Did General Flynn call the Russians on his own or was he ordered to call them?

[kentuck]

As the former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, he had to know that his call would probably be monitored? But, would he have thought it OK if ordered by the President to contact the Russians? Is that why he lied to the FBI?

Obviously, it didn't matter to the FBI who ordered him to do it. He lied when questioned about it.

How could so many people in the Trump campaign lie about contact with the Russians? How did it never occur to them that something might be a little shady?? They were all like little sheep.

[emulatorloo]

1. Didn't the court papers say he was encouraged/directed by a unnamed senior official to call?

That is what I recall. There was speculation in the press afterwards that it was Kushner

[uponit7771]

2. yes

[cheyanne]

3. Can I speculate?

I think that certain people (like Bannon, Papadopolus, Page, Flynn, Manafort) were introduced in the campaign by the Russians and accepted by Trump because of his ties to Russia. The channels between the campaign and Putin were established by the time the Republican convention was held. He was already compromised . . .most of the other top people either knew or surmised that he was compromised.

Talking Points Memo has a good article about the sequence of events:


http://talkingpointsmemo.com/

[L. Coyote]

4. Correction: "ordered by candidate Trump"

It does matter who ordered him to do it. That person is also guilty of a felony. That activity was illegal because the person ordering it WASN'T the President.

You also ask the wrong question "How could so many people in the Trump campaign lie about contact with the Russians?

The question is "WHY did so many Trump people lie about contact with the Russians?"

Because, there was illegal collusion with Russia, probably a Trump operation somewhere in Russia doing the hacking, Manafort's troll farm in Russia working on the campaign, and a quid pro quo conspiracy to remove sanctions on Russia so everyone involved could get super rich on Rosneft developing oil fields as arranged by Tillerson and Putin.

[magicarpet]

5. Video Game/Reality Show - win at all costs mind set....

There is no right, there is no wrong, winning is everything.

The more ruthless you play the game the higher your chances that your team wins the prize or the golden trophy.

Fact is you really did not win anything, you just caused irreparable harm and totally trashed the system.

Rocking the system, that system being the foundations of Democracy. They should be ashamed, but they walk away proud for the damage they inflicted by design and full intentions.

There are consequences - they should be made to suffer - and permanently barred from any future involvement in any facet of any government local, state, and/or federal.

Treasonous subversives are not entitled to a heroes welcome nor should they ever be warmly embraced.

[bearsfootball516]

6. Its been made pretty clear through reporting that he was ordered by Kushner

The big question is if Kushner was ordered by Trump, Bannon, or someone else, or if Kushner was the kingpin in this case and purposely kept Trump in the dark in an attempt to protect him.