WaPo bombshell: Sally Yates warned Trump that Flynn was likely compromised by Russia. She was fired

[kpete]

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/justice-department-warned-white-house-that-flynn-could-be-vulnerable-to-russian-blackmail-officials-say/2017/02/13/fc5dab88-f228-11e6-8d72-263470bf0401_story.html?utm_term=.83207cf172e4

[leftstreet]

1. OMG. Doesn't she know Trump had huge Electoral Win?!

DURec

Very interesting!

[jmg257]

2. Yep - she was all over it.

Intelligence analysts began to search for clues that could help explain Putin’s move. The search turned up Kislyak’s communications, which the FBI routinely monitors, and the phone call in question with Flynn, a retired Army lieutenant general with years of intelligence experience.

From that call and subsequent intercepts, FBI agents wrote a secret report summarizing ­Flynn’s discussions with Kislyak.

Yates, then the deputy attorney general, considered Flynn’s comments in the intercepted call to be “highly significant” and “potentially illegal,” according to an official familiar with her thinking.
Yates and other intelligence officials suspected that Flynn could be in violation of an obscure U.S. statute known as the Logan Act, which bars U.S. citizens from interfering in diplomatic disputes with another country.

At the same time, Yates and other law enforcement officials knew there was little chance of bringing against Flynn a case related to the Logan Act, a statute that has never been used in a prosecution. In addition to the legal and political hurdles, Yates and other officials were aware of an FBI investigation looking at possible contacts between Trump associates and Russia, which now included the Flynn-Kislyak communications.

[regnaD kciN]

26. So, let me get this straight...

Our head of National Security, with "years of intelligence experience," thought nothing of holding conversations that violated federal law on a non-secure phone line???

[unc70]

29. Rep Shiff indicated some calls were encrypted

[jmg257]

30. And then lied about it cause he didn't think anyone would find out?? 'Intelligence' my ass.

[Chasstev365]

3. Oh, God Dam, how can this shit show continue?

Trump, Bannon, Flynn, and Pence need to step down, but instead the band plays on..... .

[Ilsa]

6. GOP is complicit. They won't do anything. nt

[BadgerMom]

10. Courts?

Can criminal charges be brought? Is there any jurisdiction besides Congress?

[regnaD kciN]

27. Not for the president...

That whole issue came up during Watergate. You can't bring criminal charges against a sitting president until after he has left office. That's why the grand jury designated Nixon as an "unindicted co-conspirator" rather than indicting him on the same charges his staffers had to face.

[BadgerMom]

31. Thank you

[workinclasszero]

20. Those traitors better start singing

before it's too late!

[uponit7771]

22. +1, "He She said nothing" should be the reason why every KGOPr is voted out of office

[Xipe Totec]

4. Red Man Walking! nt

[5X]

5. they are going to make flynn the fall guy

and hope it all goes away, but just like watergate, it will go further.

[Mr.Bill]

14. They don't even know the fundamentals.

The cover-up is always worse than the initial act.

[regnaD kciN]

28. They've only been in office three weeks...

...they haven't even had time to put together a cover-up.

Also, I question that oft-repeated adage. It was true during Nixon's downfall, but there are plenty of cases where the initial act is bad enough (treason, for example) that a cover-up only extends the initial evil, but doesn't exceed it.

[uponit7771]

23. +1, "Flynn did it" will be their fall back excuse to everything. Flynn will end up missing & the M$M

... will be distracted by Benedict Donald taking a crap on the Oval Office rug during a prime time press conference.

Any of the M$M who trust anything that comes out of MiniPootins admin mouths is colluding at this point

[Elwood P Dowd]

7. If this were a Dem administration, the firing squad would already

be selected and practicing.

[Cosmocat]

9. Yep

nm

[uponit7771]

24. +1, 1343 investigations for emails... I even read they investigated Carter for ties to his Peanut...

... Business !!!

WTF ?!!

Benedict Donald's son admitted to already having big business ties to Russia !!!!!

[Girard442]

8. Imagine a reality where Putin had an iron grip on the White House.

It would look different than our reality...how?

[ecstatic]

11. Lock the whole damn team up

All of them. Including Ivanka. And throw away the fucking key 🔑. Flynn is still lying, even in his pathetic resignation letter.

[wildeyed]

12. Everyone said at the time, 'Is this like when Nixon fired his AG?'

That was one of the many reasons Trump's action was so horrifying and inappropriate. There was much talk about whether it was the beginning of the end.

[AgadorSparticus]

13. Oh. Wow. I just want the TRUTH. And if that means taking down the entire cabal in the WH

AND the entire GOP, then so be it. But nothing less. I want accountability!!

[progressoid]

15. Sorry but this shit pisses me off.

So the FBI knows about this and does nothing!? Something stinks to high heaven.

[Blue_true]

17. The FBI would have developed the information

For the Justice Department. Something is going on, I doubt that the CIA is sitting idle on this, Trump's flunky that head the CIA won't be able to stop the leaks if an official inquiry doesn't happen.

[uponit7771]

25. +1, and the NY office had been investigated during the 80s for harboring a traitor IIRC

[dchill]

16. K&R.

[dchill]

18. Kick.

[calimary]

19. Molly Knight had another great tweet:

Last edited Tue Feb 14, 2017, 05:22 AM - Edit history (1)

about three hours ago, as of this writing

Molly Knight ‏@molly_knight 3h3 hours ago
More
.@realDonaldTrump You knew.

And shortly after that:

Molly Knight ‏@molly_knight 3h3 hours ago
More
Somebody please just get ahold of Trump's tax returns and end this.

Daaaaaaaaaayyyuuuuuuuuummmmmmmmmmm...

I made a note for myself the other day:

2/8/17
"High crimes & misdemeanors" - first mention. By Congressman Cedric Richmond, D-LA. He said it twice. I believe it was during an interview on Chris Hayes's show on MSNBC.

Just seemed significant to me in the timeline of all this. "Stick a pin in that one," as Rachel Maddow would say.

Then, this, tonight, 2/13/17 - with Brian Williams on, late, with guests the brilliant former national security specialist Malcolm Nance on the phone and former intelligence agent Naveed Jamali in studio. NOW, we have the first mention of "what did the president know and when did he know it?" And that question was mentioned several times over the ensuing hour. Stick a pin in that one, too.

I just felt like it needed to be noted, formally, as this timeline-de-trump starts circling the drain. I never watch the news anymore without a notebook and pen at the ready. As some DUers have aptly put it: "shit just got real."

I cannot tell you, as one of the - I suppose it'd be called - elders here, what kind of deja vu I'm feeling right now. I remember back when the first time that MOST uncomfortable question was uttered - by the late Senator Howard Baker (of a now-extinct species: the moderate and truly patriotic-about-country-before-party or politics or partisanship) asked it during the Watergate hearings. "What did the president know and when did he know it?" That was a humdinger of a moment, gotta tell ya. Even back then, way young and still only starting to wake up about things, I knew that this meant something pretty doggone big. When it comes to that, when they start asking that, MAN, there will be heads rolling down the White House grounds - in WAY plenty enough time to clean things up for the White House Easter Egg Roll.

I can't believe this is happening again. I can't believe somebody's started asking that question - out loud.

[bettyellen]

21. They've know for weeks that he was compromised and were okay with that- which makes them compromised