The Russian Connection 2

[fraurosena]

Seth Abramson has a tiny new thread. Don’t be fooled by its size though. It’s explosive!

 

[AmazonGrace]

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/michael-flynns-lawyer-meets-members-special-counsels-team/story?id=51412187

Michael Flynn's lawyer meets with members of special counsel's team, raising specter of plea deal
 

Spoiler

 

The lawyer for President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn met Monday morning with members of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team, the latest indication that both sides are discussing a possible plea deal, ABC News has learned.

President Trump’s legal team confirmed late last week that Flynn’s attorney Robert Kelner alerted them that he could no longer engage in privileged discussions about defense strategy in the case, a sign Flynn is preparing to negotiate with prosecutors over a deal that could include Flynn’s testimony against the President or senior White House officials.

That process would typically include a series of off-the-record discussions in which prosecutors lay out in detail for Flynn and his lawyers the fruits of their investigation into his activities. Prosecutors would also provide Flynn an opportunity to offer what’s called a “proffer,” detailing what information, if any, he has that could implicate others in wrongdoing.

When reached Monday, Kelner declined to comment on the nature of his morning visit to Mueller’s offices in Washington, D.C.

Sources familiar with the discussions between Flynn's legal team and the president's attorneys told ABC News that while there was never a formal, signed joint defense agreement between Flynn's defense counsel and other targets of the Mueller probe, the lawyers had engaged in privileged discussions for months.

Jay Sekulow, a member of President Trump's legal team, told ABC News last week that the break was “not entirely unexpected.”

“No one should draw the conclusion that this means anything about Gen. Flynn cooperating against the president,” Sekulow said.

The New York Times broke the news, calling it an indication that Flynn may be cooperating with prosecutors.

Sources familiar with the Flynn investigation have told ABC News the retired general has felt increased pressure since prosecutors began focusing attention on his son, Michael G. Flynn, who worked as part of Flynn Intel Group, the consulting firm founded by the former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency. He also traveled with his father to Russia in 2015 for his now famous appearance at a Moscow dinner where he sat next to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Democrats in Congress have told ABC News they forwarded information to the Mueller team alleging that Flynn illegally concealed more than a dozen foreign contacts and overseas trips during the process of renewing his security clearances.

“It appears that General Flynn violated federal law by omitting this trip and these foreign contacts from his security clearance renewal application in 2016 and concealing them from security clearance investigators who interviewed him as part of the background check process,” Reps. Elijah Cummings and Eliot L. Engel, both Democrats, wrote in a letter to Flynn’s attorney.

The letter highlights information House investigators collected from executives at three private companies advised by Flynn in 2015 and 2016. The companies were pursuing a joint venture with Russia to bring nuclear power to several Middle Eastern countries and secure the resulting nuclear fuel before Flynn joined then-candidate Trump on the campaign trail.

Flynn is a decorated military officer who served as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency from 2012 until his retirement in 2014. He was only out of the spotlight briefly. He joined the Trump campaign as an adviser in 2016, and President Trump would later name Flynn as his first national security adviser. He was forced to resign, however, after just 24 days on the job, when it was revealed that he misled Vice President Mike Pence about his conversation with Russian officials during the presidential transition.

Cummings told ABC News that Flynn’s foreign contacts — which involved high ranking foreign officials and business executives — were so numerous they could not have been inadvertent omissions or incidental contacts.

“He has, over and over again, omitted information that he should have disclosed,” Cummings said. “It's not an aberration, and that's clear.

Flynn’s lawyer has declined to comment on the letter, and when ABC News tracked down Flynn this summer at a beach in Newport, Rhode Island -- his home town — he didn’t say much more.

“I’m just having a great time with the family here,” Flynn said. “I'm doing good, [but] I'm not going to make any comments.”

The alleged omissions could be a serious matter — and not just for Flynn. While Cummings said intentionally omitting foreign contacts when applying for security clearance can carry a five-year prison term, he also acknowledged that penalties are rarely so severe. The leverage alleged transgressions provide, however, could prove useful to prosecutors seeking to use the threat of prosecution to compel Flynn’s assistance in the broader investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 campaign.

Former FBI Director James Comey provided a window into that strategy during his three hours of testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee earlier this year.

“There is always a possibility if you have a criminal case against someone and you bring them in, squeeze them, flip them, [that] they give you information about something else,” Comey said.

The alleged omissions are just the latest to make trouble for the retired general. Flynn failed to declare a December 2015 trip to Russia, where he sat next to Russian President Putin, and was paid $33,000 for his appearance. In March 2017, Flynn submitted a late filing with the Department of Justice under the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA), revealing that his consulting firm, Flynn Intel Group, was paid $530,000 for three months of work on behalf of a Dutch firm owned by a Turkish businessman with close ties to the Turkish government.

 

The weirdest bit is hidden at the end of the article for some reason: Apparently Flynn is an eejit who discusses kidnapping plans at the presence of CIA directors.

 

Spoiler

 

Flynn’s work for Turkey also remains the subject of additional scrutiny. Of interest to federal agents, according to people interviewed by the FBI, is his alleged role in a bizarre, unrealized proposal first reported by the Wall Street Journal to kidnap Turkish dissident cleric Fethullah Gulen, who is living in exile in rural Pennsylvania and suspected of involvement in a failed coup attempt.

Gulen, who has denied involvement in the coup attempt, has lived legally in the Pocono Mountains since 1999, and the Turkish government has been financing efforts to persuade the U.S. government to return Gulen to Turkey for years.

Former CIA director James Woolsey confirmed to ABC News he was at a meeting in which Flynn allegedly raised the idea.

“It became clear to me that, they were seriously considering a kidnapping operation for Gulen, and I told them then that it was a bad idea, it was illegal,” Woolsey said. “I won't say that they had firmly decided to do that. But they were seriously considering it.”

Kelner, Flynn’s lawyer, took the rare step of publicly refuting those assertions, saying there was no such discussion and calling them categorically “false.” In mid-July at a press conference, the Turkish ambassador to the U.S. also denied the notion of a kidnapping plot.

“There's no truth to that,” he said, adding that the government was following “traditional” procedures to have Gulen extradited “through the legal channels.”

 

 

[fraurosena]

Ooooh, things are getting interesting...

Feds Flip Turkish Crook; Did He Rat on Michael Flynn?

Quote

Reza Zarrab, a Turkish businessman accused of violating U.S. sanctions on Iran, pleaded guilty and will testify against his co-defendant, a federal court heard Tuesday. Zarrab’s cooperation with federal prosecutors could have implications for Michael Flynn, who allegedly plotted on behalf of Turkish interests to help free Zarrab.

Zarrab, a 34-year-old Turkish-Iranian gold trader, is at the center of an Iran sanctions-busting case in which he used his companies and Turkish state-run banks to trade cash for gold in order to secretly buy oil from Iran. A former deputy general manager of one of those banks, Mehmet Atilla, is charged as part of that same conspiracy.

Atilla’s lawyers complained that co-defendant Zarrab had vanished in the weeks before trial was to start, an indication that he was no longer cooperating with them but instead federal prosecutors. He is expected to testify Tuesday or Wednesday.

Zarrab’s apparent cooperation with federal prosecutors raised speculation that he was also cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller’s inquiry into Flynn, because it seemed unlikely prosecutors would offer a plea deal to Zarrab in exchange for his cooperation for the comparatively lower-profile trial of Atilla.

Shortly after Zarrab seemed to flip, Flynn’s lawyers terminated a joint defense agreement with the Trump defense team last week. Flynn’s lawyer reportedly met with members of the Mueller probe on Monday, ABC News reported, a further indication that the embattled ex-national security adviser is also pursuing a plea deal.

Zarrab’s plight was reportedly raised by Turkish interests in a December 2016 meeting with Flynn, who was designated to be President Trump’s national security adviser. Flynn was supposedly offered $15 million to arrange Zarrab’s release and to kidnap an exiled Turkish cleric living in Pennsylvania, Fethullah Gulen, and bring him to Turkey. (Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accuses Gulen, a former ally, of orchestrating a failed 2016 coup.)

The Zarrab case has roiled the upper echelons of the Turkish government and stems from a 2013 corruption scandal, which allegedly revealed that top-level ministers took bribes to sign off on the sanctions evasions—and even allegedly captured Erdogan and his son talking about how to hide money.

Erdogan has repeatedly raised Zarrab’s release with U.S. officials from the Obama and Trump administrations. Zarrab even retained friends of President Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani and Michael Mukasey, to negotiate a diplomatic release with the top levels of the Trump and Erdogan administrations.

After the jury was selected Monday, Atilla’s lawyers asked the judge to delay the trial so they could prepare for a mystery witness.

“The government should also make clear that the mystery witness is Mr. Reza Zarrab,” Judge Richard Berman wrote in a ruling denying the motion to postpone trial on Monday. “This is something that experienced counsel knew or should have known about for months.”

 

 

[Howl]

Quote

 

Former CIA director James Woolsey confirmed to ABC News he was at a meeting in which Flynn allegedly raised the idea.

“It became clear to me that, they were seriously considering a kidnapping operation for Gulen, and I told them then that it was a bad idea, it was illegal,” Woolsey said. “I won't say that they had firmly decided to do that. But they were seriously considering it.”

 

Really, you can't make this shit up. 

[AmazonGrace]

I saw somewhere that the person who confirmed Tihonova is Putin's daughter walked it back and said he heard the question wrong but yet this is interesting

http://www.newsweek.com/trump-russia-investigation-wilbur-ross-putin-daughter-business-724417

President Donald Trump's Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is doing business with Russian President Vladimir Putin's son-in-law, a bombshell new report revealed Tuesday. 

A large leak of financial documents called the Paradise Papers revealed several weeks ago that Russian billionaire Kirill Shamanov, the son of a close friend of Putin, does business with Ross — but until Tuesday, the exact connection between Shamanov and Putin was unclear.

[AmazonGrace]

 

 

[Howl]

@AmazonGrace, first, I want to reassure you I am not at all dissing the import of your post, because it lays bare even more financial shenanigans with the Russkies! 

Here's where I'm at.  Russia, Russia, Russia.  I am so past being gobsmacked.  I WAS gobsmacked back in the summer of 2016, when Manafort's Ukraine/Russia connections were first laid bare.  I was shocked, I tell you SHOCKED.  Like, Oh. My. Gosh! shocked.  Now it's just another Russia connection in the daily news, and I lost count months ago.  That said, it's just a realization that I need to say my mantra and pace myself to survive this presiduncy -- to try to stay mentally keen about Russia, because it's still terrifying as more and more of this shit comes to light -- I don't think we're even close to finding out about all the Russia connections and their interference in our financial matters and elections. 

Prediction for Erik Prince: finds country without an extradition treaty with the US and changes his citizenship.  Erik currently lives in Dubai, and the United Arab Emirates has no extradition treaty, but they aren't interested in harboring criminals, either, so who know where that leaves Mr. Prince of Darkness.  Being Betsy De Vos' brother might put him closer to the front of the numberless mass of people needing pardons. 

[GrumpyGran]

1 hour ago, Howl said:

Russia, Russia, Russia.

I'm with you @Howl. I feel numb most of the time. It's hard to believe we haven't reached the end yet. Is there anybody that Dump is associated with that didn't have contact with Russia in some way? It seems this was the major requirement to get a job with the Trump campaign, you had to have Russian connections.

I don't think Dump is smart enough to be working with Russia as an agent for their government. He is not someone who has a strong sense of loyalty to a country. He loves recognition and he gets that from having his name on things. I think this all came out of his desire to have a hotel in Moscow. If that is true, it's stunning how far that simple desire has taken us. But it shows how dangerous he is.

If in fact this is how it started, at no time did he realize what he was actually doing and how it would play out. His need for that big neon sign with his name on it will lead him to do just about anything.

It's funny to think that there may be people in his administration scrambling to be first in line for charges so they can get one of the pardons before Congress finally shuts him down.

[GreyhoundFan]

56 minutes ago, GrumpyGran said:

I don't think Dump is smart enough to be working with Russia as an agent for their government.

I agree. I think he's more of what is called a useful fool in the intelligence/counter-intelligence world.

[AmazonGrace]

TL;DR

Flynn may be in trouble for something that happened while he was running DIA.

Jason Leopold, a reporter who apparently FOIA's tons of documents daily asked for Flynn docs back in 2014 and finally got a response this month. They said NOPE BECAUSE IT MAY INTERFERE WITH AN ONGOING INVESTIGATION.  

https://www.buzzfeed.com/thomasfrank/muellers-russia-probe-may-now-include-flynns-dia-tenure?utm_term=.pfp2RGXJb#.kybbWD8m1

[GreyhoundFan]

Hmmmm: "Trump Pressed Top Republicans to End Senate Russia Inquiry"

Spoiler

WASHINGTON — President Trump over the summer repeatedly urged senior Senate Republicans, including the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, to end the panel’s investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, according to a half dozen lawmakers and aides. Mr. Trump’s requests were a highly unusual intervention from a president into a legislative inquiry involving his family and close aides.

Senator Richard Burr of North Carolina, the intelligence committee chairman, said in an interview this week that Mr. Trump told him that he was eager to see an investigation that has overshadowed much of the first year of his presidency come to an end.

“It was something along the lines of, ‘I hope you can conclude this as quickly as possible,’” Mr. Burr said. He said he replied to Mr. Trump that “when we have exhausted everybody we need to talk to, we will finish.”

In addition, according to lawmakers and aides, Mr. Trump told Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, and Senator Roy Blunt, Republican of Missouri and a member of the intelligence committee, to end the investigation swiftly.

Senator Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat who is a former chairwoman of the intelligence committee, said in an interview this week that Mr. Trump’s requests were “inappropriate” and represented a breach of the separation of powers.

“It is pressure that should never be brought to bear by an official when the legislative branch is in the process of an investigation,” Ms. Feinstein said.

Raj Shah, a White House spokesman, said on Thursday that the president had not acted improperly. Mr. Trump, he said, “at no point has attempted to apply undue influence on committee members’’ and believes “there is no evidence of collusion and these investigations must come to a fair and appropriate completion.’’

Mr. Trump’s requests of lawmakers to end the Senate investigation came during a period in the summer when the president was particularly consumed with Russia and openly raging at his own attorney general, Jeff Sessions, for recusing himself from any inquiries into Russian meddling in the election. Mr. Trump often vented to his own aides and even declared his innocence to virtual strangers he came across on his New Jersey golf course.

In this same period, the president complained frequently to Mr. McConnell about not doing enough to bring the investigation to an end, a Republican official close to the leader said.

Republicans played down Mr. Trump’s appeals, describing them as the actions of a political newcomer unfamiliar with what is appropriate presidential conduct.

Mr. Burr said he did not feel pressured by the president’s appeal, portraying it as the action of someone who has “never been in government.” But he acknowledged other members of his committee have had similar discussions with Mr. Trump. “Everybody has promptly shared any conversations that they’ve had,” Mr. Burr said.

One of them was Mr. Blunt, who was flying on Air Force One with Mr. Trump to Springfield, Mo., in August when he found himself being lobbied by the president “to wrap up this investigation,” according to a Republican official familiar with the conversation.

Mr. Blunt was not bothered by Mr. Trump’s comments, the official said, because he did not see them bearing a “sinister motive.’’

But Mr. Burr and Mr. Blunt have both taken steps to limit their interaction with Mr. Trump this year, not wanting to create the perception of coziness as they conduct a highly sensitive investigation into contacts between the president’s campaign and Moscow last year.

Robert S. Mueller III, the Justice Department’s special counsel who is leading a separate investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, is also examining whether Mr. Trump tried to obstruct justice when he fired James B. Comey, the F.B.I. director who was running a federal inquiry into the matter.

Mr. Trump also called other lawmakers over the summer with requests that they push Mr. Burr to finish the inquiry, according to a Republican senator who requested anonymity to discuss his contact with the president.

This senator, who was alarmed upon hearing word of the president’s pleas, said Mr. Trump’s request to the other senators was clear: They should urge Mr. Burr to bring the Russia investigation to a close. The senator declined to reveal which colleagues Mr. Trump had contacted with the request.

Some of Mr. Trump’s advisers feared he would move to fire Mr. Mueller, an option that the president pointedly left open in an Oval Office interview with The New York Times in July.

During this time, Mr. Trump made several calls to senators without senior staff present, according to one West Wing official. According to senators and other Republicans familiar with the conversations, Mr. Trump would begin the talks on a different topic but eventually drift toward the Russia investigation.

In conversations with Mr. McConnell and Senator Bob Corker, the Tennessee Republican who is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Mr. Trump voiced sharp anger that congressional Republicans were not helping lift the cloud of suspicion over Russia, the senators told political allies. The Times reported in August that the president had complained to Mr. McConnell that he was failing to shield Mr. Trump from an ongoing Senate inquiry.

The earlier call with Mr. Burr, however, was perhaps the most invasive, given Mr. Burr’s role directly supervising the Senate’s investigation of Mr. Trump.

Mr. Burr told other senators that Mr. Trump had stressed that it was time to “move on” from the Russia issue, using that language repeatedly, according to people who spoke with Mr. Burr over the summer. One Republican close to Mr. Burr, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that Mr. Trump had been “very forceful.”

Asked why Mr. Trump is so irritated with the investigation, Mr. Burr said: “In his world it hampers his ability to project the strength he needs to convey on foreign policy.”

Mr. Burr said Mr. Trump was not fully aware of the impropriety of his request because the president still has the mind-set of a businessman rather than a politician. “Businessmen are paid to skip things that they think they can skip and get away with,” he said.

This past summer, Mr. Trump also contacted Senator Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican who in August introduced a bipartisan bill limiting the president’s power to dismiss special prosecutors — a measure widely seen as aimed at protecting Mr. Mueller from Mr. Trump. In an interview this week, Mr. Tillis said the president “just asked me where my head was” on the legislation and described the exchange as “pleasant.” Mr. Trump did not press him on the Senate investigation, said Mr. Tillis, who is not on the intelligence committee.

Republicans said Mr. Trump’s ire often went beyond the intelligence committee investigation and spilled over a range of issues that touched on Russia and his relationship with Congress.

Another Republican senator said Mr. Trump had not urged him to help bring the Russia inquiry to a halt. Instead, the senator said, the president nudged him to begin an investigation into Hillary Clinton’s connection with the intelligence-gathering firm Fusion GPS, which produced a dossier of allegations about Mr. Trump’s ties to Moscow.

Mr. McConnell — who over the summer was quickly notified of Mr. Trump’s calls to his Senate colleagues — told multiple associates that Mr. Trump appeared unable to distinguish traditional policy concerns about Russia from more specific questions about Russian interference in the presidential race.

The Senate leader told associates that Mr. Trump did not seem to recognize that the Republican Party traditionally took a suspicious view of Russia, or that lawmakers could favor punishing Russia without questioning Mr. Trump’s victory in 2016. The president had reluctantly signed a bill imposing sanctions on Moscow on Aug. 2, using an extraordinary written statement to lash out against what he viewed as a usurping of executive authority from a Congress that “could not even negotiate a health care bill after seven years of talking.”

Mr. Trump, Mr. McConnell told associates, appeared inclined to treat criticism of Russian meddling in the United States as giving credence to unproven allegations that his campaign colluded with foreign actors.

In that respect, Mr. Trump’s private consternation mirrored some of his public complaints about the Russia issue. He has continued to seethe regularly, and openly, about the scrutiny of Russia’s political activities, tweeting just last weekend: “Since the first day I took office, all you hear is the phony Democrat excuse for losing the election, Russia, Russia, Russia.”

 

[formergothardite]

7 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Mr. Burr said he did not feel pressured by the president’s appeal, portraying it as the action of someone who has “never been in government.

Maybe he shouldn't be president then! If you don't understand the job and haven't done the most basic research into what you can and can't do, then you don't need to have that job. Burr is my senator so I think I'll call his office today and tell them that. Won't do a tiny bit of good but will make me feel better. 

[AmazonGrace]

Flynn pleads guilty:

 

[formergothardite]

Please, please let this just be the first gift of Christmas! I can think of 12 more people who are guilty as sin. 

[AmazonGrace]

The first day of Christmas

Mike Flynn gave to me

a partridge in a guilty plea ...

[LeftCoastLurker]

Here's hoping this guilty plea for what appears to be a "lesser" crime is in exchange for dishing dirt on others higher up in the food chain!

[AmazonGrace]

1 minute ago, LeftCoastLurker said:

Here's hoping this guilty plea for what appears to be a "lesser" crime is in exchange for dishing dirt on others higher up in the food chain!

 

[JenniferJuniper]

FLYNN WILL TESTIFY CANDIDATE TRUMP INSTRUCTED HIM TO WORK WITH RUSSIA.

And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make. 

[Cartmann99]

1 hour ago, AmazonGrace said:

Flynn pleads guilty:

I have received a Word of Knowledge concerning tonight's episode of Hannity!

Hannity will have a show tonight where he attempts to prove Hillary Clinton is the Antichrist. A picture of her will be placed inside of an empty warehouse, and then the warehouse will be filled with Trumpy Bears. The building will spontaneously explode, and one of the pedopastors (pastors that support Roy Moore) will then pray over the Trumpy Bear bits and talk about how demons are attacking Moore. Thankfully, these demons can be defeated by a generous contribution to the Moore campaign. 

[AnywhereButHere]

1 hour ago, formergothardite said:

Please, please let this just be the first gift of Christmas! I can think of 12 more people who are guilty as sin. 

It's like the Special Counsel's office released an Advent Calendar just for us! Open the flap, and another monster is convicted!

I guess Flynn is the Goblin then. Bannon may be a troll. I'm pretty sure Carter Page is a vampire.

Who's next!

 

[GrumpyGran]

Flynn's statement:  Let me sum it up for you. "I'm a great person, no one has sacrificed as much as me, I thought I was doing what was best for my country, blah,blah,blah, oh, yeah, guess I have to take responsibility for breaking the law."

Perfect dumpy team member whine. He deserves to rot in prison but of course he won't.

[fraurosena]

Of course this had to happen just when my laptop broke and I'm eagerly awaiting the delivery of a new one! Because I'm not on my own computer now, I haven't been able to read this yet, but here's a link to Flynn's complete indictment. 

Oh my... could PENCE be the 'senior official"?

 

 

[AmazonGrace]

@fraurosena don't worry about not seeing the link, if you can see the screenshot I posted earlier it's pretty much all there. The complete document only has an extra header and the signature (Brandon L Van Grack and Zainab N Ahmad)

So McGahn is apparently claiming he doesn't know what the law is unless some lady from the Obama admin tells him.

 

[fraurosena]

44 minutes ago, AmazonGrace said:

@fraurosena don't worry about not seeing the link, if you can see the screenshot I posted earlier it's pretty much all there. The complete document only has an extra header and the signature (Brandon L Van Grack and Zainab N Ahmad)

So McGahn is apparently claiming he doesn't know what the law is unless some lady from the Obama admin tells him.

 

Ah, thanks! I'm quickly shovelling my dinner into my mouth as I type this, so I can start installing my new laptop which has just been delivered. (Yay!)

In the meantime, here's a link to Seth Abramson's mega-mega thread on the matter:

 

 

[onekidanddone]

The Washington metro area had a tiny earthquake last night, and I didn't feel a thing.  I keep waiting for the next aftershock and books to fly across the room when Trump start tweeting.