Media hysteria over alleged
Russian collusion continues, even as President Donald Trump’s
short-lived national security adviser, Gen. Michael Flynn, pleaded
guilty to lying to the FBI about speaking with Russian officials to
advance Israeli interests.
An indictment released by the office of special prosecutor Robert Mueller says that Flynn spoke with Sergey Kislyak, then-Russian Ambassador to the United States, twice in December, when Trump was president-elect.
According to the court documents, Flynn contacted Kislyak on December 19, 2016, the day after former President Barack Obama signed an executive order imposing sanctions against Russia as punishment for alleged Russian “meddling” in the 2016 US presidential elections.
While various talking heads have claimed that Flynn was working to undermine Obama’s sanctions, the documents only show Flynn asked Russia to “refrain from escalating the situation in response to sanctions that the United States had imposed against Russia.”
Shortly after, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that Moscow would not expel any US diplomats, but rather invite them to the Kremlin for holiday celebrations.
On Friday, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-California), the ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said that Flynn’s guilty plea was “a stunning revelation” that showed the former national security advisor violated the Logan Act
The Logan Act of 1979 calls for the prosecution of any US person who “directly or indirectly commences or carries on any correspondence or intercourse with any foreign government or any officer or agent thereof, in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States, or to defeat the measures of the United States.”
“This shows a Trump associate negotiating with the Russians against US policy and interests before Donald Trump took office and after it was announced that Russia had interfered in our election,” Feinstein said in a statement.
Read more
No comments:
Post a Comment