More Opaque 'Transparency' In Govenrnment'
'Before we begin, just let me make it absolutly 'clear', just as 'clear', and 'transparent' as I have 'always' been, that I'm as surprised, and even flabergasted about this turn of events concerning my more than qualified national Security Advisor Michael Flynn, as You my fellow obediant Americans are. I mean, What a 'surprise'! Wow! Didn't see it coming! Bet you didn't either. Blindsided! Hit from behind! Crazy! Who would'a 'thought'!? How do these crazy things happen just when 'everything' else is running so 'smoothly'? I just don't see how I could have Ever guessed that something like This could Ever happen. What was heThinking!? Did he Really think that it was alright to go off on his 'own' without my permission and chat with my BFF's in Russia about national security stuff , and those stupid sanctions that are so unfair to those poor starving Russian people, imposed by Obama? I had 'no' clue. None. 'No' warning at all. I wish someone would have had the guts to step up to the plate, and at least Warn me about what He, Alone, all by Himself, without 'my' knowledge or consent, was up to. How disrespectful of him. And Then for him to have kept it from my VP, according to my VP, and Then to allegedly lie about it! Of course all this is pure conjecture and guesstamating by the "Opposition Party" media who as you can see, is at it again, trying to make me look bad. You know, it's “really a sad thing that he was treated so badly.” So sad. Great guy. Love his dog. I Still 'trust' him though. But, it's Him or Me. He'll be missed. Disgusting "Fake News' media, Will they Ever stop their lying ways!? What's it gonna take to stop them? What? Americans should 'know' that the disgusting media cannot be trusted to tell the truth, not like I, myself, can. How sneaky of them to go behind my Presidential back, and dig up illegal stuff that members of my esteemed, hand picked, vetted by myself, staff, does when I'm not looking, and when I'm busy tweeting out to my billions of fans. I have Millions, and Billions of tweeter fans. No President, not even Lincoln himself, has Ever had as many tweeter fans as I do. Lots of'em! People love to love me. My 'numbers' are un-believeable! You just can't 'believe' how many people love me. Great folks. I even have some mexican fans over 'There'.
But hey, how about these disgusting 'intellience officials' that have hitched their sorry ponies to this flaming "fake news' buggy! What's Really disgusting it that “classified information is illegally given out by ‘intelligence’ like candy. Very un-American!” Can't even trust my Own intelligence guys! What's going On out there? I'm telling you, I'm more concerned about these "leaks" than what Flynn is wrongly accused of. And just for the 'record', my VP, as he will tell you himself, was 'completly' in the dark about this himself. Had no clue either! Disgusting media and my Own intelligence guys! I should have kept my Own private security guys! You just have to wonder about my intelligence guys, who's side are they On? Who are they Really 'working' for? Next thing you know, they're gonna be saying that I 'knew' all about this little caper all along, and was just hoping it would never be discovered. Liars! They'll try to make it look like it's all My fault, and that I authorized Flynn to do a little chit-chat with my BFF's in Russia. Which of 'course' would be a great stretch of Anyones imagination. I mean, who's gonna believe That kind of "Fake News"? Not me, and I'm sure any red blooded American with a lick of republican common sense wont believe it either. Right?
Well, that's about it for today. I know you all have at least one or two insignificant, and probably President bashing questions, so I will Not be answering any of those today, this in keeping with my 'transparency in government' policy.'
Trump slams intel officials, media over Flynn and Russia
By Associated Press
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump slammed intelligence officials and the media Wednesday over what he called “very, very unfair” treatment of his ousted national security adviser Michael Flynn and for “illegally leaked” information about reported contacts between his campaign advisers and Russian officials.
Trump’s comments come amid a new swirl of controversy over his ties to Russia. Flynn was forced to resign this week after misleading Vice President Mike Pence and other Trump aides about his contacts with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S. before the inauguration.
In his first public comments on Flynn’s firing, Trump said it was “really a sad thing that he was treated so badly.” He spoke during a White House news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Late Tuesday, The New York Times reported that U.S. agencies had intercepted phone calls last year between Russian intelligence officials and members of Trump’s 2016 campaign team. Current and former U.S. officials who spoke to the Times anonymously said they found no evidence that the Trump campaign was working with the Russians on hacking or other efforts to influence the election.
Trump didn’t directly address the veracity of the report, but lashed out at what he called the “criminal act” of leaking information. Earlier Wednesday, Trump tweeted that “classified information is illegally given out by ‘intelligence’ like candy. Very un-American!”
The White House has not commented on the report, though officials denied as recently as Tuesday afternoon that campaign advisers had communicated with Russia during the election.
The White House said Flynn was fired not because of his communications with the Russian ambassador, but because he had not been truthful with Pence about the content of those discussions. Flynn maintained for weeks that he had not discussed sanctions in the calls, but later conceded that the topic may have come up.
White House officials said they conducted a thorough review of Flynn’s interactions, including transcripts of calls secretly recorded by U.S. intelligence officials, but found nothing illegal.
Pence, who had vouched for Flynn in a televised interview, is said to have been angry and deeply frustrated.
At the White House Tuesday, press secretary Sean Spicer told reporters: “The evolving and eroding level of trust as a result of this situation and a series of other questionable incidents is what led the president to ask General Flynn for his resignation.”
Flynn, in an interview with The Daily Caller News Foundation, said Monday “there were no lines crossed” in his conversations with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
The explanation of the episode left many questions unanswered, including why Trump didn’t alert Pence to the matter and why Trump allowed Flynn to keep accessing classified information and taking part in the president’s discussions with world leaders up until the day he was fired.
White House officials also struggled to explain why Trump counselor Kellyanne Conway had declared the president retained “full confidence” in Flynn just hours before the adviser had to submit his letter of resignation.
Flynn’s firing heightened questions about the president’s friendly posture toward Russia. Democrats called for investigations into Flynn’s contacts, and Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said Congress needed to know whether he had been acting with direction from the president or others.
Trump initially thought Flynn could survive the controversy, according to a person with direct knowledge of the president’s views, but a pair of explosive stories in The Washington Post in recent days made the situation untenable. As early as last week, he and aides began making contingency plans for Flynn’s dismissal, a senior administration official said. While the president was said to be upset with Flynn, he also expressed anger with other aides for “losing control” of the story and making his young administration look bad.
Pence spokesman Marc Lotter said Pence became aware that he had received “incomplete information” from Flynn only after the first Washington Post report Thursday night. Pence learned about the Justice Department warnings to the White House around the same time.
The officials and others with knowledge of the situation were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and requested anonymity.
Ahead of the Jan. 20 inauguration, Pence and other officials insisted publicly that Flynn had not discussed sanctions in his talks with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. On Jan. 26, Acting Attorney General Sally Yates contacted White House counsel Don McGahn to raise concerns about discrepancies between the public accounting and what intelligence officials knew to be true about the contacts based on routine recordings of communications with foreign officials who are in the U.S.
The Justice Department warned the White House that the inconsistencies would leave the president’s top national security aide vulnerable to blackmail from Russia, according to a person with knowledge of the discussion. The president was informed of the warnings the same day, Spicer said.
Flynn was interviewed by the FBI around the same time, according to a U.S. official who was briefed on the investigation.
McGahn, along with chief of staff Reince Priebus and strategist Steve Bannon, also questioned Flynn multiple times in the ensuing weeks, a White House official said. Top aides also reviewed transcripts of Flynn’s contacts with the ambassador, according to a person with knowledge of the review process.
At the same time, the official said Trump aides began taking steps to put some distance between the president and Flynn. CIA Director Mike Pompeo and retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, a top Flynn aide, started taking part in Trump’s daily security briefings.
———
Associated Press writers Jonathan Lemire, Eric Tucker, Ken Thomas, Jill Colvin, Erica Werner and Catherine Lucey contributed to this report.
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Online: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3461508-Michael-Flynn-Resignation-Letter.html
Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC and Vivian Salama at http://twitter.com/vmsalama
Trump’s comments come amid a new swirl of controversy over his ties to Russia. Flynn was forced to resign this week after misleading Vice President Mike Pence and other Trump aides about his contacts with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S. before the inauguration.
In his first public comments on Flynn’s firing, Trump said it was “really a sad thing that he was treated so badly.” He spoke during a White House news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Late Tuesday, The New York Times reported that U.S. agencies had intercepted phone calls last year between Russian intelligence officials and members of Trump’s 2016 campaign team. Current and former U.S. officials who spoke to the Times anonymously said they found no evidence that the Trump campaign was working with the Russians on hacking or other efforts to influence the election.
Trump didn’t directly address the veracity of the report, but lashed out at what he called the “criminal act” of leaking information. Earlier Wednesday, Trump tweeted that “classified information is illegally given out by ‘intelligence’ like candy. Very un-American!”
The White House has not commented on the report, though officials denied as recently as Tuesday afternoon that campaign advisers had communicated with Russia during the election.
The White House said Flynn was fired not because of his communications with the Russian ambassador, but because he had not been truthful with Pence about the content of those discussions. Flynn maintained for weeks that he had not discussed sanctions in the calls, but later conceded that the topic may have come up.
White House officials said they conducted a thorough review of Flynn’s interactions, including transcripts of calls secretly recorded by U.S. intelligence officials, but found nothing illegal.
Pence, who had vouched for Flynn in a televised interview, is said to have been angry and deeply frustrated.
At the White House Tuesday, press secretary Sean Spicer told reporters: “The evolving and eroding level of trust as a result of this situation and a series of other questionable incidents is what led the president to ask General Flynn for his resignation.”
Flynn, in an interview with The Daily Caller News Foundation, said Monday “there were no lines crossed” in his conversations with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
The explanation of the episode left many questions unanswered, including why Trump didn’t alert Pence to the matter and why Trump allowed Flynn to keep accessing classified information and taking part in the president’s discussions with world leaders up until the day he was fired.
White House officials also struggled to explain why Trump counselor Kellyanne Conway had declared the president retained “full confidence” in Flynn just hours before the adviser had to submit his letter of resignation.
Flynn’s firing heightened questions about the president’s friendly posture toward Russia. Democrats called for investigations into Flynn’s contacts, and Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said Congress needed to know whether he had been acting with direction from the president or others.
Trump initially thought Flynn could survive the controversy, according to a person with direct knowledge of the president’s views, but a pair of explosive stories in The Washington Post in recent days made the situation untenable. As early as last week, he and aides began making contingency plans for Flynn’s dismissal, a senior administration official said. While the president was said to be upset with Flynn, he also expressed anger with other aides for “losing control” of the story and making his young administration look bad.
Pence spokesman Marc Lotter said Pence became aware that he had received “incomplete information” from Flynn only after the first Washington Post report Thursday night. Pence learned about the Justice Department warnings to the White House around the same time.
The officials and others with knowledge of the situation were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and requested anonymity.
Ahead of the Jan. 20 inauguration, Pence and other officials insisted publicly that Flynn had not discussed sanctions in his talks with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. On Jan. 26, Acting Attorney General Sally Yates contacted White House counsel Don McGahn to raise concerns about discrepancies between the public accounting and what intelligence officials knew to be true about the contacts based on routine recordings of communications with foreign officials who are in the U.S.
The Justice Department warned the White House that the inconsistencies would leave the president’s top national security aide vulnerable to blackmail from Russia, according to a person with knowledge of the discussion. The president was informed of the warnings the same day, Spicer said.
Flynn was interviewed by the FBI around the same time, according to a U.S. official who was briefed on the investigation.
McGahn, along with chief of staff Reince Priebus and strategist Steve Bannon, also questioned Flynn multiple times in the ensuing weeks, a White House official said. Top aides also reviewed transcripts of Flynn’s contacts with the ambassador, according to a person with knowledge of the review process.
At the same time, the official said Trump aides began taking steps to put some distance between the president and Flynn. CIA Director Mike Pompeo and retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, a top Flynn aide, started taking part in Trump’s daily security briefings.
———
Associated Press writers Jonathan Lemire, Eric Tucker, Ken Thomas, Jill Colvin, Erica Werner and Catherine Lucey contributed to this report.
———
Online: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3461508-Michael-Flynn-Resignation-Letter.html
Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC and Vivian Salama at http://twitter.com/vmsalama
