will be what, if anything, did Trump know about his national security adviser"s conversations with the Russian ambassador? In light of today"s news, the answer may be unpleasant for the president.

In a second tweet on Monday morning, Trump also noted that "General Flynn was given the highest security clearance by the Obama administration, but the Fake News seldom likes talking about that." And while it is true that Flynn got his top level security clearance renewed in January 2016, Trump failed to note that Flynn should have received a more thorough vetting in advance of his becoming national security adviser, a job that allows access to the nation"s most closely-held secrets. What was the nature of that vetting, and did it raise any flags about Flynn"s lobbying work for Turkish interests during the campaign, or his paid appearance on behalf of Russian state media, both now under scrutiny by law enforcement agencies? The White House hasn"t said.

Another big question that has never been answered: Did Flynn coordinate with the president over his repeated contacts with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak? Those contacts raised alarms not only within the Obama administration, but within Trump"s own transition team, according to reports Friday confirmed by NBC News. There were concerns that the Trump administration was signaling Russia not to worry about the Obama administration sanctions on Russia over its election interference, which expelled Russian intelligence officers from the U.S. and blocked access to Russian diplomatic compounds here.

Still, Trump may be spared some embarrassment, because as NBC adds, "people familiar with her plans don"t expect her to get into much detail about her warnings regarding Flynn, largely because many of the underlying facts involve classified material."

In advance of her testimony, Republicans have been accusing her of acting politically, and noting that she was fired by Trump for refusing to enforce his travel ban. They call her a partisan Democrat.

In response, her defenders point out that she spent much of her 27-year Justice Department career working as a line prosecutor, a non-political job. Though she was appointed to positions in both the Clinton and Obama administrations, she was widely respected on both sides of the aisle. Georgia Republican Johnny Isakson, her home state senator, was among those introducing her at her 2015 confirmation hearing to become deputy attorney general.

In light of these latest revelations, media attention will be heightened during Yates" official testimony since leaving the DOJ. Keep an eye on Trump"s twitter account: the President will surely be closely following along with everything she says too, especially if allegations of Trump"s "Russian connection" are once again brought to the surface.

Obama Warning Trump About Flynn is the Definition of a Non-Story

NBC news is reporting that President Obama warned President elect Trump about hiring General Flynn.

What does that mean? Furthermore, what has Flynn done to deserve the ire of the main stream media to this large degree? Flynn"s "Russian ties" is centered around a phone call made to the Russians, after the election, discussing things like normalizing relations. It"s important to note, not everyone is convinced that "the Russians" hacked the elections or had anything to do with Wikileaks.

So, ahead of Sally "the hero" Yates" testimony, the MSM is trying, desperately, to paint a narrative around a kind hearted Obama looking out for the best interests of Trump -- generously offering him sage advice against hiring Flynn.

Who believes this shit?

Source: NBC

Former President Obama warned President Donald Trump against hiring Mike Flynn as his national security adviser, three former Obama administration officials tell NBC News.
 

The warning, which has not been previously reported, came less than 48 hours after the November election when the two sat down for a 90-minute conversation in the Oval Office.
 
A senior Trump administration official acknowledged Monday that Obama raised the issue of Flynn, saying the former president made clear he was "not a fan of Michael Flynn." Another official said Obama"s remark seemed like it was made in jest.

 
Wait a second, you mean to tell me a leftist democrat told a right winger to not hire another right winger? Fucking shocked.
Content originally published at iBankCoin.com

In other news, Trump reminds people that Flynn had received the highest security clearance under Obama and to ask Yates about leaks, under oath.

General Flynn was given the highest security clearance by the Obama Administration - but the Fake News seldom likes talking about that.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 8, 2017

Ask Sally Yates, under oath, if she knows how classified information got into the newspapers soon after she explained it to W.H. Counsel.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 8, 2017

What"s amazing is how this non-story is being peddled around today, hitting #1 on Reddit, in spite of the fact that it is literally a nothing-burger.

House Oversight Committee Confirms Flynn Likely Broke Law On Overseas Payments

Former national security adviser Michael Flynn likely broke the law by failing to disclose foreign income he earned from Russia and Turkey, the heads of the House Oversight Committee said Tuesday.

As The Washington Post reports, committee chairman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) and ranking member Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) said they believe Flynn neither received permission nor fully disclosed income he earned for a speaking engagement in Russia and lobbying activities on behalf of Turkey when he applied to reinstate his security clearance, after viewing two classified memos and Flynn"s disclosure form in a private briefing Tuesday morning.

"Personally I see no evidence or no data to support the notion that General Flynn complied with the law," Chaffetz told reporters following the briefing.

"He was supposed to get permission, he was supposed to report it, and he didn"t," Cummings said.

Chaffetz confirmed that Flynn had failed to reveal the more than $45,000 he was paid to speak at a 2015 gala for RT, the Kremlin-run TV network, as well as the money he was paid by an air freight company and a cybersecurity firm with direct connections to Russia. Chaffetz added that the White House had refused to provide his committee with information and documents related to Flynn"s security clearance and payments from organizations tied to the Russian and Turkish governments. The committee made six requests, and the White House cited reasons it could not comply with each of them, Cummings said.

One has to wonder about the Trump team"s vetting process and perhaps more notable is that now that Cheffetz is not running for re-election, he has nothing to fear from political fallout from the White House or GOP in general.

NY Times Outs White House Sources Who Provided Intel Reports To Nunes

In the latest development surrounding last week"s announcement by Devin Nunes, according to which President Trump and his associates were incidentally swept up in foreign surveillance by American spy agencies, the NYT reports that the pair of White House officials who played a role in providing Nunes with the intelligence reports behind his claim, have been identified.

The NYT has outed the Nunes sources, who it claims are Ezra Cohen-Watnick, the senior director for intelligence at the National Security Council, and Michael Ellis, a lawyer who works on national security issues at the White House Counsel’s Office and formerly worked on the staff of the House Intelligence Committee.

 As reported previously, Nunes had refused to identify his sources, saying he needed to protect them so others would feel safe coming to the committee with sensitive information. He first disclosed the existence of the intelligence reports on March 22, and in his public comments he has described his sources as whistle-blowers trying to expose wrongdoing at great risk to themselves.

Amusingly, the NYT adds that "the officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the intelligence, and to avoid angering Mr. Cohen-Watnick and Mr. Ellis."

 In other words, the US has devolved to the point where one set of anonymous sources is doxxing another set of anonymous sources in the pursuit of a political agenda.

Cohen-Watnick is a former Defense Intelligence Agency official who was originally brought to the White House by Michael T. Flynn, the former national security adviser. The officials said that earlier this month, shortly after Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter about being wiretapped on the orders of President Barack Obama, Mr. Cohen-Watnick began reviewing highly classified reports detailing the intercepted communications of foreign officials.

Some further background on Cohen-Watnick from forward.com:

President Donald Trump reportedly overruled a decision by National Security Adviser Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster in order to keep a Jewish National Security Council aide in his current position. Trump overruled the decision on Sunday after Cohen-Watnick, 30, appealed to White House advisers Stephen Bannon and Jared Kushner, Trump’s Jewish son-in-law, Politico reported

McMaster had told Ezra Cohen-Watnick, senior director for intelligence programs at the NSC, that he would be moved to a different position at the NSC after CIA officials had pushed for his ouster, according to Politico.

A Washington consultant told Politico that Cohen-Watnick and Flynn “saw eye to eye about the failings of the CIA human intelligence operations,” and that the “CIA saw him as a threat, so they tried to unseat him and replace him with an agency loyalist.

Additionally, the NYT adds, that the intel reports consisted primarily of ambassadors and other foreign officials talking about how they were trying to develop contacts within Mr. Trump’s family and inner circle in advance of his inauguration. 

Cohen-Watnick has allegedly been reviewing the reports from his fourth-floor office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, where the National Security Counsel is based.

Perhaps more importantly, the NYT sources say the description of the intelligence is in line with Mr. Nunes’s own characterization of the material, which he has said was not related to the Russia investigations when he first disclosed its existence in a hastily arranged news conference on March 22.

It was not immediately clear if now that the identity of the Nunes sources has been revealed, whether Nunes will make the contents of the confidential documents public.

"He Certainly Has A Story To Tell" - Statement From Mike Flynn's Lawyer

Hot on the heels of the WSJ report that Trump"s former National Security Advisor, Mike Flynn, has offered to testify in exchange for immunity from prosecution, Flynn"s lawyer, Robert Kelner of the law firm Covington, issued the following statement, in which judging by Kelner"s language, Flynn"s offer is not so much to "turn" on Trump, as to set the record straight, while putting an end to the ongoing "media witch hunt", to wit:

the media are awash with unfounded allegations, outrageous claims of treason, and vicious innuendo directed against him. He is now the target of unsubstantiated public demands by Members of Congress and other political critics that he be criminally investigated. No reasonable person, who has the benefit of advice from counsel, would submit to questioning in such a highly politicized, witch hunt environment without assurances against unfair prosecution.

The full statement by Robert Kelner is below

Counsel to Lt. General Mike Flynn (Retired)

General Flynn certainly has a story to tell, and he very much wants to tell it, should the circumstances permit.

Out of respect for the Committees, we will not comment right now on the details of discussions between counsel for General Flynn and the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, other than to confirm that those discussions have taken place. But it is important to acknowledge the circumstances in which those discussions are occurring.

General Flynn is a highly decorated 33-year veteran of the U.S. Army. He devoted most of his life to serving his country, spending many years away from his family fighting this nation"s battles around the world. He was awarded four Bronze Stars for actions in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere in the war on terror. He received the Legion of Merit twice, and the Defense Superior Service Medal four times. He is a recipient of the Defense Department"s Distinguished Service Award and the Intelligence Community Gold Seal Medallion for Distinguished Service, as well as numerous other decorations.

Notwithstanding his life of national service, the media are awash with unfounded allegations, outrageous claims of treason, and vicious innuendo directed against him. He is now the target of unsubstantiated public demands by Members of Congress and other political critics that he be criminally investigated. No reasonable person, who has the benefit of advice from counsel, would submit to questioning in such a highly politicized, witch hunt environment without assurances against unfair prosecution.

h/t @ChuckRossDC

Bannon Out Of NSC? McMaster Prepares To Reorganize Foreign Policy Team

The arrival of Mike Flynn"s replacement, Gen. H.R. McMaster as Trump"s new national security advisor could mean sweeping changes of the White House foreign policy team, giving him control of Homeland Security and guarantee full access to the military and intelligence agencies. In a report by the NYT, Mr. McMaster is said to be weighing changes to an organization chart that generated consternation when it was issued last month.

According to one proposal, McMaster would restore the director of national intelligence and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to full membership in a cabinet-level committee.

Another likely change would involve the Homeland Security Council which would reform under the National Security Council, the way it was during the administration of President Barack Obama. The NYT notes that they were only left out because the Trump team copied a Bush-era organizational chart without realizing that President Obama had made both positions full members of the committee: "Mr. Trump’s team did not intend to reduce the role of the intelligence director or Joint Chiefs chairman, officials said. In crafting their organization order, the officials said, Mr. Trump’s aides essentially cut and pasted language from Mr. Bush’s organization chart, substituting the national intelligence director for the C.I.A. director, who back then was the head of the nation’s spy agencies."

The decision to separate the Homeland Security staff, they said, was primarily a way to diminish the power of McMaster’s predecessor, Michael T. Flynn, who resigned last week. Now that Flynn is out and Mr. McMaster is in, both councils may report to him.

But the most notable proposed change has to do with the fate of Steve Bannon on the NSC, who may be removed from the principals committee: "Under the original organization plan last month, Mr. Bannon was invited to attend any National Security Council meeting led by the president and was made a regular member of the so-called principals committee of cabinet secretaries. One senior official supportive of Mr. Bannon’s position said it would not change under any reorganization. Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, said this week that Mr. McMaster would have full authority to organize his staff, but that any change in Mr. Bannon’s status would have to be approved by the president."

However, the NYT notes, that veterans of past administrations and members of Congress from both parties criticized the decision to put Mr. Bannon on the principals committee, saying that it risked injecting politics into national security. President George W. Bush’s senior adviser, Karl Rove, was generally kept out of sensitive national security meetings. Mr. Obama’s senior adviser, David Axelrod, attended some national security meetings but was not given formal status.

But Mr. Trump was surprised by the intensity of the blowback to the initial order, and complained that Mr. Flynn had not made him understand the significance of the changes or how they would be perceived, according to senior officials.

The NYT explains that White House officials were talking about revising the organization chart even before Mr. McMaster’s appointment, but the issue came to a head after Mr. Trump asked for Mr. Flynn’s resignation last week because Mr. Flynn had misled Vice President Mike Pence and other White House officials about what he discussed with Russia’s ambassador in a December phone call.

Since arriving this week, Mr. McMaster has made a point of going door to door through the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, where most national security aides work, to introduce himself and build relations, current and former officials said. He is planning an all-hands staff meeting on Thursday.

As for Bannon, who may be cut from the NSC, Trump"s decision will be carefully watched as such a move would be potentially perceived as a relaxation of Bannon"s influence over Trump, a topic which has been of material focus for the press in recent weeks.