In many ways Trump’s whole lamentable presidential saga began with the scandal of his National Security Advisor, Michael Flynn, a former United States Army Lieutenant General, who had been forced to resign from the services in 2014. Flynn played an active role in the 2016 Trump Presidential campaign after having already formed Flynn Intel where he provided information and assistance to foreign Governments. He had been a paid speaker in Russia in December 2015 and was pictured seated next to Putin at that conference. He was also actively representing the Turkish Government at the time of the campaign.
The significance of Flynn, who has pled guilty to his involvement with the Russians in the Trump campaign, is that he is now central to Attorney General Barr debunking the whole Russian and Mueller investigations, or what the POTUS affectionately refers to as the Russian and Mueller Hoaxes.Trump meanwhile is campaigning about Obamagate, which was presumably a conspiracy to create the Russian and the Mueller Hoaxes. But how is this all coming together in the Age of Covid?
TRUMP’S DISASTROUS START TO HIS PRESIDENCY BEGINS WITH FLYNN
After Trump’s election in 2016 he met with President Obama who reportedly warned him against appointing Flynn as his National Security Advisor. Trump ignored his advice and that of Sally Yates, Acting Attorney General, not much later. Ms Yates gave the heads up to The WhiteHouse Counsel, on January 26, 2019, in the first week of Trump’s Presidency.
Ms Yates advised that Vice President Pence was misinformed as he was denying that Flynn had not discussed Russian sanctions with the Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak. The Trump Administration ignored both Obama and Yates.
On February 9, 2017 The Washington Post authoritatively reported that Flynn had had discussions with Kislyak on the American sanctions. Four days later, on the twenty - third day of the forty - fifth President of the United States his National Security Officer resigned for “inadvertently misleading" the Vice President and others about his discussions with Kislyak. The next day February 14, Trump shooed everyone out of the Oval Office to privately tell FBI Head James Comey, “I hope you can see your way clear to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go”.
As more and more revelations about Flynn’s Russian activities emerged and that he was an agent for the Turkish Government, Congressional hearings took place where Sally Yates testified and with accusations and reports flying all over the place of Russian help to Trump in the 2016 election the pressure on Flynn scandal built. Trump repeatedly defended Flynn.
FLYNN LEADS TO COMEY AND THE REST FOLLOWS
It was all getting hotter and hotter so Trump, on May 9, did what he has now done for close on four years when a pesky bureaucrat is not “loyal”, he fired Comey. On May 10, a day later, the POTUS meets with Ambassador Kislov and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavlov in the Oval Office where he reportedly told them that he had got rid of Comey.
On May 17, Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein appointed Robert Mueller to investigate any possible collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian Government to influence the 2016 Russian election. That was the beginning of the Russian and Mueller Hoaxes. Since then we have had the Ukrainian Hoax, the Impeachment Hoax, the Democratic Hoax on Trump's pandemic response and now we have Obamagate. What has happened in-between and why it lead to the latter is a long long story. Here is the short version. In many ways it can be divided up between BEFORE BARR and AFTER BARR.
COMEY LED TO MUELLER WHICH LED TO GUILT OF EIGHT OF TRUMP’S CAMPAIGN INCLUDING FLYNN
It is fair to say that Trump was at sixes and sevens during the two year Mueller investigation as revelation after revelation became public. The intelligence agencies were ad idem that the Russians had intervened on Trump’s behalf and Mueller showed the Russian involvement by a string of guilty pleas, convictions of members of Trump’s campaign and some who took plea bargains. All in all eight were found guilty. Two are still awaiting sentencing one of which is Flynn, the other is Stone. Twenty - six Russians were charged and indicted for their efforts in getting Trump elected. None of course stood trial.
Mueller issued a four hundred and forty eight page report which was divided into two sections. The first detailed the Russian activities, that help was received and welcomed by the Trump Campaign and that meetings were held between representatives of the two parties which had the common purpose of making Trump President. What Mueller could not prove was that the two parties actively conspired together to this end. The second half of his report outlined a prima facie case of Trump obstructing justice. Mueller made it quite clear that it was up to Congress to act on his report. And then came Barr.
AND THEN CAME BARR
William Barr arrived and Trump had finally got his consiglieri that he had been screaming for during the “Russian and Mueller Hoaxes”. Barr as Attorney General withheld the Mueller report and then sent a redacted version to Congress a month later. Most important he interpreted it as completely exculpatory to Trump. Barr held a national TV event where he used the Trump phraseology “No collusion” knowing full well it was not a legal term. Barr as Attorney General dismissed the obstruction of justice charges and moved on. Mueller immediately objected in a letter as to Barr’s characterization of his report arguing that his Executive Summary to the encyclopedic assessment was indicative of his findings.
Barr continued to develop the direction that the Russian investigation was part of the Dark State even telling Congress that the Trump campaign was spied upon. He did more than that he started helping Trump create a revisionist history of what happened during the campaign.
BARR STARTS DISMANTLING THE MUELLER HOAX RESULTING IN CALLS FOR HIM TO RESIGN
The Attorney General somehow escapes the Ukrainian Hoax, even though he is mentioned in the “perfect call” as a contact to help nail Biden. He has only been sighted once in the Democratic hoax response to the pandemic at one of Trump’s press rallies as one of the maskless bit players. However he had already initiated an investigation in to how the illegally Russian Hoax started.
Barr had been hard at work from the moment the Mueller reported landed on the consiglieri’s desk. He contacted a Connecticut US State Attorney Robert Durham. CNN reports that the two met six times prior to Barr releasing the Mueller report to the public. Details of the close association of the pair were made public following a Freedom of Information request by the transparency group American Oversight. Barr subsequently appointed the Connecticut based Federal Prosecutor Durham to delve into how the probe into the Russian assistance of Trump Campaign was started and very soon it became a criminal investigation. Barr did boyishly admit, to the public anger of Trump, that as he was not political, Obama and Biden were not being probed!
BARR STARTS INTERFERING IN MUELLER PROSECUTIONS - FIRSTLY ROGER STONE
It didn’t take long for Barr to meddle into prosecutions arising out of the Mueller Report starting with Trump’s life long confidant Roger Stone who was found guilty by a jury of a host of illegal activities. He overrode the prosecutors in putting in a brief for a lighter sentence. There were resignations all round from the team of professionals who had written their recommendations to the Judge on the basis of Federal guidelines. The Stone case is hung up now while the Judge considers another spurious accusation leveled by Stone.
Trump’s Attorney General was attracting more and more disquiet but what was noteworthy was the legal world was becoming more and more despondent at the besmirching of the Justice Department. An unprecedented action, (what isn’t unprecedented nowadays?), was taken by two thousand former Federal Prosecutors and other members of the Department of Justice on calling Barr to resign for carrying out the “President’s bidding”. The signatories pointed out the damage he has done to the Department of Justice’s reputation for integrity and the rule of law.
Needless to say Trump’s consiglieri has not resigned because he does not have to answer to the American people and the Constitution which he swore an oath to. His allegiance is to his boss who employed him. So he moved onto Michael Flynn where this all started.
BARR EXTRICATES FLYNN WHO WAS THE PROGENITOR OF THE RUSSIAN HOAX
If The Attorney General, aka Trump’s consiglieri, was to credibly debunk the Russian Hoax, he needed to get Michael Flynn, who set this whole thing into motion, off the hook. Flynn had first been up for sentencing well over a year ago. Mueller’s prosecutors were more than satisfied with the assistance he had provided them in multiple indictments and prosecutions and recommended leniency even no jail time.
However Flynn was too smart by half putting in his plea for leniency claiming that he had been misled by prosecutors and that was a mitigating factor. Judge Emmet Sullivan went ballistic. Flynn had plead guilty to lying about his contacts with Sergei KIslyak and had been an agent for the Turks while being the National Security Advisor. Flynn had confirmed with the Judge that he understood his guilty plea. The fastidious judge who was not above castigating Prosecutors had made sure that the plea was valid. He had called Flynn a traitor for his actions and was not buying Flynn’s baloney. He warned Flynn that if he wanted to be sentenced there and then he could end up in jail. The end result was the shortest serving National Security Advisor in history was to cooperate even more with the Prosecutors to convince Sullivan of his bona fides and then return for sentencing. And then Barr came again.
BARR GOES ONE FURTHER THAN WITH STONE - DROP THE PROSECUTION AND THE JUDGE GOES BANANAS
Almost eighteen months later when Flynn returns for sentencing Barr dropped the prosecution against him. Flynn had plead guilty twice. Barr claimed that the whole case was based on false premises. In case G-D forbid this decision could be argued to be non political Trump had tweeted earlier that Flynn should be released. Barr does care too many hoots about the criticism. When asked how history will judge him, he nonchalantly replies that history is written by the winners.
The court is flooded with petitions again by angry jurists in similar numbers that asked Barr to resign over his interference in the Stone case. Judge Sullivan takes the unprecedented action of appointing a former no nonsense Federal Judge, who as a prosecutor finally nailed the head of the Gambino family, John Gotti, to lead evidence as to the legitimacy of Barr’s claim and whether or not Flynn can be found guilty for criminal perjury for lying twice about his guilty plea to the judge. Sullivan’s ruling has been appealed and there is little doubt in Jay H. Ell’s mind that by one way or another Flynn will walk out scot free.
Just in case there aren’t enough agencies around to reinvestigate the Flynn saga the FBI under pressure from Trump have initiated yet another probe into the whole saga to make sure there was no breech of protocol in the Flynn investigation.
What has this all to do with Obamagate?
TRUMP’S DIVERSIONS IN THE AGE OF COVID ARE TO PROVE THAT THE DEEP STATE FRAMED FLYNN - WHICH LEAD TO MUELLER - AKA OBAMAGATE
Now if, the Mueller report, stacks of criminal indictments and convictions, seventeen intelligence agencies, the Republican and Democratic Intelligence Committees and the Inspector General of the Justice Department all are id idem that the Russians assisted a willing Trump this won’t stop Barr and Trump trying to create an alternative reality.
As mentioned earlier it all began with Flynn and if Flynn was framed Trump could argue what followed were “hoaxes”. So how did the Dark State get onto Flynn? This was effected by a process called “unmasking”. All communications with foreign adversaries are bugged. You cannot of course tap an American citizen unless you have a warrant from a judge. But believe it or not some of these “listened into” conversations with foreign adversaries are with American citizens. Now there were several over a short period of time with the same voice and Kislyak. Apparently some of the stuff related to sanctions that the Russians wanted lifted. (It is common knowledge that the Republican Platform at Trump’s nomination changed their policy on sanctions). The intelligence agencies as well as Obama’s National Security Advisor, Susan Rice, needed to know who this collaborator was so they proceeded to “unmask” the American. The American was Flynn who then lied to the FBI about the content of the taped conversations.
However Barr and Trump tp prove their point that there was collusion in the Deep State to get Flynn they point to a meeting where Obama, and Rice were present hearing a report of this from Comey who was head of the FBI. But to finally “prove” that Flynn was framed and put in a perjury trap all charges against him have to be dropped. Barr has obliged.
Now the next step in the logic is simple who was Obama’s bagman? Why Biden of course and Lindsey Graham is about to start the investigation into Biden’s son in the Senate Judiciary committee so you can see how all this ties together.
AT THE END OF THE DAY
All this is indicative of how desperate the Trump campaign is. Trump is nuts to run against Obama who will mobilize the sections of the Democratic vote that didn’t show up in full force for Hillary. The forty - fourth President is welcoming the fight in fact baiting the short tempered forty - fifth President. He called his policy on the Covid Pandemic “disastrous” and attacked him in two nationally broadcast student graduation speeches.
The Supreme Court temporarily halted the handing over from Barr’s Justice Department the grand jury testimony from the Mueller investigation to Congress, the co equal branch of Government. It will be fascinating to see how Robert’s apolitical Court finally rules on that one.
Hold onto your horses this is going to be a rough six months. As long as the USA doesn’t go to war against China it can be put down as a win.
You can’t make all these things up!
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