President Trump today set the political pundit circuits afire when he gave a cryptic answer to a question from a reporter about a potential pardon for disgraced National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, who has plead guilty to lying to the FBI and has agreed to cooperate with Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation in order to secure leniency for his son.
“I don’t want to talk about pardons for Michael Flynn yet. We’ll see what happens. Let’s see” said Trump, perpetually unwilling to give a straight answer as he and his team of bumbling idiots try to keep all their options open – or perhaps Trump, a creature of cable television, simply enjoys leaving cliffhangers.
President Trump won't rule out Michael Flynn pardon: "We'll see what happens" https://t.co/YHC01Ujx8e pic.twitter.com/EIyI7SyRgu
— TIME (@TIME) December 15, 2017
The situation is made even murkier because it’s not even clear if Flynn would be willing to accept a pardon, which would leave him and his very guilty son vulnerable to state-level charges, which are not affected by federal pardons, or if Donald Trump understands how pardons work entirely.
Flynn was forced to resign as National Security Advisor in February when it was revealed that he lied to the FBI about conducting secret communications with Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak concerning the lifting of the Obama Administration’s sanctions on the Russian Federation shortly after the election.
These communications were in violation of the Logan Act, since Flynn was still a private citizen and not a representative of the US government at the time.
Since then, it has been revealed that Flynn had been operating as a paid lobbyist for the government of Turkish dictator Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who wanted Flynn’s help in a bizarre scheme to kidnap and smuggle Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen from his home in Pennsylvania back to Turkey.
Flynn also received nearly $40,000 in 2015 from the Russian government as payment for appearing at a 2015 party for the Kremlin’s state-run media outlet, RT. He was seated at the dinner right next to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, the mastermind behind both the hacking campaign against the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton campaign and the disinformation propaganda campaign against the Democratic nominee.
Acting Attorney General Sally Yates warned the White House in January that Flynn was under the threat of potential blackmail by the Russians over those secret communications. When that warning leaked to the press, Flynn was forced to resign in disgrace.
No matter how Trump tries to spin it, Flynn’s goose is cooked – and he’s taking the President down with him.
