Report: Mueller Has Evidence To Bring Charges Against General Flynn, His Son
Charges center not on Russia collusion but on Flynn’s undisclosed lobbying work for Turkey
Earlier this week, Professor Jacobson noted that Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation is focused on process crimes and other things unrelated to the purpose of the Trump campaign-Russia collusion investigation.
So I’ve had to watch several news cycles without being able to jump in. One of those cycles was the indictment of Paul Manafort and the guilty plea disclosure for George Papadopoulos.
Certainly this is not the end of the Mueller investigation story, but so far, it’s proceeding as predicted: Rounding up the usual suspects close to Trump and process crimes.
Nothing in the Manafort indictment has to do with Trump. Apparently Mueller was unable to flip Manafort against Trump prior to filing charges (or did he?) so the pressure increases. Manafort may not have anything to give up on Trump, he may just have been in the wrong place at the wrong time and now is a target.
Expect Mueller to find crimes by others in the Trump orbit, having nothing to do with Trump.
Sure enough, NBC News is reporting that Mueller has “enough evidence” to bring charges against General Mike Flynn and his son. The charges, however, appear to be unrelated to Russian collusion with Trump or his campaign.
EXCLUSIVE: Special Counsel Robert Mueller has enough evidence to bring charges in Michael Flynn investigation https://t.co/8TD2rrfPiw pic.twitter.com/0WSRPX1Kd7
— NBC News (@NBCNews) November 5, 2017
Federal investigators have gathered enough evidence to bring charges in their investigation of President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser and his son as part of the probe into Russia’s intervention in the 2016 election, according to multiple sources familiar with the investigation.
Michael T. Flynn, who was fired after just 24 days on the job, was one of the first Trump associates to come under scrutiny in the federal probe now led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller into possible collusion between Moscow and the Trump campaign.
Mueller is applying renewed pressure on Flynn following his indictment of Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, three sources familiar with the investigation told NBC News.
NBC emphasizes that the reported charges are a result of Mueller’s Russian collusion investigation, but while true, the emphasis is misleading because from their own report the possible charges have nothing to do with the Trump campaign, Russia, or collusion between the two.
NBC continues:
The investigators are speaking to multiple witnesses in coming days to gain more information surrounding Flynn’s lobbying work, including whether he laundered money or lied to federal agents about his overseas contacts, according to three sources familiar with the investigation.
Mueller’s team is also examining whether Flynn attempted to orchestrate the removal of a chief rival of Turkish President Recep Erdogan from the U.S. to Turkey in exchange for millions of dollars, two officials said.
The connection to the Trump campaign seems to be based only in that Flynn was working for the campaign while also engaging in undisclosed lobbying work for Turkey, including lobbying the Obama administration to extradite Fethullah Gulen, whom Erdogan believes was responsible for the failed coup against him.
Flynn was paid $500,000 last year by the businessman, Ekim Alptekin, who is a member of a Turkish economic-relations board run by an appointee of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Alptekin is also the head of Inovo, a consulting firm.
Flynn’s firm was tasked with fomenting dissent inside Turkey, and with lobbying the US government to extradite Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish cleric living in Pennsylvania, who Erdogan believes is responsible for planning last year’s attempted coup.
Mueller’s team also subpoenaed the lobbying firm SGR LLC in August after Flynn Intel Group hired the firm to ostensibly “promote a good business climate in Turkey,” The Washington Post reported. Flynn’s firm hired SGR as part of its work with Inovo.
Although Flynn’s group’s initial stated goal in hiring SGR was to foster a stronger business climate in Turkey, it was later forced to indicate that it brought SGR on to “raise concerns” to the US about Gulen.
Flynn raised eyebrows when he wrote an op-ed for The Hill, published on November 8, alleging Gulen helmed a “vast global network” that had “all the right markings to fit the description of a dangerous sleeper terror network.”
Flynn’s op-ed seemed out of place amid his work with Trump’s campaign. His work for Inovo did not come to light until after he registered as a foreign agent with the Department of Justice in March — four months after his contract with Alptekin ended.
It seems that the purpose of bringing or threatening to bring charges against Flynn’s son is to intimidate Flynn into protecting his son.
The Business Insider continues:
The evidence relates to Flynn’s lobbying work throughout the latter half of 2016 — while he was a top Trump campaign surrogate — for a businessman with ties to the Turkish government. Flynn did not register with the US Justice Department as a foreign agent until March 2017.
. . . . Flynn Jr. appears to have been closely associated with his father’s work. In addition to co-founding and working for Flynn Intel Group, he joined Flynn during a trip to Moscow in December 2015, NBC News reported, during which Flynn was paid $34,000 to deliver a speech at an event celebrating the state-sponsored news agency RT.
A former business associate of Michael Flynn’s told NBC News that Flynn Jr. had a prominent role in Flynn Intel Group’s day-to-day operations and served as his father’s chief of staff.
Mueller’s additional focus on Flynn Jr. is likely an attempt to coerce his father’s cooperation in the investigation, legal experts have said. This possibility may be especially significant given that Flynn declined a new request in September to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee.
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So we have an unnamed source who claims there might be enough evidence to maybe show a crime was committed by General Flynn and/or his son, depending on how you squint and tilt the light.
On the other hand, we have pure, clear evidence that a felony was committed by a member of the investigative team by this leak.
Guess which one is going to get prosecuted, and which one will be ignored.
Babyhunt.
Guess which one the sharp as a tack media will black dot on georgfelis!?!
Hmmm. Unregistered lobbyist for a foreign power? Sounds much like swamp-denizen behavior to me.
We’d like Trump to drain the swamp. If Mueller manages to drain a little piece of the swamp on his own, that will be appreciated, too.
So why aren’t the Podesta brothers being indicted. They are guilty of the same ‘process’ crimes and Manafort and now, apparently, the Flynns. Seems politically one sided to me. But then I don’t like that particular brand of intimidation either.
If Flynn did something illegal worth prosecuting, then apply the same standards to others that do wrong, who seem more corrupt, and who were acting in the government trust and protected positions.
Give that boy a gold star.
So, now that he is about done bagging all the various sitting ducks we already knew about…
Now what is he gonna do, build offices?
I am also drooling over the outcome of these being charged.
Does he even have reasonable grounds?
Manafort’s charges looked like they were completely overzealous.
And imagine taking the Mercury group to court.
What are they comprised of… 140 Lawyers??
Oh boy, good luck with that one.
Last night I watched the news from Washington, the capitol
The Russians escaped while we weren’t watching them, like Russians will
Now we’ve got all this room, we’ve even got the moon
And I hear the U.S.S.R. will be open soon
As vacation land for lawyers in love
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxyjA-CaPYYhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxyjA-CaPYY
Mueller had enough to charge Flynn the day before Mueller was appointed special prosecutor.
So who illegally leaked this? Why is this coming out only now, two days before an election? Inquiring minds want to know.
Bill Clinton being paid $500,000 by Russian interests affiliated with the Russian government for a 30-minute-or-so speech in Russia, right around the time Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State and giving approval for what amounted to the sake of 20% of U.S. uranium to the Russian government, was, however, clearly completely innocent and above-board.
“sale”
It is increasingly apparent that Mueller is focusing on questionable lobbying practices more than Russian interference, if this illegal leak is true.
Clarification: He is focusing on lobby practices of anyone associated with Trump – he doesn’t appear to care about lobbying done by the democrats (Clinton-Ukraine/Russia) or GOPe types.
Actually not true – Tony Podesta stepped down from his lobbying firm as a result of Mueller.
He could still be charged, but we do not have enough info yet.
“Stepping down” is a move meant to fool rubes into believing he’s been punished, when he clearly hasn’t. If Podesta isn’t prosecuted (as I assume he won’t be), it will just be more evidence that Mueller is biased.
I was actually stuck in an uncomfortable conversation with a Russian who hates Trump this week. He was actually selling some services to the company I work for and about to make a big presentation to my team. As he set he laptop up- his default browser page had some news story about Trump and he pointed and laughed. I commented “yes- he seems to be popular with the Russians these days” —trying to be innocuous. But instead that put a quarter in him and he was full tilt on rant that Putin personally put Trump in office.
“So the Russian’s like him?” I asked. “No- Trump has been awful for the Russian people.” “Heh,”- I said, “Perhaps people are overestimating Putin’s intelligence.”
Sucks for you, I work with a right leaning Russian who is indifferent, and he tells me the Russians love this. Sewing disinformation, mucking with politics of another country, and thereby destabilizing the framework of their enemies are classic communist propaganda tactics.
I should have clarified as the *Red Russians love this…of which, Putin is one.
If Mueller is going to be charging people who worked with Trump on failing to register as representatives of foreign governments, then he’d darn well better charge some people named Podesta and their associates.
That said, I was unhappy when I heard about Flynn’s connection to the Erdogan government. These are proto-Otttoman Islamist thugs. I know Turks who are very distressed with the direction their country is taking. I don’t know if Flynn’s connection is illegal, but it certainly is distasteful.
This is why Obama liked him.
So summing it up:
Sessions has official recused himself from everything, and this corrupt hack mueller is now the attorney general of the United States.
Fire mueller. Fire sessions. End the two-tier justice system obama helped created in the United States.
If Gen. Flynn and his son committed a crime, file charges. That said, the more charges filed that lack any connection to Russia or the actions of the Trump campaign the more it looks like, to quote William Jefferson Clinton, “theres no there, there”‘
Mueller will find something, of that you can be sure. Even if it’s spitting on the side walk.
His lawyer should challenge the prosecution on the grounds that Mueller has no jurisdiction. He’s overstepped his authority.