WaPo Editorial Board: The absurd cynicism of 'Obamagate'

[Eugene]

Source: Washington Post

The absurd cynicism of ‘Obamagate’

By Editorial Board
May 16, 2020 at 8:00 a.m. EDT

IN THE 2016 presidential race, then-candidate Donald Trump often deflected questions about his shortcomings by hyping those of his opponent, Hillary Clinton. The point was to make his behavior seem no more abhorrent than his rival’s.

Mr. Trump is trying the same tactic against presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden, latching onto a new diversion: “Obamagate.” This one is totally untethered from reality, despite the credulous or cynical efforts of senior Republicans and conservative media to advance it.

Mr. Trump’s precise allegation is hazy. But the apparent accusation is that, following Mr. Trump’s 2016 victory, Obama officials plotted to ensnare the incoming Trump administration in a Russia scandal.

Shortly before Mr. Trump’s inauguration, top Obama officials were told about phone conversations between Michael Flynn, a senior Trump national security aide, and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. In one, Mr. Flynn discussed sanctions the Obama administration had placed on Russia in response to Kremlin election interference. Mr. Flynn counseled Mr. Kislyak to refrain from retaliating, telling him that “we’ll review everything,” according to Mr. Flynn’s own account.

Obama aides asked that Mr. Flynn’s name be “unmasked” — that is, revealed to those seeing the intelligence reports, as it was redacted in the initial versions. That is not unusual; Trump administration officials have unmasked names thousands of times. Meanwhile, FBI officials kept open their investigation into Mr. Flynn, and he subsequently lied to them about his conversations with Mr. Kislyak — a federal crime to which he pleaded guilty.

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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-absurd-cynicism-of-obamagate/2020/05/15/03464e0a-96ea-11ea-9f5e-56d8239bf9ad_story.html

[karynnj]

1. The 4th paragraph leads to ambiguity that did not exist

It says the Obama team were told of conversations between Flynn and the ambassador. In fact it was the ambassador and a masked American. When unmasked, it was found it was Flynn.

Consider many on the right call for unmasking long lists of prominent Democrats. They ignore that they first must first appear masked in an intelligence report turned in because something they did with a foreign country caused concern to our intelligence. Clearly that has not happened. Can you imagine if Trump REALLY had proof of that, they would already not have been investigated, publicly disclosed?

Then to get to where Flynn is, they would have to lie to the FBI. I doubt any on there list would.