BobE
Guv'nor
Offline
Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
So the Flynn-Kislyak transcripts have been released (see below, only link I could find). I don't see anything alarming there... Am I missing something?
(Edit: didn't realize there were multiple transcripts in the file. Still reading)
Flynn and Kislyak discussed expulsions, not the executive order-mandated financial sanctions explicitly cited by Mueller in his charging documents.I think the most important thing (I haven't read them completely yet) is that it removes any doubt that Flynn did lie to the FBI. So, he pleaded guilty to something that he actually was guilty of doing.
Flynn and Kislyak discussed expulsions, not the executive order-mandated financial sanctions explicitly cited by Mueller in his charging documents.
The transcripts show Mueller, not Flynn, lied about Flynn’s conversations.
Can you show us in the transcript where you think Flynn discussed sanctions?
Well, the US has monitored ALL communication in and out of Soviet/Russian embassies worldwide as long as I can remember going back to Libya 1969 and probably before that. If you were calling the embassy all the time, the US would have noticed. Do you consider that spying on Trump?
It’s not really in dispute that he discussed sanctions in the call. It’s whether he lied about it to the FBI. Remember?Flynn and Kislyak discussed expulsions, not the executive order-mandated financial sanctions explicitly cited by Mueller in his charging documents.
The transcripts show Mueller, not Flynn, lied about Flynn’s conversations.
Can you show us in the transcript where you think Flynn discussed sanctions?
Flynn asked the Ambassador not escalate in response to the sanctions. How is that illegal?
Can you point out what you claim was illegal or wrong about his call with the Russian ambassador? How is asking Russia not to retaliate after the sanctions wrong?
This new line of argument that the Flynn transcripts show that he wasn’t discussing sanctions with Kislyak because Flynn didn't use the word “sanctions” and only referred to expulsions (which were part of the sanctions) is... a stretch:He asked Russia not to escalate after the Obama sanctions. Should he have told the nuclear armed Russia to escalate?
The fact that you think an incoming National Security Advisor talking to the Russian ambassador about not escalating in response to sanctions as something illegal is hard to take as a serious argument.
Do you known whether it is routine to leake information based on such monitoring to the WaPo? Because that is, without a doubt, what happened with Flynn.
This new line of argument that the Flynn transcripts show that he wasn’t discussing sanctions with Kislyak because Flynn didn't use the word “sanctions” and only referred to expulsions (which were part of the sanctions) is... a stretch:
Yes, and again, the overriding message from Flynn to Russia was “we don’t care what you guys did to try to influence the election, we want to start fresh.” This is why Flynn supporters try to poke holes in the notion that Russia did what our intelligence community has rather unanimously concluded it did. It wasn’t just GRU hacks, it was the IRA-staged rallies and Internet trolling, infiltration of the NRA by Butina and Torshin, contact with Trump Jr, Flynn, Kushner re: “dirt”, direct contact with Manafort to get internal polling data for battleground states, contact with Stone via cutouts, and so on. The “crowdstrike” conspiracy theory doesn’t do much to explain away the whole of Russia’s efforts on this broad array or fronts.Not only is it a stretch...it's pointless. The argument is...Flynn discussed the expulsions, he told the FBI he didn't discuss sanctions, so technically, it wasn't a lie.
However, the FBI directly asked if he recalled discussing the expulsions, and he said, he did not, that the call was about something else, and that he didn't even know about the expulsions.
From the Flynn 302: "The interviewing agents asked Flynn if he recalled any conversation with Kislyak surrounding the expulsion of Russian diplomats or closing or Russian properties in response to Russian hacking activities surrounding the election. Flynn stated that he did not. Flynn reiterated his conversation was about the [REDACTED] (described earlier). Flynn noted that he was not aware of the then-upcoming actions as he did not have access to television news in the Dominican Republic and his government blackberry was not working."
Yep, it’s striking that Flynn basically says he, and by inference Trump, doesn’t care about any of the election interference. Which included a lot of active measures as well as the hacking and dumping of stolen material. He is certainly no one that should be held in esteem, or celebrated as some sort of “patriot”.
It’s nauseating to see the whitewashing of this person who used to serve his country and turned into someone who sells his country out for money. No wonder the judge felt he was a traitor.
The orginal 302 was conveniently lost by the FBI. The 302 you are referring to is one that Page and Strzok edited the 302 eventhough she wasn't in the interview. All 302's are required to be finished within 5 days of the interview. The Flynn interview happened on January 24th and the heavily edited 302 was finally finished on February 15th.I don't know about that....but, I do know this....
Transcript: ", you know, depending on, depending on what uh, actions they take over this current issue of the cyber stutf, you know, where they're looking like they're gonna, they're gonna dismiss some number of Russians out of the country, I understand all that and I understand that~ that, you know, the information that they have and all that, but what I would ask Russia to do is to not - is - is - if anything - because I know you have to have some sort of action - to, to only make it reciprocal. Make it reciprocal. Don't - don't make it- don't go any further than you have to. Because I don't want us to get into something that has to escalate, on a, you know, on a tit for tat. You follow me, Ambassador?"
Flynn's Redacted 302: "The interviewing agents asked Flynn if he recalled any conversation with Kislyak surrounding the expulsion of Russian diplomats or closing or Russian properties in response to Russian hacking activities surrounding the election. Flynn stated that he did not. Flynn reiterated his conversation was about the [REDACTED] (described earlier). Flynn noted that he was not aware of the then-upcoming actions as he did not have access to television news in the Dominican Republic and his government blackberry was not working."
So, the transcript shows that Flynn asked Kysliak to get Russia not to respond to the expulsions. During his interview, he said he did not remember that call, he reiterated that the call was about something else, and stated that he didn't even know about the explusions. That's clearly a lie.
Yeah I remember. Mueller and the leaks from James Baker or Clapper told us that he discussed the sanctions. The Flynn-Kislyak transcript barely discusses sanctions. It's mentioned only once by Kislyak.It’s not really in dispute that he discussed sanctions in the call. It’s whether he lied about it to the FBI. Remember?
You do realize that the screenshot you posted above shows them talking about EXPULSIONS right? How can you defend charging someone for false statements when he didn't even say what Mueller claimed?This new line of argument that the Flynn transcripts show that he wasn’t discussing sanctions with Kislyak because Flynn didn't use the word “sanctions” and only referred to expulsions (which were part of the sanctions) is... a stretch:
Anyone who wants to analyze this argument objectively, I implore you to read the entirety of the 12/29/2016 transcript between Kislyak and Flynn and decide for yourself whether transcript shows Flynn reassuring Kislyak that the Obama-imposed sanctions over Russian cyber-interference would not be a problem once Trump took office:Director of National Intelligence Declassifies Flynn-Kislyak Transcripts
On Friday, Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe declassified and released the transcripts of the December 2016 calls between former national security adviser Michael Flynn and then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. The calls are at the center of the ongoing criminal case again...www.lawfareblog.com
Thats McFarland's interpretation of what Flynn meant. We can all see from the transcript that Flynn said expulsion.And KT McFarland’s 302 made clear that the “escalations” referred to sanctions:
Again, I didn’t think it was in dispute that Flynn discussed sanctions. I am sure there are many other examples where he and associates admitted to it.
Thats not correct. According to the transcript, Flynn didn't want Russia to expell more Americans than the number of Russians that Obama expelled.I always found it impossible to believe he “forgot” whether the topic of sanctions came up with Kislyak, and the transcripts confirm that for me. Read the 12/29 transcript as he waits impatiently for Kislyak to say what he has to say, then immediately brings up Obama’s actions regarding Russia’s cyber-interference. It’s obvious that the thing Flynn wants to discuss the most is not escalating sanctions, right? Given all the back and forth calls that day to Mar-a-Lago about sanctions, the fact that Flynn later admitted to remembering it, and the fact that it’s the thing Flynn was fixated on during the call, is it really believable to think he couldn’t remember whether that topic came up? (No.)
The were talking about Islamic extremism/terrorism.Also, who is the “common enemy” shared by Russia and the incoming admin? Americans like me that think he’s a traitor?
That Federalist article that I posted had the quote from the Co-founder of Lawfare. Also, I'm not the one who continues to believe in the discredited conspiracy theory of Russiagate even after the IG report, the evidence of FISA abuse, The new Flynn information including the transcript, etc.SFL, you are reading slanted sources at the same time you are discrediting other people’s sources as slanted. Just for the record. You are super focused on small details and technicalities, seemingly, and ignoring the big picture. The Federalist?
So moving on. Did it bother you at all that Flynn seems to just accept that the Russians were interfering to help Trump, and indicates it was not a problem? Did that move the needle? Because it did for me. He seems to not be considering what is best for America at any point, just what is best for himself and Trump. At least to me.
The second thing that bothers me is why lie about it? Because he did lie. And it wasn’t one phone call. Going from memory wasn’t it around five phone calls in one day? Seems like you’d remember something like that.
Yeah I remember. Mueller and the leaks from James Baker or Clapper told us that he discussed the sanctions. The Flynn-Kislyak transcript barely discusses sanctions. It's mentioned only once by Kislyak.
I still stand by my statements that there is nothing wrong with Flynn discussing sanctions with Kislyak since Flynn was the incoming National Security Advisor.
Mueller report: "With respect to the sanctions, Flynn requested that Russia not escalate the situation, not get into a 'tit for tat,' and only respond to the sanctions in a reciprocal manner."
That was a lie. The request was over expulsions.
You do realize that the screenshot you posted above shows them talking about EXPULSIONS right? How can you defend charging someone for false statements when he didn't even say what Mueller claimed?
Thats McFarland's interpretation of what Flynn meant. We can all see from the transcript that Flynn said expulsion.
If you are sure there are many other examples of where he admitted to it then cite the proof.
Thats not correct. According to the transcript, Flynn didn't want Russia to expell more Americans than the number of Russians that Obama expelled.
Flynn probably talked to Kislyak for about 4 minutes. I'm guessing as the incoming National Security Advisor he probably had about 1000 calls between the call on 12/29 and the FBI interview on January 24th.
If you had a job with that many phone calls do you think you would remember exactly what you said a month ago?
The were talking about Islamic extremism/terrorism.
If you still think he's a traitor after seeing the transcript, you should probably stop reading stuff from Lawfare. Comey's buddy runs Lawfare and their founder admitted they looked bad after the Nunes memo was proven to be true.
Intel Community Blog Founder Admits Nunes Was Right About Spygate
"A lot of us look bad right now," said Lawfare co-founder Bobby Chesney in a podcast published Thursday.thefederalist.com
The answer is that I do have a job that requires that many calls (well, probably not 1,000/month, but perhaps half that number), and yes, I would remember that discussion down to the finest details. The topic of sanctions / expulsions wasn't an aside, or an exchange of pleasantries. It was a big deal. It required numerous calls, texts, email exchanges and other coordination with the transition team at Mar-a-Lago. If you look at the transcript, it's really obvious that it's the most important thing to Flynn. He's operating as the transition team's point person for dealings with a major foreign power and he is discussing major issues of foreign policy. He repeats numerous times that he wants to avoid escalating the situation. Then, according to McFarland, his text summary of the call deliberately excluded mentioning sanctions because he was concerned about undermining Obama's foreign policy (his behavior suggests his primary concern was getting caught doing so). Flynn omitted the sanctions from his text not because he forgot about them, but because he didn't want to put in writing what he discussed.Flynn probably talked to Kislyak for about 4 minutes. I'm guessing as the incoming National Security Advisor he probably had about 1000 calls between the call on 12/29 and the FBI interview on January 24th.
If you had a job with that many phone calls do you think you would remember exactly what you said a month ago?
I used a Lawfare link because it had a clean copy of the Flynn transcripts; there was no analysis in the link I cited, as I recall. Your suggestion that I'm biased / brainwashed is a distraction.If you still think he's a traitor after seeing the transcript, you should probably stop reading stuff from Lawfare. Comey's buddy runs Lawfare and their founder admitted they looked bad after the Nunes memo was proven to be true.