Earlier this week, FBI director James Comey revealed for the first time that his agency is investigating potential links between the Donald Trump campaign and Russia. Well, on Friday night, a CNN analyst and longtime national security professional suggested that this investigation may be moving along faster than anyone could have suspected. Based on discussions with her sources, as well as her own experience, she believes that former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn may be cooperating with the FBI.
On Friday’s edition of “CNN Tonight,” host Don Lemon held a panel discussion on the latest developments in the Trump-Russia investigation. During that chat, national security analyst Juliette Kayyem detonated a bombshell–it’s very possible that Flynn has already cut a deal with federal investigators. Watch here.
From my sources and what has been openly reported, it increasingly looks like #Flynn may have a deal with the FBI. #trumprussia pic.twitter.com/U0PHdexlFV
— Juliette Kayyem (@juliettekayyem) March 25, 2017
Kayyem noted that a number of key players in the investigation have voluntarily agreed to talk to the House Intelligence Committee. Namely, former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, longtime Trump confidant Roger Stone, and foreign policy adviser Carter Page. But one very big name was missing from that list–Flynn. Based on discussions with her national security sources as well as “open reporting,” Kayyem believes that one explanation for Flynn’s absence can’t be ruled out–he may be singing to the FBI.
On Saturday, Kayyem took to Facebook to offer some clarifications. She said that “sources I have talked to in the field” have wondered if Flynn isn’t talking to the House Intelligence Committee because he is already talking to the FBI. She added that she didn’t have any confirmation that Flynn is cooperating or had talked with anyone who does. However, she was merely raising the prospect that he is cooperating as part of her “informed analysis of this case.”
If anyone would be in a position to make such an analysis, it’s Kayyem. She served as a member of the National Commission on Terrorism from 1999 to 2000, and was the homeland security adviser to Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick. She was assistant secretary for intergovernmental affairs at the Department of Homeland Security for the first year of the Obama Administration, and was a member of the White House’s Homeland Security Advisory Committee.
When Huffington Post columnist Seth Abramson–to date, the only person to connect the dots on the criminal conspiracy that led to the Comey letter–learned this, he took to Twitter to underline just how huge this could potentially be if true.
(1) First, as an attorney I want to make clear that, if this @CNN analyst's sources are correct, the #Russiagate scandal is blown wide open.
— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) March 25, 2017
(2) The FBI flips witnesses, turning them into cooperating individuals, _only_ when they can help secure conviction of a bigger "target."
— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) March 25, 2017
(3) Michael Flynn was the National Security Adviser for the President of the United States. The only _bigger_ target is Donald J. Trump.
— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) March 25, 2017
(4) But Flynn also held a clandestine meeting with Russian ambassador/spy Sergey Kislyak and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner in December '16.
— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) March 25, 2017
(5) And Flynn coordinated with infamous Iran-Contra figure and Russian oil/gas pipeline advocate Bud McFarlane in hiring Trump's Deputy NSA.
— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) March 25, 2017
(6) And of course Flynn had the highest possible clearance and greatest possible access to POTUS in discussing matters of national security.
— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) March 25, 2017
(7) Flynn's hire as NSA was controversial–even suspicious–when it was made due to Flynn's absolutely _terrible_ reputation in Washington.
— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) March 25, 2017
(8) This suggests the hire wasn't based on merit, but rather the fact that Flynn is _known_ to have ties (in-person ties) to Vladimir Putin.
— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) March 25, 2017
(9) We should conclude from the foregoing that Flynn was in the best position of _anyone_ involved in #Russiagate to see _all_ its contours.
— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) March 25, 2017
(10) Given all of the above, we can say that if any one person could bring down Trump due to #Russiagate, it's the man the FBI may now have. pic.twitter.com/sLwjBTVTcF
— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) March 25, 2017
Cliff Notes version: if Flynn is indeed talking to the FBI, this investigation has moved closer to Trump far sooner than even the most optimistic Trump opponent could have hoped. A spokesman for Flynn refused to confirm or deny whether his boss was talking to investigators.
It turns out that Flynn may have two swords of Damocles hanging over him. We already knew about one of them–his secret discussions with the Kremlin’s ambassador to Washington. But former CIA director James Woolsey revealed another on Friday.
Woolsey claimed to have walked in on a meeting that took place last September between Flynn and two senior Turkish ministers. The three men were in the midst of discussing whether to secretly send American-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen back to Turkey without any legal formalities. Gulen is a longtime opponent of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Erdogan has long blamed Gulen for the abortive coup against him in 2015.
On the same night that Kayyem detonated her potential bombshell, Woolsey discussed the meeting on CNN. Watch here.
Woolsey said that he walked in on “the tail end” of a conversation, and overheard what he believed was a “strong suggestion” that American officials would be able to get their hands on Gulen. While he didn’t believe that there was “a concrete plan” to do so, he was alarmed enough that he felt compelled to alert U. S. officials. Flynn’s spokesman adamantly denied that such a discussion took place.
Flynn famously claimed at the Republican National Convention that he would be in an orange jumpsuit “if I did a tenth” of what Hillary Clinton supposedly did. If there is anything at all to these reports, he probably knew those words were literally coming true–and wants to take Trump down with him.
(featured image courtesy Gage Skidmore, available under a Creative Commons BY-SA license)
