Thursday, May 18, 2017

Has Trump Been Tampering With A Potential Witness? (UPDATED)


Hmmm. Do we have another potential Article in a bill of impeachment?
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 from his national security advisor post. 
Flynn left little doubt about the answer.  Not only did he remain loyal to President Trump; he indicated that 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. [snip]
Democrats and some legal commentators say that Trump’s request, as recorded by Comey in a memo —  “I hope you can let this go”  — could amount to an effort to obstruct a federal investigation that might ultimately implicate the president himself. Any ongoing contacts between Trump and Flynn are likely to be among the matters closely scrutinized by Robert Mueller, the ex-FBI director named late Wednesday as the new Justice Department special counsel in charge of the Russia investigation. 
It's easily within the realm of possibility that Flynn's communications have been monitored (under court order, of course!), since he's the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation. One might expect the FBI already has any such communications in its possession.

As far as the specific reasons for Rump's tampering, we are now finding out that Flynn (and others in the campaign) had multiple contacts with Russians during the campaign.  Was Flynn -- a chain of command guy -- following Rump's orders in colluding with the Russians? What if Flynn got an order late last year from then- President- elect Rump to be in contact with Russian officials, in violation of the Logan Act? What if Rump directed Flynn to do other backdoor dealings with Russia after he became National Security Advisor? How about if Flynn has personal knowledge, through intel from his Russian friends, that the Russians have kompromat information on Rump, and Rump knows that Flynn knows. These or any similar, credible scenarios would make Flynn, as a potential witness, a mortal threat to Rump, who would see it in his best interest to assure Flynn that he will be "protected" (i.e., pardoned) if he keeps quiet.

But we're expected to believe Rump, who's never shown any compassion toward others, suddenly feels bad for "good man" Flynn, who (the regime narrative would have it) lied to others in the regime  (and is still "lying" =cough= Honest Dense Pence =cough=) and caused a major regime derailment in the first three weeks of the Rump shitshow?  Now it comes out he's been in touch, and wants Flynn to "stay strong"? Nothing suspicious about this at all, no siree!

UPDATE:  Adding to the bill of particulars, Rump is sending signals that he would like Flynn back:
But Trump doesn’t just hope that Flynn will beat the rap. Several sources close to Flynn and to the administration tell The Daily Beast that Trump has expressed his hopes that a resolution of the FBI’s investigation in Flynn’s favor might allow Flynn to rejoin the White House in some capacity—a scenario some of Trump’s closest advisers in and outside the West Wing have assured him absolutely should not happen. (our emphasis)
"Keep your mouth shut and you'll have a job waiting for you when this all blows over."

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