Michael Flynn

Michael Flynn (1958-12-01 age:59) was Donald Trump’s first security advisor. He lasted only 3.5 weeks.

Here is what I think happened. Flynn was a friend of Putin’s. Prior to the election, he, Trump and other Trump staff cooked up a deal with Putin via the Russian ambassador. Trump would remove the sanctions which were costing Russia millions.

This would also greatly please Exxon-Mobil who had invested nearly all their money in Russian oil leases, but could not exercise them because of the sanctions. In return, Putin would hack the DNC (Democratic National Committee) and Hillary’s computer, passing on electioneering plans and anything embarrassing. The Russians would also scramble data, delete files and in general screw things up.

Trump kept publicly touting his bromance with Putin so it would not look quite so peculiar when he eventually removed the sanctions. He trashed the ally leaders of Mexico, Australia and Germany but had nothing but high praise for Putin.

By making deals with a foreign government while still civilians, Trump and Flynn violated the Logan Act. The problem is, nobody has ever been prosecuted under the act. Subverting an election is surely a serious crime. Taking a benefit from an enemy in order to reduce hostile action is probably considered treason.

Trump is almost daily charged with some wrongdoing, and his lawyers always manage to wriggle out of it. However, Flynn was quite stupid and took no evasive action to prevent his phone calls from being tapped. If he had any sense, he would have visited the ambassador in person in a bug-free space. Given that Flynn is reputed to be a world-class security expert, this error is unbelievable. He must have been over-confident thinking Trump could protect him from any prosecution.

Flynn has admitted to talking many times with the Russian ambassador. Unless Flynn had authorisation from Trump to make a deal, I can’t see why the ambassador would waste so much time with him.

Trump fired Flynn remarkable quickly once the scandal surfaced. Trump is trying to distance himself from Flynn, and pretend Flynn cooked up this deal all on his own without Trump’s knowledge. Why would he do such a thing? He gains no benefit from removing sanctions.

~ Roedy (1948-02-04 age:70)