Key Issue in Flynn Plea Deal
The key question out of the
Flynn plea agreement is the identity of the person referenced as a “senior official of the Presidential Transition Team” and another termed a “very senior member of the Presidential Transition Team”.
The plea deal has Flynn discussing his contacts with Russian Ambassador Kislyak with the first person (“senior official”) and then the second person (“very senior member”) giving him specific direction to Flynn to contact foreign governments, including Russia, about a UN resolution tied to Israel. This is what is behind the headlines about Flynn getting instructions from senior transition officials about his contacts with foreign governments.
The first point to note is that Flynn was the person running the Trump foreign policy operation. That is what a modern National Security Advisor does. From everything we know, it’s what Flynn was doing in the latter months of the campaign and certainly during the transition. In other words, it’s not clear that there was anyone in the campaign who outranked Flynn on foreign policy matters. Other than the President-Elect or conceivably the Vice President-Elect, Flynn is the guy who would
do the directing rather than getting direction.
The ‘very’ in “very senior member” seems like an almost over the top effort to convey just who it was the prosecutors are talking about. It’s hard to see that that is not either Pence or President Trump, though it also strikes me as perhaps a bit too coy to refer to the incoming President as a member of transition team.
Key Issue in Flynn Plea Deal
As Deep Throat said during WaterGate ~ Everyone is involved