DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Palus Politicus Breaking News. Flynn Charged with lying to the FBI

developing now.

My guess is that he flipped like a pancake.

Another Shoe dropped.

Drip Drip Drip

It won't be long for the Whatabout crowd to chime in.

I've heard Flynn has a plea hearing at 10:30.

Also I'm betting Rex is 86'd for a distraction away from this.

My guess is trump will be tweeting something absurd and/or awful, and completely off topic, shortly, to try to pull the news coverage away.

Have your fun but it is still much to do about nothing when it comes to Collusion.

Flynn told the FBI he did not talk to the Russian Ambassador AFTER the election getting Russia to hold off on retaliation for Obama's last minute sanctions.

That is where the lie must be. He probably did talk to the Russian Ambassador AFTER the election. These charges stem from January of 2017.

President-elect Trump had stated publicly in a speech that he opposed the last minute sanctions Obama had placed on the Russians so Russia already knew to wait and see what the new administration would do.
They held back on retaliation at that point.

This had nothing to do with Collusion to get elected.

The notion or act of collusion is far less troubling than how utterly dumb these people are. They're as dumb or dumber than Trump himself, which is staggering.

Like, how did these people think they wouldn't get caught? And on top of that, in many instances it appears they're too stupid to even know they're doing something wrong (like Trump Jr'.'s penchant for "hey, who wants to do some crime?" e-mails, both in regards to Russia and the instances of fraud in NY where their father had to pay to keep them from being charged.

The utter incompetence of these people is frightening.

Yes, stupid is as stupid does.

I personally think Flynn's cooperation with Mueller is due to the charges he is facing on his ties to Turkey. They got Manafort for his ties to Ukraine.

Nothing about Collusion to get Trump elected though. Nada.

Again, the troubling thing here isn't about Russia and election results. The notion that Russia is responsible for Trump's win is nonsense.

The issue is that these people are staggeringly incompetent. They either didn't realize what they were doing was illegal, or didn't think they'd get caught, both of which are extremely alarming.

I'm less concerned with how a senile moron and his crew of flunkies got elected than I am that they're in power and clearly have no clue what they're doing.

At this point, collusion would be a better look than none, as that would indicate a goal, rather than just being duped like morons because Russian officials complimented the president.

Here's a little tidbit for you to think about, the FBI and Mueller wouldn't cut such a sweetheart deal for Flynn unless somebody up the food chain is in deep crap. Flynn was the national security adviser to the POTUS and there was no other big fish upstream!

Trump is in trouble today and you have to be delusional not to see it.

Trump asking Comey to let the Flynn investigation go is going to come back now to haunt him for sure, I don't know what else Flynn knows but this was a very good deal for him, so he must have the goods on somebody.

This is a good point.

Trump tried to pressure Comey into ending the investigation into Flynn. The case can certainly be made that part of him firing Comey has to do with the investigation.

Anybody who thinks this isn’t gonna end up tying back to trump is only fooling himself.

AP...Flynn admits in plea hearing Trump transition officials directed his contacts with the Russians

Drip...Drip...Drip...There's more to this as well, and this points directly to collusion on it's own.

uh oh.

Add to this that Kushner was called in to Mueller's office yesterday in what seemed like a cooperative Q&A session to political observers and you can't help but think that he was there to corroborate Flynn's story and save himself. Rumors have already been spreading that Kushner is on the outs with Trump.

LINK?

If this is True, it spells Collusion!

And yet your ok with it all. The edge of the cliff is quickly approaching. Get ready.

A lemming doesn't care, that's just normal life to them.

here it is:

Flynn has promised Special Counsel 'full cooperation' in Russia probe: Source

https://www.yahoo.com/gma/michael-flynn-...topstories.html

Retired Lt. Gen Michael Flynn has promised “full cooperation” in the special counsel’s Russia investigation and, according to a confidant, and is prepared to testify that Donald Trump directed him to make contact with the Russians, initially as a way to work together to fight ISIS in Syria.

The stunning turn comes as Flynn, who is cooperating with investigators in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe, pleaded guilty to one count of lying to the FBI about his back-channel negotiations with the Russian ambassador – talks that occurred before Trump took office. The Special Counsel made the plea agreement public Friday morning.

A close confidant told ABC News that Flynn felt abandoned by Trump in recent weeks, and told friends about the decision to make the plea deal within the last 24 hours as he grew increasingly concerned about crippling legal costs he would face if he continued to contest the charges.

Flynn was charged with lying to the FBI about the nature of his conversations with then-Russian ambassador to the United States Sergey Kislyak during the presidential transition. Those conversations led Russian officials to temper their response to increased U.S. sanctions, according to the charging documents.

The charge means Flynn could face up to five years in prison.

Flynn became the latest and most-senior Trump associate to face charges in Mueller's probe and arrived at the U.S. District courthouse accompanied by his wife and attorney Robert Kelner after having been processed at the FBI Washington Field Office, where he was fingerprinted and photographed, according to FBI officials.

In court, the retired lieutenant general was asked by Federal Judge Rudolph Contreras if he had ever been a part of similar proceedings, to which Flynn replied that he had not. Contreras then asked Kelner whether he was correct in assuming that Flynn was pleading guilty.

"Yes, your honor," said Kelner.

After the hearing, Flynn was free to go, but has to check in with authorities each week. Sentencing has been put off for now — and the judge noted that Flynn is agreeing to cooperate with authorities in other matters.

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

Kushner met with special counsel earlier this month, conversation focused on Flynn

Flynn had initially resisted cooperating with the investigation, according to people close to the retired general, but he has been facing mounting legal debts and plans to sell his house to help defray costs.

He only recently learned the full scope of the charges he could potentially face. Last week, Trump lawyers received calls from Kelner, alerting them that he could no longer participate in information exchanges with other possible Mueller targets, the first public indication that a plea deal was in the works.

Trump and his legal team have learned of Flynn's decision via news reports Friday morning, according to sources with knowledge of the situation.

On Monday, Kelner was spotted exiting a meeting at Mueller’s offices in Washington, ABC News reported.

PHOTO:Former U.S. National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, left, with his attorney Robert Kelner, center, as he arrives for a plea hearing at U.S. District Court in Washington,D.C., Dec. 1, 2017. (Jonathan Ernst/REUTERS)
Flynn is a decorated military officer who once headed the Defense Intelligence Agency and, after leaving government, spoke frequently at Trump campaign rallies. He began facing scrutiny after it was learned he took payment to attend a Russian television event, at which he appeared seated next to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

That scrutiny only increased after he took over as Trump’s national security adviser. He was ultimately forced to resign after just a few weeks on the job after it was revealed that he misled Vice President Mike Pence and other administration officials about his meeting with the Russian ambassador.

Flynn initially denied that he discussed U.S. sanctions placed on Russia with Kislyak, but transcripts of Flynn and Kislyak’s phone calls reviewed by Justice Department lawyers showed otherwise.

Flynn was paid over $500,000 by foreign clients for consulting work and speaking fees – including contracts he allegedly failed to list on applications for security clearances and financial disclosure forms. He also only belatedly disclosed lobbying work his firm engaged in on behalf of the Turkish government.

PHOTO: Former White House National Security Advisor Michael Flynn at the White House, Feb. 13, 2017. (Carlos Barria/Reuters, FILE)
Trump reportedly attempted to persuade the FBI to drop its investigation into Flynn’s conduct. In a Feb. 14 meeting at the White House, Trump reportedly told then-FBI Director James Comey to “let this go.”

“I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go,” Trump told Comey, according to a memo Comey wrote afterwards, which was later described by the New York Times. “He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.”

On Oct. 30, two members of Trump's campaign staff, former campaign chair Paul Manafort and his longtime associate Rick Gates, were indicted on 12 counts brought by Mueller's team related to work done prior to joining the Trump campaign, including conspiracy against the U.S., conspiracy to launder money and serving as an unregistered agent of a foreign principal.

That same day, it was also revealed that a third Trump campaign adviser, George Papadopoulos, pleaded guilty earlier in the month to making false statements to FBI agents probing his attempts to arrange a meeting between Russian officials and the campaign.

________________

the excuses went from there was nobody in contact with russians, to nobody in the campaign had contacts, to collusion isn't really illegal, to nobody in the administration had contact with the russians, to this isn't related to Trump, to this isn't DIRECTLY related to trump.

at some point, trump supporters need to be real with themselves. this is bad. really bad.

Oh no you don't!

All the Liberals on here have been crying and pointing fingers over Trump being elected due to Collusion with the Russians.
I am awaiting the day when I can post all those things they cried that were never true.

Obama told this clown not to hire Flynn as a national security adviser.

he did it anyway.

It's up on the AP site. I can't seem to link it from this PC. I get AP updates on my cell.

here's the thing as well.

its been reported months ago that Flynn facing for more serious charges, combined with the fact that his son was gonna get caught up in all of this as well.

So this is another Papadopoulos situation, where they probably BEEN had him cooperating with Mueller, and then got to plead guilty for a for much lesser charge, probably with no jail time.

Really big #NothingBurger! I'm not sure a sitting President can or has ever been indicted on criminal charges? Does anyone know?

I can't imagine he avoids impeachment now.

1) I've never said Russia has anything to do with the election results. Hillary lost because she ran on "I think America is already great" and didn't step foot in Wisconsin.

2) Do you understand what "collusion" means? It's not limited to the election itself. What we're seeing right now looks like collusion with the Russians regarding sanctions, which is very bad for Kushner or Don Jr. (Trump himself is too lazy and stupid to be bothered with day to day; it's gonna by to be incredibly hard to pin anything on him considering that he doesn't know how to use e-mail, and spends his days golfing and yelling at the TV)

If it ever came to it (which it won't), Trump's lawyers could make a pretty compelling argument that his incompetence kept him out of the loop.

Don't be absurd. Trump is guilty little buddy. Wake up now, the fascist dream is ending.

Will you also post those things that are true like when the POTUS admitted to sexual misconduct and groping women by apologizing to the world for it.

Hey 40, I thought this wasn't about Russia collusion?



I wonder who the senior member is? My bets rest on Kusher.

Link

"Russia if your listening, I hope you find...."

The article says Trump directed Flynn to make contact with the Russians. Trump doesn't escape this with scapegoats.

Oh wow...



Source

Video Link to report

is America great yet?

j/c

Trump Pressed Top Republicans to End Senate Russia Inquiry

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.
Continue reading the main story

“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.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/30/us/politics/trump-russia-senate-intel.html

how could this be?

40, Haus, and Diam told us that Trump didn't collude.

"Only people who are guilty plead the Fifth"

- Trump and Flynn

yikes.

Crap, if that's true...we got a mess on our hands.

Also, just wanted to reiterate I also view this in the same light as Phil. I don't think about the collusion to win the election so much, and I lament that Hillary and a lot of Democrats try to focus the spotlight on that. She lost the election because she was a terrible candidate and person.

I worry more about the collusion as far as how it actually affects policies, bill introductions, sanctions, lobbying, etc. What a friggin' mess!

That's how plea agreements work.

Here is an important part of Flynns Statement

""It has been extraordinarily painful to endure these many months of false accusations of 'treason' and other outrageous acts," Flynn said in his statement.

"The actions I acknowledged in court today were wrong, and, through my faith in God, I am working to set things right," he added. "My guilty plea and agreement to cooperate with the Special Counsel's Office reflect a decision I made in the best interests of my family and my country."

Meaning he's going to cooperate with Mueller. That is what I think Trump and other cronies including Pence needs to worry about.

Good question. Looks like the answer is no - impeach first, then indictment. This was the best article I read of the half dozen or so I read.

https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-07-31/a-sitting-president-can-t-be-prosecuted