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Okay, so we know Michael Flynn has entered a guilty plea for lying to the FBI and it spells bad news for Trump. The commander in chief has been very active on Twitter this week –maybe because he knew all of this was coming.
Got it.
*Deep breath*
But in the wake of Flynn's plea and some of the revelations to come out of it, many are starting to look at at a few tweets from December 2016 – while Barack Obama was still president – in a whole new light.
According to the "Statement of the Offense" against Flynn, On December 28, 2016, the day Obama signed an executive order leveling new sanctions on Russia for interfering in the U.S. election, Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak placed a call to Flynn.
That same day, Trump delivered this tweet.
Doing my best to disregard the many inflammatory President O statements and roadblocks.Thought it was going to be a smooth transition - NOT!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 28, 2016
The next day, December 29, 2016, Flynn called an unnamed "senior official" with the "Presidential Transition Team" who was with other senior members of the team at Mar-A-Lago, and discussed what Flynn should talk about with Russian ambassador. The Washington Post reported Friday afternoon one of those officials was Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner.
In case you're wondering, yes, Trump was definitely at Mar-A-Lago between Christmas and New Year's Eve 2016.
After the call, Flynn called Kislyak and, according to the document, "requested that Russia not escalate the situation and only respond to the U.S. Sanctions in a reciprocal manner."
The next day, December 30, 2016, Putin announced he wouldn't issue any reprisals for the sanctions. That afternoon, Trump sent a tweet praising Putin.
Great move on delay (by V. Putin) - I always knew he was very smart!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 30, 2016
And, then, on December 31, 2016, Kislyak called Flynn to tell him that, yep, Putin played it cool at Flynn's (and the Trump team's) request.
About a month later, on January 24, 2017, Flynn lied about the conversation to government investigators, hence Friday's guilty plea.
The Statement of the Offense doesn't name a specific person and, therefore, even though this now connects the Russia case to Trump's inner circle, Trump still has plausible deniability.
For now, anyway.
ABC News' Brian Ross reported Friday that Flynn is willing to testify that, when he was a candidate, Trump directed him to make contact with the Russians, which would be a bombshell if it's confirmed to be true.
Flynn is cooperating with Mueller's team, so it makes sense that they know who Flynn spoke to and who else knew about the conversation. Either way, what Flynn has admitted to appears to be, among other things, a violation of the Logan Act. The Logan Act forbids unauthorized citizens from negotiating with foreign governments on behalf of the United States.
The tweets themselves are not ironclad proof of Trump’s involvement. But, if Trump knew about Flynn's conversations, here he is cheering a move he advocated for and secured a backdoor deal on, while he was not the sitting president.
And not to get too tinfoil hat here, but it certainly casts tweets like these, sent in the days after Kislyak and Flynn spoke, in an even more sinister light.
Of course Trump would troll his media nemesis and say being pals with Russia is a good thing if he – or someone very close to him, with his blessing – started the whole thing.
It's all pretty suspicious and alarming.
Having a good relationship with Russia is a good thing, not a bad thing. Only "stupid" people, or fools, would think that it is bad! We.....
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 7, 2017
have enough problems around the world without yet another one. When I am President, Russia will respect us far more than they do now and....
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 7, 2017
both countries will, perhaps, work together to solve some of the many great and pressing problems and issues of the WORLD!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 7, 2017
Which, given who we're talking about, is saying something.
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