By a very strange coincidence, Mike Pence just created his very own PAC.
Vice President Mike Pence is launching his own PAC — the "Great America Committee" — to aid his own future political interests, including helping Republican candidates ahead of the 2018 midterms.
It’s almost as if Pence is rubbing his hands over the appointment of a special counsel, just itching for the day when he gets to tsk tsk over the sad departure of Donald Trump. But before Mike Pence starts measuring the Oval Office for new, holier drapes, he might want to keep in mind that he’s tangled in this thing up to his snowy white hair.
Michael Flynn told the transition team that he was under investigation as a foreign agent.
Michael T. Flynn told President Trump’s transition team weeks before the inauguration that he was under federal investigation for secretly working as a paid lobbyist for Turkey during the campaign, according to two people familiar with the case.
Mike Pence ran the transition team. White House counsel Don McGahn was briefed directly. And even though Sean Spicer gave a lukewarm response, it’s clear that Trump knew about Flynn’s Turkey connections.
[Spicer] said Flynn’s lawyer had raised the possible filing with the transition team, but Trump’s attorneys responded that it was a personal matter and not something they would consult on.
But Mike Pence just keeps lying about it.
Multiple sources have confirmed that Flynn didn’t hide his paid work for the government of Turkey.
Michael T. Flynn told President Trump’s transition team weeks before the inauguration that he was under federal investigation for secretly working as a paid lobbyist for Turkey during the campaign, according to two people familiar with the case.
Despite this warning, which came about a month after the Justice Department notified Mr. Flynn of the inquiry, Mr. Trump made Mr. Flynn his national security adviser. The job gave Mr. Flynn access to the president and nearly every secret held by American intelligence agencies.
The Trump team was fully aware that Flynn was working for Turkey when he blocked US military action against ISIS.
According to the report, Flynn declined a request from the Obama administration to approve an operation in the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa, effectively delaying the military operation. His reasoning wasn't reported, but Turkey has long opposed U.S. military operations in cooperation with Kurdish forces.
Flynn says he told the transition team. Pence led the transition team. Trump knew. McGhan knew.
And yet …
Vice President Mike Pence is standing by his March claim that he learned about Michael Flynn’s Turkish lobbying work through the media, even as a new report indicates Flynn informed the transition team in January that he was under federal investigation for not properly disclosing the paid work.
Why is Mike Pence sticking to this claim? Probably because in the interval between when Flynn told the transition team and when it leaked that Flynn had told the transition team, Mike Pence was all over the airwaves, feigning shock at Flynn’s foreign agent-ness. This isn’t something about which it’s easy to say “Oh, unregistered foreign agent for a anti-democratic autocrat in Turkey? I completely forgot he told us about that!” It’s also not easy for Pence to explain away all the times he’s gone on television to pretend he didn’t know. So, even though he knew and we know he knew, Mike Pence will continue to pretend like he was the most ignorant man on a team headed by Donald Trump.
But if Pence is thinking of test driving the Resolute Desk over the weekend, he might want to keep in mind that, should Donald Trump be removed, there are really good reasons to send Pence with him. In fact, Pence could always go first—just as the ghost of Spiro Agnew.
If it’s not his unconvincing show of ignorance concerning Mike Flynn, there are still all those emails waiting back in Indiana.
Two Indiana Appeals Court judges took issue with key arguments made by the Pence administration Monday, as it tries to keep an email sent to Gov. Mike Pence secret.
And as everyone knows, there’s nothing more treacherous than email.