Former U.S. national security advisor Michael Flynn – one of the earliest and most aggressive supporters of U.S. president Donald Trump – has been charged with lying to agents of the Federal Bureau Investigation (FBI).
Flynn resigned his post in the Trump administration back in February after it was revealed he had discussed possible sanctions against Russia for cyber-attacks allegedly launched against American targets during the 2016 presidential election. Because Flynn’s discussions with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak took place prior to Trump’s team taking office, they likely violated the Logan Act – a 1799 law which bans unauthorized individuals from negotiating with foreign governments on behalf of the United States.
Flynn’s real problem? The former U.S. Army lieutenant general denied having these discussions to Trump and U.S. vice president Mike Pence. In fact, Pence repeated Flynn’s claim during an interview with CBS News in mid-January, saying Flynn “did not discuss anything having to do with the United States’ decision to expel diplomats or impose censure against Russia.”
That claim turned out to be false.
Now special counsel Robert Mueller has alleged that Flynn “willfully and knowingly” made “false, fictitious and fraudulent statements” to FBI agents regarding the same conversations.
Here’s a summary of the charges against Flynn …
(Click to view)
(Via: U.S. District Court)
Flynn is the third person charged in connection with Mueller’s investigation. In late November, Trump’s former 2016 campaign manager Paul Manafort and one of his aides were indicted for failing to disclose payments received from the political party of former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych.
Remember Yanukovych? He’s the democratically elected leader who was ousted by a CIA-assisted coup back in 2014.
(For more on that drama, CLICK HERE).
What do those charges have to do with the vast Russian meddling conspiracy? Good question …
Mueller, who led the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from 2001 to 2013, was assigned to investigate allegations of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election back in May.
Since then, the “Russia rigged the election” script has been pretty much flipped … with evidence emerging that former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton was involved in far more harmful intrigues with Russian interests that may have been covered up by officials in the administration of former president Barack Obama.
It’s also been revealed that establishment “Republicans” looking to advance the presidential prospects of U.S. Senator Marco Rubio were responsible for ginning upmuch of the #FakeNews that sought to link Trump to the Russians in the first place. This relationship ultimately produced the infamous Christopher Steele dossier alleging (falsely) that Trump engaged in sex parties with Russian prostitutes in Moscow hotel rooms – orgies which included “golden showers” (urination for sexual gratification).
(Click to view)
(Via: iStock)
As for the charges against Flynn, he is expected to plead guilty to them in open court (above) – although it’s unknown yet whether his plea deal will involve some sort of cooperation agreement with federal prosecutors.
“The question is whether as part of the plea Flynn will ‘reveal’ something about Trump, because if six months after the Mueller probe the best he could get out of Flynn is making a ‘false statement’ about meeting the Russian ambassador, then Trump has nothing to be worried about,” our friends at the website Zero Hedge concluded.
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