Thread: Breaking: Michael Flynn Resigns Amid Uproar Over Russia Ties

Oh you're so welcome, GeorgiaPeach. Great article!

House Intelligence Committee Chair: Leakers of Flynn Call ‘Belong in Jail’


by KRISTINA WONG14 February, 2017


House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA) said Tuesday that those who leaked the contents of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn’s phone calls “belong in jail.”


“That’s nine leakers that all belong in jail,” Nunes said. “Those nine people broke the law, clearly, by leaking classified information to anybody.”


Flynn resigned late Monday night, after a Washington Post report on Feb. 9 said he had privately discussed U.S. sanctions against Russia with a Russian ambassador during phone calls in December — despite assertions by Trump officials, including the vice president, that he had never done so.


The Post’s report cited nine anonymous current and former officials “who were in senior positions at multiple agencies” who “had access to reports from U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies that routinely monitor the communications of Russian diplomats.”


“All of those officials said Flynn’s references to the election-related sanctions were explicit,” the report said.


Nunes said he also wanted to know how U.S. intelligence agencies were wiretapping Flynn’s calls, which he said may also have been illegal.


The chairman said there are only two ways that intelligence agencies can listen in on an American’s phone call — after obtaining a warrant, or inadvertently, such as in the case of Flynn speaking with a foreign official being spied on, which the report suggests was the case.


Nunes said “it’s pretty clear” that there was no warrant.

“It’s pretty clear that’s not the case,” he said. “I’m pretty sure the FBI didn’t have a warrant on Michael Flynn … To listen to an American’s phone call you would have to go to a court, there’d be all that paperwork there. So I’m guessing that doesn’t exist.”


In case Flynn was speaking to a foreign official — Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak in this case — Nunes said there should have been a process to mask Flynn’s identity.


“Unless it’s a high-level national security issue, and then someone would have to unmask the name, someone at the highest levels, they’d have to unmask that name,” Nunes said. “It’s a very high threshold to unmask an American citizen’s name, that’s a very high threshold, almost unprecedented. And if you were going to unmask it, it seems like you would immediately go get a warrant.”


“If they did that, how does all that get out to the public which is another leak of classified information,” he added. “Whoever did it, it’s illegal.”


A Wall Street Journal editorial on Tuesday also questioned whether spies listening to Flynn broke the law.


The editorial said U.S. intelligence services routinely get orders from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to monitor foreign officials, but are supposed to use “minimization procedures” that don’t let them listen to the communications of an American.


“That is, they are supposed to protect the identity and speech of innocent Americans. Yet the Washington Post, which broke the story, says it spoke to multiple U.S. officials claiming to know what Mr. Flynn said on that call,” the Journal said.


“The questions someone in the White House should ask the National Security Agency is why it didn’t use minimization procedures to protect Mr. Flynn? Or did it also have a court order to listen to Mr. Flynn, and how did it justify that judicial request?” it added.


“If Mr. Flynn was under U.S. intelligence surveillance, then Mr. Trump should know why, and at this point so should the American public. Maybe there’s an innocent explanation, but the Trump White House needs to know what’s going on with Mr. Flynn and U.S. spies,” it said.


Nunes said he is seeking more information from the FBI on what happened.


“There’s nothing to investigate until I know what happened,” he said.


http://www.breitbart.com/big-governm...elong-in-jail/

GeorgiaPeach, I just noticed, can you go back to your other article and add a carriage return so the link activates? Thanks. It's a great article and I want to be sure people can go to the source if they feel inclined to do so.

Members of Congress, Obama and others should think all of this through because there are those in intelligence that know plenty of things about their doings and telephone conversations that may reflect negatively or be illegal.

Was Ben Rhodes the man that tried to unseat Netanyahu?

Originally Posted by Judy

GeorgiaPeach, I just noticed, can you go back to your other article and add a carriage return so the link activates? Thanks. It's a great article and I want to be sure people can go to the source if they feel inclined to do so.

Judy, thank you so much. I have been wondering why some articles have recently not had the links activated though I do the same thing.

Let me try it.

It worked Judy. Hug. I have been perplexed by that. Had no idea. Thank you again.

Trump aides were in constant touch with senior Russian officials during campaign

Related:

https://www.alipac.us/f9/limbaugh-fl...w-when-343623/

Read The Excerpt from Ann Coulter's Book, "Demonic" at link.

Ann Coulter
@AnnCoulter

Russians asked Flynn about sanctions. The horror! Ted Kennedy asked Russians to help defeat Reagan. That's Cool! Demonic p. 271: pic.twitter.com/uo0UNrVqc9
4:05 PM - 14 Feb 2017


Twitter
By: Ann Coulter @AnnCoulter


https://mobile.twitter.com/AnnCoulte...476355/photo/1

You know, the saddest thing to me about what is going on is that Americans mostly Democrats as we know from the political donations, an incredible 95%, put their political party, their emotions over a Presidential loss they thought they had won, above our country, above the chance to fix our country, straighten out bad trade deals, secure our borders, stop illegal immigration, solve problems internationally, and open up a new relationship with Russia.

I don't think we stand still and let this happen. We all have to stand firm and support this President, hell or high water as they used to say, because he is the fresh air, he is the new blood, he is the new vision of what's possible in a range and depth that we've never seen before in my life time.

The leakers have forced the ruin of a good man like Flynn to try to bring down a good man like Trump for what? More sanctions against Russia? More illegal aliens pouring in that we don't have jobs or money to support? More factories leaving our nation for other cheaper environments that leave a swath of decay and poverty in their wake?

Americans have to stick together on this and stop it dead in its tracks. These leaks have to be stopped. A man has lost his job because of illegal leaks to the press with the inuendo of wrong-doing when there was no wrong-doing. Yes, okay, he may not have told Pence everything that was said to him or he said to the US Ambassador from Russia. This is not a crime. This is not wrong-doing. It may have been a bad decision at the time, it may have been a mistake, but there was no wrong-doing. Under our Constitution, there is no obligation by anyone to tell the Vice President anything. A Vice President is a Vice President, a person with no obligation or duties except to Preside over the US Senate to break tie-votes and be on hand to be President in the event of the incapacity of the President. A Vice President is not a Co-President under our Constitution.

So legally and morally, neither the President nor anyone working in the Executive Branch has an obligation to tell the Vice President anything. The President was informed about the possible discrepancies in what Flynn had said, his only concern at the time was whether or not there anything illegal about the phone calls and the apparent discussions, there was not. Everyone in the media was claiming Flynn had broken the law, the Logan Act, by talking with the Ambassador. That was the source of the frenzy, but now, it's clear that there were no laws broken, no violations of law occurred, Flynn did nothing wrong.

So why did Trump decide to accept his resignation or ask him for his resignation? It was because of our Vice President, Pence was upset that he went out to do that Face the Nation interview half-loaded. It's the same reason Chris Christie was forced out of the transition team. Pence is a great Vice President in that he's very supportive of Donald Trump, but at the same time, he has his own ideas about his place and role in this administration which go far beyond the typical and constitutional role of a Vice President.

I'm not blaming Pence for this, I understand why he's upset or was upset. But, the fracture of the National Security Team was a very high price to pay to appease it. Trump knew that which is why he didn't remove Flynn when he found out about it two weeks ago. There's something else too, that the Media and those following the story are over-looking. Flynn made a statement 4 days ago that he didn't remember if sanctions were discussed, he didn't think so but couldn't remember, and they may have been. It was this little walk back that infuriated Pence. If Flynn had stayed quiet and not said anything to the media, then I think this would have had a different ending. That is what made Pence so upset, that statement to the media that ended up in the media. That created a new frenzy "Flynn lied" and that is what became unsustainable, the statement to a media source that oh well maybe something was said about sanctions, I don't remember.

So, the plot thickens, and just some things to keep in mind as we move forward past this. I love Flynn, he's a patriot, he's a hard-worker, devoted to Trump, and is one of the few people with military backgrounds that question intelligence reports, wants a good or improved relationship with Russia, and better deals with NATO, all things I totally support and have for years, so I'm sorry to see him go. I also love Pence, and it's just a shame that this conflict between them occurred over perfectly legal conversations that Flynn had with the Russian Ambassador.

Who is at fault? The leakers, not Flynn, not Pence, not Trump and as much as this pains me to say it, not even the Media. Our Executive Branch has every right to have disagreements, make mistakes, misstatements, give out incomplete information, and so forth as part of the typical day to day functions and operations of an organization. These things go on in every organization, large and small, business, government agencies, charities, churches, households, every day life.

But leaking classified information with no goal except to harm our Executive Branch and disrupt a path of good relations with the Russians and harm our people and the people of Russia. The people of both the United States and Russia benefit from a good relationship, trade, travel, confidence, peace, cooperation ... so much good comes to the people of both nations if Trump succeeds in normalizing our relations. This is why such leaks are illegal, to preserve the rights and powers of the Executive Branch to pursue roads of improvement where others have failed. The leaks were done to kill that.

Will they succeed? No, I don't think so.

I think Donald Trump will continue to pursue a new relationship with Russia for all the right reasons. Our friends in Russia who want the same thing need to remain calm, overlook our leakers, understand the real reason why Flynn resigned, and look forward to a new National Security Advisor who will pursue the same course, a new and improved relationship with Russia.

We are spreading the truth about Crimea, and strangely enough, it's starting to bear fruit, CNN guests just admitted that "yes, well, on Crimea, most of the people who live there are Russian and want to be part of Russia, but they went about it all wrong and should have had a real referendum". Yes, well, they had not 1 but 2 referendums and voted vast majorities in both to join Russia again. There was even a recent poll conducted by some western group and the results of the poll validated the referendum. There are even some Ukrainians who are leaving Ukraine to migrate to Crimea so they can be part of Russia.

Russia is very different now than it used to be when it was the USSR. Putin himself has been enlightened and is a capitalist and pro-business. So there is no reason any more for the old guard men like McCain and Graham to operate in the old days, Russia is different now and at a place in time, action and thought that is perfect for new relations with the United States. We may not agree on everything, of course, but there's no reason on earth why we won't agree on most things of importance to both countries and the United States should do everything possible to achieve a new improved relationship with Russia.

Again, just some things for people to think about and keep in mind as we move forward.