I'm travelling at the moment and may not hear all of the latest news as it comes in, so this will be an summary post about yesterday's developments. As you probably heard, Trump's former National Security Advisor has agreed to plead guilty to a single criminal charge and is now cooperating with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's criminal investigation into Trump, his campaign, his associates, and his businesses (details here).
Flynn agreed to plead guilty about lying to the FBI about contacting the Russian ambassador during the period between Trump's election and inauguration. Flynn could have been charged with other counts but, in exchange for cooperating with prosecutors, those will not be lodged as long as his assistance continues.
The takeaway from this is simple: Flynn has serious evidence against one or several people higher up in Trump's administration, including possibly the President himself and also his son and son-in-law. Whether or not this has to do with Russian contacts is not known at this time.
The media coverage on this development yesterday was massive and fast moving. Here are a few items particularly noteworthy:
ABC reported that the President Elect himself ordered Flynn to contact the Russians (details here). Remember when Trump said the Russian thing was all a hoax? Guess he'll have to retire that lie now.
Bloomberg reported that Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, ordered Flynn to contact the Russians (link here). This does not necessarily contradict the ABC piece, because both could have done this or Trump could have done it through Kushner.
Talking Points Memo published a great item (link here) with former federal prosecutors explaining about why this is such a big deal. This quote is particularly noteworthy:
"This is a very narrowly drawn structural plea bargain. By virtue of a single count he can’t get more than a five-year sentence. You don’t get that unless you’re giving something serious to the government. And the number of players left are relatively small: it’s Jared Kushner, it’s Donald Trump Jr., it’s the Trump campaign, and it’s the President. So I think this is something that would cause all of them to be extraordinarily worried."
More news will likely be coming down over the weekend and into next week. Trump cancelled a press event scheduled for yesterday after the Flynn news broke -- I wonder why?
Stay tuned.
Esperemos cual será el resultado de todos estos acontecimientos.Amigo venezolano,Cucuta
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