"The Other Bombshell in Flynn Story: Contacts with Russia during the campaign" [View all]

[kpete]

News stories and headlines overnight are focused on the revelation that Michael Flynn discussed sanctions with Russia’s Ambassador in December phone calls, which flatly contradicts what Vice President Pence, White House Spokesman Sean Spicer, and Flynn himself had previously publicly asserted. The story, broken by Greg Miller, Adam Entous and Ellen Nakashima at the Washington Post, contains a potentially even more explosive revelation: Russian contacts with Donald Trump’s inner circle during the presidential campaign, an allegation that the Trump administration has also previously categorically denied.

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III. The New Revelations

Last night’s Washington Post story itself is primarily focused on Flynn’s December phone calls. Nonetheless, the Post also states, in passing: “The talks were part of a series of contacts between Flynn and (Ambassador] Kislyak that began before the Nov. 8 election and continued during the transition, officials said.”

The Post notes that Vice President Pence made two assertions—one dealing with the December calls and the other “a more sweeping assertion, saying there had been no contact between members of Trump’s team and Russia during the campaign.” The Post then writes:

Neither of those assertions is consistent with the fuller account of Flynn’s contacts with Kislyak provided by officials who had access to reports from U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies that routinely monitor the communications of Russian diplomats. Nine current and former officials, who were in senior positions at multiple agencies at the time of the calls, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters

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The Post also writes that the Russian Ambassador recently remarked on contacts prior to the election:

“Kislyak said that he had been in contact with Flynn since before the election, but declined to answer questions about the subjects they discussed.”

Way more:
https://www.justsecurity.org/37630/bombshell-flynn-story-contacts-russia-campaign-russian-hacking/

and this:

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