Former National Security Advisor and Longtime Traitor Mike Flynn, who will definitely not be forgetting Russia anytime soon
Somehow there is so much going on right now that it didn't even occur to me to mention it when I made my weekly post about the stories I'm following. Part of it is that it feel to me like it's in a holding pattern until May 8th, when Former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates, who knows where many of the bones were buried (she was fired, in part, because she was trying to warn the Trump team about Mike Flynn's relationship with Russian), is set to testify and I don't expect that much to happen between now and then. However, there were a couple of signs today that the story isn't going away soon.
You know how I know? Because the New York Times told me so:
The Flynn Story Isn’t Going Away
Michael Flynn, President Trump’s former national security adviser, was fired weeks ago, but his ties to Russia keep raising questions this White House won’t answer and dark suspicions it can’t seem to dispel.
Representative Jason Chaffetz, Republican chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and Elijah Cummings, the committee’s top Democrat, got right to the point on Tuesday, saying Mr. Flynn may have broken the law by failing to disclose payments totaling over $65,000 in 2015 from companies linked to Russia. They included $45,000 received from Russian state television for a speech in Moscow; on the same trip, he attended the network’s gala, sitting at the elbow of President Vladimir Putin. With his background, Mr. Flynn clearly knew that the failure to disclose payments on his security clearance forms could have disqualified him for a sensitive national security role.
Mr. Chaffetz also said Mr. Flynn, as a retired general and former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, should have sought permission from the secretary of state and the secretary of the Army for his trip to Russia and for the payment. “I see no evidence that he actually did that,” Mr. Chaffetz said at a news conference on Capitol Hill.
Mr. Cummings said that the White House is stonewalling committee requests for documents related to Mr. Flynn’s hiring and firing, including records of his phone calls and correspondence. Mr. Chaffetz, amazingly, described the White House as “cooperative.” Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, later called the committee’s records requests “outlandish” and “ridiculous.” Which can hardly be called cooperative.
The fact remains, though, that a Republican committee chairman has said Mr. Trump’s first national security adviser concealed payments from Russia while Moscow was under investigation for meddling in the election, and that deepens an already serious problem for this White House.
Time Magazine, too:
The Investigations Into Russia and the Trump Campaign Aren't Dying Down
An FBI investigation and congressional probes into the Trump campaign and contacts with Russia continue to shadow the administration, each new development a focus of White House press briefings and attention on Capitol Hill.
President Donald Trump has dismissed the story as "fake news" and raised allegations of politically inspired spying by the Obama administration, but the investigations show no sign of abating anytime soon.
Not too subtle.
There really isn't a whole lot of news in either of these stories, but it's good to see that I don't have to cover all of the news all of the time! Every now and then the Times fills in for me.
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