via Ace:
Highly sought-after summaries and transcripts of intercepted phone calls between former White House National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak contradict key claims made by former Special Counsel Robert Mueller in his criminal case against Flynn. The transcripts were provided to Congress on Friday and obtained by The Federalist. You can read the full documents here and here.
The intercept transcripts and summaries released on Friday afternoon cover calls between Flynn and Russian ambassador Kislyak or his representatives on December 22, 2016; December 23, 2016; December 29, 2016; December 31, 2016; January 12, 2017; and January 19, 2017. The substance of the December 22 conversation remains entirely classified, while the remaining transcripts and conversations are only lightly redacted.
The transcripts, which were declassified by former acting Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Ric Grenell and current DNI John Ratcliffe, were provided to Congress by Ratcliffe, who began working in the position earlier this week following full Senate confirmation of his nomination. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the chairmen of the Homeland Security and Finance committees, respectively, had repeatedly called for the transcripts to be declassified and provided to Congress.
Flynn was charged by Mueller in 2017 with making false statements to federal officials about conversations he had with Kislyak on December 22 and December 29, 2017. According to the charging documents from Mueller, Flynn allegedly falsely claimed to Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) agents that he did not ask Kislyak to “refrain from escalating” in response to U.S. expulsion of Russian diplomats and falsely claimed that he did not ask Kislyak to help defeat an anti-Israel resolution pending before the United Nations at the time. Mueller also claimed that Flynn lied when he said he didn’t remember Kislyak telling him that Russia would “moderate its response” to the expulsions.
The transcript of the December 29 conversation, which was cited by Mueller, does not include a request from Flynn that Russia “refrain from escalating” in response to U.S. expulsions of Russian diplomats. According to the transcript, Flynn asked Kislyak for Russia’s response to be “reciprocal” so that the U.S.–not Russia–would not be forced to escalate beyond the expulsions. The transcript makes clear that Flynn fully expected Russia to respond to the situation by expelling U.S. diplomats in response to the Obama administration’s move to expel nearly three dozen Russian diplomats from the U.S., and that his primary concern was preventing a situation where the U.S. would have to escalate tensions in response to Russia.
“Make it reciprocal,” Flynn reportedly said. “[D]on’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.”
“I really don’t want us to get into a situation where we’re going, you know, where we do this and then you do something bigger, and then you know, everybody’s got to go back and forth and everybody’s got to be the tough guy here, you know?” Flynn continued. “We need cool heads to prevail, and uh, we need to be very steady about what we’re going to do because we have absolutely a common uh, threat in the Middle East right now.”
“We agree,” Kislyak responded.
Later in the conversation, Flynn again used the word “escalate” in reference not to a potential Russian response, but to what he hoped the United States would not have to do in response to Russian actions.
“If you have to do something, do something on a reciprocal basis,” Flynn said. “And, and then, we know that we’re not going to escalate this thing[.]”
Mueller’s operation also conflated discussions of financial sanctions levied against Russian entities and individuals via executive order on December 28, 2016 with the expulsion of Russian diplomats, which were two separate and distinct issues. In fact, the specific executive order cited by Mueller in his charging documents against Flynn pertained only to Treasury-enforced financial sanctions against nine Russian intelligence individuals and institutions, not to the separate expulsions of Russian diplomats, which were enforced by the U.S. State Department. In his remarks announcing the various maneuvers by his administration against Russia, President Obama even noted that sanctions and expulsions were entirely separate issues handled by different agencies and requiring different legal authorities.
“I have issued an executive order that provides additional authority for responding to certain cyber activity that seeks to interfere with or undermine our election processes and institutions, or those of our allies or partners,” Obama said at the time. “Using this new authority, I have sanctioned nine entities and individuals: the GRU and the FSB, two Russian intelligence services; four individual officers of the GRU; and three companies that provided material support to the GRU’s cyber operations.”
“The State Department is also shutting down two Russian compounds, in Maryland and New York, used by Russian personnel for intelligence-related purposes, and is declaring ‘persona non grata’ 35 Russian intelligence operatives.”
The executive order signed by Obama and referenced by Mueller had nothing to do with expulsions of Russian diplomats, which was the topic of Flynn’s conversations with Kislyak.
The transcripts show that while Kislyak obliquely raised the issue of financial sanctions against certain Russian intelligence officials, Flynn himself never discussed the financial sanctions against Russian individuals and entities levied by the Obama administration.
All the more reason the fake news networks to keep their media induced riots front and center for the next week or so.
So Mr Mueller you can tell how accurate someones memory is…fascinating.
Anyone who still cares what is on the boobtube needs meds.
Are we not paying attention? Apparently some of us are not. Are we being deceived? Some of us most certainly are, even though the deception couldn’t be more obvious.
They didn’t declassify the telephone call that immediately preceded the 12/23/2016 followup-call between Flynn and Kislyak, which would have revealed specifically what they were talking about. That call, on page 2 of 7, short as it is, has been blacked out in its entirety.
Apparently no one is supposed to wonder specifically what Flynn suggested, which Kislyak tells him he “reported to Moscow and it was considered at the highest level, in Russia”. The “highest level in Russia” could be no one other than Vladimir Putin.
Want to guess what that proposition was? It will be the same thing that Flynn lied to the FBI about. And Flynn was only the messenger, unless he was acting without the knowledge of his boss, which there’s no way in hell he would have been doing. He was conducting a foreign policy negotiation on behalf of the guy who was not yet President with the messenger boy relaying it directly to Vladimir Putin.
That would clearly be illegal. That would also constitute a conspiracy to circumvent and undermine the policy of the then-current President of the United States, Barack Obama.
The meme now will be “we released the transcript”. No matter that they have withheld the one critical part of it that made sense of all the rest.
@Greg: The Logan act not only never tried in a court, isnt what Flynn was charged with, you know exactly what was redacted, ya sure you do commie boy, Flynns offer if any were offered wouldnt have standing and would not be redacted by the FBI wanting to stick Flynn with anything cause they had nothing, not even a lie.
You just make shit up and agree with idiot nonsensical speculations of conspiracy theorists like admitted liar Wretched Madcow.
Tell us did you get this from a reliable source or from someone close to the investigation? Both tell tale phrases of fake news, hey the walls are closing in or what ever shared phrase they agree on todays 24 hour opinion cycle.
Greggie why arent the media worried about the looters not wearing masks while shopping? Bet theres gonna be a big spike in covid cases in Democrat riot towns.
@kitt, #4:
The source? That deduction is based entirely on the material that White House just declassified and released. They declassified everything but the proposal itself, which Kislyak states he presented on Flynn’s behalf to the highest level in Russia for consideration.
Given that Flynn and Kislyak are most likely not capable of reading one another’s minds, it can be deduced that the subject of Flynn’s proposal was revealed in the telephone conversation which immediately preceded the follow-up call, which was clearly identified as a follow-up call.
It’s also entirely reasonable to assume that Flynn didn’t take it upon himself to forward a proposal through the Russian ambassador to Vladimir Putin without the knowledge of someone higher up in the Trump organization. What other “authority” could Flynn possibly have had that would have been taken seriously enough by the top dog in the Russian Federation to influence Russian state policy? There was none.
Should we instead believe that Flynn took this upon himself as the undisclosed agent of a foreign power? That would be the only other alternative.
@Greg:
greggie the rock loses again! It is only the mind of greggie the rock who uses his deductions instead of an actual fact taken from the transcript How many times does greggie the rock need to be wrong before he gives up?
@Greg: I know Flynn disagreed with funding terrorism with cash infused into Iran, against the express policies of the previous or out going administration.
For him to begin laying the diplomatic ground work for the incoming administration, trying to mend the fences intentionally broken. That isnt illegal nor unusual.
We know Crowdstrike testified that they saw no evidence of Russia hacking, not any.
https://justthenews.com/government/courts-law/newly-released-docs-suggest-crowdstrike-unsure-if-fbi-confirmed-russians
Just it was taken, most likely by an insider on a thumb drive.
Just cant get it through your rock head that not everyone wants to F-over the country like the democrat party.
@kitt, #7:
And yet they won’t declassify any part of the short 12/23/16 telephone conversation that would reveal exactly what proposal was conveyed to Vladimir Putin by way of Sergey Kislyak…
The entire point of this little two-bit deception is so they can publicly claim that they have released the transcripts, when in fact they have withheld the one bit of information that would reveal what the entire conversation was about. In all probability that’s because there was nothing legal or usual about it.
The same rule applies here as has applied time and again with regard to many serious questions about the Trump administration: Innocent people do not take great pains to hide all proof of their innocence. To think that they routinely do so defies logic.
@Greg: Just face it greggie the rock, you are a loser You would have nothing at all to grasp now that the left has out lawed plastic straws. Go back and look at what the charges were. Then see how dumb your post really is.
@Randy:
That’s because all Comrade Greggie is the suppositions of his far left handlers and blogs like LawFare.
Comrade Greggie must be referring to Obama exercising Executive Privilege to withhold 1,300 documents on Fast and Furious.
How much do you think someone gets paid to write the crap Comrade Greggie writes?
@retire05, #10:
Either show me which facts I have wrong in my simple analysis, or show me the faulty logic behind what I’ve deduced from them. If you can’t do that, you’re just pointlessly flapping your lips.
@Greg:
That’s pretty laughable, Comrade Greggie. You can’t (won’t) even answer a very simple question but instead, refer me to Google.
I can’t show faulty logic when no logic exists.
Shouldn’t you be out with your Antifa friends throwing matches and tearing shit up?
@Greg:
So you think it was the policy of the Liar in Chief, Barack Failure Obama, to get Russia to impose heavier sanctions against the United States? Because that is all Gen. Flynn was discussing: DON’T ramp up the tensions, take your medicine like a man. The Trump administration didn’t want to suffer for Obama’s lack of preparedness for Russian interference which prompted him to pretend to be a tough guy.
Aren’t you a little bit tired yet of having released documents repeatedly kick you in the nuts? EVERY ONE has blown up in your face.
@kitt: Love how this band of weasels will make a declarative statement about something then, ten seconds later when pressed for more information, they totally reverse themselves and admit they don’t know a damned thing.
@retire05:
That’s what I figured. You’ve got nothing. There’s nothing rational about anything you think or say. All you’ve got is attitude, resentment, and anger. Unfortunately that’s fairly typical among Trump supporters who imagine themselves to be patriotic traditional conservatives, and those are Trump’s favorite buttons to push.
@Greg:greggie the rock. you are only allowed 3 strikes and then the umpire must send you back to the bench. Good bye!
@Greg: Cmon, calm down. Don’t get upset just because your sure-thing coup has fallen completely apart because the reliance on keeping the evidence secret collapsed.
@Greg:
How did Obama learn of the Flynn transcript, how did he acquire it, and did he give instructions to the FBI that prolonged the investigation of Flynn?