THE WHITE HOUSE PLAN AGAINST FORMER GENERAL, MIKE FLYNN

…President Trump and how much of the nation should think of him

 

For a president that will instantly drop his loyalty to anyone, why does Trump keep defending Mike Flynn?

 

It is appearing that the White House lawyers are very concerned that the former National Security Adviser and former 3 star general, Mike Flynn is cooperating with the Special Counsel’s Russian collusion investigation.

 

The White House has now taken a warning shot at Flynn by implying that they plan to label him a “liar” who can't be trusted if he makes claims against the president.  Since he has already pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI and vice president Trump, they feel this label will stick with public opinion.

 

The strategy isn't really very shocking and Trump has already previewed it with a tweet, while his personal lawyers have hinted in this direction as well.  So, even though Trump has been recorded over the months saying only nice things about General Flynn, we all know that his loyalty to anyone can change at the drop of a hat.   And in this case, it is crystal-clear that Trump's loyalty to his former national security adviser is far from solid.

When Trump had to announce that General was fired, he was very supportive of Mike Flynn.  This was Trump’s statement:  “I had to fire General Flynn because he lied to the Vice President and the FBI. He has pled guilty to those lies. It is a shame because his actions during the transition were lawful. There was nothing to hide!”

 

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 2, 2017

 

But if there is one big hole in this latest strategy, it's precisely that: “Trump's demonstrated loyalty over the past 2 years.”

 

Even the mainstream media has put together a collage of video’s showing how often Trump said positive things about Flynn, and other than the one tweet, he has never said a negative thing against the General.  But of course the worry is that Flynn was probably the closest individual to the campaign from the first day that Trump came down the golden escalator in Trump Towers to announce he was running.  During all that long campaign, if anyone was a witness to what Trump did, or didn’t do, legal or not, it was probably the General.  And with both the General and his son, who was Flynn’s Chief of Staff, both cooperating with Robert Mueller’s investigation, there is serious reasons for the White House to be worried.  

 

 

Therefore, we see the aforementioned strategy.

 

Here's a quick recap of the Flynn timeline:

 

·       Flynn informed White House counsel Don McGahn on Jan. 4 that he was under investigation for secretly working as a paid lobbyist for the Turkish government.

 

·       Then-acting attorney general Sally Yates informed McGahn on Jan. 26 that Flynn had misrepresented his contacts with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak to the White House, by saying the two of them didn't discuss sanctions, which they did.

 

·       Then-Press Secretary Sean Spicer said McGahn shared this information with Trump “immediately.” Despite this, Flynn would again deny having discussed sanctions with Kislyak in an interview with The Post on Feb. 8.

 

·       Flynn in March belatedly disclosed fees and expenses paid to him by Russia-related entities, including travel paid for by Russian government-backed television station RT.

 

After the first two issues, Trump then asked for leniency for Flynn from FBI Director James B. Comey during a Feb. 14 meeting, according to Comey's contemporaneous notes. (Of course, Trump recently denied this.)  Then in late March he tried to get CIA Director Mike Pompeo and Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats to intervene with the FBI,

 

The issue is that President Trump has a long history of defending his former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

 

As examples, Trump has also gone to bat for Flynn's character publicly. As has been reported, Trump called Flynn a “wonderful man” after firing him in February. Trump said earlier last month that what prosecutors did to Flynn was “very unfair” and that he had “led a very strong life.” He told NBC News in May that Flynn was a “very good person.” He tweeted in March that Flynn should ask for immunity because the investigation was a “witch hunt.” And he has told aides repeatedly that he regretted firing Flynn.

 

This is a problem for the White House lawyers.  None of this sounds like a president who thinks Flynn lacks credibility or proper character.  Instead, Trump has repeatedly testified in the court of public opinion in support of Flynn's character.  And he has done so even after learning about many of his alleged misdeeds.  As recently as last month, when Flynn cut a deal with special counsel Robert Mueller's investigators, Trump played down the allegations against Flynn.

Trump's past comments and tweets could come back to bite him during legal proceedings. Any effort to impugn Flynn's character could easily be undercut by Trump's repeated public defenses of that very same person’s character.

 

The question is, for a president than can instantly drop his loyalty, why has Trump kept defending Flynn? If he didn't truly think Flynn was a person of solid character, what's the alternative?

 

That's the scariest prospect for the White House lawyers.  Could it be that Flynn really does have bad "goods" on the president? 

Flynn has made it clear that he will cooperate with the Mueller group to keep both himself and his son out of jail.  For a father to protect himself and his family, perhaps there’s a good reason that Trump never says anything against the former General.  And the White House lawyers will need to take care in how far they intend to go if they are going to frame the former General as a “liar”.

 

Copyright G.Ater  2017