This isnât a mystery. McGahn knew that Flynn had lied to the FBI, because he knew what everyone in the White House knewâŚthat senior staffers were all in on the call to Kislyak and had actually helped him during the call.
When Yates told him that Flynn told the FBI the same thing he told Pence (based on news reports of what he had told Pence), McGhan obviously knew that Flynn had lied. Because he knew Flynn had done that calls with real time coordination of multiple senior staffers, including the Chief of Staff, Priebus and Wunderkind Kushner. McFarland was sending out emails to everyone discussing the negotiations in some level of detail.
This was not a secret within the White House. If I remember correctly, reporting at or near the time indicated that McGahn seemed completely nonplussed by what Yates was telling him and was instead much more concerned in her telling him the exact details of Flynnâs testimony. I.E., what other people might be on the FBIâs radar.
When the acting AG comes into your office to warn you that your head of the National Security Council is deeply compromised by a foreign power, and just gave false testimony to the FBI, a typical response is âyeah, no big dealâŚbut who else is being questioned?â. Itâs more of the âOH SHITâ variety. But McGahn didnât respond that way, because McGahn already knew all of that.
Also remember that they kept Flynn on for like two weeks AFTER Yatesâs meeting. And even after they let Flynn go, they kept all of his proteges in place on the NSC, even after several of them also get publicly caught up in highly questionable actions.
Thank you, Ms. Sneed.
"An unnamed source described as âfamiliar with the matterâ told CNN that based on McGahnâs conversation with Yates, McGahn told Trump that he believed Flynn had misled the FBI as well as PenceâŚa period during which Vice President Mike Pence and other top administration officials denied that sanctions were discussed."*
Hell yeah Tierney, Pence knew!!! MSM needs to keep driving that point home. If impeachment is achieved, we may be able to get a âtwo-ferââŚ!!!
Cohen-Watnick anyone? This fool and Nunes were conspiring on behalf of the ghost of Flynn (canned, but still scheming). Josh did a backrounder on this yesterday.
Despite his public claims, I donât believe for a minute that Pence was truthful about what Flynn told him.
And I look forward to the day that Mueller unmasks Pence as a lying, conniving, two-faced fraud.
One who was willing â nay, eager â to look America in the face and lie through his hypocritical teeth.
Itâs only a matter of time until this corrupt, holier-than-thou charlatan goes down.
And goes down hard.
Iâm getting a kick this morning out of the stories about Mother Pence and how much she despises Trump. I had a feeling it was like that and it is to laugh.
Mother Pence makes the Church Lady look like a two-dollar whore on Saturday night.
What a boring prude and killjoy she must be in private.
O my god - can you imagine? Any woman who is ok with being called Mother ______ has problems to start with.
hahahahaha
but he lied for Jesus!
At this point, we know that Trump and his gang are world-class dirtbags.
But we know as well that their efforts to undermine Obamaâs foreign policy is on a continuum with Mitchâs and his Rep colleagues efforts to block Obamaâs ability to appoint judges and replace Scalia. The impulse to treat as illegitimate everyone who is not one of them goes back to Bill Clintonâs election, but we got used to it, we sucked it up when Bush v. Gore stole the white house, and on and on it goes.
The progressive wing in American politics has no power - or if it does, a very curious unwillingness to use it! On the other side are people who do not give a flying f**k about compromise, and all that jazz, with whomever âweâ are.
This is the thread that runs through politics since Clinton took office in 1993.
Letâs see, who to believe. Trumpâs lawyer or Sally Yates. Doesnât really seem that hard does it? Lock him (the Asshole-elect) up! Sad.
They all, including Trump and Pence and Sessions and Kushner, knew from the get-go what Flynn and Kislyak talked about. And they had all agreed from the get-go to lie about and deny any contacts or conversations with Russians. It was a quite simple and stupid plan.
Pence was just following his religious creed of Satanism.
Heâs trying to dress like Macron.
Conservative is about conserving power. These are the people in power who want to maintain the status quo. In our case, this is about white guys â mostly older, mostly Christian.
Liberal is about liberating â i.e., giving power to those who do not have it. Progressive = liberal in this country, and refers to a large, eclectic group of women, people of color, young people, the LGBT community, Muslims, most Jews, and pretty much anyone who isnât interested in maintaining the white patriarchyâs vice grip on power.
So of COURSE the progressives have less power. Thatâs the point!
Obama was a MAJOR kick in the nuts for these conservatives. He was smart enough to start the process of empowering those liberals. And the white dickhead push back has been hideous.
Tweet storm today! Stand back!
Without lâintelligence.
Speaking as a lawyer, I would echo the thought that this is simply. Regardless of what Yates did or didnât say about Flynnâs interview with the FBI, McGahn would have left his meeting with her assuming the worstâi.e., that Flynn had lied to the FBI by peddling the same story (no discussion of sanctions) in multiple places. What other assumption could McGahn possibly make, as a competent lawyer. He had to assume the worst and prepare for it.
So, giving him the benefit of merely being professional, McGahn follows his meeting with Yates with a check-in visit to the Boss. He says: âMr. President, through wire taps that will surely be leaked more than they already have, it is about to become clear that the âdidnât discussion sanctionsâ story is a bald faced lie. As that âlieâ unravels in the press, weâre going to face a world of problems, not all of which we can anticipate; nor can we control the story. Flynn has to go. The best face we can put on this steaming pile is that heâs being fired because he lied to the VP.â
Thatâs all straightforward.
I think, emphasize think, the Administrationâs problem here is that Flynnâs âlieâ to the VP was never a lie - it was simply Flynn using the Administrationâs cover story on the VP. In other words, Pence may well not have known much about what was going on - VPs arenât necessarily trusted by the Presidentâs senior advisors (or the President). Moreover, the Philistines around Trump, steeped as some them were in knowing just how âdirtyâ with Russian connections they were, would have every reason not to trust squeaky clean Christian Pence within much of anything about what was really going on with Russia.
Itâs not hard to believe that Flynn and others would have that level of distrust for Pence, and thus would have kept him out of the loop during the late Decembe period when Flynn was reporting to McFarland, and McFarland was emailing numerous senior folks (but Pence isnât on her email, so far) about the dialogue with the Russian ambassador.
McGahn too may have outside the group that was filthy with laundered Russian money and meetings about emails, Wikileaks, etc. McGahn isnât from the Trump organization, and I donât think he was all that active in the campaign (please correct me if Iâm wrong there). So far, I havenât seen his name on the McFarland emails from late December re the Russian dialogue Flynn was running with direction from Kushner.
Would Kushner and Flynn and the folks McFarland was emailing keep the White House Counselâs office in the dark? You bet. Clients frequently donât want to tell their lawyers what they are up to. And if you donât know where McGahnâs loyalties really lie, and how well he will protect the âno discussions of sanctionsâ cover story, you donât bring him inside the circle of folks who know whatâs going on.
So I could totally see a McGahn who (1) wasnât much âread inâ to what was going on with Russia before his meeting with Yates; (2) he leaves that meeting knowing there was a real problem based solely on the wiretapped calls; (3) he assumes Flynn told the FBI whatever he told the VP; (4) Flynn therefore could easily become the target of a criminal probe (lying to the FBI being the door opener); and thus (5) McGahn tells the president "we have a real problem with Flynn, itâs about to get worse, and we need a damage control strategy.
The damage control strategy is: (1) fire Flynn but let him know weâll take care of him; (2) blame it on âlies to the VPâ; (3) get the FBI, whatever itâs doing in re Flynn, to shut that inquiry down before anything else gets divulged, cause itâs gonna look really bad no matter what.
The cover story is then trotted out the media, and Trumpâs task is persuade Comey to let Flynn go since heâs already fired and the poor guyâs long and in many ways distinguished career of service to his country had ended ignominiously.
sounds like somebody needs to be put under oath, see how the story develops then, right now all the dissemblers can spew all the lies they want, and they are taking advantage of the opportunity
this whole episode is depressing for a raft of reasons, an obvious one is how low some will sink for a shot at power, to the point of conspiring against your own country - fuck all of them involved, traitors
if they love the way of life in russia so much, if they want a strong man president so badly, if they want oligarchy to rule the day, and I am including the die hard repube supporters, why the fuck donât they move to russia where this is ready made?