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Home / World

Flynn offered Mueller help in at least three cases. What are they?

By Jennifer Rubin comment
Washington Post·
5 Dec, 2018 07:06 PM4 mins to read

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Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. Photo / AP file

Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. Photo / AP file

Special Counsel Robert Mueller's court filing on Michael Flynn provides plenty of intrigue, not the least of which concerns what cases are out there that might ensnare President Donald Trump.

"It's clear that there are three matters that Flynn is getting credit for helping with," former White House ethics counsel Norman Eisen tells me.

"One is collusion; no surprise there because of the contacts with Russia that he lied about. The other two were blacked out in the memo, but the second is likely the Special Counsel's other main focus: obstruction."

He explains: "Remember, it was Trump's request to [then-FBI Director James] Comey to 'see his way clear' to letting Flynn go, that triggered the obstruction investigation. Flynn may well have a great deal to say about why Trump was so desperate and much more about the elements of obstruction." A useful analysis can be found in a report by Eisen, Barry H. Berke and Noah Bookbinder for the Brookings Institution.

But what about a third case, one that seems not to be under Mueller's jurisdiction? Eisen says that one's a "mystery." He speculates that this might point to the Stormy Daniels campaign-finance case in the Southern District of New York, although we have seen "no previous indication of Flynn's involvement in that".

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Alternatively, such a case might involve other financial matters. Remember that prosecutors in New York have the cooperation of longtime Trump organisation chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg. It is possible that as a close confidant of the President who travelled with Trump during the campaign he would have some knowledge of Trump's other financial dealings.

Another possible line of inquiry could concern Flynn's work for Turkey. The sentencing memorandum spends considerable time on Flynn's failure to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act ("FARA") with regard to something Mueller dubs the "Turkey project." That appears to concern the deportation of Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, who resides in the United States and whom Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan blamed for instigating an attempted coup in 2016.

Flynn's possible attempt to arrange Gulen's deportation might have involved other government officials. Again, we simply do not know.

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A mysterious third case need not involve Trump directly, to be certain.

Flynn worked closely with Jared Kushner (historian Douglas Brinkley calls them a "dog and pony team") on foreign policy issues during the transition, raising questions as to whether they violated the Logan Act.

How to read between the lines of Mueller's blacked-out memo https://t.co/Cuf1FXtYQ7 pic.twitter.com/5SdzFIQm6D

— CNN International (@cnni) December 5, 2018

It is noteworthy that the sentencing document references Flynn's "false statements to the FBI about his prior interactions with the Russian Government in December 2016 concerning a pending United Nations Security Council resolution." That resolution concerned Israeli settlements.

Reuters reported about a year ago: "In the hours before the vote by the 15-member United Nations Security Council on December 23 [2016], Flynn also phoned the UN missions of Uruguay and Malaysia, and Kushner spoke with Kim Darroch, the British ambassador to the United States ... The lobbying took place before Trump, who was known for his pro-Israel campaign rhetoric, took office".

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If nothing else, the reference to at least a third case should remind us how little we know, and how little Trump and his legal team know, about the extent of their legal jeopardy and that of their family members.

Flynn's cooperation on issues possibly unrelated to Russia should worry Trump, Kushner and anyone else whose conduct or testimony about his conduct might have run afoul of the law. In short, it is all going to come out — we just don't what "all" entails.

Interesting: The Flynn filing doesn't mention Jared Kushner, despite Flynn and Kushner's interactions with Kislyak.

"If Flynn offered federal authorities a different version of events than Kushner ... [Kushner] may have to start scrambling."https://t.co/08cpmC9drA

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) December 5, 2018
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