General policy is not to link Donald Trump’s tweets, but for this one, there needs to be an exception. Because on Friday morning, Trump used his Twitter trumpet to blare out a complaint, saying, “It now seems the General Flynn was under investigation long before was common knowledge. It would have been impossible for me to know this but, if that was the case, and with me being one of two people who would become president, why was I not told so that I could make a change?”
Yes. Why didn’t anyone do that? Why didn’t someone like President Barack Obama give Trump a warning right after the election?
The warning, which has not been previously reported, came less than 48 hours after the November election when the two sat down for a 90-minute conversation in the Oval Office.
Why didn’t someone like Acting Attorney General Sally Yates warn Trump explicitly “about Michael Flynn’s ties to Russia?” Not that she had to do so, as Flynn was openly flaunting his Kremlin ties.
Or why didn’t Rep. Elijah Cummings send a public letter to Mike Pence all the way back in November of 2016 to “raise questions about the apparent conflicts of interest of the Vice-Chairman of the Presidential Transition Team, retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn.” Maybe a letter that said Flynn was using classified briefings to illegally assist his lobbying efforts for foreign governments?
From the moment Flynn was forced out, Trump has tried to pin him on President Obama by saying that it was the former president who gave Flynn security clearance—while ignoring the fact that Obama is also the one who removed Flynn from his position. And sure, Obama did provide warnings to the Trump campaign against trusting Flynn or hiring him for any official position, but a Trump campaign official has a fantastic excuse—after acknowledging that Obama raised the issue of Flynn, the official claimed the warning seemed like “it was made in jest.” Because don’t hire this guy, he’s untrustworthy, has been acting as a foreign agent, and has connections to the Russian government is a real knee-slapper.
The truth is that Trump was warned, but those warnings came from Obama and Yates. Why couldn’t Trump have been warned by someone he trusted? Someone like … Michael Flynn, who “told President Trump’s transition team weeks before the inauguration that he was under federal investigation.”
As The New York Times reported in May 2017, Flynn disclosed the fact that he was under investigation on January 4, 2017, weeks ahead of his selection. And he backed up that warning with another two days later in which Flynn talked over his position with lawyers from Trump’s transition team.
Everyone was aware that Flynn was under investigation before Trump appointed him. And everyone was aware of Flynn’s illegal foreign lobbying. They were even told that Flynn needed to register as a foreign agent before he was appointed as the NSA.
And a few people even noticed that Flynn flew to Moscow in 2016 to join Vladimir Putin at a table and give him a standing ovation. They also noticed that Flynn was paid by Russian state media to make that visit and spout pro-Russian propaganda.
But of course, Flynn had his supporters, and those fans were people Trump really counted on for their support.