Michael Flynn made some phone calls to then-Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak. It was routine. It was run-of-the-mill protocol for any incoming administration, but little did the former general know that he already had a target on his back. The FBI was already targeting the Trump official, part of an ongoing counterintelligence probe into Russian collusion. The debunked Trump dossier compiled by ex-British spy Christopher Steele set this circus act upon the country. For the next two years, the media and the Democratic Party became obsessed with this story. It was a myth. There was no evidence of Russian collusion. Trump is still president, but Flynn and Carter Page remain two of the most visible members of the Trump orbit whose lives have been shattered by this fiasco. Paul Manafort is another victim, as his attorney-client privilege was detonated by the Special Counsel’s Office after someone there allegedly leaked a fake story that he was under a FISA warrant.
For Flynn, the call to Kislyak raised red flags at the FBI. The calls were leaked to the press as well. Susan Rice and other top Obama officials were revealed to have requested his name be unmasked but concerning these calls we now know Flynn’s name wasn’t hidden at all. The call was wiretapped by the FBI and his name was known throughout the Obama administration. Chuck Ross at the Daily Caller reported on this, based on the original story filed by The Washington Post while noting that the dates at which Obama officials made unmasking requests did not align with the dates in which Flynn and Kislyak spoke (via Daily Caller):
Confirming the theory put out this weekend by @AndrewCMcCarthy and backed up by McCabe's testimony to House Intel.
— Chuck Ross (@ChuckRossDC) May 20, 2020
FBI had Flynn's name in a transcript of his call with Kislyak and didn't need to unmask. Next question is who leaked that intel? https://t.co/D0axFA5GK4 pic.twitter.com/v2RFZvK6bx
The FBI wiretapped phone calls between a Russian ambassador and former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn that were the subject of a classified leak to The Washington Post in early 2017, the newspaper reported on Wednesday.
Flynn’s identity was not masked in a transcript that the FBI created after Flynn’s phone calls with the ambassador, Sergey Kislyak, the Post also reported, citing former U.S. officials.
[…]
“When the FBI circulated [the report], they included Flynn’s name from the beginning,” another former senior U.S. official told the newspaper. “There were therefore no requests for the unmasking of that information.”
The individual who leaked to the Post has not been identified. The agency the person worked for has also not been named. Republican lawmakers have called for an investigation into the leak.
The FBI shared the intelligence on Flynn’s call widely through the Obama administration.
Andrew McCabe, the former deputy director of the FBI, suggested in congressional testimony and his book, “The Threat,” that the FBI had the initial intelligence report of the Flynn-Kislyak call.
It all circles back to the new documents the revealed that Flynn was the victim of an FBI plot to entrap him. This call is what set forth the legal nightmare Flynn is trapped in, as disgraced FBI agent Peter Strzok, a noted top anti-Trump official at the FBI, led point in his interview, in which agents said they felt Flynn didn’t lie to them. Flynn eventually pleaded guilty to trumped-up “lying to the FBI” charges.
Upon the revelation of the new documents showing prosecutorial misconduct at the FBI, the DOJ filed a motion to dismiss the charges, noting that Flynn shouldn’t have been part of a counterintelligence probe, as the evidence was lacking. Still, disgraced ex-FBI Chief James Comey wanted Flynn gone and the crusade against him continued.
Also, this question has been asked before, but now we’re circling back as the Flynn case has totally collapsed: Who leaked the transcript to the press? The FBI ran point on this entire clown show. They tapped his phone, prepared the trap, and now their dirty tricks are being exposed, it’s led to them getting plenty of buckshot to the face. Who leaked the transcripts? The DOJ under Obama was out of control. Besides Flynn, this administration was ruthless against whistleblowers and journalists, evidenced in their actions against former Fox News reporter James Rosen and the seizure of phone records from journalists at the Associated Press. This pales in comparison to today’s liberal media establishment that cries foul and warns of authoritarianism when Trump blasts them for their shoddy reporting calls them out for being “fake news.” Trump sends tweets blasting the news media. Obama tried to jail some of them. Quite the difference and one that should shed light on how his administration operated. The man weaponized the DOJ to go after Trump’s people and inflict damage onto the incoming administration.
I think it’s time to get Strzok, Comey, McCabe, and the rest of this traveling circus act back to the Hill—when it’s deemed safer to do so—to field more questions about this attack, this coordinated assault on a man who did nothing wrong other than work for a person of the opposite political party. Please do tell who leaked the transcripts and why this KGB-style assault needed to take place. And please, tell us more about the marching orders Obama gave regarding protecting this FBI probe weeks before he left office.