Ex-President Donald Trump

Odds are Mueller has already seen Trump's tax returns and this slow drip of indictments is just one big set up to capture Trump in his web of lies.

 

That's a brain-dead sambo.

 

Wonders shall never end.

 

Breaking News.......


General Flynn is prepared to testify that Trump DIRECTED him to make contact with the Russians(during the presidential campaign).

GAME. SET. MATCH.

 

Awesome. Name the President's crime.
Rrmember, we have a bottle of wine riding on this.

 

Andrebobbaaa..where are you, luv??, lol.
Flynn worked for Trump for 25 days, who then fired him.
Give us the match point -

 

If Trump and his team lied about communications with Russia, and if Flynn was instructed to talk about sanctions with Russia before Trump took office, both of those could rise to the level of "obstruction", and could result in criminal indictments.

 

Let's break what you said down.. Before Office? Who did Flynn work for before Trump took office?
"Contact the Russians" for, how, why?

 

@Loki

Here is the charge Flynn pled to...
What say you?

'"Today, Michael Flynn, a former National Security Advisor at the White House for 25 days during the Trump Administration, and a former Obama administration official, entered a guilty plea to a single count of making a false statement to the FBI.

The false statements involved mirror the false statements to White House officials which resulted in his resignation in February of this year.

'Nothing about the guilty plea or the charge implicates anyone other than Mr. Flynn.

The conclusion of this phase of the Special Counsel's work demonstrates again that the Special Counsel is moving with all deliberate speed and clears the way for a prompt and reasonable conclusion.'

– Ty Cobb, Trump's lawyer

 

The early reports (not verified yet) are saying that Trump instructed Flynn to back channel with Moscow to ask them to not retaliate with sanctions after President Obama put sanctions in place against Russia for their interference with the US elections. If this is proven to be true, it has nothing to do with President Obama, and could very well rise to obstruction.

 

Trust me, that's a lawyer (Cobb) trying to put the best "spin" on things, this is just getting started...

"Flynn described his decision to cooperate with prosecutors as one that was made “in the best interests of my family and of our country.”

“I accept full responsibility for my actions,” he said.

A Flynn confidant said the retired general promised “full cooperation” in the probe, ABC News reported, and that he is prepared to testify that Trump asked him to make contact with the Russians."

 

"Unverified reports" are meaniingless then.
How and why, would a former Obama appointee and retired General take an order from a civilian to circumvent the sitting President's sanction order over what the WH called, "alleged Russian interference with U.S elections"?
Does that even make sense to you, and if it does, is this the charge Flynn pled to?

 

Can we ask the annonymous 'source' ...Testify what exactly? When was Flynn asked? Is there a paper trail?
Legal phone convos?
We want answers to the sweeping headline "indictments", lol.

 

The President elect, is not a civilian, and you know its not just the WH that was saying Russia interfered with our election, every intelligence agency made the same claim. We will have to show some more patience to see exactly what Flynn will testify to and how it implicates Trump if at all.

 

No that's fine, l looked up the dates in question. It was after President Trump won the election..
And Russia were threatening retalitory sanctions against the U.S after Obama sanctioned them and kicked out their diplomats.

Here is what CNN is reporting...(no mention of Trump himself though)

"...The bulk of the back-and-forth calls from Flynn to the Russian ambassador and to Trump advisers happened around December 29, while the advisers were at Mar-a-Lago in Florida

They "discussed that the members of the presidential transition team at Mar-a-Lago did not want Russia to escalate the situation," the filing said.
Flynn lied to investigators about these calls with the ambassador, according to his guilty plea and the criminal statement of offense.

The charging document states that Flynn made a false statement to the FBI when he stated that in December 2016 he did not ask Kislyak "to refrain from escalating the situation in response to sanctions that the United States had imposed against Russia that same day; and Flynn did not recall the Russian ambassador subsequently telling him that Russia had chosen to moderate its response to those sanctions as a result of his request...

Aditionally,

A "very senior member" of Trump's transition told Flynn on December 22 to contact officials from foreign governments about how they would vote and "to influence those governments to delay the vote or defeat the resolution." Flynn then asked Kislyak to vote against or delay the resolution, the statement of offense said."

http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/01/politics/michael-flynn-charged/index.html

Doesn't sound illegal to me. Is this the proverbial, its not the act, its the fact you lied to the FBI?

 

"In court, prosecutors detailed calls made by Flynn in late December 2016 to the senior Trump transition team at Mar-a-Lago to discuss conversations with Kislyak. There were multiple conversations with the transition while he was having conversations with Kisyak about Russia sanctions and the Russian response.
According to a statement of offense filed in court, Flynn conducted several calls with senior officials on the Trump transition team about his discussions with Kislyak related to US sanctions of Russia.
Flynn and Trump advisers discussed US sanctions three times. Their first call discussed the potential impact on the "incoming administration's foreign policy goals," according to the court filing, from which details were partially read during Flynn's plea hearing.

Michael Flynn pleads guilty: Live updates
Flynn then called Kislyak to ask that Russia not respond too harshly to US sanctions, the statement of offense said. He told a Trump transition official about that call. Russia responded by choosing not to retaliate to the sanctions.
The bulk of the back-and-forth calls from Flynn to the Russian ambassador and to Trump advisers happened around December 29, while the advisers were at Mar-a-Lago in Florida.
They "discussed that the members of the presidential transition team at Mar-a-Lago did not want Russia to escalate the situation," the filing said.
Flynn lied to investigators about these calls with the ambassador, according to his guilty plea and the criminal statement of offense.
The charging document states that Flynn made a false statement to the FBI when he stated that in December 2016 he did not ask Kislyak "to refrain from escalating the situation in response to sanctions that the United States had imposed against Russia that same day; and Flynn did not recall the Russian ambassador subsequently telling him that Russia had chosen to moderate its response to those sanctions as a result of his request."

Cillizza: Michael Flynn's guilty plea is an absolutely massive problem for Donald Trump
The document also says that Flynn falsely said he did not ask Kislyak to delay the vote on a pending United Nations Security Council resolution.
Flynn's other instance of lying to investigators involved what he told them about his conversations with foreign officials related to their planned UN Security Council votes on Israeli settlements.
A "very senior member" of Trump's transition told Flynn on December 22 to contact officials from foreign governments about how they would vote and "to influence those governments to delay the vote or defeat the resolution." Flynn then asked Kislyak to vote against or delay the resolution, the statement of offense said."

 

*Loki, We crossed posts. I posted it from CNN while you were doing likewise.

 

Pay attention.

Mueller is building a case that will prove Trump was in direct contact with the Russians, they weren't the actions of rogue Trump subordinates.
And the issue isn't collusion, it's CONSPIRACY.

Trump and his campaign actively sought out and accepted illegal aid from an adversarial foreign power who knowingly hacked the DNC, then offered that information directly to the Trump campaign who suggested they release those emails through Wikileaks to give Trump and crew plausible denial.

Trump knew about the Russian social media campaign to target HRC voters with fake news stories and negative posts about her, again done with the knowledge of the Trump campaign.

The most damning charge against the Trump campaign will be that he knew the Russians micro-targeted possible Hillary voters in battleground states using bots posting anti-HRC propaganda social media posts, with voter roll data provided by the Trump campaign, via assistance from the Kushner contracted firm Cambridge Analytics.

You're right Bliss, except for hacking the DNC emails, none of these alone is a crime.
The problem is in seeking the assistance of the Kremlin to help orchestrate your election campaign and letting them do much of this grunt work for you.

Then lying about it.

Most of Trump's top aides are going down simply because they lied about being in contact withthe Russians during the campaign.

That's why people call the Trump/Russia collusion investigation, 'dumb Watergate', because of the numerous boneheaded actions the Trump campaign took.

As for General Flynn, he's not so easily dismissed by the Right.

Trump selected Flynn to be the head of the NSA and help organize his cabinet. Flynn also had a top secret security clearance. This isn't the coffee boy speaking out of turn.
After the election, Trump met with Obama during a transition meetng and Barack told him he must not hire Flynn to work in his Cabinet because U.S. intelligence considered Flynn to be compromised foreign asset for other countries.

Trump hired him anyway. The rest is history.

Flynn knows all the dirt on the Trump campaign. He knows where all the bodies are buried.
If there's one person Congress will believe over Trump, it's General Flynn.

When Flynn goes to testify before Congress on this Russian electoral conspiracy, the Trump administration will be officially over.

 

You make some solid points here AB, I'm not quite as convinced as you that this is the death knell for Trump, even if Trump is indicted as a result of all of this, impeachment is *still* a very high bar to clear, and while we will hear more demands for removal via the 25th amendment, that is no sure thing either.