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</div><div>recall NO ONE HAS INVESTIGATED RUSSIA COLLUSION?</div><div><div>=</div><div>he got pardon</div><div>kraken spec ops rescue haspel?</div><div>=</div><div>an</div><div>
</div><div><div>according to The Daily Beast, the latest Make America Great Again (MAGA) intraparty feud involves Trump-loyalist and conspiracy-driven attorney Lin Wood and former U.S. National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.</div><div>
</div><div>Although Wood has a reputation of backing far-right conservatism and conspiracy theories, most recently, he has faced deep scrutiny for attacking other well-known conservative figures and releasing incriminating audio clips.</div><div>
</div><div>During a recent segment of the podcast Fever Dreams, co-host Will Sommer shed light on the clash between Wood and Flynn. Per Sommer's report, the controversy surrounding Wood escalated when he released audio clips of Flynn. The incriminating audio reportedly featured Flynn's deeply critical remarks about the "pro-Trump conspiracy theory" QAnon being a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)-backed plot.</div><div>
</div><div>In wake of Flynn's remarks, Sommer noted that “QAnon’s been very good to Michael Flynn. Some of them believe he’s Q… I mean this is a guy who is thick as thieves with QAnon. But privately, [he calls it] a ‘CIA operation. It’s nonsense.’ So this is a pretty big break from what he does publicly.”</div><div>
</div><div>The whole ordeal has contributed to a domino effect of other issues. Per The Beast: "As a result, pro- and anti-Flynn factions inside QAnon have been ripping into each other on Telegram and other right-wing social media platforms."</div><div>
</div><div>Sommer also expounded on the aftermath describing it as a form of "civil war."</div><div>
</div><div>“This has basically started a big civil war… including, I should say, the JFK Jr. people in Dallas. So they’ve all sided with Lin," Sommer said. "Michael Flynn, obviously, has his own adherents—but this has really, like, started a lot of drama."</div><div>
</div><div>He added, “They’re calling it a civil war but maybe it’s more like a prison riot… this has also set off a lot of people who have beefs with people on the other side, but that are totally unrelated to this. But now they’re seeing this as their opportunity to settle scores with their rivals… things are all on fire over there.”</div></div><div></div><div>an 12 21</div><div><div>Michael Flynn is always in the news for the worst reasons.</div><div>
</div><div>Today, it’s because of the former Trump advisor’s feud with Lin Wood and the leaking of text messages and audio recording during which he calls QAnon “total nonsense” as well as a CIA psy-op. Last time, he was calling for a single religion in the United States. Time before that, QAnon members accused him of being a Satanist for a sermon at a church drawing from a former New Age apocalyptic leader.</div><div>
</div><div>Next time, it may be for something worse. In any case, everything Flynn has been doing suggests that QAnon or not, his audience, his rhetoric and his goals are far more concrete and far more sinister than the mocking media coverage suggests. Let’s start in September.</div><div>
</div><div>On September 17, Flynn was at the “Opening the Heavens” Conference at the Lord of Hosts Church in Omaha, Nebraska. That event claimed to be “an annual, multi-day event where the prophetic heart of God and the manifestation of His supernatural power are demonstrated to those in attendance and [those] viewing online around the world!”</div><div>
</div><div>READ: 'Intentional deception': Mark Meadows releases damning details about Trump ahead of hearing with Jan. 6 panel</div><div>
</div><div>Flynn spoke alongside a number of “prophetic” pastors, including Gene Bailey, executive director of Kenneth Copeland ministries, whose spiritual warfare preaching got the heavy-metal treatment last year.</div><div>
</div><div>Flynn’s speech made news due to QAnon’s reaction to it. It was said to be Satanic, ironic given QAnon’s resemblance to the Satanic Panic of the 1980s. Flynn’s speech resembled a 1984 sermon by Elizabeth Clare Prophet, founder of the Church Universal and Triumphant, a New Age apocalyptic group best known for their move to bunkers in Montana to await a prophesied nuclear apocalypse in 1990. Not only was it a failed doomsday cult, but it was a theosophic movement, something associated with Lucifer by its 18th-century founder.</div><div>
</div><div>Flynn said he felt called to St. Michael, the archangel and his namesake. While the link between Prophet and Flynn is interesting, the text of Flynn’s “Archangel Prayer” is all by itself not so great:</div><div>
</div><div>We are your instrument</div><div>Of those sevenfold rays</div><div>And all your archangels, all of them</div><div>We will not retreat, we will not retreat</div><div>We will stand our ground</div><div>We will not fear to speak</div><div>We will be the instrument of your will</div><div>Whatever it is</div><div>In your name, and in the names of your legions</div><div>We are freeborn, and shall remain freeborn</div><div>And we shall not be enslaved by any foe</div><div>Within or without</div><div>So help me God.</div><div>READ: The Supreme Court shows off its contempt for women</div><div>
</div><div>“Seven rays” is a concept used in theosophy and in the Summit Lighthouse. Prophet’s prayer to Archangel Michael, which people have compared Flynn’s sermon, is not only part of the theosophic movement, but an aggressively anti-Communist talk, ending:</div><div>
</div><div>Archangel Michael, Stand with me!</div><div>Save my child!</div><div>Save my household!</div><div>Save my nation and bind those Communist hordes!</div><div>Others can analyze the I AM movement and its issues, but the use of militant religious language and the comparison to an aggressively apocalyptic, anti-Communist doomsday cult is bad enough.</div><div>
</div><div>Then in early November, Flynn and Wood had a series of exchanges -- people have focused on the audio recording of Flynn calling QAnon a CIA disinfo operation — but more worrying was the fact that he told Wood, on November 3, to read an article proving QAnon is a fraud.</div><div>
</div><div>READ: Democrats will have a 'boatload of material' to use against 'unhinged, out-of-step' Republicans in 2022: conservative</div><div>
</div><div>Why more worrying? Because it was written by Hal Turner, a neo-Nazi radio host who’s promoted various QAnon conspiracies and served time for threatening elected officials -- he advocated murder repeatedly. The article is incredibly scary. It included this passage:</div><div>
</div><div>The Trump Anon believers want SOMEBODY ELSE to do it for them. Well, I’ve said this before and I will say it again now: Nobody is coming to save them/us. Nobody is coming to save the country. If you want something done, you gotta do it yourself. And until someone (but not me) decides that it is finally time to throw away all the comforts of this life, and brutally slaughter the people who are doing all these things, (and by “slaughter” I mean exactly that) then all these things will continue, unabated, to the destruction of our country and our oh-so-comfy lives.</div><div>This is standard Turner fare -- to preserve white nationalist power, people have to murder others, including elected officials -- but to have someone with Flynn’s background and his elite status within QAnon conspiracy and other movements promoting it is infinitely more terrifying than the entertainment value of seeing him bashing QAnon.</div><div>
</div><div>A week later Flynn and Wood were in Springfield, Missouri, at a “Preserving America” event billed as “Come and listen to America’s tier-1 patriot speakers and learn about preserving America under the Constitution.” Outside of the Springfield News-Leader, it garnered little press -- but one local sheriff attending claimed he had, “A great conversation with General Flynn. He wanted me to know the American Sheriff is the last line of defense for our freedom. I agree!”</div><div>
</div><div>READ: The real history of US anti-abortion politics began in 1662 — and is bound to the legacy of slavery</div><div>
</div><div>Flynn has spoken with Richard Mack for the “Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association” podcast, an anti-government extremist group that works to recruit sheriffs into the “patriot” militia movement. The comment should be taken in that light.</div><div>
</div><div>Then there is Flynn’s ongoing “Reawaken America” tour, the most recent news items before the Wood blowup. On November 13, the tour was at the Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, John Hagee’s church.</div><div>
</div><div>Hagee is an apocalypse minded Christian Zionist and his son and executive pastor of the church, Matt, was on stage for the event. The “Reawaken America Tour,” a QAnon speaking tour, has numerous pastors presenting -– Dave Scarlett, Mark Burns, Phil Hotsenpiller, Leon Benjamin, Greg Locke, Jackson Lahmeyer, Brian Gibson among them. All have pushed the Big Lie and Christian Nationalism.</div><div>
</div><div>On stage, Flynn said, “if we are going to have one nation under God, which we must, we have to have one religion. One nation under God, and one religion under God.” The clip got widespread media play, but it is much more important in that broader context. “Reawaken America” has events in Dallas in December at Elevate Life Church in Frisco, where Pastor Keith Craft runs men-only “Warrior Nights,” dresses in militant garb, and mocks mask-wearing and the government.</div><div>
</div><div>READ: MSNBC host details 'weird baroque tradition' that allowed Trump-picked justices to lie 'under oath' on womens’ rights</div><div>
</div><div>In January, they’ll be at Dream City Church in Phoenix, which had hosted a Trump rally in 2020 and had been sent a cease-and-desist about promoting a fraudulent air filter system that June.</div><div>
</div><div>In February, they’ll be at Trinity Gospel Temple in Canton, Ohio, where Pastor Dave Lombardi tweeted out on November 3: “‘King Cyrus’ will prevail! Christian principles will prevail!,” and “the ‘Walls of Jericho’ will fall tonight! The Gospel message will prevail! The March continues!”</div><div>
</div><div>Both ideas have violent overtones — the fall of the walls of Jericho is followed by the massacre of all inhabitants. “King Cyrus,” a reference here to Donald Trump, destroyed the empire of the Babylonians.</div><div>
</div><div>These events are linking congregations nationwide in a specific project -- to build an ultranationalist Christian right to control of America.</div><div>
</div><div>READ: The meaning of white supremacy since the rise of Donald Trump</div><div>
</div><div>Flynn’s fall events show it is not as simple as whether or not he’s a grifter who pretends to believe in QAnon. He is. He’s a fraud. He’s corrupt. And we already knew this. But he’s also a corrupt fanatic, who believes in overthrowing the government and imposing a theocracy. He certainly seems comfortable reading and promoting neo-Nazi articles advocating the literal slaughter of enemies while doing so.</div><div>
</div><div>Stop laughing at Michael Flynn.</div><div>
</div><div>He’s dangerous.</div><div>
</div><div>Driving him out of QAnon is great, but the other groups he’s engaged with, the other ideologies he’s a part of, are no laughing matter.</div></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">an 11 21</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div>mike Flynn and Josh Mandel do not stand at the center of the Republican Party. They do not stand at its margins either. Flynn is the former's president's former advisor. (He's a pardoned criminal, too.) Mandel is Ohio's leading Senate candidate. Both men have said in recent days they don't believe in the separation of church and state.I'm paraphrasing. See for <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4Yh2HGuK-4" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">yourself</a> <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/michael-flynn-demands-one-religion-050401378.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">what</a> <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/15/politics/michael-flynn-one-religion/index.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">they</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/AccountableGOP/status/1456709149367091202?s=20" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">said</a>. However, their remarks should be familiar. They reflect the GOP's theocratic wing. For decades, it has opposed the <a href="https://www.editorialboard.com/the-united-states-was-not-founded/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">incorporated interpretation</a> of the First Amendment's establishment clause. They used to be way, way out there. But, even if I'm missing something, Flynn's and Mandel's remarks suggest the GOP's theocratic wing isn't as marginal as it once was.Liberals have always been alarmed by the theocrats. Liberals know that when they talk about so-called "Judeo-Christian" values, they don't mean Jews of any stripe. They don't mean the full spectrum of Christianity. Mormons are not included. Neither are Episcopalians, Methodists or Presbyterians. Unitarians, like me, are cultists. Jehovah's Witnesses are heretics. Only "real Christians" need apply, meaning twice-born believers in Christ saving them from eternal damnation.Liberals should be more alarmed, especially religious liberals, but they may not know they should be. After all, the theocrats keep telling us, and the Washington press corps keeps telling us, that they are merely fighting for their Constitutional right to worship as they please, however they please. Religious liberals, therefore, might be thinking their religious freedoms will be secure, no matter what happens.READ: <a href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/11/steve-bannon-2655745699/" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">'You're his lawyer': CNN host stumps Bannon lawyer by asking if client had 'foreknowledge' of Capitol riot</a>That, however, overlooks the theocrats' unending bad faith. They don't mean all Jews or all Christians when defending "Judeo-Christian values." And they don't mean everyone's freedom of religion. They mean theirs. That's why figures such as Flynn and Mandel say what they said. Liberals, especially religious liberals, should be more alarmed. The theocrats are assaulting (everyone's) religious freedom in the name of (their) religious freedom. When they say the United States was founded as a "Christian nation," they're telling us their desires.Before I go on, a word about Josh Mandel. As I said, he's Ohio's leading Republican candidate for the Senate. He's also Jewish. Some say his appeal to the GOP's theocratic wing means the GOP's theocratic wing can't possibly desire the creation of a "Christian nation." After all, he's a Jew! Friend, I don't need to tell you shameless people sometimes say all sorts of things. If you think Mandel's candidacy means the theocrats believe in freedom of religion for everyone, I have a bridge to sell.
The temptation among liberals, even religious liberals, is to fall back on old arguments, to wit: America is not a Christian nation any more than it's a Hindu nation. Its people are religious. Its government is secular. For many liberals, that's what separation of church and state means.The truth is more complex. As Editorial Board legal historian Mia Brett <a href="https://www.editorialboard.com/the-united-states-was-not-founded/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">wrote in April</a>. "The United States was founded with an attempt at secularism as well as freedom of religion." In theory, the objective is balancing those interests. (In practice, it has meant something quite different, as Dr. Brett explains.) To reach that ideal, however, liberals should remember what "secular" means. It does not mean the absence of religion. It does not mean hostility toward it. It means indifference to it — or, rather, the equal treatment and protection of all religions.READ: <a href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/11/lincoln-project/" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">'Biden delivered': Devastating Lincoln Project ad mocks 'so-called builder' Trump on 'infrastructure week'</a>The theocrats are correct when they say religion has a place in the people's business. They are wrong in lying about what they mean. (They mean their religion and theirs alone.) When liberals fall back on old arguments based on misunderstandings of secularism's meaning — "keep religion out of government matters!" — they end up empowering the theocratic position by legitimating it. The theocrats tell us they believe the "secular left" wants to drive out religion. Worse, liberals risk making allies out of theocrats and religious liberals, who might not see any harm in having a place for religion in the public square.They're right. There is no harm. As long as the state is impartial to particular religions but partial toward freedom of religion. Put another way, as long as the state treats and protects religions equally. If the courthouse has a spot for the Ten Commandments, it has a spot for the Seven Principles of Unitarian Universalism. By privileging presence over absence, liberals take the gas out of the theocrats' position. By defending the First Amendment, rather than by opposing religion, liberals end up bringing attention to the real problem, which is the growing religious movement toward annihilating freedom of religion.Finally, I expect some liberals to disagree with me. I expect them to defend calling for the ouster of all religions from all matters of public life. Well, more power to them. That's the conflict I would like to see more of — between camps with differing views on the meaning of secularism — rather than conflict between camps with the same meaning with the difference being one is for, the other against. One of these is better for democracy. It's not the one we're currently having.</div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">=</div></div></div></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="">House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack has just issued more subpoenas for very close Trump associates, among them longtime Trump advisor Jason Miller, and former Trump National Security Advisor, QAnon conspiracist Michael Flynn.Also on the list are the author of the memo detailing how Vice President Mike Pence could allegedly overturn the election, anti-LGBTQ group chairman John Eastman. Decades-long Giuliani ally Bernard Kerik is also among those subpoenaed.<div id="story_page_incontent_p2_target" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(49, 49, 49);"><ins class="adsbygoogle" data-ad-client="ca-pub-5155643920455169" data-ad-slot="6339868799" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true" style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration-line: none; text-align: center; margin-bottom: 20px; display: block;" /></div>One name many do not know is Angela McCallum, who served as a National Republican Senatorial Committee War Room Lead, and as a National Executive Assistant, for Donald J. Trump for President.Lastly, Bill Stepien, Trump 2020 campaign manager.Axios' Andrew Solender posts the letter to Stepien.</div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</div></div></div><div>
</div><div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.salon.com/2021/01/29/florida-mans-arrest-on-2016-election-charges-suggests-russia-probe-may-have-survived-bill-barr/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">https://www.salon.com/2021/01/29/florida-mans-arrest-on-2016-election-charges-suggests-russia-probe-may-have-survived-bill-barr/</a></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-size: small;"><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Florida man's arrest on 2016 election charges suggests Russia probe may have survived Bill Barr</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Indictment of a Roger Stone-connected operative may signal that Robert Mueller's spinoffs are still bearing fruit</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">By ROGER SOLLENBERGER</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">PUBLISHED JANUARY 29, 2021 5:59AM (EST)</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Florida man Douglass Mackey, a notorious white nationalist and right-wing social media troll, was arrested this week on charges of conspiring with others to deprive citizens of their right to vote ahead of the 2016 election, the Department of Justice announced on Wednesday.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"According to the allegations in the complaint, the defendant exploited a social media platform to infringe one of the most basic and sacred rights guaranteed by the Constitution: the right to vote," Nicholas McQuaid, acting Assistant Attorney General of the Criminal Division, said in a press release. "This complaint underscores the department's commitment to investigating and prosecuting those who would undermine citizens' voting rights."</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">It also suggests that the Russia investigation, at least in part, survived the tenure of former Attorney General Bill Barr.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">According to the complaint, Mackey's Twitter account had nearly 60,000 followers, and in February 2016 the MIT Media Lab ranked him 107th in its list of the most influential personalities ahead of the election, higher than NBC News and Stephen Colbert. Prosecutors say that in the months before the election, Mackey collaborated with unnamed co-conspirators to encourage Hillary Clinton supporters to cast votes via text messages or social media — which are not viable or legal voting methods in any state.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="">The conspiracy charge against Mackey, who was arrested in West Palm Beach, could indicate that the Justice Department has been probing a broader network. Three of his co-conspirators were identified by HuffPost reporter Luke O'Brien, who wrote an in-depth 2018 profile of Mackey: white nationalist financier Jeff Giesea; conspiracy theorist Mike Cernovich, who has ties to onetime national security adviser turned QAnon hero Michael Flynn; and Jack Posobiec, a far-right provocateur with ties to neo-Nazi groups and longtime Trump confidant Roger Stone. The pro-Trump group, who called themselves "MAGA3X," fueled the Pizzagate social media campaign that smeared Hillary Clinton and other Democratic leaders in the run-up to the 2016 election.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Notably, both Stone and Flynn came under the focus of former special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into the weaponization of social media in 2016. Flynn had repeatedly shared content from the Russian-linked account @TEN_GOP, which shared disinformation to tens of thousands of followers under the auspices of the Tennessee Republican Party. </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Stone, a misinformation mastermind, also imprinted on the Trump campaign the importance of social media. Just this summer, Facebook wiped more than 100 Facebook and Instagram accounts and pages that Stone and unnamed associates had used to push disinformation related to the 2016 election, as well as to Stone's criminal trial.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div>One arm of Stone's social media work in 2016 was an effort to suppress the Black vote, which is also specified in the charges against Mackey. Mueller had questioned and subpoenad Stone's associates who helped orchestrate his social media campaigns.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Former President Trump's efforts to block Mueller — or even fire him — have been well documented. In anticipation of possible acts of executive sabotage, the special counsel's office in the course of its work spun off a number of investigations to other divisions, primarily the Southern District of New York. As one of Barr's first acts in office, he appointed his own special prosecutor, Connecticut U.S. attorney John Durham, to investigate the origins of the Russia probe — and potentially pursue charges against FBI agents and Obama administration officials. Barr has long been suspected of spearheading a secret effort to suppress evidence and snuff out ancillary investigations, and after Mueller submitted his final report, congressional Democrats requested the attorney general's communications regarding the spinoff cases.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Considering all this, it seems possible, even likely, that the Mackey indictment indicates that some Russia-related inquiries have survived Barr's efforts to uproot them. Investigative journalist Marcy Wheeler proposed another, deeply ironic possibility: The charges could have stemmed from Trump's efforts to undermine the 2020 election and reverse his defeat.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">About a week after the election, Barr, under pressure from Trump, took the unprecedented step of authorizing prosecutors to pursue election fraud cases ahead of the Electoral College vote. It's possible, Wheeler suggests, that if one of those prosecutors had ahold of evidence from prior investigations, Barr's authorization could have allowed that prosecutor to prioritize the Mackey case and bring an indictment — which would be a prodigious case of cosmic payback. </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">ROGER SOLLENBERGER</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Roger Sollenberger is a staff writer at Salon. Follow him on Twitter @SollenbergerRC.</div></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</div></div><div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">WHAT IS SUBSTACK?</div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://sethabramson.substack.com/p/major-breaking-news-team-trump-had" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">https://sethabramson.substack.com/p/major-breaking-news-team-trump-had</a></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-size: small;"><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">NO LNX MANY  VID?</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Team Trump Had a Second Pre-Insurrection War Room</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">An investigation of who was in this second Insurrection Eve war room has now begun.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Seth Abramson</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Jun 6 </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Introduction</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">As this publication has exclusively and exhaustively detailed, on the eve of the January 6 insurrection Team Trump convened a 23-person war council at Trump International Hotel in D.C. to plot out—as attendees have since confessed—what would happen the following day. It is now clear that a second, contemporaneous pre-insurrection war council was held at a nearby Washington hotel and that it may well have been linked, through either phone or video conferencing, to the first.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">This previously unreported news could significantly swell the size of Donald Trump’s pre-insurrection planning team, even as it remains possible (indeed, a possibility that has been extensively investigated here at Proof) that any remote conferencing that occurred the night before the January 6 insurrection also included the White House.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Two War Rooms</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The group that convened at Trump International on January 5 included, per eyewitness accounts previously compiled by Proof, the following members of Trump’s family, legal team, campaign staff, advisory corps, donor class, circle of friends, allies in Congress, and presidential administration: </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="">Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, Kimberly Guilfoyle, Corey Lewandowski, David Bossie, Michael Flynn, Peter Navarro, Adam Piper, Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), Nebraska GOP gubernatorial candidate Charles Herbster, Rudy Giuliani, Michael Lindell, Eduardo Bolsonaro, Doyle Beck, Daniel Beck, Layne Bangerter, and two additional unnamed U.S. senators, one of whom prior Proof reports suggest was Ted Cruz (R-TX). Domestic terrorist Ali Alexander “attended” by phone.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Other possible attendees—whose status is still being investigated in light of evidence they were present—include Alex Jones, Sidney Powell, Patrick Byrne, and Guiliani cybersecurity adviser Phil Waldron. As Proof has previously noted, and as will become vital to the account below, four individuals from the two lists above now claim (or have had it claimed by legal counsel) that they weren’t, in fact, part of any meeting involving Trump International Hotel on January 5, despite eyewitness accounts to the contrary. Those individuals are Michael Flynn, Rudy Giuliani, Peter Navarro, and David Bossie.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Based on the evidence now available, the largest possible size of the group that met at Trump International Hotel on January 5—all members of Trump’s inner circle—is 23.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">But emerging evidence—see below—now suggests a sizable team of Trump insiders concurrently gathered, on January 5, at the Willard InterContinental Washington D.C. Hotel (“the Willard”) at 1401 Pennsylvania Ave., 0.3 miles from the White House.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="">The group that gathered at the Willard Hotel on January 5 appears to have been nearly as large, if not larger, than the group at Trump International Hotel. Possible attendees include, of those not also reported to have been involved in the January 5 meeting at Trump International, the following: Roger Stone, Alex Jones, Steve Bannon, John Eastman, Robert Hyde, Russell Ramsland Jr., Jim Penrose, Sal Greco, Jennifer Lynn Lawrence, and Dustin Stockton. Moreover, among the Willard war room attendees concurrently said to have been involved in a meeting at Trump International Hotel we find Rudy Giuliani, Ali Alexander, Sidney Powell, Michael Flynn, Phil Waldron, and Peter Navarro. In all, the suspected roster of Willard war room attendees numbers 16, though that number may swell after additional investigations at Proof and elsewhere.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Indeed, just two photos of the Willard war room taken by Robert Hyde on Insurrection Day alone (the one below and this one) show ten people, only three of whom—Giuliani, Eastman and Hyde—can be identified, and are thus included in the attendee list above.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">{Note: The man in the white shirt in the first picture below may be Owen Shroyer, who works with and for Alex Jones at InfoWars. The second picture below is Shroyer on January 5, 2021. Shroyer introduced Jones at the Freedom Plaza event that day. The two were followed on stage by Ali Alexander, who oddly said that Trump “calls me ‘Sammy Davis Jr.’ every time he sees me” (emphasis supplied). Alexander introduced Roger Stone by noting that Stone, who was then staying at the Willard, had offered “counsel” to Trump’s legal team—headquartered at the Willard—and that, as of January 5, Stone’s Stop the Steal “movement” was at “war.” After Stone speaks, someone is heard repeatedly calling “Victoria! Victoria! Victoria!”, which may refer to Trump lawyer Victoria Toensing. It is unclear if Toensing stayed at the Willard also.}</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Those who have followed the January 6 investigation closely will note that the Willard Hotel war room attendee list includes a substantially larger number of dubious figures (for instance Hyde, who aided in Trump’s efforts to steal the 2020 presidential election in Ukraine, as detailed in a chapter in my 2020 Macmillan book Proof of Corruption) as compared to the Trump International list, which may underscores why it has taken so long for this second war room to be disclosed to the public.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Roger Stone, Alex Jones, Steve Bannon and the Willard</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">While Roger Stone spoke briefly to the crowd at Freedom Plaza on January 5—and in his remarks incited insurrection through militant, bizarrely pseudo-religious rhetoric—and while he also spoke in front the Supreme Court building earlier on January 5, in both instances traveling via golf cart and flanked by Oath Keepers, everyone seems to agree that Stone wasn’t at Trump International on January 5; that he never showed up to Trump’s January 6 Ellipse speech, as his Stop the Steal co-organizers Alexander and Jones and had expected him to do; and that he never showed up for his “Wild Protest” speech at the Capitol, despite having publicly raised money for the latter appearance.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">So where was Roger Stone the rest of the time on January 5 and January 6? According to Stone himself, he was at the Willard Hotel. A video from ABC News confirms that this is where Stone was staying during the insurrection, with Stone further telling the network that he “never left the site of my hotel until leaving for Dulles Airport” on the afternoon of January 6. Stone’s statement makes clear that it was not that he stayed in his room at the Willard, but that he remained on hotel grounds—a distinction that is critical now. Stone’s NYPD bodyguard Sal Greco stayed with him at the Willard Hotel.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">As for Alex Jones—who has said the White House asked him to lead the march on the Capitol; who has said he (with Alexander) was in text communication with the Trump campaign from the Capitol as it was being attacked; and whose top lieutenant Owen Shroyer appears to be pictured above, with Rudy Giuliani, in the Willard war room—per Yahoo! News he stayed at the Willard for a Stop the Steal event in November 2020 and, per Politico, also stayed at the Willard for a December 2020 Stop the Steal event.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="">But now an amazing five-part exposé by a French independent journalist publishing via Montréal-based website Centpapiers further reveals—using simple and easily confirmed photographic analysis—that the January 5 interview Michael Flynn conducted with Alex Jones, reported on at length at Proof, was held at the Willard, meaning both men were at the site of Trump’s second war room on Insurrection Eve.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">{Note: This same exposé offers pictures that seem to indicate top Trump adviser Peter Navarro was with Dustin Stockton at the Willard at some point during the lead-up to the insurrection, as well as providing pictures of Stockton and his wife Jennifer Lynn Lawrence in the VIP area of Trump’s Ellipse speech alongside top Trump congressional ally Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona, one of Ali Alexander’s self-confessed co-conspirators in plotting the dire events of January 6.}</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The aforementioned couple, Lawrence and Stockton, have at various points been Steve Bannon acolytes, employees, and business associates, and were known to have been at the Willard Hotel pre-insurrection. According to this report by the New York Times,</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Two organizers helping the [post-election Stop the Steal] effort, Jennifer Lawrence and Dustin Stockton, were close to Bannon, having worked at Breitbart and then at his nonprofit seeking private financing to help complete Trump’s border wall. In August [2020], federal prosecutors accused Bannon of defrauding the nonprofit’s donors, after an investigation that included a raid of Lawrence and Stockton’s motor home; they were not implicated, and Bannon, who pleaded not guilty, was later pardoned by the president. A onetime organizer for the hard-line Gun Owners of America, according to his LinkedIn page, Stockton had come to know members of the Three Percenters militia group.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">…</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">[Jennifer Lynn] Lawrence had personal ties to Trump. Her father was a real estate broker in the Hudson Valley, where Trump has a golf club and his sons have a hunting ranch. “He’s done business with Trump for over a decade, so I’ve had the opportunity of meeting the president and interacting with him on a lot of occasions”, she said in an interview. She also knew [Michael] Flynn through their mutual association with a conservative think tank.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">…</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">By [approximately 2PM ET on January 6], with “all hell breaking loose”, as Stockton put it, he and Lawrence decided to take golf carts back to their room at the Willard Hotel and “await instructions about whether to go back to the Ellipse.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">While Lawrence and Stockton’s presence at the Willard Hotel doesn’t ensure Bannon’s, the two Bannon associates’ unusual use of golf carts in downtown Washington during the insurrection—mirroring the use of such vehicles by Stop the Steal, Roger Stone, and the Oath Keepers—as well as the notion that they went to the Willard to “await instructions” from an unnamed superior, group of superiors, or group of compatriots, suggests the possibility that Bannon and/or the Three Percenter leadership were at the Willard at some point during the run-up to the insurrection or on Insurrection Day.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">How Proof Learned About the War Room at the Willard</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">On May 5, 2021, in a little-heard interview with self-described “birther” Peter Boyles, former Chapman University and University of Colorado-Boulder law professor John Eastman—known for falsely saying prior to the 2020 election that Democratic vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris was ineligible to run for Vice President due to not being a U.S. citizen—told Boyles that that in January 2021 he “was representing the President of the United States in the Supreme Court on one of the most significant legal issues to have come down the pike in half a century.” Eastman, who notes that he “spoke right before the president” at the Ellipse on January 6, further tells Boyles he can reveal private conversations he had with his “client” Donald Trump pre-insurrection because he has received “express” permission from Trump to do so.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Eastman confesses to Boyles that in the days prior to and including the attack on the Capitol, he, Giuliani, and unnamed others “had a war room at the Willard Hotel [in Washington] kind of coordinating all of the communications.…[it was in] a suite of offices.” Significant in this, of course, is not only Eastman’s description of the space as a “war room,” but his contention that Giuliani used the room in the days prior to the insurrection. Why does this matter? Because it raises new questions about another pre-insurrection war room: the one at Trump International. Was Giuliani at the Trump International war room on January 5, the Willard war room, or both? This question has larger implications than may at first appear, so we begin by unpacking what we know:</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">(1) Charles W. Herbster vacillated on the presence of only one person at the January 5 pre-insurrection war council at the Trump International Hotel: Rudy Giuliani.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">After first writing on Facebook that he (Herbster) was “standing in the White House”, Herbster edited his post to write that he was in fact in Trump’s “private residence” in Trump International. But he also edited out Giuliani’s name, as if he’d either (a) been mistaken about Giuliani being at Trump International, or (b) suddenly felt it critical to not say that Giuliani was with him. Note that Herbster took this view of no one else at Trump International; as Proof has detailed, David Bossie and Michael Flynn both now maintain they weren’t at Trump International, and yet Herbster still hasn’t changed his contradictory statement on the matter. For a time even Tuberville contradicted Herbster and said he wasn’t at Trump International, and yet, despite Tuberville being a senator, Herbster still didn’t amend his statement on Facebook. Yet as to Giuliani Herbster did correct himself, suggesting a possibility Giuliani really was at a different location than the other individuals Herbster mentioned—but nevertheless attended the meeting Herbster described. Proof previously noted that this would be possible if the January 5 meeting at Trump International was “conferenced” with other locations.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">(2) When the Associated Press asked Rudy Giuliani if he was at Trump International Hotel on January 6, Giuliani told the AP that he would have to check, via his “diary.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Giuliani never got back to the AP, despite there being no known illegality—as yet—with respect to the event at Trump International. So why not tell the AP where he was on January 5? Doyle Beck told the AP Giuliani was at Trump International; it’s unclear why the conversation regarding his whereabouts isn’t one Giuliani is willing to have.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">(3) On January 5, Flynn gave a long interview with Alex Jones at the Willard Hotel.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Both Stone and Giuliani were staying at the Willard Hotel, and Alex Jones and his team would have had to reserve a room at the Willard for any live recording there, so this creates numerous opportunities for overlap between Jones, Stone, Flynn, and Giuliani—the last of whom was then running an on-site Trump war room. Note that, as previously reported at Proof, Michael Lindell has said he was consistently with Flynn and Giuliani in the days prior to the insurrection. If Herbster is unclear and Giuliani cagey about whether Giuliani was ever at Trump International on January 5; and Flynn maintains he wasn’t at any meeting at Trump International (despite an Instagram photo placing him in the hotel lobby that day), one possibility is that any war room meeting(s) Flynn attended on January 5 were attended from the Willard, where we now know he was with Jones on January 5. Flynn is so adamant he wasn’t at Trump International on January 5 that he had his attorney send this author a letter threatening legal action for citing news reports placing him at that location on that day; this suggests a degree of confidence that no one can place him inside the Trump Townhouse at Trump International, his presence in the hotel lobby notwithstanding.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">(4) As Proof has reported, Corey Lewandowski was also cagey about his location on January 5, telling a reporter for The Atlantic that he “met” with Donald Trump on that day—but also implying that he didn’t go to the White House in order to do so.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">How could Lewandowski meet with Trump without being in the same space? Again, the specter of a very simple explanation—the use of phone or video conferencing—manifests. This might also explain the confidence that David Bossie, Lewandowski’s business associate, has had in maintaining he never entered Trump International on January 5, even as Herbster places him at an event Herbster attended from the hotel.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">What Happened at the Willard Hotel</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Eastman describes the “suite” of offices at the Willard—a term that suggests multiple rooms and work stations—as designed for “coordinating all of the [pre-insurrection] communication[s]” between members of Team Trump. Certainly, the suite could have coordinated communications via phone conferencing rather than video conferencing, but in either case it would seem that to “coordinate” communications between a large team of people at least some conferencing would have to have occurred at some point.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">So if Giuliani had a “war room” at the Willard on January 5 that was specifically set up to “coordinate communications” pre-insurrection, why on earth would he need to walk over to Trump International to attend a second war room? Why not just conference the rooms? This question begs another: if Giuliani did decide to needlessly travel from one war room to another on January 5—during a period of hours that time was precious to Team Trump—why didn’t he bring Eastman with him? Indeed, an unresolved paradox is that Eastman appears to place himself with Giuliani fairly consistently during the days before the insurrection, yet no one places Eastman at Trump International Hotel.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A similar paradox involves Giuliani, Flynn, Lindell, and Powell. As Proof has reported, Lindell says he was with Giuliani, Flynn, and Powell on January 5, yet Flynn says he wasn’t at Trump International, Herbster at first wrote that Giuliani was there and then corrected himself, and no one places Powell at Trump International. Given that Powell was, like Eastman and Giuliani, a Trump legal adviser on January 5, one explanation for this would be that Flynn, Giuliani, and Powell were with Eastman at the Willard on January 5, whether or not they—or Lindell—also visited the Trump International war room.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">More Bombshells From the Eastman-Boyles Interview</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">(1) Trump cybersecurity advisers Russell Ramsland Jr., Doug Frank, and Jim Penrose were with Eastman in the Willard Hotel war room at some point on January 5, 2021.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Specifically, Eastman told Boyles that “the [election] experts that I had met with [in November and December 2020, a group into which Eastman puts Ramsland, Frank, and Penrose] were with me on January 5.” Given this statement, it’s worthwhile to say a little more about two of these men.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Jim Penrose</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">According to The Hill, Penrose is “a former head of the National Security Agency’s Operational Discovery Center.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Besides having run an operational center for the NSA—which sounds oddly similar to Eastman’s depiction of the Willard Hotel war room as having been a “communications coordination” center during the insurrection—one of Jim Penrose’s specializations, reportedly, is “how misinformation campaigns [can]…influence elections.” Does this mean that Trump had a misinformation operations expert running a secret war room during the January 6 insurrection? That’s a question the FBI will now need to answer.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Russell (“Russ”) Ramsland Jr.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Russ Ramsland co-founded Allied Security Operations Group (ASOG), a Dallas-area cybersecurity firm, with a number of men, among whom was Adam Kraft, a former DIA employee of Michael Flynn.     Jenna Ellis, a senior legal adviser to Trump after the 2020 election, has referred to ASOG as “our [Trump’s] team” on Fox News Channel.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Washington Post writes that in 2018 ASOG began pitching GOP candidates on schemes to challenge their election losses by claiming election fraud. Per the Post,</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">By late 2019, ASOG’s examination [of elections in which Republicans had lost] had moved beyond audit logs. Among other claims, Ramsland was repeating the ominous idea that election software used in the United States originated in Venezuela, and saying nefarious actors could surreptitiously manipulate votes on a massive scale. As the 2020 election approached, he privately briefed GOP lawmakers in Washington and met with officials from the Department of Homeland Security, documents and interviews show. ASOG’s examination [of elections] by last summer [the summer of 2020] had already cost more than $1 million, according to a document the company gave government officials that was obtained by the Post. Ramsland had sought funding from Republican donors whose fortunes were made in the oil, gas and fracking industries.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">There’s more of interest here than can be unpacked in one article. For instance, Stop the Steal’s Ali Alexander is believed to have contacted a DHS number to join a 90-minute conference call on December 21, 2020, the same day Trump met in the Oval Office with a delegation from the House Freedom Caucus led by Rep. Gosar (R-AZ), Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL), Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA). Of the call to DHS, Alexander wrote on Twitter that he hoped it would “change the world”, raising the question of who at DHS could have been in contact with Alexander, and whether they were also in touch with Ramsland as he worked with Trump’s legal team. {Note: While I’ve confirmed that Alexander called a “DHS” number, it remains unclear whether it’s a “Department of Homeland Security” call-in number or a D.C. “Department of Human Services” number; in the latter case, the call may have been about January 6 permitting, though it’s unclear why this would “change the world.”}</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Trump’s 2019 and 2020 efforts to steal the election—detailed in Proof of Corruption—were linked to, among others, Texas Republican donors whose fortunes were made in the oil, gas, and fracking industries, an echo of the phrase used to describe Ramsland’s donors and investors. Were any of the individuals who met in Texas in 2019 with Rudy Giuliani, Lev Parnas, Igor Fruman, and Florida-based Trump donor Harry Sargeant III to discuss the 2020 election, energy issues, and pro-Kremlin Ukrainian oligarchs who allegedly had dirt on Joe Biden involved in funding Ramsland’s dubious pre- and post-election “election integrity” efforts? Republican donors who made their fortunes in the oil, gas, and fracking industries were also, as Proof of Corruption details, involved in Trump’s clandestine outreach to Venezuela in 2019 and 2020—Venezuela being the nation in which the Post says Ramsland’s donors were hoping he’d look for and find political dissidents to reveal a supposed election-theft scheme originating in Caracas.[ghost of hugo chavez?]</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Post notes that Ramsland’s lies “were circulated by Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX), a staunch Trump ally who had been briefed by ASOG. And Ramsland’s assertions were incorporated in the ‘kraken’ lawsuits filed by conservative lawyer Sidney Powell—who the Post has learned had also been briefed two years earlier by ASOG—and aired publicly by Rudy Giuliani, then Trump’s personal attorney, as they tried to overturn Joe Biden’s victories in key states.” Rep. Gohmert attended the December 21 pre-insurrection meeting at the White House, intended as a follow-up to the raucous December 18 Oval Office meeting attended by Giuliani and Powell. This underscores that, at a minimum, three individuals who Ramsland had worked with to spread false claims of election fraud were in the Oval Office with Trump during the 120 hours—December 17 to December 21—it appears the initial planning for the insurrection occurred. Indeed, the Post writes the following of November and December of 2020:</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">During that period, Trump was hyper-focused on making the case that the election had been rigged, former White House aides said. He would listen to “literally anyone” who had a theory about it, in the words of one former senior administration official.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Post alleges that at least three such “anyones”—Gohmert, Powell, and Giuliani—were part of Ramsland’s “network” of collaborators. Per the Post, “ASOG provided research for Powell and Giuliani but…[Ramsland] never spoke[ ] to Trump himself.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Whether or not Ramsland spoke with Trump pre-insurrection, the fact that he is, per the Post, a Cruz donor as well as a Trump donor; someone whose first client was an “associate of Steve Bannon”; co-founder of ASOG with a Flynn associate; and a man who successfully lobbied top Trump congressional ally Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) to use his services underscores that if he was in the Willard war room on January 5 the number of Trump associates who may have been there, nearby, or in contact with the war room is considerable.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Beyond the obvious figures, others written about at Proof but with less frequency may also be in the picture with respect to the Willard war room. The Post reports that one apparent investor in Ramsland’s efforts to spread election conspiracy theories prior to the 2020 election was Charles Richard Saulsbury, the fabulously wealthy Texan whose son Bubba Saulsbury was with Mike Pence at the vice presidential mansion on the night of January 5, as exclusively reported by Proof. If a Ramsland investor was with Pence while Ramsland was at the Willard, is it possible that any phone- or video-conferenced strategy session that evening involved not just the Trump International and Willard Hotel war rooms but both the White House and vice president’s mansion? We can’t, at present, know this. But we do know that Bubba Saulsbury—who’d come to D.C. thrilled about marching to the Capitol—saw or heard something on the evening of January 5, while with Pence, that caused him to flee Washington the next morning to avoid all of the events of January 6. What had Bubba Saulsbury heard, and from whom?</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">{Note: Saulsbury’s Facebook photos indicate he was staying at Trump International Hotel.}</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Post reports that, during the time Ramsland may have been receiving investments from the Saulsburys—in 2019 and beyond—everything he did “became about getting to Trump. He had this idea [that] it [his plan to challenge elections Republicans had lost] had to get to Trump.” This doesn’t sound like a man who would have sat at the Willard on January 5 without making any attempt to get in touch with the president.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Indeed, the Post reports that “In July 2020, ASOG gave a two-hour briefing to seven members of the House Freedom Caucus”—possibly the same seven Freedom Caucus members who five months later would be in the Oval Office discussing an allegedly stolen election with Trump: Gosar, Brooks, Biggs, Gohmert, Gaetz, Greene, and Rep. Jody Hice (R-GA). Certainly, Trump was well aware of Ramsland by mid-November of 2020, with the Post reporting that “late on November 15, Trump retweeted to his millions of followers a video clip of Ramsland saying in a pre-election interview that votes from twenty-nine states were routed through ‘a server in Frankfurt, Germany’ and that [Spanish election systems company] Scytl ‘controls and reports your vote.’”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">But Ramsland’s connections to key insurrectionists go well beyond these, to include ex-Trump legal adviser Lin Wood and Giuliani cybersecurity adviser Phil Waldron. The Post writes that “Ramsland contributed material to [Sidney] Powell’s lawsuits and to one brought by L. Lin Wood Jr., another pro-Trump lawyer, seeking to overturn Biden’s victory”, and also that “Phil Waldron, a retired Army colonel who specialized in psychological operations and is now chief executive of a cybersecurity firm…said he was working with ASOG to examine the 2020 election.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Even former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne, a participant in the unprecedentedly wild December 18 meeting at the White House, is tied to Ramsland. Per the Post, “By December [2020], Ramsland was opening doors for people seeking to challenge the election results. He connected Patrick Byrne, the billionaire former CEO of the online retailer Overstock, with Powell, and Powell connected Byrne with Giuliani.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">So if Eastman was with Ramsland in the second Trump war room on Insurrection Eve, did Ramsland’s associates Ellis, Gohmert, Byrne, Bannon, Wood, Powell, Saulsbury, Sessions, Waldron, Giuliani, or Flynn join them there at any point on January 5 or 6?</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">(2) Eastman was in the Oval Office on January 4 in a previously unreported meeting.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">According to the ex-law professor, on January 4 three people met in the Oval Office with him and Donald Trump: Pence, Pence’s chief of staff Marc Short, and Pence’s general counsel Greg Jacob. Per Eastman, prior to the meeting someone had advised Trump that “law review articles” written about the 2000 election indicated that “maybe the Vice President had unilateral authority to determine the validity of electoral votes.” Presumably it was not Eastman who provided such erroneous counsel to Trump, as Eastman says that during his meeting with Trump and Pence, </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Pence asked Eastman if he believed vice presidents had the authority that Trump had been advised they had, and Eastman purportedly told Pence it was an “open question.” But per Eastman, he nevertheless told Pence it would be “foolish” to accept the alternate slates of electors the Trump campaign had had sent to D.C., as none had been certified by any state legislature. Eastman says he advised Pence to “delay the proceedings [in Congress]” in “response to the [GOP] state legislatures” that wanted time to “audit” their votes.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">This meeting corroborates prior Proof reporting on Trump’s plan for January 6, which was not to win re-election—an impossibility—but simply to allow for so much chaos on Capitol Hill that Congress’ joint session would have to be postponed, giving GOP-led batlleground-state legislatures time to decertify their electors. As Eastman advised Pence and Trump on January 4, under such a scenario GOP-led state legislatures could try to certify new slates of Trump electors, arguably putting Pence in a novel situation the second time Congress met to certify Biden’s victory. Many of the voter suppression bills the GOP is now pushing across America are “insurrectionist” in just this way; they aim to realize the vision of our democracy that Eastman shared with Trump and Pence on January 4—one in which state legislatures decide elections, not U.S. voters.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Conclusion</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Willard war room seems to have been focused on “coordinating communications” to ensure sufficient delay in the joint session of Congress that a coup of the incoming Biden administration would be possible through the creation of new slates of certified electors. While we know that the Willard war room hosted an advisory corps focused on the administrative components of this plot, the evidence also suggests that present in this second war room may have been individuals like Stone, Jones, Alexander, Flynn, Stockton, Lawrence, and Shroyer, who lacked the qualifications to have any role in any such administrative component—but would have been of great utility in orchestrating a paramilitary component to Trump’s plan to delay the certification of Biden’s victory.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">At the nexus of these two parts of Trump’s apparent coup plan was Giuliani, whose ties to both of the two teams that appear to have used the Willard were considerable. Notably, it was Giuliani who said at the Ellipse, “Let’s have trial by combat!”—a line equally relevant to the administrative components of such a plot or paramilitary ones.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A robust investigation of the Willard Hotel “war room” has only just begun. Its size, technological capacities, traffic, purpose, and full roster of attendees remain an open question. This article therefore serves as only the first of a series of articles about this critical development in the story of the January 6 insurrection. More is forthcoming.</div></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</div></div><div>=</div><div><h1 class="widgetheadline h1" style="margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; cursor: pointer; overflow-wrap: break-word; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">r<a class="widgetheadline-text custom-post-headline" href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/10/michael-flynn/" aria-label="Revealed: Mike Flynn hid $200K payments for Middle East nuclear plan before joining White House" data-type="text" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; word-break: break-word; outline: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 25px;">evealed: Mike Flynn hid $200K payments for Middle East nuclear plan before joining White House</a></h1><div class="social-author clearfix" style="margin-top: 10px; display: inline-block; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a class="social-authorname" href="https://www.alternet.org/author/travis-gettys" data-type="text" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.4; display: inline; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;">Travis Gettys</a> <a class="social-authorname" href="https://www.alternet.org/author/raw-story" data-type="text" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.4; display: inline; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;">Raw Story</a></div> <div class="social-date" style="margin-top: 8px; display: inline-block; vertical-align: top; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> October 04, 2021</div><div class="body js-expandable clearfix js-listicle-body css-listicle-body-2655218162" style="margin-top: 10px; -webkit-box-orient: vertical; text-overflow: ellipsis; overflow: hidden; display: -webkit-box; -webkit-line-clamp: 4; line-height: 31px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="body-description">Michael Flynn <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com./politics/politics-news/michael-flynn-nuclear-middle-east-secret-payments-1236261/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; overflow-wrap: break-word;">received</a> $200,000 in undisclosed payments for consulting work in the Middle East before joining Donald Trump's administration.The retired U.S. Army general was paid for his work ...[nuclear?]</div></div></div><div>=</div><div>Rebekah Mercer reportedly led a major reorganization of Trump's 2016 campaign, connecting him with Bannon and former Cruz adviser Kellyanne Conway, who would replace Paul Manafort at the helm of the team. Mercer, who also served on the Trump transition's executive committee, pushed for Trump to hire Flynn, a retired Army lieutenant general who was forced to resign less than a month into Trump's presidency amid a criminal investigation and now spreads QAnon conspiracy theories online.igor salon</div><div></div><div>wendy s medium 2018? russia disinfo network:</div><div>
</div><div><h1 id="e773" class="jw jx fv bb jy jz ka ie kb kc kd ig ke kf kg kh ki kj kk kl km kn ko kp kq kr gr" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="letter-spacing: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.95em 0px -0.28em; line-height: 36px;">Michael Flynn-related entities</h1><p id="0348" class="ib ic fv id b gt ks ie if gw kt ig ih ii ku ij ik il kv im in io kw ip iq is dn gr" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="margin: 0.86em 0px -0.46em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; word-break: break-word; line-height: 32px; letter-spacing: -0.003em;">Michael Flynn has barely been in the news recently, especially since he <a href="https://www.justice.gov/file/1015121/download" class="dy kx" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;">pleaded guilty</a> to making false statements to the FBI at the end of 2017. However, as one of the earliest members of Trump’s campaign, and one of the most senior members of Trump’s administration for a short time, Flynn was involved with many people and companies that did social media and influence work on behalf of Trump.<ul class="" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none none;"><li id="a795" class="ib ic fv id b gt jr ie if gw js ig ih ii jt ij ik il ju im in io jv ip iq is lh li lj gr" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 32px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; margin-bottom: -0.46em; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 30px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 2em;">In August 2017 Flynn <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/flynn-files-amended-disclosure-report-showing-additional-payments/2017/08/03/c76180c8-78a4-11e7-9eac-d56bd5568db8_story.html?utm_term=.1463304fa2e0" class="dy kx" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;">amended his financial disclosure form</a> to show he had agreed to work with SCL Group, the parent company of Cambridge Analytica, to help win new US government contracts. However, a source reported that Flynn did not receive compensation or perform any work.</li><li id="13d4" class="ib ic fv id b gt lk ie if gw ll ig ih ii lm ij ik il ln im in io lo ip iq is lh li lj gr" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 32px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; margin-bottom: -0.46em; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 30px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 1.05em;">In the US, Cambridge Analytica <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/after-working-for-trumps-campaign-british-data-firm-eyes-new-us-government-contracts/2017/02/17/a6dee3c6-f40c-11e6-8d72-263470bf0401_story.html?utm_term=.4af041c9a15e" class="dy kx" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;">hired Josh Weerasinghe</a>, who had worked at defense company BAE Systems and had previously worked with Flynn at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, to focus on winning US government contracts.</li><li id="ec9f" class="ib ic fv id b gt lk ie if gw ll ig ih ii lm ij ik il ln im in io lo ip iq is lh li lj gr" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 32px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; margin-bottom: -0.46em; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 30px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 1.05em;">In April 2018, Senator Bob Menendez on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee <a href="https://www.foreign.senate.gov/press/ranking/release/menendez-questions-government-contract-to-cambridge-analytica-parent-company-and-raises-ethical-and-legal-concerns-about-its-work-in-foreign-countries" class="dy kx" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;">sent two letters</a> to the State Department and SCL Group requesting information on the $490K State Department contract awarded to SCL “when Michael Flynn was serving as an advisor for the company and on President Trump’s transition team.” The letters requested a detailed description of the work that Michael Flynn performed as an advisor for SCL Group.</li><li id="952e" class="ib ic fv id b gt lk ie if gw ll ig ih ii lm ij ik il ln im in io lo ip iq is lh li lj gr" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 32px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; margin-bottom: -0.46em; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 30px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 1.05em;">As reported earlier, Flynn <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/inside-the-mysterious-intelligence-firm-now-in-muellers-sights" class="dy kx" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;">allegedly had interactions</a> with Joel Zamel, the founder of Psy-Group and Wikistrat, who wanted Flynn to join the advisory board of Wikistrat.</li></ul><h2 id="e0a4" class="ky jx fv bb jy kz la gv kb lb lc gy ke gz ld hb ki hc le he km hf lf hh kq lg gr" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="letter-spacing: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.72em 0px -0.31em; line-height: 28px;">Flynn Intel Group</h2><ul class="" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none none;"><li id="bfba" class="ib ic fv id b gt ks ie if gw kt ig ih ii ku ij ik il kv im in io kw ip iq is lh li lj gr" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 32px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; margin-bottom: -0.46em; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 30px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0.86em;">Flynn <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/18/us/politics/michael-flynn-intel-group-trump.html" class="dy kx" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;">started his company</a>, Flynn Intel Group, in 2014 and closed it at the end of 2016 before he joined the Trump administration. Flynn partnered with Bijan Kian and Philip Oakley, and according to company records, Flynn Intel Group was “a premier private intelligence and cybersecurity advisory firm.” Flynn received small payments from Russian firms Kaspersky Labs and Volga-Dnepr Airlines. And <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/18/us/politics/michael-flynn-intel-group-trump.html" class="dy kx" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;">according to the NYT</a> Flynn joined the advisory board of OSY Technologies, part of the NSO Group, a secretive cyberweapons dealer founded by former Israeli intelligence officials.</li><li id="9f15" class="ib ic fv id b gt lk ie if gw ll ig ih ii lm ij ik il ln im in io lo ip iq is lh li lj gr" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 32px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; margin-bottom: -0.46em; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 30px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 1.05em;">Bijan Kian introduced Turkish businessman Ekim Alptekin to Flynn Intel Group to do PR and lobbying work against Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish cleric and someone Erdogan considered an enemy, who was living in Pennsylvania. Alptekin paid Flynn Intel Group $530K through his Netherlands-based company Inovo BV and Alptekin said funding <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/05/michael-flynn-mystery-payment-foreign-agent-turkey-alptekin/" class="dy kx" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;">also came from</a> Ratio Oil Exploration, an Israeli natural gas company — although the firm denied any connection to Alptekin.</li><li id="e1f6" class="ib ic fv id b gt lk ie if gw ll ig ih ii lm ij ik il ln im in io lo ip iq is lh li lj gr" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 32px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; margin-bottom: -0.46em; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 30px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 1.05em;">FIG Cyber: Tim Newberry, who co-founded White Canvas and VizSense with Jon Iadonisis, listed on his LinkedIn profile that in August 2016 he was chief executive of FIG Cyber, a unit of Flynn Intel Group.</li></ul><h2 id="8d17" class="ky jx fv bb jy kz la gv kb lb lc gy ke gz ld hb ki hc le he km hf lf hh kq lg gr" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="letter-spacing: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.72em 0px -0.31em; font-weight: 500; line-height: 28px;">White Canvas and VizSense</h2><ul class="" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none none;"><li id="52d0" class="ib ic fv id b gt ks ie if gw kt ig ih ii ku ij ik il kv im in io kw ip iq is lh li lj gr" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 32px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; margin-bottom: -0.46em; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 30px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0.86em;">White Canvas was founded by Jon Iadonisi, a former Navy SEAL, and Tim Newberry, and is <a href="https://angel.co/white-canvas-group" class="dy kx" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;">described</a> as a technology company with expertise in cyber operations, digital influence, social media, and other areas. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/the-mystery-behind-a-flynn-associates-quiet-work-for-the-trump-campaign/2017/05/04/fc86980e-3044-11e7-9534-00e4656c22aa_story.html?utm_term=.3af3943beae2" class="dy kx" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;">Iadonisi was close to Michael Flynn</a> and had served with him in Iraq, and reportedly Flynn Intel Group had rented office space from White Canvas. White Canvas received $150,000 in 2016 from the Navy for “deep and dark web capability and gap analysis.”</li><li id="dc76" class="ib ic fv id b gt lk ie if gw ll ig ih ii lm ij ik il ln im in io lo ip iq is lh li lj gr" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 32px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; margin-bottom: -0.46em; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 30px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 1.05em;">VizSense was created by Jon Iadonisi and Tim Newberry as a spinoff from White Canvas. Michael Flynn’s companies as well as those run by Iadonisi and Newberry overlap in many ways. For example, in Flynn’s contract with Inovo BV, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/the-mystery-behind-a-flynn-associates-quiet-work-for-the-trump-campaign/2017/05/04/fc86980e-3044-11e7-9534-00e4656c22aa_story.html?utm_term=.1e000068a60d" class="dy kx" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;">it appeared</a> that Tim Newberry worked for Flynn Intel group as the head of their “Special Operations Cyber Force.”</li><li id="d898" class="ib ic fv id b gt lk ie if gw ll ig ih ii lm ij ik il ln im in io lo ip iq is lh li lj gr" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 32px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; margin-bottom: -0.46em; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 30px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 1.05em;">In May 2017 the Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/the-mystery-behind-a-flynn-associates-quiet-work-for-the-trump-campaign/2017/05/04/fc86980e-3044-11e7-9534-00e4656c22aa_story.html?utm_term=.1e000068a60d" class="dy kx" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;">reported</a> that Flynn’s friend and business associate Jon Iadonisi was doing work to help Flynn on behalf of the Turkish government and Ioadonisi was also doing social media work on behalf of Trump. FEC filings showed that the Trump campaign paid $200,000 for “data management services” to Colt Ventures, which was an investor in Iadonisi’s social media company VizSense. The payment was for “a social-media project that involved video-content creation and “millennial engagement” in the campaign’s final month.”</li></ul><h2 id="7bae" class="ky jx fv bb jy kz la gv kb lb lc gy ke gz ld hb ki hc le he km hf lf hh kq lg gr" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="letter-spacing: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.72em 0px -0.31em; font-weight: 500; line-height: 28px;"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/the-mystery-behind-a-flynn-associates-quiet-work-for-the-trump-campaign/2017/05/04/fc86980e-3044-11e7-9534-00e4656c22aa_story.html?utm_term=.0f2df811eace" class="dy kx" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;">Colt Ventures</a></h2><ul class="" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none none;"><li id="e2bd" class="ib ic fv id b gt ks ie if gw kt ig ih ii ku ij ik il kv im in io kw ip iq is lh li lj gr" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 32px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; margin-bottom: -0.46em; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 30px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0.86em;">Colt Ventures was founded by Darren Blanton who served as <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/03/reuters-america-prior-to-his-sec-nomination-clayton-communicated-with-sec-contractor.html" class="dy kx" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;">an adviser to Trump’s transition</a>. Blanton met frequently with Steve Bannon and reported to him on work done for the campaign, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/the-mystery-behind-a-flynn-associates-quiet-work-for-the-trump-campaign/2017/05/04/fc86980e-3044-11e7-9534-00e4656c22aa_story.html?utm_term=.1e000068a60d" class="dy kx" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;">according to a source</a>.</li><li id="4b24" class="ib ic fv id b gt lk ie if gw ll ig ih ii lm ij ik il ln im in io lo ip iq is lh li lj gr" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 32px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; margin-bottom: -0.46em; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 30px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 1.05em;">A May 2018 <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-05-29/inside-the-pro-trump-effort-to-keep-black-voters-from-the-polls" class="dy kx" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;">Bloomberg story</a> described efforts to win Black voters for Trump, and how a Breitbart writer, along with Steve Bannon, recruited Bruce Carter to target three areas, Florida, Philadelphia, and North Carolina. Bannon introduced Carter to Darren Blanton and Jon Iadonisi to help provide funding and social media support for Carter’s efforts, although it’s not clear if funding was provided. In October 2016, during the final presidential debate in Las Vegas, Blanton introduced Carter to Erik Prince and Michael Flynn, and then later to Rebekah Mercer.</li><li id="ee70" class="ib ic fv id b gt lk ie if gw ll ig ih ii lm ij ik il ln im in io lo ip iq is lh li lj gr" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 32px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; margin-bottom: -0.46em; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 30px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 1.05em;">Based on the <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-05-29/inside-the-pro-trump-effort-to-keep-black-voters-from-the-polls" class="dy kx" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent;">Bloomberg story</a>, it appears that Darren Blanton, who ran Colt Ventures which was a part owner of Jon Iodonisi and Tim Newberry’s firm VizSense, also knew Erik Prince, Steve Bannon, and Rebekah Mercer. This raises a bigger question about whether or not the companies Flynn was indirectly connected to — VizSense, White Canvas, and Colt Ventures — had any business involvement with SCL or Cambridge Analytica?</li></ul><h1 id="f58b" class="jw jx fv bb jy jz ka ie kb kc kd ig ke kf kg kh ki kj kk kl km kn ko kp kq kr gr" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="letter-spacing: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.95em 0px -0.28em; line-height: 36px; font-weight: 500;">Additional Entities Not Included in Chart</h1><h2 id="8379" class="ky jx fv bb jy kz la gv kb lb lc gy ke gz ld hb ki hc le he km hf lf hh kq lg gr" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="letter-spacing: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.72em 0px -0.31em; font-weight: 500; line-height: 28px;">Data sources reportedly affiliated with campaign:</h2><ul class="" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; list-style: none none;"><li id="0967" class="ib ic fv id b gt ks ie if gw kt ig ih ii ku ij ik il kv im in io kw ip iq is lh li lj gr" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 32px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; margin-bottom: -0.46em; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 30px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0.86em;">Facebook</li><li id="0a4e" class="ib ic fv id b gt lk ie if gw ll ig ih ii lm ij ik il ln im in io lo ip iq is lh li lj gr" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 32px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; margin-bottom: -0.46em; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 30px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 1.05em;">RNC</li><li id="0d38" class="ib ic fv id b gt lk ie if gw ll ig ih ii lm ij ik il ln im in io lo ip iq is lh li lj gr" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 32px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; margin-bottom: -0.46em; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 30px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 1.05em;">Palantir</li><li id="dae3" class="ib ic fv id b gt lk ie if gw ll ig ih ii lm ij ik il ln im in io lo ip iq is lh li lj gr" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 32px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; margin-bottom: -0.46em; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 30px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 1.05em;">Experian</li><li id="5e1c" class="ib ic fv id b gt lk ie if gw ll ig ih ii lm ij ik il ln im in io lo ip iq is lh li lj gr" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 32px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; margin-bottom: -0.46em; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 30px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 1.05em;">Acxiom</li><li id="16ea" class="ib ic fv id b gt lk ie if gw ll ig ih ii lm ij ik il ln im in io lo ip iq is lh li lj gr" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 32px; letter-spacing: -0.003em; margin-bottom: -0.46em; list-style-type: disc; margin-left: 30px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 1.05em;">InfoGroup</li></ul><h2 id="dd02" class="ky jx fv bb jy kz la gv kb lb lc gy ke gz ld hb ki hc le he km hf lf hh kq lg gr" data-selectable-paragraph="" style="letter-spacing: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.72em 0px -0.31em; font-weight: 500; line-height: 28px;">Others:...</h2></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-gop-doesnt-care-that-trump-planned-a-coup-do-democrats">https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-gop-doesnt-care-that-trump-planned-a-coup-do-democrats</a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">no lnx</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">mich AG scheuette #2 got promoted? GA AG? quit b/c he got headsup he was about to tweet trumped?]</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">CAPITOL RIOTS</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The GOP Doesn’t Care That Trump Planned a Coup. Do Democrats?</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">‘PURE INSANITY’</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">OPINION</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">New emails show Jan. 6 was just a preview. The GOP and its allies in Congress, law enforcement, and conservative media will attempt another coup when they lose another election.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Wajahat Ali</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Updated Jun. 16, 2021 9:26AM ET / Published Jun. 15, 2021 10:58PM ET </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Thanks to the bombshell documents the House Oversight and Reform Committee released just ahead of Tuesday’s hearing on the Jan. 6 insurrection, Americans have a clear and unmistakable view of just how far former President Donald Trump went in trying to corrupt our democratic institutions, engage in a violent coup, and overturn our free and fair election.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“These documents show that President Trump tried to corrupt our nation’s chief law enforcement agency in a brazen attempt to overturn an election that he lost,” said Democratic committee chairwoman Carolyn Maloney. She’s absolutely correct. I would add one simple edit: It’s Trump and the GOP. He attempted a coup—and, yes, we should all use the word—and he’s still trying, with ample help from Republicans.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">If you consider that hyperbole, I direct you to those bombshell documents revealing how the Trump administration, including chief of staff Mark Meadows, attempted to pressure the Department of Justice to advance dangerous conspiracy theories of election fraud and influence courts to nullify the election results so Trump could stay in power.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Trump Pushed Barr’s Successor to Probe Big Lie: New Emails</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">‘BRAZEN CORRUPTION’</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Justin Rohrlich</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div>An hour before announcing his Attorney General Bill Barr would be stepping down, no doubt because he refused to promote “the Big Lie,” Trump’s assistant sent an email to Jeffrey Rosen, his incoming attorney general, showing evidence of alleged “election fraud” in northern Michigan and “talking points” to advance the obvious lie. Two weeks later, Trump’s White House sent a draft brief to Rosen for the DOJ to submit to the Supreme Court intended to effectively nullify the 2020 election and help Trump usurp power. Transcribed interviews with former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows reveal he directly pressured DOJ officials at least five times to investigate batshit conspiracy theories, including one suggesting that satellite technology from Europe was used to tamper with US voting equipment.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">It appears Rosen, and other senior members of the DOJ, were not willing to pledge allegiance to Trump over the United States. “Pure insanity” is how Rosen and Richard Donoghue, who was the acting deputy attorney general, described Meadows’ emails. Trump then considered replacing Rosen with a sympathetic sycophant, Jeffrey Clark, who was then acting head of the civil division, to continue influencing the DOJ to help him succeed in his criminal, authoritarian coup.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">These revelations, which are shocking and should be thoroughly investigated, come on the heels of the equally jaw-dropping but totally unsurprising news that the Justice Department, acting as Trump’s Luca Brasi, decided to retaliate against Democrats and the media. Specifically, prosecutors subpoenaed Apple for phone records of Democratic Representatives Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell, their aides and family members, including a minor. The Justice Department also sought to retaliate against reporters and media outlets for “leaks” and attempted to seize thousands of emails and phone records of news outlets’ reporters.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">If this sounds like the thuggish tactics used by strongmen and corrupt rulers in authoritarian regimes, well, it is. Let’s not forget Trump continues to praise Putin, and was friendly with Hungary’s Orban, who was “Trump before Trump,” Brazil’s Bolsonaro, Turkey’s Erdogan, Saudi Arabia’s Muhammad bin Salman, Israel’s Netanyahu, who is desperately copying Trump’s tactics to remain relevant, Egypt’s Sisi, and the Philippines’ Dutarte. None of them is particularly celebrated as champions of human rights, the free press, an independent judiciary or the small inconvenience known as a democracy by and for the people.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Thankfully, Trump lost and his efforts to erase his loss fell short, but his corrupting presence has contaminated not only the GOP but also the Department of Justice and law enforcement. We still don’t know the extent of how Trump and his allies pressured, corrupted and manipulated our democratic institutions from within to advance their perverse schemes for power and profit. What I do know after watching this hearing is that Jan. 6 was simply a sneak preview. The GOP and its right-wing allies in Congress, law enforcement, and conservative media are going to attempt another coup when they lose another election.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div>At Tuesday’s hearing, the committee wanted to investigate why it took the National Guard nearly four hours to respond to the U.S. Capitol breach even though top officials at the Defense Department received 12 urgent requests for help[said flynn bro gen'l not involved, then 180]</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> from the Capitol police chief and mayor. Meanwhile, Army leaders told the National Guard to “stand by” five times even as violence escalated, which eventually claimed five lives. Pipe bombs were also found near the U.S. Capitol and some of the protesters came with weapons, intending to assassinate Vice President Mike Pence and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. We also know that officers are being investigated for their alleged role in the insurrection and that white supremacist groups, sympathetic to Trump and the GOP, have tried to infiltrate law enforcement agencies across the country.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The committee had the opportunity to question FBI director Christopher Wray, Gen. Charles Flynn—the brother of Michael Flynn, who was Trump’s disgraced national security adviser and is a prominent promoter of both the QAnon conspiracy and “the Big Lie”—and Lt. Gen. Walter Piatt, director of the Army Staff. It was revealed that Gen. Charles Flynn and Gen. Piatt were both involved in a phone call in which Army leaders were worried about the “optics” of sending in the National Guard. That’s the same National Guard that quickly responded with massive force to peaceful BLM protesters and cleared others out of Lafayette Square with tear gas and violence last summer. No such concerns for “optics” were present then.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">One would assume Republicans, who are allegedly so committed to law and order and national security that they held hearings on Benghazi and Clinton’s emails for years and have focused on antifa as a fake terrorist threat, would take the opportunity to dig deep into this massive failure of intelligence and law enforcement that allowed hundreds of armed, violent insurrections to take over the U.S. Capitol for the first time in 200 years. Or, they could ask FBI director Wray to do more to investigate and prosecute members of armed militias and white supremacist groups, some of whom participated in the violent insurrection, and are also the number one domestic terror threat in America.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Nope.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Instead, they used their time to whine, deflect and obstruct. They performed for their base and said the House should be spending its time and powers to investigate Dr. Fauci’s emails, the Wuhan lab theory, the border crisis, the threat of inflation and Biden’s economic policies. They also found time to whine about masking policies at the U.S. Capitol and to urge Americans to move on from the insurrection that Republican Rep. Clyde recently referred to as a “normal tourist visit.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div>It’s time for them to behave like Republicans and finally bring a bazooka to this knife fight.</div><div>If you were the party that was actively aiding and abetting a violent insurrection, you’d want to “move on” as well. It was a grotesque spectacle seeing Rep. Paul Gosar grill Wray on who “executed Ashli Babbitt,” and suggesting, without evidence, that the officer who shot her was hiding and waiting to kill her. Gosar didn’t spend time worrying about Officer Sicknick, who died trying to protect his colleagues from Babbitt and the violent mob. Neither did 21 Republicans in the House who just opposed a bill to award congressional gold medals for Capitol Police officers who defended them against a violent mob during the Jan. 6 insurrection.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Like some other House Republicans, Gosar actively supports white supremacist conspiracy theories, has ties to armed militia movements, and cheered on many of the events of Jan. 6. Wray said the FBI has arrested 500 people so far and is currently overseeing hundreds of investigations. They could start by talking to some Republicans like Gosar as members of his party have blocked a bipartisan commission to investigate the insurrection and acquitted Trump twice, with a majority of them even voting to cancel the election. Their conservative media ecosystem is actively gaslighting America and their base with dangerous conspiracy theories, as a majority of Republicans believe “the Big Lie” that Biden lost the 2020 election.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Thankfully, Democrats are in power. However, they retain a slim majority before the 2022 midterms that are stacked against them due to GOP gerrymandering and voter suppression. The question is whether this latest revelation of Trump and the GOP’s attempt to subvert democracy will force enough Democrats to finally abandon the dangerous illusion of “bipartisanship” and flex their power to fight for accountability and justice. One piece of good news is that Pelosi said Tuesday that the House committees will continue their investigations after Republicans blocked the Senate commission. Also, the House Oversight Committee said it will request Rosen, Meadows, and top Trump officials to appear for interviews in light of the latest revelations. Judging from what we’ve seen, Republicans won’t be forthcoming.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">If they don’t comply, will Democrats finally flex their subpoena power, do a media blitz, and unite on messaging that Republicans are actively aiding and abetting the destruction of our democracy? One can only hope. It’s time for Democrats to unleash hell, as I’ve discussed before both here and here.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Our democracy is worth it. It’s time for them to behave like Republicans and finally bring a bazooka to this knife fight. If they forfeit their power and principle for “bipartisanship” then they might as well acknowledge they are actively complicit with a counter-majoritarian, extremist GOP that is actively trying to subvert democracy in front of our eyes.</div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</div></div><div>=</div><div><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/michael-flynn/qanon-supporters-and-far-right-message-boards-follow-michael-flynns-lead-endorsing">https://www.mediamatters.org/michael-flynn/qanon-supporters-and-far-right-message-boards-follow-michael-flynns-lead-endorsing</a> coup</div><div>=</div><div>an 621</div><div>https://www.alternet.org/2020/12/mike-flynn-2649618737/</div><div>
</div><div>colin pwl cos ct martial</div><div>=</div><div>an 621</div><div>the  second-most revered figure in the QAnon conspiracy firmament called for a military coup in the United States. Again. Retired three-star general and former Trump campaign national security advisor Mike Flynn called for the end of democracy during a question-and-answer session last weekend at a QAnon conference in Dallas."I'm a simple Marine," a grizzled audience member said, "I wanna know why what happened in Minamar (sic) can't happen here." The room erupted. Flynn waited for the cheering to subside and said, "No reason. I mean, it should happen here."Flynn reportedly called the conference organizers to backtrack. He's now <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/31/politics/michael-flynn-qanon/index.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">denying</a> that he said what we all saw him say, but let's get one thing straight: Mike Flynn is a liar.Trump fired him for lying to Mike Pence about Russia. He pleaded guilty to <a href="https://www.npr.org/2017/12/01/561238303/michael-flynn-sr-expected-to-plead-guilty-to-lying-to-fbi" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">lying to the FBI</a>, but he lied in his <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/01/14/michael-flynn-guilty-plea-withdraw-099021" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">plea deal</a>, so Trump had to pardon him. Now he's lying about how he called for a military coup in the United States. On video. This is nothing new for Flynn. After the 2020 election, Flynn privately urged then-president Donald Trump to send troops to "<a href="https://www.axios.com/trump-oval-office-meeting-sidney-powell-a8e1e466-2e42-42d0-9cf1-26eb267f8723.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">re-run</a>" the election, an idea he'd previously floated in <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/news/530795-michael-flynn-trump-should-deploy-military-to-rerun-election" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">the media</a>.It's nothing new for QAnon either. QAnon supporters have <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/qanon-myanmar-burma-coup-conspiracy-theory-1121849/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">been cheering on</a> the coup in Myanmar since the military overthrew the democratically elected government in February. The junta has killed over <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/myanmar-military-fails-quell-protests-four-months-after-coup-2021-06-01/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">800 people</a>, including more than <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/04/world/asia/myanmar-coup-deaths-children.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">40 children</a>, but QAnon supporters don't know anything about Myanmar's internal politics. They just like coups. After Trump's failed coup attempt on January 6, many of them found it comforting to know a military still could overthrow a democracy somewhere.And why wouldn't they? The beating heart of QAnon's dark theology is The Storm, the military coup that is always right around the corner. The Storm is the day when Donald Trump and the armed forces liquidates QAnon's political enemies: Democrats, Hollywood celebrities, the media, and anyone who stands against them. The former president will retake his rightful place in the White House, democracy be damned.According to a new poll, nearly a quarter of white evangelicals believe <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/one-quarter-white-evangelicals-believe-qanon-storm-coming-restore-rightful-leaders-1596086" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">The Storm</a> is coming to restore "rightful leaders." This mythology fits naturally with the Big Lie that Trump won the election. QAnon believers heard Donald Trump's call to come to Washington on January 6 as the coming of the storm. Many of them believed they were being summoned to take part in the long-awaited battle between good and evil.Most normal people think of QAnon as the "pedo cabal" people. Indeed, QAnon talks a good game about saving the children from pedophiles. As disturbing as they sound, these child-abuse fantasies are good for recruiting unsuspecting converts. After all, everyone wants to prevent child abuse. QAnon has deep roots in evangelical Christianity and its most fervent proponents have thought long and hard—and written with uncharacteristic coherence—about how to best recruit. Attitude change begins with finding common ground. You can get almost anyone to agree that child abuse is a problem. That provides the common ground needed to begin a conversation in which the believer can plant seeds in the prospective convert's mind about other aspects of QAnon. This process is called "red-pilling," a reference to The Matrix, a movie during which the hero swallows the red pill to dissolve illusion and reveal ultimate reality.The news media's focus on pedophilia obscures the core of QAnon's ideology, which is a longing for glorious, purifying and revelational violence. The pedophiles of QAnon mythology are the alter-egos of powerful Democratic politicians, Hollywood celebrities, journalists and Jewish financiers George Soros and the Rothschilds. These are the villains who will be purged by the military when The Storm is finally upon us.Unfortunately for QAnon, normal people love democracy as much as they hate pedophilia. So recruiters don't open with talk of a coup. The faithful avoid talking about it to journalists. That's why Flynn is taking pains to walk back his comment. While The Storm is normal in QAnon circles, it's still taboo in the outside world.<div class="around-the-web" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="from-your-siteheadline" style="font-weight: 700; text-transform: uppercase;">FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES</div><ul class="around-the-weblist" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline-block; width: 589.446px; list-style: none;"><li class="from-your-siteitem"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/12/mike-flynn-2649618737/" class="from-your-sitelink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Ex-Colin Powell chief of staff says Michael Flynn should face court ... ›</a></li><li class="from-your-siteitem"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/05/michael-flynn/" class="from-your-sitelink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Americans demand court-martial for Flynn after call for military coup ... ›</a></li><li class="from-your-siteitem"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/06/mike-flynn/" class="from-your-sitelink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Mike Flynn: I did not call for a coup despite what that video shows ... ›</a></li></ul><div class="around-the-webheadline" style="font-weight: 700; text-transform: uppercase; margin-top: 10px;">RELATED ARTICLES AROUND THE WEB</div><ul class="around-the-weblist" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline-block; width: 589.446px; list-style: none;"><li class="around-the-webitem"><a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/ex-trump-adviser-michael-flynn-says-myanmar-like-coup-should-happen-in-u-s-11622426143" class="around-the-weblink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Ex-Trump adviser Michael Flynn says Myanmar-like coup 'should ... ›</a></li><li class="around-the-webitem"><a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/2021/6/1/22463268/michael-flynn-coup-comments-qanon-trump" class="around-the-weblink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Michael Flynn's comments about a Trump coup show QAnon is ... ›</a></li><li class="around-the-webitem"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/01/us/politics/flynn-coup-gohmert-qanon.html" class="around-the-weblink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Michael Flynn Suggests that a Coup Should Happen in the U.S. ... ›</a></li></ul></div></div><div>
</div><div><div>=</div><div>// gaetz 2nd amend duty?</div><div>Donie O'Sullivan is a reporter for CNN. His beat appears to be American conspiracy theories. He was on Anderson Cooper's show last night with reporting on a QAnon conference last weekend during which former Donald Trump adviser and pardoned traitor Michael Flynn said a Myanmar-style military coup "should happen" in America.That some people in this country long for purifying violence to "reinstate" Donald Trump to his "rightful place" is not what got my attention, though. What did was Donie O'Sullivan's editorial remark at the end of his report. This is <a href="https://twitter.com/donie/status/1399528736463241221?s=20" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">what he said</a>:<blockquote style="margin: 1em 40px 1em -5px; border-left: 4px solid rgb(11, 13, 101); line-height: 32px; padding: 10px 20px 10px 24px; width: 602.543px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">I spend a lot of time reading these pro-Trump forums, reading these QAnon forums online, and speaking to Trump supporters, and I will say of all the conspiracy theories we hear, this talk from Americans about a coup, cheering a coup, and hoping for a coup, in the United States is one of the most chilling things I hear.
</blockquote>Before I go on, I should say O'Sullivan appears to be an immigrant. (I think he's Irish, given his accent.) As such, I don't expect him to be as attuned to American political culture as I'd expect a native-born American to be. Indeed, as a non-native, I'd expect him to be more attuned to the American civic religion than native-born Americans generally are, because fealty to the civic religion is so often demanded of immigrants.
This civic religion believes military coups and their consequent dictatorships cannot happen in the United States. Ordinary Americans do not want them, moreover, because it would be against their civic religion. You can't quite tell from the written version of his remark, but when you watch the clip, you can hear O'Sullivan put a little more stress on "American" when he says he's chilled to hear Americans, of all people on this earth, talking "about a coup, cheering a coup, and hoping for a coup, in the United States." Implicit point: this is what Trump has done to the globe's oldest democracy.I suspect some of O'Sullivan's remark was showmanship. (He does work for CNN, after all.) But I think some of it, maybe most of it, reflects the conventional wisdom in Washington—that it's shocking to hear Americans talk this way. It's not shocking, though. It's familiar and quite normal when you know where to look. Fact is, lots of Americans believe they are God's chosen people. They believe the end of the world is coming, according to God's divine plan. They believe the US Constitution is a covenant with them only, and that a genocidal purge will preface Christ's return.This is the End Times I'm talking about, a story about global events culminating ic that "reinstates" the King of Kings to his rightful place. It's a story millions of Americans tell themselves and their children. It's a story in which the messy and hard-to-understand world around us is no such thing. Instead, it is polarized as conflict between God's friends and God's enemies. The only difficulty is decoding the signs and symbols God lays out. Reality isn't real. Reality is a sinful illusion. What's real is the trail of secrets leading the chosen safely to The End. Argument, language, reasoning—they don't matter. Only they can know The Truth.The conventional wisdom in Washington is that religion is off-limits. Therefore, the conventional wisdom in Washington does not see, because it will not see, that tens of millions of Americans already believe democracy is getting in the way of God's plan, that democracy is—and I mean this seriously—desecrating the sacredness of the US Constitution. As one critic put it, the Venn diagram showing the overlap of QAnon believers and white evangelical Protestants (and related groups) is actually a circle. When you stand with God against His enemies, you have God's permission to hate.That's their religion. No, it's not a cult. It's more than that. It's deeper than that. The hate felt by the former president's supporters during four years' worth of political rallies is the same hate for America as it stands, not as they desire it to stand, that right-wing religious radicals have felt since post-Civil War America. That's when Charles Darwin's theories and what they determined about humanity's place in God's divine scheme first gained traction in the United States. Every single intellectual development—from evolution then to Critical Race Theory now—has been met with such hate. I don't understand why the conventional wisdom looks away from history.Because it's easier, I guess. It's easier to maintain the myth of the civic religion; to be shocked by Americans talking about a military coup; to blame the former president for imperiling the world's oldest democracy. It's easier to respect religion without scrutinizing it too much, and risk discovering it's steeped in hate, which might force the conventional wisdom in Washington to take responsibility. On this one-year anniversary since Trump gassed Americans out of the way for a photo-op of him holding a Bible in front of a church, we need the truth. And that's never been easy.<div class="around-the-web" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="from-your-siteheadline" style="font-weight: 700; text-transform: uppercase;">FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES</div><ul class="around-the-weblist" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline-block; width: 589.446px; list-style: none;"><li class="from-your-siteitem"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2018/12/trump-is-like-colonel-kurtz-in-apocalypse-now-and-he-keeps-getting-crazier-and-crazier-cnns-joe-lockhart/" class="from-your-sitelink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Trump is like Colonel Kurtz in 'Apocalypse Now' -- and he keeps ... ›</a></li><li class="from-your-siteitem"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2018/08/trump-fought-veterans-over-plot-apocalypse-now/" class="from-your-sitelink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Trump Got Into Fight With Vietnam Veterans Over The Plot of ... ›</a></li><li class="from-your-siteitem"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/01/pence-and-the-apocalypse-the-vp-and-mike-pompeo-juggle-work-and-doomsday-rituals/" class="from-your-sitelink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Pence and the Apocalypse: Trump's VP and Mike Pompeo juggle ... ›</a></li></ul><div class="around-the-webheadline" style="font-weight: 700; text-transform: uppercase; margin-top: 10px;">RELATED ARTICLES AROUND THE WEB</div><ul class="around-the-weblist" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline-block; width: 589.446px; list-style: none;"><li class="around-the-webitem"><a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/01/evangelicals-are-anticipating-the-end-of-the-world-and-trump-is-listening/" class="around-the-weblink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Evangelicals Love Donald Trump for Many Reasons, But One of ... ›</a></li><li class="around-the-webitem"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/11/26/apocalyptic-myth-that-helps-explain-evangelical-support-trump/" class="around-the-weblink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">The apocalyptic myth that helps explain evangelical support for Trump ›</a></li><li class="around-the-webitem"><a href="https://americancompass.org/the-commons/the-trump-apocalypse/" class="around-the-weblink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">The Trump Apocalypse - American Compass ›</a></li></ul></div></div><div>=</div></div><div>=</div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/05/michael-flynn/">https://www.alternet.org/2021/05/michael-flynn/</a></div><div>
</div><div>traitor mem day, reverse mirror or just fact?</div><div>=</div><div>mirror of smartmatic kraken suits?</div><div><h1 class="widgetheadline h1" style="margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; cursor: pointer; overflow-wrap: break-word; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a class="widgetheadline-text custom-post-headline" href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/03/michael-flynn/" aria-label="Michael Flynn's family members file $75M lawsuit against CNN over QAnon video" data-type="text" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;" open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" word-break="word-break" break-word="break-word" outline="outline" px="px" overflow-wrap="overflow-wrap" font-size="font-size" line-height="line-height">Flynn's family members file $75M lawsuit against CNN over QAnon video</a></h1></div><div>321 an</div><div>=</div><div>
</div><div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/02/oval-office-meeting/">https://www.alternet.org/2021/02/oval-office-meeting/</a></div><div>President Donald Trump, weeks after losing the November 2020 election by more than 7 million votes and more than 70 electoral votes, discussed declaring national security emergency powers his White House attorneys told him he did not have.That's according to a stunning report that details a December 18 meeting in the Oval Office and the White House Residence from Axios, "<a href="https://www.axios.com/trump-oval-office-meeting-sidney-powell-a8e1e466-2e42-42d0-9cf1-26eb267f8723.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Inside the craziest meeting of the Trump presidency</a>."The meeting included White House senior adviser Eric Herschmann, White House counsel Pat Cipollone, and White House staff secretary Derek Lyons, on the one side, and former national security adviser Michael Flynn, former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne, former Trump administration official Emily Newman, and attorney Sidney Powell, who is now being sued for $1.3 billion by Dominion voting machines.Powell "proposed declaring a national security emergency, granting her and her cabal top-secret security clearances and using the U.S. government to seize Dominion's voting machines."At one point Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani joined by phone, and was forced to tell everyone in the "heated" meeting to calm down. Axios reports at one point the "meeting had come entirely off the rails," and says "people were yelling and cursing" inside the Oval Office.Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne, "wearing jeans, a hoodie and a neck gaiter, piped up with his own conspiracy: 'I know how this works. I bribed Hillary Clinton $18 million on behalf of the FBI for a sting operation,' he said, according to Axios."<blockquote style="margin: 1em 40px 1em -5px; border-left: 4px solid rgb(11, 13, 101); line-height: 32px; padding: 10px 20px 10px 24px; width: 602.543px; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">Herschmann stared at the eccentric millionaire. "What the hell are you talking about? Why would you say something like that?" Byrne brought up the bizarre Clinton bribery claim several more times during the meeting to the astonishment of White House lawyers.
Trump, for his part, also seemed perplexed by Byrne. But he was not entirely convinced the ideas Powell was presenting were insane.
He asked: You guys are offering me nothing. These guys are at least offering me a chance. They're saying they have the evidence. Why not try this? The president seemed truly to believe the election was stolen, and his overriding sentiment was, let's give this a shot.
The words "martial law" were never spoken during the meeting, despite Flynn having raised the idea in an appearance the previous day on Newsmax, a right-wing hive for election conspiracies.
But this was a distinction without much of a difference. What Flynn and Powell were proposing amounted to suspending normal laws and mobilizing the U.S. government to seize Dominion voting machines around the country.
</blockquote>Both Lyons and Morgan "expressed skepticism" about Flynn and Powell's idea of "invoking national security emergency powers.""Trump expressed skepticism at various points about Powell's theories, but he said, 'At least she's out there fighting.'"Axios adds the "handful of White House lawyers and advisers" were "determined to keep the president from giving in to temptation to invoke emergency national security powers, seize voting machines and disable the primary levers of American democracy."Read the entire report <a href="https://www.axios.com/trump-oval-office-meeting-sidney-powell-a8e1e466-2e42-42d0-9cf1-26eb267f8723.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">here</a>.<div class="around-the-web" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="from-your-siteheadline" style="font-weight: 700; text-transform: uppercase;">FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES</div><ul class="around-the-weblist" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline-block; width: 589.446px; list-style: none;"><li class="from-your-siteitem"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/12/white-house-trump-meeting-with-russian-foreign-minister-in-oval-office-was-to-discuss-election-security/" class="from-your-sitelink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">White House: Trump meeting with Russian foreign minister in Oval ... ›</a></li><li class="from-your-siteitem"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/white-house-silent-as-saudi-government-reveals-oval-office-meeting-with-trump-and-jared-kushner/" class="from-your-sitelink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">White House silent as Saudi government reveals Oval Office ... ›</a></li><li class="from-your-siteitem"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/12/flynn-2649564121/" class="from-your-sitelink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Trump floated Michael Flynn's 'martial law' suggestion during Oval ... ›</a></li></ul><div class="around-the-webheadline" style="font-weight: 700; text-transform: uppercase; margin-top: 10px;">RELATED ARTICLES AROUND THE WEB</div><ul class="around-the-weblist" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline-block; width: 589.446px; list-style: none;"><li class="around-the-webitem"><a href="https://apnews.com/article/0889e58309dd4fafb51fad0510b06a9a" class="around-the-weblink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Location, location: Why Ukraine leader aimed for Oval Office ›</a></li><li class="around-the-webitem"><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/19/politics/trump-oval-office-meeting-special-counsel-martial-law/index.html" class="around-the-weblink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Heated Oval Office meeting included talk of special counsel, martial ... ›</a></li><li class="around-the-webitem"><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-meeting-with-election-conspiracists-spiraled-into-screaming-match-2021-2" class="around-the-weblink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Trump meeting with election conspiracists spiraled into screaming ... ›</a></li></ul></div></div><div>
</div><div>=</div></div><div><div>=</div><div>omfg</div><div>
</div><div> Trump, according to CNN's Kaitlin Collins, has chosen <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/03/politics/donald-trump-medal-of-freedom/index.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Rep. Devin Nunes of California</a> to receive the Medal of Freedom — and Collins describes Trump's reasons for picking the far-right conspiracy theorist as a "doozy."According to an official statement from the Trump White House, Nunes' "courageous actions helped thwart a plot to take down a sitting United States president. He also forced the disclosure of documents that proved that a corrupt senior FBI official pursued a vindictive persecution of Gen. Michael Flynn — even after rank and file FBI agents found no evidence of wrongdoing."
Here are some of the incredulous reactions that Twitter users have had to what Collins accurately described as a "doozy":...</div><div>
</div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/01/devin-nunes/">https://www.alternet.org/2021/01/devin-nunes/</a></div><div>=</div></div><div>=</div><div><a href="https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/the-qanon-general-tracing-the-rise-fall-and-rebirth-of-michael-flynn/">https://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/the-qanon-general-tracing-the-rise-fall-and-rebirth-of-michael-flynn/</a></div><div>
</div><div><div>no lnx vid twt</div><div>
</div><div>The QAnon General: Tracing the Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of Michael Flynn</div><div>By Karim Zidan | December 18, 2020 </div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>RETIRED ARMY GEN. Michael Flynn was speaking to a crowd of unmasked Trump loyalists on the steps of the Supreme Court when Marine One flew overhead, soliciting cheers from the delighted audience. Flynn—a special guest speaker at the Dec. 12 rally—stopped mid-sentence and stood in awe of the helicopter while the crowd attempted to sing the national anthem.</div><div>
</div><div>“That’s pretty cool,” said Flynn, who served as President Donald Trump’s national security adviser for 22 days before resigning and eventually pleading guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia’s ambassador. “Imagine just being able to jump in a helicopter and just go for a joy ride around Washington.”</div><div>
</div><div>The retired Army lieutenant general continued where he left off, echoing unfounded allegations that Trump lost the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden because of widespread voter fraud. He called for “fair, transparent counts,” demanded that Americans get the “truth,” and called out the “media” for its supposed censorship of that truth.</div><div>
</div><div>“We’re waging a battle,” Flynn told the raucous crowd.</div><div>
</div><div>Flynn’s remarks came a day after the Supreme Court rejected a lawsuit from Texas that sought to overturn Biden’s wins in Wisconsin, Michigan, Georgia, and Pennsylvania. Despite the judicial decision, Flynn encouraged the crowd to have faith in their president and to seek out “avenues” to challenge the results of the election, insisting that the “courts aren’t going to decide who the next president of the United States is going to be. We the people decide.”</div><div>
</div><div>“In this crucible moment of our time, we have to pray that truth triumphs over lies, justice triumphs over abuse and fraud, honesty triumphs over corruption,” Flynn said. “Our sacred honor triumphs over infamy.”</div><div>
</div><div>After concluding his speech, the disgraced general, who has since been pardoned by Trump, stopped to enjoy his growing fandom among Trump loyalists. He smiled as the crowd chanted “Fight like Flynn” and was even chased by ravenous fans who screamed “We love you, general!” before being stopped by his bodyguards.</div><div>
</div><div>Despite Flynn’s unceremonious exit from Trump’s administration in 2017, the retired general remained popular with fringe corners of Trump’s loyal fanbase, including adherents of the far-right QAnon conspiracy theory. For years, Flynn has been an important component of the QAnon community, a portion of whom believe he holds pivotal secrets about the so-called “deep state.” His recent presidential pardon reinvigorated their conspiracy theories and validated his status as a hero to their cause—a cause that the general appears to have embraced himself.</div><div>
</div><div>“Flynn Facts”</div><div> </div><div>
</div><div>IN JULY 2016, Michael Flynn delivered a fiery speech at the Republican National Convention targeting Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton over her handling of top secret information. After calling Clinton “weak,” “spineless,” and “reckless,” Flynn led chants of “Lock her up” with the crowd in attendance.</div><div>
</div><div>“Yeah, that’s right; lock her up,” Flynn said while clapping into the microphone.</div><div>
</div><div>Less than seven months later, Flynn was dismissed from his post as Trump’s national security adviser shortly after The Washington Post revealed that the general had spoken to the Russian ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak, about sanctions between the two nations, and had later lied to the FBI about the conversation with Kislyak. Flynn continued to deny the accusations in the days leading up to his firing on Feb. 13, 2017.</div><div>
</div><div>Two months later, acting Attorney General Sally Yates testified to a Senate Judiciary panel that she believed “Gen. Flynn was compromised with respect to the Russians.”</div><div>
</div><div>“To state the obvious, you don’t want your national security adviser compromised by the Russians,” Yates, who was later fired for refusing to defend Trump’s travel ban, added.</div><div>
</div><div>By Nov. 30, 2017, Flynn had signed a plea agreement with special counsel and former FBI Director Robert Mueller, in which he acknowledged lying to the FBI about his sanctions conversation with Kislyak. Then, on Dec. 1, Flynn pleaded guilty and began cooperating with the special counsel’s investigation into the Kremlin’s interference in the 2016 election.</div><div>
</div><div>“I recognize that the actions I acknowledged in court today were wrong, and, through my faith in God, I am working to set things right,” Flynn said in a statement that day. “My guilty plea and agreement to cooperate with the Special Counsel’s Office reflect a decision I made in the best interests of my family and of our country. I accept full responsibility for my actions.”</div><div>
</div><div>Flynn’s plea agreement was a significant development in the Russia probe at the time. The retired lieutenant general was one of Trump’s top advisers during the 2016 presidential campaign. Though a registered Democrat, Flynn campaigned for Trump and attacked Clinton, even going so far as to accuse her and her aides of child-sex trafficking. Ironically, his son, Michael Flynn Jr., lost his job as one of Trump’s aides after posting similar tweets involving the Pizzagate conspiracy theory.</div><div>
</div><div>Flynn’s political tenure began long before Trump was campaigning for the U.S. presidency. In 2012, President Barack Obama promoted Flynn to director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, elevating him to one of the most powerful positions in U.S. military intelligence. During his time as head of the DIA, U.S. intelligence officials became concerned by Flynn’s contacts in Moscow. According to the New York Times, Flynn also made baseless assertions about Islam—he once incorrectly claimed that Islamic law, known as Shariah, is spreading in the United States—which his subordinates have labeled “Flynn Facts.” He was dismissed by Obama in 2014 and retired from the U.S. Army after 33 years of service later that year.</div><div>
</div><div>Michael Flynn seated two seats down from Vladimir Putin at RT gala in Moscow, Russia (Credit: Wikicommons)]</div><div>
</div><div>Following his retirement, Flynn founded the Flynn Intel Group Inc, a consulting agency that provided intelligence services for governments. In 2015, he attended a gala for the Russian state-owned RT media company in Moscow, Russia, where he was seated two seats down from Russian President Vladimir Putin and was paid $45,000 to give a talk during the event. Then, during the 2016 presidential campaign, it was revealed that Flynn was paid more than $500,000 to represent the interests of the Turkish government. While he did not work directly for the Turkish government, the firm that hired him is owned by a Turkish-American businessman with ties to Erdogan’s government. Flynn also failed to file paperwork registering as a foreign agent.</div><div>
</div><div>Despite his past role as a foreign agent and lobbyist for foreign interest in the U.S., when QAnon—a far-right, pro-Trump conspiracy theory that claims a cabal of elite pedophiles consisting of Hollywood actors, Democrats, and high-ranking officials are behind a global child sex-trafficking ring—was born was internet message boards in 2017, the retired general was seen as an ally to the cause. When he was being investigated by the FBI, many QAnon adherents expected him to be exonerated of all alleged crimes in the Russia probe. His delayed sentencing on several occasions only helped fuel the conspiracy theories regarding his innocence.</div><div>
</div><div>By July 2019, Flynn fired the attorneys who helped negotiate his plea agreement and hired Sidney Powell, a QAnon supporter who would later become known for filing the infamous “Kraken” lawsuit alleging widespread election fraud in the 2020 election. (Read Right Wing Watch’s in-depth reporting on Sidney Powell here). At Powell’s urging, Flynn moved to withdraw his guilty plea, citing a breach in the plea agreement, and further proclaiming his innocence. Then, following pressure from Trump who called for the charges against Flynn to be dropped, the Department of Justice filed motions to dismiss the case. The motion was then put on hold by the federal judge overseeing the case as he reviewed the request.</div><div>
</div><div>Despite the snag, Flynn would soon be a free man, ready to assume his figurative role as the QAnon general.</div><div>
</div><div>The Digital Soldiers [interesting grafix]</div><div>
</div><div>“IT IS MY Great Honor to announce that General Michael T. Flynn has been granted a Full Pardon,” Trump tweeted on Nov. 25, 2020. “I know you will now have a truly fantastic Thanksgiving!”</div><div>
</div><div>The move had been expected. Trump had hinted back in March that he was “strongly considering” pardoning Flynn, despite the fact that the retired general had not yet been sentenced. The pardon was met with criticism from Democrats—Speaker Nancy Pelosi called it “an act of grave corruption and a brazen abuse of power” in her official statement—while Trump loyalists celebrated the decision to save a man they viewed as a political casualty. Even the White House described Flynn as an “innocent man” and the “victim of partisan government officials engaged in a coordinated attempt to subvert the election of 2016.”</div><div>
</div><div>In the weeks that followed, Flynn underwent a strategic public relations campaign, which included appearances on Fox News and the right-wing Epoch Times, public speeches (as seen at the Jericho March on Dec. 12), and even a few radio hits on “The Dan Bongino Show,” among others. His aim was not only to rehabilitate his own public image, but to stand in vehement opposition to Biden’s imminent presidency.</div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>During media appearances, Flynn repeated baseless conspiracy theories about election fraud and Dominion Voting Systems, citing his lawyer Sidney Powell’s “Kraken” lawsuits. He alleged that “thousands” of Americans have come forward with grievances and proof regarding voter fraud and that transparency is required to ensure the sanctity of the election process. During a recent appearance on Fox News (his third since being pardoned), Flynn suggested that Americans will “not allow” Biden’s inauguration to go ahead in January 2021.</div><div>
</div><div>Flynn also encouraged Americans to boycott the upcoming Georgia Senate runoffs, despite the fact that the winners will help determine which party will control the Senate. “We have to get the last election right before we start talking about any other runoff election like they are down in Georgia. That’s a falsehood that people shouldn’t even be considering right now,” he said.</div><div>
</div><div>While much of Flynn’s arguments are rooted in references to QAnon-linked conspiracy theories, the former three-star general has also pandered to the group by appearing on podcasts hosted by QAnon influencers. During a Dec. 4 appearance on “The Matrixxx Groove Show,” a podcast that claims to have the “most red-pilled audience” and is popular within the QAnon community,  Flynn revealed that the show’s “listeners have inspired us and allowed us to fight the deep, deep corruption that we face in our government.”</div><div>
</div><div>“The digital army that we have is unstoppable,” Flynn continued. “The digital soldiers that we have are committed, dedicated servants of our country.”</div><div>
</div><div>This is not the first time that Flynn has referenced the term “digital soldiers.” The general first used the term during a November 2016 speech to the Young America’s Foundation, where he bragged about being the general of an “army of digital soldiers” that waged an “insurgency” to “take over” information and the media. The term has since been adopted by QAnon adherents, many of whom view themselves as digital soldiers fighting against the forces of the so-called deep state.</div><div>
</div><div>Flynn has continued to reference digital soldiers during media appearances and on social media—it is one of the main hashtags on his Twitter bio, along with #TakeTheOath, which is also a reference to QAnon. During his interview with “The Matrixxx Groove Show,” he referred to digital soldiers as the “largest law firm in the world” because they would “enlighten the people of this country and also the tactical legal team that we have, eventually led by America’s guardian angel of justice, Sidney Powell.”</div><div>
</div><div>To close out his appearance on the show, Flynn hinted that he is on the run from the deep state, “I’m on the move. I gotta make sure I’m a moving target because these son-of-a-guns, they’re after me, in a literal and a figurative sense at some time.”</div><div>
</div><div>The general’s deepening ties to QAnon have been apparent for several months now, well before he was pardoned in November. On Independence Day, Flynn posted a video of himself alongside members of his family reciting the QAnon slogan “Where we go one we go all,” making Flynn the most prominent former U.S. official to publicly stoke QAnon.</div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>Michael Flynn taking QAnon oath with family members (Credit: screenshot)]</div><div>
</div><div>Flynn’s overt show of support to the QAnon movement has only helped energize a community that has been struggling to stay on message in the wake of Trump’s election loss and Q’s limited drops. While QAnon adherents would have preferred to see Flynn exonerated instead of pardoned, as the latter suggests guilt, they have used the pardon as a sign that thing are going according to plan.</div><div>
</div><div>“Any anons apart from myself getting goosebumps now that Flynn is free?” an admin of a QAnon channel with thousands of subscribers asked on Nov. 28. (Anon refers to anonymous users.)“My whole body is in goosebumps.”</div><div>
</div><div>“I am anxious to see Gen. Flynn in action,” another replied.</div><div>
</div><div>The lionization of Flynn within the QAnon movement emphasizes his importance to the movement. For QAnon adherents, the idea that a three-star lieutenant general and former high-ranking U.S. official supporting their community validates their efforts and proves that the deep state exists. When he refers to them as digital soldiers, he is exciting the countless QAnon followers who feel compelled to take matters into their own hands and legitimizing their undertaking.</div><div>
</div><div>QAnon meme referencing digital soldiers (Credit: Telegram) band of bros]</div><div>
</div><div>The QAnon community was further electrified on Dec. 1 when Flynn retweeted a call for Trump to temporarily suspend constitutional order and declare martial law to have the U.S. military oversee a new presidential election—a topic that had been popular within QAnon circles in the weeks following the Nov. 3 election. One QAnon follower in a private QAnon channel called for martial law after stating that Americans have “no Supreme Court, no DOJ, no FBI to protect us from the Government,” while another suggested that worldwide martial law would “fix” the “fucking fake Media.”</div><div>
</div><div>Not only is Flynn an important figure within the QAnon conspiracy theory, he is also a key proponent of the movement. His willingness to pander to the dangerous far-right conspiracy theory, encourage its adherents to continue tumbling down their rabbit holes, and promote totalitarian militaristic policies such as martial law raises concerns about his potential to further radicalize Trump loyalists ahead of Biden’s inauguration.</div><div>
</div><div>After spending 33 years as a decorated combat veteran who retired from the military with three stars, Flynn has now assumed the role he seems to have long dreamed of: the star general leading a digital army in service to Q.</div><div>
</div><div>Tags: Barack Obama Donald Trump Hillary Clinton Lin Wood Michael Flynn Robert Muller Sidney Powell conspiracy theories Deep State Pizzagate QAnon</div></div><div>
</div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/12/trump-coup-2649538441" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https://www.alternet.org/2020/12/trump-coup-2649538441</a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">no lnx twt vid</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style=""><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Four chilling signs Trump's attempted coup is escalating</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Bob Brigham December 18, 2020</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">   </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">President Donald Trump continues to refuse to concede that he lost the 2020 election to President-elect Joe Biden.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">There were four major signs on Thursday evening that the Republican effort to overthrow the election is escalating.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="">The first sign was when former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn suggested on NewsMax Trump could use "military capabilities" to overturn the election in swing states hold do-over elections.[mart law used 64x]</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The second sign occurred a short time later on Fox News when White House advisor Peter Navarro said President-elect Biden would be an "illegal and illegitimate president."</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The third sign was when White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany argued on Fox News that Congress could use "alternate slates" of electors to steal the election.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1339758838535180288</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The fourth sign was Trump's Twitter account.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Trump complimented Senator-elect Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) for saying he would back Trump's efforts to overturn the election in Congress.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1339758142381551629</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Trump then falsely claimed he won Wisconsin and that the vote was rigged.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1339759289234317312</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">And then Trump complained about the United States Supreme Court refusing to go along with his efforts to overturn the election.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1339759289234317312</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Trump can't even keep his coup secret - Alternet.org ›</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Fascism expert: Donald Trump's coup is not over — and his ... ›</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Trump's purge at the Pentagon is increasing fears of a coup-in ... ›</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Trump's coup attempt is very real — but there are several gaping ... ›</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Trump coup is a total failure — here's why it's still ongoing ... ›</div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</div></div><div>=</div><div>post scotus mult pathways to win 100%</div><div>do not vote runoff</div><div>nick fuentes destroy the gop</div><div>
</div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/12/flynn/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/12/flynn/</a></div><div></div><div>see proud boy / violence</div><div>
</div><div><h1 class="widgetheadline h1" style="margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; cursor: pointer; overflow-wrap: break-word; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a class="widgetheadline-text custom-post-headline" href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/12/michael-flynn/" aria-label="Michael Flynn, who pushed for Trump martial law, says Americans will 'not allow' Biden inauguration" data-type="text" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;" open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" word-break="word-break" break-word="break-word" overflow-wrap="overflow-wrap" font-size="font-size" px="px" line-height="line-height">Flynn, who pushed for Trump martial law, says Americans will 'not allow' Biden inauguration</a></h1><div class="social-author clearfix" style="margin-top: 10px; display: inline-block; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a class="social-authorname" href="https://www.alternet.org/author/david-edwards" data-type="text" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.4; display: inline; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;">David Edwards</a> <a class="social-authorname" href="https://www.alternet.org/author/raw-story" data-type="text" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.4; display: inline; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;">Raw Story</a></div> <div class="social-date" style="margin-top: 8px; display: inline-block; vertical-align: top; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> December 13, 2020</div><div class="body js-expandable clearfix js-listicle-body css-listicle-body-2649470884" style="margin-top: 10px; -webkit-box-orient: vertical; text-overflow: ellipsis; display: -webkit-box; -webkit-line-clamp: 4; overflow: hidden; line-height: 31px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="body-description">Disgraced former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn on Sunday insisted that Americans will "not allow" President-elect Joe Biden's "false inauguration" to go forward.Flynn, who has previously <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/04/politics/trump-nominee-pentagon-martial-law/index.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; overflow-wrap: break-word;">s</a>...</div></div></div><div><div>=</div><div>an 1220</div><div>
</div><div>In his column for the Daily Beast, conservative commentator Matt Lewis <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/bad-news-for-evangelicals-god-doesnt-need-donald-trump-in-the-white-house?ref=home" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">expressed exasperation with evangelical leaders</a> who are set to lead what has been dubbed the "Jericho March" in Washington D.C. on Saturday under the belief they can pray God into helping Donald Trump remain in the Oval Office for four more years.Lewis, who wears his faith on his sleeve, has long condemned members of the Christian community who have attached them to the president who, by his actions and his deeds, has never exemplified any Christian values other than giving them occasional lip service.As the Daily Beast columnist sees it, the group scheduled to appear are a motley crew who do not exemplify the best the evangelical community has to offer.Writing that "some prominent members of the Christian church are undermining the church's witness," Lewis added, "For evidence, look no further than this Saturday, when former National Security Adviser <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/michael-flynn-goes-full-qanon-in-his-post-pardon-media-tour" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Mike Flynn</a> (who recently shared a message calling on Trump to declare 'limited martial law' and hold a new election) will give his first post-pardon speech at something called the Jericho March in Washington, D.C. Aside from Flynn, the roster includes other prominent MAGA names like <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/mypillow-mogul-michael-lindell-sees-self-in-donald-trump" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Mike Lindell</a> (the MyPillow guy), Eric Metaxas (a radio host who <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-ally-eric-metaxas-allegedly-punched-protester-after-white-house-speech" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">punched a protester</a> and recently said, 'I'd be happy to die in this fight'), Ali Alexander (formerly Ali Akbar), and <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/sayonara-gop-and-hello-bernie?ref=author" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">C.J. Pearson</a>. Afterwards, the crowd will converge on the National Mall for the 'ROAR' prayer rally."</div></div><div>=</div><div>
</div><div>note that they coopt abe and always threaten violence in response to enemy attack big media chicomm</div><div>wa exmr; lofly727 is proude wife of am hero Lori, justice scales gold logo, i spoze a plea /demand for justice for him</div><div>
</div><div>former national security adviser Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn promoted a petition this week that calls for the temporary suspension of the Constitution and a re-vote for the 2020 election.</div>“Freedom never kneels except for God,” the recently pardoned Flynn tweeted <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/fn6epl0izsp2jrl/WeThePeople_Final.jpg?dl=0" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; background-color: transparent;">along with the petition</a> advertising the We The People Convention.<div class="Enhancement" style="box-sizing: border-box; clear: left; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="Enhancement-item" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="TweetEmbed" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered" style="box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; max-width: 550px; width: 550px; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-twitter-extracted-i1607196055669124826="true" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1rem;"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WeThePeople?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; background-color: transparent;">#WeThePeople</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/SidneyPowell1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; background-color: transparent;">@SidneyPowell1</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/LLinWood?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; background-color: transparent;">@LLinWood</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/DanScavino?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; background-color: transparent;">@DanScavino</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/LouDobbs?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; background-color: transparent;">@LouDobbs</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/MariaBartiromo?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; background-color: transparent;">@MariaBartiromo</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/marklevinshow?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; background-color: transparent;">@marklevinshow</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/lofly727?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; background-color: transparent;">@lofly727</a> Freedom never kneels except for God — General Flynn (@GenFlynn) <a href="https://twitter.com/GenFlynn/status/1333916403389370369?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; background-color: transparent;">December 1, 2020</a></blockquote></div></div></div>A letter alongside the petition urged President Trump to declare martial law to temporarily suspend the Constitution for the sole purpose of a national re-vote overseen by the military that “reflects the true will of the people.”The letter also discussed the actions that President Abraham Lincoln undertook during the Civil War when he ordered newspapers to be shut down, arrested an Ohio congressman, signed an arrest warrant for a Supreme Court justice who ruled against him, and arrested citizens suspected of supporting the South.The letter states that while those decisions are still being debated today, it is undeniable that Lincoln’s actions “saved the Republic” and are part of the reason he is viewed as one of the country's greatest presidents.“You must also act, like Lincoln did, to silence the destructive media’s one-sided propaganda designed and proven to influence the election outcome, and end the unlawful censorship of Big Tech, to restore the confidence of the American People in our electoral process or we cannot continue as a nation,” the letter reads. “Failure to do so could result in massive violence and destruction on a level not seen since the Civil War. Limited Martial Law is clearly a better option than Civil War!”The petition was also posted by attorney Lin Wood, who is part of the legal effort to overturn election results in several key states in response to allegations of rampant voter fraud.“@realDonaldTrump should declare martial law,” Wood tweeted, arguing that the United States is on the brink of another Civil War.<div class="Enhancement" style="box-sizing: border-box; clear: left;"><div class="Enhancement-item" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="TweetEmbed" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; display: flex; max-width: 550px; width: 550px; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-twitter-extracted-i1607196055669124826="true" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1rem;">Good morning. Our country is headed to civil war. A war created by 3rd party bad actors for their benefit - not for We The People. Communist China is leading the nefarious efforts to take away our freedom.<a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;">@realDonaldTrump</a> should declare martial law.<a href="https://t.co/h3Ym5ytMYt" style="background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;">https://t.co/h3Ym5ytMYt</a>— Lin Wood (@LLinWood) <a href="https://twitter.com/LLinWood/status/1333788036815937537?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; background-color: transparent;">December 1, 2020</a></blockquote></div></div></div><a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/ap-fox-news-and-major-networks-declare-biden-next-president" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; background-color: transparent;">All major news outlets</a> have called the presidential race for Joe Biden as Trump continues to mount <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/tag/election-lawsuits" target="blank" data-cms-id="00000175-996a-daf7-a1f5-dbee4e8e0000" data-cms-href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/tag/election-lawsuits" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; background-color: transparent;">legal challenges</a>. The president has said he will leave office if he is not the winner after the Electoral College voters convene later this month. However, he and other Republicans, <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/house/528446-mo-brooks-planning-to-challenge-electoral-college-votes" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; background-color: transparent;">including Republican Alabama Rep. Mo Brooks this week</a>, have also signaled the fight could continue after that.<div>=</div><div><a href="https://billmoyers.com/story/a-deadly-attack-on-our-democracy/">https://billmoyers.com/story/a-deadly-attack-on-our-democracy/</a></div><div>
</div><div>december 2, 2020</div><div class="entry-content cf" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 1.6em; margin-top: 1em;">Yesterday evening, Trump’s disgraced former National Security Advisor, retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn– whom Trump recently pardoned after he pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with then-Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak before Trump took office– <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/michael-flynn-martial-law-new-election_n_5fc7d3e6c5b6f3fe59724a45" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">retweeted</a> a news release from a right-wing Ohio group called “We the People Convention.” That release <a href="https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2020/12/02/calls-for-martial-law-and-us-military-oversight-of-new-presidential-elections-draws-criticism/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">contained a petition</a> asking Trump to declare martial law, suspend the Constitution, silence the media, and have the military “oversee a national re-vote.”The petition ends with a threat of violence, calling on Trump “to boldly act to save our nation…. We will also have no other choice but to take matters into our own hands, and defend our rights on our own, if you do not act within your powers to defend us.”University of Texas School of Law Professor Steve Vladeck pointed out that “The Uniform Code of Military Justice defines as ‘sedition’ one who, ‘with intent to cause the overthrow or destruction of lawful civil authority, creates, in concert with any other person, revolt, violence, or other disturbance against that authority.’…”The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley today pointedly distanced the military from talk of a coup. “Our military is very very capable… we are determined to defend the US Constitution,” he <a href="https://twitter.com/Joyce_Karam/status/1334169636674228227" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">said</a>. “No one should doubt that.” A defense official <a href="https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2020/12/02/calls-for-martial-law-and-us-military-oversight-of-new-presidential-elections-draws-criticism/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">told</a> Military Times that the idea of Trump declaring martial law and having the military re-do the election is “insane in a year that we didn’t think could get anymore insane.”He spoke too soon. This afternoon the president released a video of himself making a speech he said was “maybe the most important speech I’ve ever made.” It was a 46-minute rant insisting, despite all evidence to the contrary, that he won the 2020 election. While he has lost virtually every court challenge he has mounted and his own Attorney General, William Barr, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/12/02/if-barr-can-admit-trump-lost-why-cant-other-republicans/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">has said there was no evidence of fraud that would change the outcome of the election</a>, Trump continues to insist that there was “massive” voter fraud, and called on the Supreme Court to “do what’s right for our country” including throwing out hundreds of thousands of Democratic votes so “I very easily win in all states.”Joe Biden leads Trump in the popular vote with 80.9 million votes to Trump’s 74 million. Biden has won the Electoral College by 306 votes to Trump’s 232. These results are not close.Let me take a step back here for a minute to emphasize that this is dangerous, unprecedented… and crazy. The president of the United States is trying to undermine an election for which there is no evidence there was any irregularity, in order to stay in power. He might be doing so for the money — he has raised $170 million so far on promises to challenge this election — or because he is worried about the lawsuits he can expect as soon as he is not protected by the presidential office.Or, perhaps, he is simply escalating his rhetoric to continue to grab headlines as he feels the focus of the world slipping away from him and he cannot stand it. For the focus of the world is indeed slipping away from him.The president has largely ceased to govern, nursing his grievances in the White House and emerging only to golf.The coronavirus pandemic is burning out of control. A new estimate from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) notes that deaths from Covid-19 are likely much higher than official numbers suggest. Deaths in the United States were 19% higher from March to November of this year than normal. More than<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/05/05/us/coronavirus-death-toll-us.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;"> 345,000 people than normal have died in that period</a>. This number includes deaths from other causes—drug overdoses, for example—but suggests that the pandemic has exacerbated death rates aside from those caused by Covid-19.Today we hit a grim milestone, with at least 2,760 new deaths today from Covid. This is the highest daily death toll in America so far, passing the spring high-water mark. Coronavirus hospitalizations also reached a new high with more than 100,000 people admitted.Democrats made a huge concession in their efforts to combat the pandemic recession today, dropping their call for a $2 trillion coronavirus package and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/democrats-just-embraced-a-908-billion-coronavirus-stimulus-plan-2020-12" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">accepting the new bipartisan $908 billion package as the starting point for negotiations</a> with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. The new plan calls for $300 a week in federal unemployment benefits from December 1 to at least March; $240 billion in Paycheck Protection Program assistance for small businesses (this will be touchy because we learned today that <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/12/01/ppp-sba-data/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">most of the money from the original PPP went to big businesses</a>, including a number of chains); $160 billion for state and local governments; $51 billion in money for vaccines and healthcare; and a temporary liability provision to shield businesses from lawsuits related to coronavirus.McConnell has already rejected this bipartisan measure, but Senator John Thune (R-SD), part of the Republican leadership, called the Democrats’ willingness to come so far down “progress.” For his part, Biden today <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/12/02/joe-biden-trump-transition-live-updates/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">agreed</a> with Americans talking about the recession in a virtual roundtable that Congress must “pass a robust package of relief to address your urgent needs now,” but reminded them: “my ability to get you help immediately does not exist. I’m not even in office for another 50 days. And then I have to get legislation passed through the United States Congress to get things done.”Still, for all that Trump’s posturing seems like a sign that he sees power slipping away from him as the country confronts the pandemic and the recession without him, his words are a deadly assault on our democracy by the man who swore an oath to defend it. This attack cannot be dismissed as Trump being Trump. It strikes at the very heart of who we are.For all that attacking the election might be reality television for Trump, his supporters take it very seriously indeed. At a rally in Georgia, Trump’s ally, lawyer Lin Wood, <a href="https://lawandcrime.com/2020-election/lawyers-condemn-michael-flynn-and-lin-woods-breathtakingly-morally-treasonous-call-for-trump-to-declare-martial-law-and-hold-new-election/amp/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">insisted</a> he had seen the “real” results of the election, and that Trump won “over 410” electoral votes. “He damn near won every state including California!” The crowd <a href="https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/stop-the-steal-rallies-now-feature-lock-him-up-chants-aimed-at-georgia-guv-brian-kemp" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">blamed Georgia Governor Brian Kemp</a>, a Republican, for the fact that the state’s recount did not go to Trump. “Lock him up!” they chanted.Today, the Supervisor of Elections in Pasco County, Florida, Republican Brian E. Corley, <a href="https://www.cltampa.com/news-views/politics/article/21146889/pascos-republican-supervisor-of-elections-says-the-election-is-over-and-calls-for-unity" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">said he felt compelled to speak out against those attacking the election</a>. “Facts are stubborn things,” he <a href="https://www.cltampa.com/news-views/politics/article/21146889/pascos-republican-supervisor-of-elections-says-the-election-is-over-and-calls-for-unity" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">wrote</a> in a statement. It is a lie to say the election was fraudulent, he said, and “[w]ith every deep state conspiracy and illegitimate claim of fraud our democracy sinks deeper and deeper into divisiveness. As the world looks on, the greatest democracy in the world dares to risk the peaceful and orderly transition of power in favor of propagating unfounded claims of ‘rigged elections.’” “The people have spoken, and… the election is over.”Tonight, the Vermont Secretary of State’s Office <a href="https://twitter.com/VermontSOS/status/1333928182169411584" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">tweeted</a> that their elections team was “threatened with execution by firing squad.” It said, “This has to stop. The wild, unfounded accusations amplified by [Trump] need to stop.”But much of Republican Party leadership is not denouncing Trump’s behavior. Leaders are staying silent, although they are sidling away from him. It is noticeable that Vice President Mike Pence has been silent about Trump’s reelection accusations — he was on the ticket, too, after all — and although <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/dec/02/donald-trump-suggests-2024-presidential-bid-ill-see-you-in-four-years" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">Trump has made it clear he intends to run again in 2024</a>, Trump’s hand-picked Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel has <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/12/02/rnc-2024-hopefuls-trump-442302" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">invited</a> about a dozen potential 2024 candidates to a meeting in January, signaling that she is not wedded to another Trump candidacy.Meanwhile, Trump’s former lawyer Sidney Powell illustrated the growing divide between Trump supporters and the Republican Party when, after insisting that Trump lost in Georgia because the voting machines there are not secure, she urged voters to boycott January’s runoff Senate elections in the state. Those elections will determine which party controls the US. Senate.While today’s Republicans are looking the other way as their president undermines our democracy, it has not always been this way. On this date in 1954, the Senate voted 67 to 22 to condemn the behavior of Senator Joe McCarthy, who lied and bullied and blustered to stay in power until finally, in televised hearings, lawyer Joseph Nye Welsh shook his head at McCarthy’s recklessness and cruelty and asked: “Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?</div><div class="topicstags" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; border-top: 1px solid rgb(221, 221, 221); border-right: none; border-bottom: none; border-left: none; border-image: initial; margin: 0px auto 1em; width: 784px; text-transform: uppercase; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; padding: 0.8em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">TOPICS: <a href="https://billmoyers.com/topics/today-with-heather-cox-richardson/" class="topictag gtm-topics-tags" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN</a>TAGS: <a href="https://billmoyers.com/tag/2020-election/" rel="tag" class="gtm-topics-tags" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">2020 ELECTION</a>, <a href="https://billmoyers.com/tag/coronavirus/" rel="tag" class="gtm-topics-tags" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">CORONAVIRUS</a>, <a href="https://billmoyers.com/tag/coronavirus-relief-bill/" rel="tag" class="gtm-topics-tags" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">CORONAVIRUS RELIEF BILL</a>, <a href="https://billmoyers.com/tag/donald-trump/" rel="tag" class="gtm-topics-tags" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">DONALD TRUMP</a>, <a href="https://billmoyers.com/tag/election-misinformation/" rel="tag" class="gtm-topics-tags" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">ELECTION MISINFORMATION</a>, <a href="https://billmoyers.com/tag/hc-richardson/" rel="tag" class="gtm-topics-tags" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">HC-RICHARDSON</a>, <a href="https://billmoyers.com/tag/joe-biden/" rel="tag" class="gtm-topics-tags" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">JOE BIDEN</a>, <a href="https://billmoyers.com/tag/martial-law/" rel="tag" class="gtm-topics-tags" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">MARTIAL LAW</a>, <a href="https://billmoyers.com/tag/michael-flynn/" rel="tag" class="gtm-topics-tags" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">MICHAEL FLYNN</a>, <a href="https://billmoyers.com/tag/mitch-mcconnell/" rel="tag" class="gtm-topics-tags" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">MITCH MCCONNELL</a>, <a href="https://billmoyers.com/tag/unemployment/" rel="tag" class="gtm-topics-tags" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">UNEMPLOYMENT</a></div><div class="author-box cf" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; border-top: 1px solid rgb(255, 42, 0); padding: 1em 0px; margin: 0px auto; width: 784px; font-variant-numeric: normal !important; font-variant-east-asian: normal !important; font-stretch: normal !important; line-height: 17px !important;">
<div class="dek " style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; float: left; width: 642.875px;"><h2 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; text-transform: uppercase; margin: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"><a href="https://billmoyers.com/author/heathercoxrichardson/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">HEATHER COX RICHARDSON</a></h2><h3 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; text-transform: uppercase; margin: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-weight: 400; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">Heather Cox Richardson teaches American history at Boston College. She is the author of a number of books, most recently, How the South Won the Civil War: Oligarchy, Democracy, and the Continuing Fight for the Soul of America. She writes the popular nightly newsletter Letters from an American</h3></div></div><div>
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</div><div><div style="line-height: 1.5; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); padding: 10px;"><div style="line-height: 1.5;"> QAnon movement gets assertive</div></div><div style="line-height: 1.5; padding: 10px;"><div style="line-height: 1.5;">Star MAGA attorney Lin Wood strutted across a stage in Georgia on Wednesday, riling up the crowd with a southern revival energy and, at one point, waving around a coonskin cap he had found in the crowd. He was in his element. And at one point, he inspired a “lock him up” chant aimed at the state’s Republican governor, Brian Kemp.  But within the pomp, Wood had a serious message for the audience: <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumpist-lawyers-lin-wood-tell-georgia-republicans-dont-vote-in-the-senate-runoff" style="line-height: inherit;">don’t vote</a> for Republican Senate candidates in the state’s upcoming runoffs, unless they meet our demands. "They have not earned your vote,” Wood said. “Don't you give it to them.” Until then, most Republican officials were happy to ignore Wood’s hapless attempts to save the election for Donald Trump, which involved wild allegations of a deep, corrupt scheme to shift thousands of votes to Joe Biden. Telling his fans not to vote for Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, however, appeared to be a step too far. Within hours, Breitbart <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumpworld-declares-war-on-fool-trumpist-lawyer-lin-wood?ref=author" style="line-height: inherit;">denounced</a> Wood as a former Democratic donor in an attack that was picked up by the Trump campaign. Soon after, other conservatives were piling on too, with Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) accusing Wood of being a plant and Rush Limbaugh and Roger Stone distancing themselves from him.  The fault lines made clear just how contentious the post-election political environment has become for the Republican Party. And it underscored a new problem that it faces, mainly the rise of an aggressive, increasingly assertive <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/what-is-qanon-a-deep-look-inside-the-nutso-conspiracy-theory-infecting-our-politics" style="line-height: inherit;">QAnon</a> wing. The GOP is now divided between  conspiracy theorists and those who want to keep at least a toehold in reality. Both Wood and former Trump lawyer turned professional conspiracy theorist Sidney Powell, who joined him on the stage, have built up their ties with QAnon believers. Wood includes a reference to the QAnon motto “Where we go one, we go all” in his Twitter bio, and recently endorsed a call for exactly the kind of military rule QAnon believers eagerly hope for.  Wood’s demand is also the quintessential QAnon demand: endless investigations until what he wants to come true finally happens. Wood and his supporters claim to want Perdue and Loeffler to back a special session of the Georgia legislature to investigate the 2020 election. But, since Georgia recounts have proven the race wasn’t affected by fraud, this demand really equates to the kind of endless investigations QAnon supporters crave.  At the end of the investigation, the thinking goes, there’ll be some kind of catharsis — in QAnon’s case, a violent “Storm” that features mass-arrests of Trump’s enemies, or, in Wood’s case, Georgia’s legislators assuring that the state’s electors be handed to Trump.  In the meantime, as long as the investigations are ongoing, QAnon believers won’t have to face reality: that no such arrests are coming and that Biden will be sworn into office.  That puts Republican officials in a bind: keep up the farce and order endless probes into the 2020 election, or face the wrath of QAnon believers and other Trump supporters living in their individual fantasy lands. Wood’s intra-Republican fight has drawn in a number of other fringe groups. Interestingly, the influential “The Gateway Pundit” blog sided with him and accused Breitbart—the bane of the pre-Trump GOP establishment's existence—of carrying water for the Republican establishment. Columnist Michelle Malkin, who’s now <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="https://thebulwark.com/michelle-malkin-mother-of-groypers/" style="line-height: inherit;">palling around</a> with racist college students in the “groyper” movement, <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="https://twitter.com/michellemalkin/status/1334692794829471745" style="line-height: inherit;">slammed</a> Crenshaw for attacking Wood. At his rally, Wood even raised the prospect of pulling support more broadly from Republicans.  “Maybe it’s time to look beyond the Democrats and the Republicans,” Wood said, to cheers.  “Maybe it’s time for the party of the people.”  Wood’s ambitions to shake up the GOP — or at least pressure it into meeting his demands — could extend for years. At one point in the rally, Wood donned a “FLYNN” cap, a reference to former Trump national security adviser and central QAnon protagonist Michael Flynn.  “How about Sidney Powell and Mike Flynn in 2024?” Wood said, floating the QAnon dream ticket.</div></div><table class="yiv6577382483divider" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" role="presentation" style="line-height: inherit; vertical-align: top; border-collapse: collapse; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); table-layout: fixed; border-spacing: 0px; min-width: 100%;"><tbody style="line-height: inherit;"><tr valign="top" style="line-height: inherit; vertical-align: top; border-collapse: collapse;"><td class="yiv6577382483divider_inner" valign="top" style="word-break: normal; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: top; border-collapse: collapse; min-width: 100%; padding: 10px;"><table class="yiv6577382483divider_content" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" align="center" role="presentation" style="line-height: inherit; vertical-align: top; border-collapse: collapse; table-layout: fixed; border-spacing: 0px; border-top: 1px solid rgb(187, 187, 187); width: 680px;"><tbody style="line-height: inherit;"><tr valign="top" style="line-height: inherit; vertical-align: top; border-collapse: collapse;"><td valign="top" style="word-break: normal; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: top; border-collapse: collapse;"></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="line-height: 1.5; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); padding: 10px;"><div style="line-height: 1.5;">Sidney Powell falls for The Voice parody ...</div></div></div></div><div>=</div></div><div>=<a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/12/trump-pentagon/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/12/trump-pentagon/</a>
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Trump’s Pentagon nominee promoted calls for the president to declare martial law: reportAlex Henderson December 04, 2020   Scott O'Grady is a former fighter pilot who President Donald Trump has nominated for a senior position in the Pentagon. And according to CNN, he is also a Trump loyalist and far-right conspiracy theorist who has been echoing Trump's baseless claims of widespread voter fraud and shared tweets calling for martial law.Trump supporters who have posted or forwarded tweets urging the president to declare martial law include attorney Lin Wood (who has been fighting President-elect Joe Biden's victory in Georgia) and former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.According to CNN reporters Nathan McDermott, Andrew Kaczynski and Em Steck, O'Grady "retweeted an account that shared an article that said former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn had shared a petition that called for martial law. He then retweeted the same account which suggested that Trump should declare martial law."That account said, "I don't know who needs to hear this, but calling for martial law is not a bad idea when there is an attempted coup against the president and this country happening right now."O'Grady has a history of sharing unhinged tweets.
McDermott, Kaczynski and Steck report, "CNN's KFile reviewed O'Grady's tweets and media appearances and found that O'Grady shared other debunked election conspiracies and that he also degraded top military and intelligence officials. In a radio interview, he called former President Barack Obama and military generals 'sworn socialists' and advocated that the military justice system should bring back treason charges. He retweeted a tweet that called former Defense Secretary James Mattis a 'traitor.'"On top of that, the CNN reporters note, O'Grady "tweeted that Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a star witness during the Trump impeachment hearings, should be charged 'for insurrection because he is a biased liberal political operative' and said, on a radio show, that it was 'disgusting' for Vindman to testify against Trump. He also spread a baseless claim that the whistleblower in the impeachment saga dated the daughter of House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff."O'Grady has been nominated for assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs. If he is confirmed by the U.S. Senate, he would only remain in the Pentagon until the end of Trump's presidency. Inauguration for Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris is set for January 20.
FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLESPentagon officials fear Trump may order troops to put down election ... ›The Pentagon leaks an explosive story of Trump's dereliction of duty ... ›Pentagon officials were 'pounding down the door' to get Trump to act ... ›Trump's purge at the Pentagon is increasing fears of a coup-in ... ›RELATED ARTICLES AROUND THE WEBTrump Stacks the Pentagon and Intel Agencies With Loyalists. To ... ›Scott O'Grady: Trump Pentagon nominee spreads debunked ... ›New Pentagon chief racing to make changes before Trump's exit ... ›
General Flynn@GenFlynn#WeThePeople 
@SidneyPowell1 @LLinWood @DanScavino @LouDobbs @MariaBartiromo @marklevinshow @lofly727 
Freedom never kneels except for God ??????---lin Wood@LLinWoodGood morning.
Our country is headed to civil war. A war created by 3rd party bad actors for their benefit - not for We The People.
Communist China is leading the nefarious efforts to take away our freedom.
@realDonaldTrump should declare martial law.=</div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/12/trump-dictator/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https://www.alternet.org/2020/12/trump-dictator/</a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
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</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Here's why Republicans who are calling for a Trump dictatorship should not be taken lightly — and aren’t going away</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Trump condemned for White House 'dictator' statement to cast doubt on election results</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Conversation</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Alex Henderson December 04, 2020</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">   </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The United States dodged an authoritarian bullet when former Vice President Joe Biden, a centrist Democrat, became president-elect, winning 306 electoral votes and defeating defeated President Donald Trump by more than 6 million in the popular vote. But when Republican Lin Wood, a pro-Trump attorney who has been fighting the election results in Georgia, implores Trump to impose martial law and elections officials are receiving death threats for acknowledging Biden as president-elect, it is painfully obvious that there is a strong appetite for fascism in parts of the United States. And journalist Sasha Abramsky, in an article published by The Nation on December 4, warns that Republicans who are openly calling for fascism should not be taken lightly.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"We are less than seven weeks away from the inauguration, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't counting down the seconds," Abramsky writes. "For the last spasms of Trumpist rule are truly a sight and sound to behold. Trumpism is, at this point, nothing more than a blend of cultism and fascism — a violent, nihilistic howl against the pillars of American democracy unparalleled in presidential history."</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Abramsky adds, however, that when "people surrounding Trump are calling for dictatorship," it "ought to send a chill up all Americans' spines." And Abramsky cites some specific examples of Trumpistas who haven't been shy about showing their authoritarianism.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"Trump campaign attorney Joe DiGenova said that Chris Krebs, the election security official whom Trump fired by tweet last month after he defended the integrity of the election, should be 'drawn and quartered' and 'taken out at dawn and shot,'" Abramsky observes. "Stalin couldn't have said it better himself when talking about his perceived enemies in the Soviet bureaucracy. </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div>Former Trump campaign attorney Sidney Powell…. retweeted a call to invoke the Insurrection Act, suspend the meeting of the Electoral College and set up military tribunals to deal with Trump's enemies. The following day, former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, coming off a recent presidential pardon from Trump, urged his erstwhile boss to declare martial law, suspend the Constitution, and order new presidential elections under the supervision of the military."</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Abramsky adds, "Far-right media personalities have joined the fascist clamor. Lou Dobbs of Fox Business recently called for Trump to take unspecified 'drastic action' against his enemies. The One America News Network has also suggested that Trump should invoke the Insurrection Act as a way to remain in office."</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The journalist stresses that "when a fanatical movement's hold on power starts to diminish, the extremists have a tendency to eat their own." And Abramsky points to the recent attacks on Attorney General William Barr from the far right as a disturbing example.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Barr has been one of Trump's most aggressive defenders, often inspiring unflattering comparisons to the late Republican attorney Roy Cohn (who was an ally of Sen. Joseph McCarthy during the 1950s and represented Trump during the 1970s). But Barr, during an interview with the Associated Press, essentially acknowledged Biden as president-elect and said there was no evidence that widespread voter fraud swung the election in Biden's favor — and Trumpistas like Dobbs are furious with Barr for it.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">It should be noted that far-right fascists don't necessarily come to power through a violent coup d'état or golpe de estado; sometimes, they are voted into office and try to gradually undermine a democracy's system of checks and balances. That has happened in Turkey with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and in Hungary with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, and hopefully, Brazil's checks and balances will withstand the far-right President Jair Bolsonaro. Meanwhile, in France, far-right white nationalist Marine Le Pen (leader of the National Front) lost the country's 2017 presidential race but is likely to run for president again.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Most Americans rejected fascism in the United States' 2020 presidential election. But Abramsky warns that the appetite for fascism in the U.S. hasn't gone away.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div>"Trump's fascist yammering and the GOP Senate's collaborationist behavior isn't just a footnote to the 2020 election campaign," Abramsky warns. "Rather, it's a prologue to what could come next…. The GOP as an institution has entirely abandoned its commitment to the democratic process…. It's a hell of a warning shot as to how the Grand Old Party intends to conduct itself in the months and years ahead."</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Professor of History Explains How Trump Becomes a Dictator ... ›</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Conservative explains why Trump's love for dictators is only getting ›</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">10 Ways Trump's Taste in Interior Decor Would Fit Right into a Third ... ›</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Republicans who screamed about 'dictator' Obama nervously stand ... ›</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Trump condemned for White House 'dictator' statement to cast doubt ... ›</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Trump's re-election plan is straight out of the dictator's playbook ... ›</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">RELATED ARTICLES AROUND THE WEB</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Trump's Post-Election Tactics Put Him in Unsavory Company - The ... ›</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Donald Trump Goes Full Dictator, Vows to Stay in Office Regardless ... ›</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">10 Ways Trump Is Becoming a Dictator, Election Edition ›</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Donald Trump's administration acting 'more akin to a dictatorship ... ›</div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</div></div><div>=</div><div>Many Americans were shocked to wake up Wednesday to see former Trump National Security Adviser <a href="https://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/?s=Mike+Flynn" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Mike Flynn</a> calling for <a href="https://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/2020/12/pardoned-mike-flynn-and-pro-trump-attorney-lin-wood-call-to-impose-martial-law-and-have-military-oversee-new-election/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">martial law so the U.S. military can hold a "do-over" election</a>. Flynn is not alone, there is a large number of people promoting this lawless and unconstitutional behavior, all in service to Donald Trump.Flynn and other far right wing "leaders," including pro-Trump attorney Lin Wood, are pushing a Tea Party group's statement "demanding that President Trump Invoke limited Martial law in order to allow the U.S. Military to oversee a new free and fair federal election if Legislators, Courts and the Congress do not follow the Constitution."To be clear, there was no significant election fraud or voter fraud. Even Trump's own Attorney General Bill Barr <a href="https://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/2020/12/barr-contradicts-trump-no-widespread-election-fraud/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">made that declaration on Tuesday</a>.The far right has taken over the main Republican Party, and this is a direct result.Many on social media are furious, especially since no Republican, especially President Trump, has called to put a stop to this dangerous incitement. Many are rightly criticizing these self-declared "patriots" – many of whom are coming close to appearing to embrace sedition – as astonishingly hypocritical.Why?They are 100 percent OK with suspending the U.S. Constitution because Trump legitimately lost, holding a military-overseen election "do-over" because Trump lost (by nearly 7 million votes), but wearing a face mask to prevent the spread of a deadly virus violates their "rights" and is "fascism."Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell is challenging his GOP peers to denounce the hypocrisy:</div><div>=</div><div>
</div><div>angling for pardon? // stone?</div><div>
</div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/mike-flynns-lawyer-just-admitted-to-a-federal-judge-shes-discussed-his-case-with-trump/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/mike-flynns-lawyer-just-admitted-to-a-federal-judge-shes-discussed-his-case-with-trump/</a></div><div>
</div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</div></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">an 1020</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">....</div><div><h3 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Undermining the Convictions</h3>Finally, beyond using the power of his office to pursue Trump's perceived enemies, Barr has deployed the Justice Department to help Trump's convicted friends. It was the final step in wiping the Russia investigation from the history books altogether. But Barr's manipulations also have profound implications for the rule of law.When Mueller closed up shop in 2019, then-U.S. Attorney Liu (whose office supervised the McCabe investigation) assumed control of several special counsel prosecutions and earlier referrals, including cases against Roger Stone and Mike Flynn. But after Liu failed to get McCabe indicted, Barr replaced her with his old friend and confidant, Timothy Shea (JD, Georgetown '91) — just as the Justice Department was finalizing its sentencing recommendation in Stone's case.In 2017, Stone had lied to the House Intelligence Committee about his role concerning Trump campaign contacts with Russia. Then he threatened a witness who was going to expose him. A jury deliberated for about seven hours before convicting Stone on all seven counts of lying to Congress and witness tampering.As Shea replaced Liu in the District of Columbia U.S. attorney's office, career prosecutors handling Stone's case filed a brief that followed federal sentencing guidelines recommending seven to nine years in prison. Immediately, Trump tweeted that Stone's plight was "horrible," "unfair," and a "miscarriage of justice." Hours later, an official at Justice Department headquarters said that the DC office's recommendation was "extreme" and "excessive" and that a new memorandum would outline the government's revised position.Defending the rule of law, four of the federal prosecutors who signed the sentencing memorandum resigned immediately from the case. Jonathan Kravis (Yale, JD, '04) — one of Stone's prosecutors at trial — resigned from the Justice Department altogether. That left Shea and his assistant who was newly assigned to the Stone case to file a revised memorandum asserting that the government's previously recommended sentence "could be considered excessive and unwarranted."The following day, Trump congratulated Barr for "taking charge" of the Stone case, "which perhaps should not even been brought."Defenders of the rule of law fought back. Appearing on national television, the former chief of the criminal fraud section of the Justice Department, Andrew Weissmann (JD, Columbia, '84) — an appointee of President George H. W. Bush — said he could think of no instance where he had even heard of the attorney general reaching into a single criminal case to weigh in on a sentencing submission. Former Attorney General Eric Holder (JD, Columbia, '76) called Barr's direct intervention "unprecedented, wrong, and ultimately dangerous.""Public confusion was the objective, because it led to public indifference"The most damning criticism came from Donald Ayer (JD, Harvard, '75), who had served as President George H. W. Bush's deputy attorney general and Barr's boss at one point. On Feb. 17, 2020, Ayer wrote in The Atlantic:"All of this conduct — including Barr's personal interventions to influence or negate independent investigations or the pursuit of criminal cases, and his use of the department's resources to frustrate the checks and balances provided by other branches — is incompatible with the rule of law as we know it…"Ayer concluded: "Bill Barr's America is not a place that anyone, including Trump voters, should want to go. It is a banana republic where all are subject to the whims of a dictatorial president and his henchmen. To prevent that, we need a public uprising demanding that Bill Barr resign immediately, or failing that, be impeached."Trump and Barr were undeterred. Trump attacked Stone's judge, Amy Berman Jackson (JD, Harvard, JD '79), calling her "the Judge that put Paul Manafort in SOLITARY CONFINEMENT, something that not even mobster Al Capone had to endure." That was another Trump lie. Prison officials had made the decision about Manafort's federal housing. But Barr did not defend Jackson against Trump's attack, and the Judicial Code of Conduct prevented her from defending herself.Instead, Barr gave an interview during which he sent Trump a message — the tweets were making it "impossible" for him to do his job. Since then, Barr's view of his job has become even clearer: obliterate all trace of the Russia investigation. Mike Flynn became a stunning example of Barr's methods.<h3 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Moving to Drop Charges After a Guilty Plea</h3>On Dec. 1, 2017, Flynn pled guilty to lying to the FBI about his conversations with the Russian ambassador during the presidential transition and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors. On Dec. 18, 2018, he again acknowledged his crimes in open court. Judge Emmett G. Sullivan (JD, Howard Univ., '71) did not hide his disgust."[Y]ou lied to the FBI about three different topics, and you made those false statements while you were serving as the national security advisor, the President of the United States' most senior national security aid. I can't minimize that," the judge said. "Two months later you again made false statements in multiple documents filed pursuant to the Foreign Agents Registration Act. So, all along you were an unregistered agent of a foreign country, while serving as the national security advisor to the President of the United States. I mean, arguably, that undermines everything this flag over here stands for. Arguably, you sold your country out."But after Barr became attorney general two months later, he appointed the U.S. attorney in St. Louis, Jeff Jensen (JD, St. Louis Univ., '98), to review Flynn's case. In June 2019, Flynn retained new a lawyer — Sidney Powell (JD, North Carolina, '78), a far-right conspiracy theorist. Powell wrote directly to Barr, urging him to conduct an internal review and throw out Flynn's conviction. A week later, Trump congratulated Flynn for retaining Powell, tweeting that she was a "GREAT LAWYER."Shortly before the July 2019 trial at which Flynn was supposed to be a cooperating witness against his former business associate, he suddenly became uncooperative and prosecutors did not call him to testify. Powell then asked Judge Sullivan to nullify Flynn's conviction on the grounds that prosecutors had engaged in misconduct — claims that the judge rejected. As Flynn's sentencing approached in early January 2020, prosecutors withdrew their earlier recommendation of probation and urged Flynn's incarceration for as long as six months.As with Roger Stone, things then changed abruptly and mysteriously in Flynn's favor. And as with Stone, Barr and his confidant, interim US Attorney for the District of Columbia Timothy Shea, made it happen. On May 7, Shea's office took the unprecedented step of moving to drop all charges against Flynn. Shea alone signed the motion with no line prosecutors joining. It included no affidavits or declarations supporting its many new factual allegations. No motion to vacate the government's prior, contrary filings and representations accompanied the filing.The defenders of the rule of law stepped forward again. One of Flynn's prosecutors withdrew from the case and Judge Sullivan invited amicus briefs on the unusual motion. Then he assigned a former federal judge to oppose the Justice Department's move and to determine whether Flynn should be found in criminal contempt for lying to the court when he had pled guilty — twice.Flynn's attorney sought a writ of mandamus in the District of Columbia circuit court of appeals. That, in turn, forced Judge Sullivan to hire an attorney, Beth Wilkinson (JD, Virginia, '87), to answer the mandamus petition. The circle was complete: A judge defending the rule of law now needed his own lawyer to defend himself.In her brief on Judge Sullivan's behalf, Wilkinson wrote, "It is unprecedented for an Acting U.S. Attorney to contradict the solemn representations that career prosecutors made time and again, and undermine the district court's legal and factual findings, in moving on his own to dismiss the charge years after two different federal judges accepted the defendant's plea."What began in March 2019 with Barr's false spin and outright lies to assuage a president's obsession with the Russia investigation had exploded into a multidimensionalassault on the rule of law itself. No limiting principle has guided Barr's abuses, but he has encountered resistance. Individually and together, attorneys — especially litigators — have stepped forward:More than 1,000 former federal prosecutors from Republican and Democratic administrations signed an open letter stating that, but for the fact that Trump was a sitting president, Mueller's proof would have led to Trump's indictment for obstruction of justice.In connection with Roger Stone's sentencing, more than 2,600 former prosecutors and other DOJ attorneys from Republican and Democratic administrations signed an open letter condemning Barr for "interference in the fair administration of justice," "openly and repeatedly flouting" the fundamental principle of "equal justice under law," and calling on Barr to resign. They wrote, "Governments that use the enormous power of law enforcement to punish their enemies and reward their allies are not constitutional republics; they are autocracies."The president of the New York State Bar Ass'n issued a statement saying, "The intervention by senior Department of Justice officials in the sentencing of Roger Stone is an assault on a bedrock principle of the rule of law — the apolitical administration of justice. Our nation was founded on the principle that everyone must be treated equally in the eyes of the law…"More than 2,000 former Justice Department officials from Republican and Democratic administrations signed an open letter stating that Barr had "once again assaulted the rule of law" in seeking the dismissal of Flynn's case. "Attorney General Barr's repeated actions to use the Department as a tool to further President Trump's personal and political interests have undermined any claim to the deference that courts usually apply to the Department's decisions about whether or not to prosecute a case," they wrote.Judge Sullivan and the appeals court received numerous amicus briefs supporting the district court's exercise of judgment when deciding whether to accept the government's motion to dismiss the federal criminal charges against Flynn. Filings in support of the judge came from former federal judges, former Watergate prosecutors, legal scholars, and the New York City Bar Ass'n.ABA President Judy Perry Martinez issued a statement declaring, "Public officials who personally attack judges or prosecutors can create a perception that the system is serving a political or other purpose rather than the fair administration of justice. It is incumbent upon public officials and members of the legal profession, whose sworn duty it is to uphold the law, to do everything in their power to preserve the integrity of the justice system."What's next? Federal judges enjoy lifetime tenure that prevents Trump from purging the bench of his perceived judicial enemies. But Trump and his key Senate enabler with a law degree, Sen. Mitch McConnell (JD, Kentucky, '67), have boasted about filling federal judgeships at a brisk pace. Those judges must demonstrate their independence. With their actions, they have a unique opportunity to reaffirm that "equal justice under law" and "no one is above the law" are not empty platitudes, but guiding principles of our democracy.Pundits often understate Barr's conduct as violating "norms." It is more accurate to say that he and Trump are at war with the rule of law. Federal judges and litigators throughout the country have become first-responders in the fight. The front lines have formed in courtrooms throughout the country, but lawyers away from the immediate field of battle are also making a difference.So which side are you on?In this war, there are no bystanders.This article appears in the Fall 2020 issue of Litigation – The Journal of the Section of Litigation of the American Bar Association.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</div><div>=medium.com Jim Watkins ...WikileaksInfowars<div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">QANON #Q Exposed Q Anon IDENTITY - 100% SOLVED - Patriots SoapBox 24/7 by UNIRocK</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">www.bitchute.com</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Apparently, OANN was already waiting in the wings to TAKE OVER for InfoWars as the media mouthpiece for Q in 2018.</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">MICHAEL FLYNN</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">Michael Flynn is a racist lunatic whose deep, long-lasting connections to Russia are extremely well reported. Despite CONFESSING to participating in Russian interference, he is being protected AT ALL COSTS by Trump.</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">Government lawyer suggests Attorney General Barr had secret reasons for dropping Michael Flynn…</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Attorney General William Barr may have had secret information that led the Justice Department to seek to drop its…</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">www.cnbc.com</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Michael Flynn has deeply permeated the Qanon cult. Any casual stroll through Qwitter reveals a very large percentage of bios and handles with THREE STARS. This represents loyalty to Michael Flynn, a retired 3-star General. He is regarded as a hero and a demi-god, second only to Trump.</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Michael Flynn has jumped into his role with both feet. He appears in numerous Drops, taken the Qanon “Oath” on VIDEO.</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">To celebrate the Fourth, Michael Flynn posts a pledge to conspiracy group QAnon.</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">[For indispensable reporting on the coronavirus crisis and more, subscribe to Mother Jones' newsletters. Donald Trump's…</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">www.motherjones.com]</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">More recently, has written a truly batshit screed that is deeply connected to both his theocratic fascist beliefs and Qanon. The letter includes this call to his followers:</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">“We do not and should not ever allow anarchy and the evil forces behind it to operate on any street in our nation.”?—?Michael Flynn</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Exclusive from Gen. Flynn: Prayer Alone Won't Do It This Time; It's Time To Act</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">We are witnessing a vicious assault by enemies of all that is good, and our president is having to act in ways…</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">www.westernjournal.com]</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">This raises the frightening possibility that Flynn is going to ascend, either AS Q, or associated with him, and INSTRUCT HIS FOLLOWERS to do god-knows-what.</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Given that this twisted belief system incorporates guns, extreme religious views, obsession with pedophiles, and every other call to intense emotion imaginable, this is a powder keg. At a minimum, I expect Flynn will instruct his followers to interfere with voting on Election Day.</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">TRUMP</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">Donald Trump is not only aware of Qanon but has winked, nodded and ACTIVELY PROMOTED Qanon on Twitter.</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">On 8/14/20, he was asked whether he denounces Qanon, AND HE POINTEDLY AND REPEATEDLY REFUSED TO DO SO which was celebrated in the Qniverse despite the prior prediction that he would confirm their beliefs.</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Trump refuses to answer question about QAnon while backing candidate who promotes its baseless…</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">President Donald Trump on Friday declined to answer whether he believes in the baseless QAnon conspiracy theory, instead…</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">www.cnn.com</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">He has retweeted HUNDREDS of Q-related accounts. He is the ultimate God-King of Qanon and Qwitter may be the one place in the world other than a Cabinet meeting where he receives the adoration he requires in order to stay psychologically functional. This is in no way an exaggeration.</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">As he gets more desperate, Trump will make more direct calls to the Qanon cult, which is increasingly BECOMING HIS BASE. Pause here, and take that in.</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Analysis | Nearly 600,000 people have voted for candidates who support QAnon</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">The Republican Party's candidate for the House in Colorado's 3rd District will be Lauren Boebert, who won Tuesday's…</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">www.washingtonpost.com]</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Trump’s connections to Russia… well, you already know about those.</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">ANTIFA.COM HACK SHOWS THE PIPELINE IN ACTION</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">At 12:47PST on 8/12/20 @PrayingActress posted that the antifa.com website shows joebiden.com, with a declaration that this proves that “Joe Biden is using enemy combatants”.</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">To my knowledge, this is the first time that this crude DNS hack hosted FROM RUSSIAN SERVERS was seen on the internet.</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">@PrayingActress is almost certainly an alt of @PrayingMedic, a huge and notorious Qwitter account. In addition, this account appears to be on the inner circle of Q retweeters, a well coordinated network whose topology can be seen using public Twitter data collection and network visualizations.</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">This article clearly shows that this was a Russian intel operation.</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">'Antifa' website cited in conservative media attack on Biden is linked to - wait for it - Russia</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">WASHINGTON - At his press briefing Wednesday, President Trump, as he usually does, called for a question from Chanel…</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">news.yahoo.com</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">THREE HOURS LATER, Chanel Rion, the Russia-employed “reporter” from OANN in the WHITE HOUSE BRIEFING ROOM asked a leading question about the hack, including asking whether Biden should “renounce Antifa”. This was the second day in a row Rion was granted a question.</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Here is a Q account celebrating the OANN question with a clip to the video. Chanel Rion has always been a promoter of Q, but this has elevated her to elite status in the Qommunity:</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">CONCLUSION</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">The above is a SMALL SUBSET of the available publicly available evidence that there is a serious and ongoing link between Jim Watkins, Russian intelligence, Michael Flynn, OANN, and the president of the United States.</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">This pipeline of disinformation will continue and may soon lead to escalating physical confrontation and violence.</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Please pay attention and do your part.</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">ACTION REQUIRED</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">----MUST BE EXPOSED widely and loudly enough to take him and his website down by law enforcement.</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Michael Flynn MUST BE EXPOSED. There is currently critical litigation happening regarding his case.</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">OANN MUST BE EXPOSED as a front for Russian propaganda.</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">The American public and the people brainwashed by this cult MUST BE INFORMED.</div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Those responsible for election security MUST TAKE THIS THREAT SERIOUSLY....</div>mojoTrump’s former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, posted a video on Independence Day in which he recites an oath for QAnon conspiracy theorists along with five others[vid]flynn had been circling the QAnon world for months, but this takes his flirtation with the group a step further. As the QAnon conspiracy theory goes, powerful liberal politicos are running an underground child sex trafficking operation but will ultimately be exposed and charged for their crimes after “The Storm.” There is, of course, <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2019/07/why-are-right-wing-conspiracies-so-obsessed-with-pedophilia/" style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" transparent="transparent" box-sizing="box-sizing" inherit="inherit" text-decoration-line="text-decoration-line" none="none" background-position="background-position" px="px" background-image="background-image" url="url" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb">no evidence</a> that such a scheme exists. The oath, which includes the QAnon slogan “Where we go one, we go all,” refers to “an oath to become ‘digital soldiers’ to defend the Constitution,” explains the Daily Beast‘s Will Sommer. In the last month, following other cryptic messages of support for the QAnon conspiracy, Flynn added #TakeTheOath to his Twitter bio. As <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/michael-flynn-finally-embraces-his-qanon-cult-following" style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" transparent="transparent" box-sizing="box-sizing" inherit="inherit" text-decoration-line="text-decoration-line" none="none" background-position="background-position" px="px" background-image="background-image" url="url" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb">Sommer reports</a>:<blockquote style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 1rem; border-left: 10px solid rgb(182, 186, 190);">Flynn <a class="TrackingLink LinkWrapper" href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/qanon-nuts-euphoric-over-latest-turn-in-michael-flynns-legal-case" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">plays a large role</a> in QAnon mythos, where his guilty plea for lying to the FBI about his discussions with Russian officials has been spun to make him a persecuted victim of the deep state—or even, in some cases, as the mysterious “Q” himself. Many QAnon fans have added three star-emojis to their Twitter handles, in a nod to Flynn’s status as a retired three-star general. Pictures of books supposedly signed by Flynn with the QAnon slogan “Where we go one, we go all” are seen in the QAnon community as powerful “proof” that QAnon is real, although their authenticity hasn’t been proven. Through it all, Flynn had publicly stayed silent on QAnon and his role in the conspiracy theory, while his son <a class="TrackingLink LinkWrapper" href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/michael-flynns-family-is-at-war-with-each-other-over-qanon" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">told QAnon believers</a> to stop claiming his father was involved in their worldview. But sometime in the last month, Flynn edited his Twitter bio to add a QAnon hashtag: #TakeTheOath.…Flynn himself actually coined the term “digital soldiers” years ago, in reference to United States cyberwar capabilities. But QAnon believers have recently become fixated on it, convincing themselves that Flynn was actually referring to them. The oath craze has gone so far that, on Saturday, QAnon believer and Republican Senate nominee Jo Rae Perkins posted a video of herself taking the oath to become a “digital soldier.” </blockquote>Flynn’s message, though alarming, falls into a larger trend: QAnon online activity has been on the rise since the start of the pandemic. As my colleagues Ali Breland and Sinduja Rangarajan <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/06/qanon-coronavirus/" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">reported</a> last month, Google Trends shows that QAnon search terms like “WWG1WGA” (where we go one, we go all) spiked in March as US businesses started to close. Wikipedia’s QAnon page saw a surge in pageviews in March and April. Mentions of QAnon on Twitter have also increased:<blockquote style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 1rem; border-left: 10px solid rgb(182, 186, 190);">A Mother Jones analysis of nearly 500,000 tweets posted across one week in April found that the average number of tweets per day using the hashtag #QAnon increased by 160 percent as <a href="https://twitter.com/conspirator0/status/1171841366239760384" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">compared to the averages compiled</a> over six months of 2019 by the Twitter user @conspirator0 (Twitter later limited searches of posts on its platform, making other comparisons difficult.) The highest daily number of QAnon tweets documented by the account in 2019 was 75,349. After the onset of the US’s coronavirus crisis, that figure nearly doubled, reaching a high of 147, 748 tweets on April 4, 2020.Anecdotal examples bolster what the data shows. Internet communities that hadn’t previously done so are now associating with far-right conspiracies like QAnon, impending mass arrests of elites for running pedophile rings, and liberal megadonor George Soros’s supposed plots. Across Instagram, <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/04/wellness-qanon-coronavirus/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">pseudoscience wellness influencers</a>, <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/stephaniemcneal/coronavirus-lifestyle-influencers-sharing-conspiracy-qanon" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">lifestyle influencers</a>, anti-vaxxers, <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-gwyneth-paltrow-approved-goop-doctor-pushing-wacky-coronavirus-conspiracies" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">at least one contributor</a> to Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop site, and other seemingly unrelated groups have <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/04/wellness-qanon-coronavirus/" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; background-position: 0px 90%; background-image: url(" wp-content="wp-content" themes="themes" motherjones="motherjones" css="css" img="img" orange-border.png="orange-border.png" background-repeat="background-repeat" repeat-x="repeat-x" text-shadow="text-shadow" rgb="rgb" px="px">all pivoted</a> to spreading versions of these conspiracies that emerged on the far right.</blockquote>new<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/11/michael-flynn-case-appeals-court-hears-arguments-over-trump-aide.html">https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/11/michael-flynn-case-appeals-court-hears-arguments-over-trump-aide.html</a>
<div class="group" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.66; margin-bottom: 30px; margin-left: calc((((100% - 180px) / 7) * 1 + 30px) * 1); -webkit-box-flex: 0; flex-grow: 0; flex-shrink: 0; min-width: auto; max-width: 100%;">attorney General William Barr may have had secret information that led the Justice Department to seek to drop its criminal case against Michael Flynn, a government lawyer said Tuesday.Jeffrey Wall, the acting U.S. solicitor general, revealed the possible existence of that nonpublic information during a full appeals court hearing over whether Flynn’s case in federal court should be dismissed, as the Department of Justice has requested. <div class="BoxInline-container " style="box-sizing: border-box; max-width: 300px; margin: 0px;"><div id="BoxInline-ArticleBody-6" class="BoxInline-container" data-module="mps-slot" style="box-sizing: border-box; max-width: 300px; margin: 0px;"></div></div>Several judges among the 10 who heard the oral arguments signaled they would likely allow a lower court to rule on whether to drop the criminal charge against Flynn.The DOJ had provided multiple reasons for U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan to throw out its own case against Flynn, who had previously pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with the Russian ambassador to the U.S. in the weeks before Trump’s inauguration.But Wall, who was representing the DOJ, told a full panel of judges on the appeals court in Washington, D.C., that Barr’s judgment on Flynn’s case came “in the context of nonpublic information from other investigations.”“I just wanted to make clear that it may be possible that the attorney general had before him information that he was not able to share with the court,” Wall said, “and so what we put in front of the court were the reasons that we could, but it may not be the whole picture available to the executive branch.”Rather than promptly grant the DOJ’s request to drop the charge against Flynn, Sullivan had appointed a former judge to make arguments for the position that the case should not be tossed. Sullivan also allowed other outside parties to weigh in on the question.[vid]in response, Flynn’s lawyers asked the appeals court to force Sullivan to grant the request to dismiss the case. A three-judge panel had ruled in favor of Flynn, but the full court later agreed to rehear the case in response to a request from Sullivan’s lawyers.</div><div class="group" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.66; margin-bottom: 30px; margin-left: calc((((100% - 180px) / 7) * 1 + 30px) * 1); -webkit-box-flex: 0; flex-grow: 0; flex-shrink: 0; min-width: auto; max-width: 100%;">In the hearing Tuesday, Flynn’s lawyer, Sidney Powell, said that Sullivan has “discarded any semblance of the unbiased impartial adjudicator” he is expected to be.Powell also said that Sullivan has the “now-glaring appearance of bias” for millions of Americans.But Powell faced a highly skeptical-sounding group of appeals judges that aggressively questioned her argument that Sullivan had little power to do anything other than grant the Justice Department’s request to drop its prosecution of Flynn.“The judge has to do some thinking about it, right? The judge is not simply a rubber stamp,” one of the judges asked Powell.Beth Wilkinson, a lawyer for Sullivan, argued that he would follow the law as he pursued answers to his lingering questions before ruling on the request to dismiss Flynn’s case. She also noted that if Sullivan had been allowed to proceed with Flynn’s case as he intended, the proceedings may have ended much earlier.“This matter could have been over on July 16, ironically, if the judge had been able to have his hearing,” Wilkinson said.</div>=wapo<div class="flex" style="display: flex;"><div class="items-center" style="align-items: center;"><div class="mb-md gray-dark font--subhead font-xxs" data-qa="timestamp" style="margin-bottom: 24px; line-height: 1.25;"><div class="display-date">november 4, 2019 </div></div></div></div><div class="article-body"><div class="teaser-content"><section><div>The fact that the two biggest controversies of the Trump presidency have revolved around Russia and Ukraine — two former Soviet republics in a state of perpetual conflict — might have seemed like a strange coincidence.</div><div><div>More and more, we’re learning it's not.</div><div>A <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/internal-mueller-documents-show-trump-campaign-chief-suggested-ukraine-hacked-democrats-during-2016-campaign/2019/11/02/cc8e461c-fd90-11e9-ac8c-8eced29ca6ef_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_5" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213);">trove of documents</a> from Robert S. Mueller III’s Russia investigation released over the weekend show that Trump’s Ukraine conspiracy theory appears to have been propagated by two top aides who were central figures in the special counsel’s investigation: Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn. The conspiracy theory also was apparently fertilized by Manafort associate Konstantin Kilimnik.</div></div></section></div><div class="remainder-content"><section><div>The three of them appear to have played a role in convincing Trump that Russia did not actually interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, despite what both Mueller and the U.S. intelligence community have concluded, and that it was actually Ukraine. Trump and his personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani have since set about trying to get Ukraine to investigate the allegations, including by allegedly leveraging hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid and a much-sought Oval Office meeting for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/10/29/public-confirmations-quid-pro-quo-between-trump-ukraine/?itid=lk_inline_manual_6" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213);">alleged corrupt quid pro quos</a> are now at the center of the House’s <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/09/25/what-you-need-know-about-impeachment-inquiry-into-trump/?itid=lk_inline_manual_6" target="blank" class="contextual_link" style="text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213);">impeachment inquiry</a> of Trump.</div><div><div><div>To recap, that’s three people with controversial ties to Russia, two of whom are convicted criminals (Manafort and Flynn) and another who has been indicted (Kilimnik). Trump is apparently trying to prove their theory, to this day.</div><div>Rick Gates, a former Manafort deputy and Trump campaign aide, told investigators that the three of them were pushing the theory to Trump. According to the newly released Mueller documents, Gates told investigators that “Flynn was adamant the Russians did not carry out the hack” and that Flynn told Trump that U.S. intelligence “was not capable of figuring it out.” He also said that Manafort said the hack of Democratic emails “was likely carried out by the Ukrainians, not the Russians.” And Gates said Manafort’s theory was “parroted” from Kilimnik, who “also opined the hack could have been perpetrated by Russian operatives in Ukraine.”</div><div>Gates pleaded guilty to lying to investigators before he began cooperating with Mueller’s team.mueller’s investigators concluded that Kilimnik, Manafort’s associate in Ukraine, had ongoing ties to Russian intelligence during this whole period. They have <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/special-counsel-mueller-indicts-associate-of-paul-manafort/2018/06/08/507ae696-6b44-11e8-bf8c-f9ed2e672adf_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_14" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213);">indicted him for witness tampering</a>, although he is unlikely to ever face the charges, given that he is overseas.</div><div>But he is hardly the only one with a controversial relationship with Russia.</div><div>Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman, has ties to Russia and Russian interests dating back more than a decade, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/03/22/timeline-paul-manaforts-long-murky-history-of-political-interventions/?itid=lk_inline_manual_16" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213);">as Philip Bump has documented</a>. He was indicted after documents revealed nearly $13 million in undisclosed payments from a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine. The New York Times reported in July 2017 that Manafort was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/19/us/politics/paul-manafort-russia-trump.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213);">$17 million in debt</a> to pro-Russian interests in Ukraine. He and Gates were also in business with Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, who <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/russian-tycoon-sues-former-trump-campaign-manager-manafort/2018/01/10/8e9f09ac-f64b-11e7-beb6-c8d48830c54d_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_16" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213);">sued them in 2018</a> for allegedly defrauding him to the tune of $19 million. There is evidence that Manafort signed <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2017/03/28/russian-billionaire-attempts-to-stifle-ap-scoop/?itid=lk_inline_manual_16" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213);">a $10 million a year contract with Deripaska</a> in 2006 to push a proposal that was pitched as something that “can greatly benefit the Putin Government,” and there is also evidence that Manafort took out <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/search-warrants-give-details-about-paul-manaforts-financial-entanglement-with-a-russian-oligarch/2018/06/27/45d5431e-7a56-11e8-80be-6d32e182a3bc_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_16" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213);">a $10 million loan from Deripaska</a> at one point.flynn’s ties to Russia are more tenuous, but he has made a series of curious decisions involving himself with it. In 2013, as the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency in the Obama administration, he became the first U.S. official to visit Russia’s GRU, its military intelligence agency. Flynn then reportedly <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/02/27/michael-flynn-general-chaos" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213);">sought to invite GRU officers to the United States</a>, even after Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine. After leaving the Obama administration, Flynn sat next to Russian President Vladimir Putin at a gala in 2015 for the English-language Russian propaganda channel RT and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/new-details-released-on-russia-related-payments-to-flynn-before-he-joined-trump-campaign/2017/03/16/52a4205a-0a55-11e7-a15f-a58d4a988474_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_19" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213);">was paid $45,000</a> for his trip. He was paid another $23,000 by Russia-tied entities that year, according to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/apps/g/page/politics/documents-give-details-on-russia-related-payments-to-michael-flynn/2180/?itid=lk_inline_manual_19" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213);">documents released in 2017</a>.</div><div>When serving briefly as Trump’s national security adviser in early 2017, Flynn lied to Vice President Pence and investigators about his talks with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, claiming they had not discussed sanctions during the transition period even though they had. It was enough to cause Sally Yates, then acting attorney general, to warn the White House <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/justice-department-warned-white-house-that-flynn-could-be-vulnerable-to-russian-blackmail-officials-say/2017/02/13/fc5dab88-f228-11e6-8d72-263470bf0401_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_20" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213);">that Flynn was vulnerable to Russian blackmail</a>. Flynn would later plead guilty to lying to the investigators.</div><div>So we have two men who have been convicted of offenses related to their Russia ties, have both lied to investigators about their interactions with Russian interests, and who apparently played a significant role in pushing a theory to Trump that Russia did not actually interfere in the 2016 election. They instead pointed the finger at Russia’s nemesis, Ukraine, and that has apparently stuck with Trump for more than three years. Flynn’s alleged effort to push Trump to be skeptical of the U.S. intelligence community in which Flynn served seems to have proven particularly long-lasting, despite Flynn’s conviction and his predilection for conspiracy theories such as <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/pizzagate-from-rumor-to-hashtag-to-gunfire-in-dc/2016/12/06/4c7def50-bbd4-11e6-94ac-3d324840106c_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_21" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213);">Pizzagate</a>.</div><div>And now Trump has pushed the theory so far, despite <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/09/25/trumps-mention-crowdstrike-call-with-ukraines-president-recalls-russian-hack-dnc/?itid=lk_inline_manual_22" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(213, 213, 213);">its baselessness</a>, that it has put him on course for impeachment. Given that Russia’s goal has always been more about destabilizing the West rather than necessarily supporting Trump, it’s about the best that the Kremlin could have hoped.</div></div></div></section></div></div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/06/letter-sent-in-utmost-confidentiality-to-bill-barr-set-in-motion-intervention-for-michael-flynn-report/" rel="bookmark" title="Letter sent in ‘utmost confidentiality’ to Bill Barr set in motion intervention for Michael Flynn: report" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 6px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; line-height: 1.4; display: block;" open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px" font-weight="font-weight" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Letter sent in ‘utmost confidentiality’ to Bill Barr set in motion intervention for Michael Flynn: report</a><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/06/letter-sent-in-utmost-confidentiality-to-bill-barr-set-in-motion-intervention-for-michael-flynn-report/" rel="bookmark" title="Letter sent in ‘utmost confidentiality’ to Bill Barr set in motion intervention for Michael Flynn: report" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 6px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; line-height: 1.4; display: block;" open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px" font-weight="font-weight" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">an 720</a>=<a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/trumprussia/richard-grenells-flynn-unmasking-noninformation-campaign">https://www.mediamatters.org/trumprussia/richard-grenells-flynn-unmasking-noninformation-campaign</a><header class="editorial-fullheader" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Right-wing media froth over “Obamagate” and bully press to play alongWRITTEN BY <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/author/matt-gertz" hreflang="en" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">MATT GERTZ</a><div class="dateline--group" style="box-sizing: border-box; align-items: center; display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap;">PUBLISHED <time datetime="2020-05-15T14:15:11-0400" style="box-sizing: border-box;">05/15/20 2:15 PM EDT</time></div></header><div class="editorial-fullarticle" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 2.25rem;"><div class="field field--name-field-stories-content field--type-entity-reference-revisions field--label-hidden" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="paragraph paragraph--type--stories-text paragraph--view-mode--editorial" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="fancy-elems-wrapper field field--name-field-stories-text-formatted field--type-text-long field--label-hidden fielditem" style="box-sizing: border-box;">Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell, a former Fox News contributor and Republican Party stalwart who was <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/richard-grenell/foxification-intelligence-community-follows-doj-script" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">appointed</a> to lead the U.S. intelligence community because of his loyalty to President Donald Trump, provided a document of his own devising to Congress on Wednesday. It promptly leaked to the press. Republicans, including Trump <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-weighs-in-on-flynn" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">himself</a>, immediately seized on the content in the document as <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/rand-paul-rips-biden-over-flynn-unmasking" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">evidence</a> of vast Obama administration malfeasance. Fox hosts spent the next two days incessantly <a href="https://view.newsletters.cnn.com/messages/15894287307906e1a9e9f23a2/raw?utm_term=15894287307906e1a9e9f23a2&utm_source=Reliable+Sources+-+May+13,+2020&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=206544_1589428730794&bt_ee=rJtXAI/dlRVo19NiqUUDVK/ltAnlkvNMu9mMajvRanVdqAYAnBBHIYyh3CCtfzbubLRE55GUp/sRZ4Gxai5j7Q%3D%3D&bt_ts=1589428730794" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">declaring</a> that it vindicated their conspiracy theories, <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/fox-news-largely-ignores-coronavirus-whistleblower-testimony-favor-obamagate" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">turning their attention away</a> from the <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/amid-climbing-coronavirus-death-toll-fox-friends-devotes-twice-much-coverage" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">coronavirus pandemic</a>. And more credible media outlets, buffeted by the partisan claims, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/michael-flynn-unmasking-obama-biden/2020/05/13/d9593030-9545-11ea-82b4-c8db161ff6e5_story.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">responded</a> <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/more-than-one-dozen-obama-officials-may-have-requested-unmasking-that-revealed-michael-flynn-in-intelligence-reports-11589396531" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">with</a> a <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/more-than-one-dozen-obama-officials-may-have-requested-unmasking-that-revealed-michael-flynn-in-intelligence-reports-11589396531" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">flurry</a> of <a href="https://apnews.com/ebcd45c5d89ac3cf8cc61ed3d6e1ac1a" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">stories</a>, at times <a href="https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/1261256342137946112?s=21" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">failing</a> to <a href="https://twitter.com/emptywheel/status/1261092546433908741?s=21" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">properly contextualize</a> the story.Trumpists have declared Grenell’s document a smoking gun showing that disgraced former Trump national security advisor Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty for lying to the FBI about his calls with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, was a victim of an Obama administration conspiracy, and Fox is hyping that narrative with wall-to-wall coverage. In reality, the document provides almost no information whatsoever. It is simply a list of senior Obama administration officials who received Flynn’s name after they followed the National Security Agency’s standard process and asked the agency to unmask the identity of an individual generically referenced in an NSA report they were authorized to read. It does nothing to establish that any of the individuals named acted improperly in any way -- or even how many unmaskings were related to the Kislyak calls.We’ve seen misinformation campaigns, where false or deceptive information is distributed, and disinformation campaigns, when that distribution is done with the full knowledge of its inaccuracy. Grenell is engaged in a noninformation campaign. He deliberately crafted and propagated a data point so vague that it is virtually meaningless on its own. But pro-Trump partisans -- particularly at Fox -- have easily picked up, misread (deliberately or not), and promoted the point, aligining it with their wild assumptions. Those furious misinterpretations have in turn spurred attention from the mainstream press, driving the conspiratorial thinking into the broader public. This is an intentional plan that corresponds with what the president wants from his director of national intelligence. “Trump hopes enough information will be released by his intelligence appointees to muddy the waters and lend a patina of confusion about what Mr. Obama may have done, according to people familiar with his thinking,” The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/14/us/politics/trump-obama.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">reported</a> Thursday. As the president struggles in reelection polling, Trump and his Fox propagandists are using the Flynn story to try to damage the credibility of former President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, Trump’s 2020 opponent.Grenell’s noninformation campaign is the latest salvo in a years-long campaign by Trump and his Fox propagandists to turn the <a href="https://crooked.com/articles/trump-final-authoritarian-push/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">Russia investigation inside out</a>, presenting the Trump associates who pleaded or were found guilty under its auspices as victims and those involved in carrying out the probe as criminals. With vast swathes of the federal bureaucracy in the hands of partisans selected for their loyalty to the president, including the DNI and Justice Department, we should <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/sean-hannity/sean-hannitys-deep-state-special-harbinger-trump-and-barrs-coming-propaganda" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">expect more of these releases</a> -- and perhaps <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-news-led-sean-hannity-has-been-begging-attorney-general-bill-barr-investigate-or" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">more dangerous actions</a> -- in the coming months, as Trump’s supporters try to push the political debate away from the ongoing pandemic that has killed more than 80,000 Americans so far in order to secure his reelection.<h2 style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 1rem;">The Trumpist defense of Michael Flynn</h2>Michael Flynn is a retired general who served as Trump’s national security adviser during the 2016 presidential campaign, the transition, and the early days of his White House tenure. At various points during that timeline, Flynn was also <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/18/us/politics/clinton-emails-trump-russia.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">assigned</a> by Trump to find the Hillary Clinton emails he had publicly asked Russia to procure; was under <a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/why-flynn-interview-was-predicated" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">investigation</a> by the FBI, which was concerned with whether he was serving as a witting or unwitting agent of the Russian government; was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/18/us/politics/michael-flynn-sentencing.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">illegally acting</a> as an unregistered agent of the Turkish government, for which he was <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/flynn-face-pressure-russia-probe-dems-allege-concealed/story?id=49809864" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">reportedly involved</a> in discussions of a kidnapping plot; and was seeking Trump’s approval for a plan to transfer nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia after <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/flynn-backed-plan-transfer-nuclear-tech-saudis-may-have-broken-n973021" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">working as a paid adviser</a> for the group behind the proposal.  On December 29, 2016, the day the Obama administration placed sanctions on Russia in response to its interference in the presidential election, Flynn <a href="https://www.factcheck.org/2017/12/michael-flynns-russia-timeline/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">called</a> Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak and urged him that Russia not retaliate for those sanctions. Flynn was fired as Trump’s national security adviser after reports surfaced that he lied to Vice President Mike Pence about those conversations, which opened Flynn up to blackmail from the Russian government. He would later repeatedly plead guilty as part of Mueller’s probe to lying to the FBI about those calls before renouncing that plea last year.The <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/sean-hannity-michael-flynn-james-comey-fbi" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">position on Flynn</a> among Trumpists like Fox host Sean Hannity is that he is an American hero, that there was no good-faith reason to probe any of his actions during that period, and that anyone involved in such an effort was a participant in the broad-ranging Obama administration conspiracy to take down Trump, <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/157726/obamagate-ultimate-republican-non-scandal" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">which the president terms</a> “OBAMAGATE.” Their argument features Flynn’s conversation with Kislyak in two ways: They <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/trumprussia/fox-news-why-trump-thinks-he-can-get-away-nixonian-corruption-barrs-doj" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">argue</a> that the FBI’s interview with Flynn was a nefarious “setup” and suggest that the leak about the conversation from a “senior government official” to The Washington Post’s David Ignatius for his 2017 <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-did-obama-dawdle-on-russias-hacking/2017/01/12/75f878a0-d90c-11e6-9a36-1d296534b31e_story.html?itid=lk_inline_manual_28" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">column</a>, which brought the call into public light, was an illegal attempt to take down Flynn and Trump by someone who had improperly “unmasked” his identity from intelligence intercepts. William Barr’s Justice Department showed last week that the Trump administration is putting the force of the federal government behind Fox’s conspiracy theories when it <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/trumprussia/fox-news-why-trump-thinks-he-can-get-away-nixonian-corruption-barrs-doj" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">filed a dubious and virtually unprecedented motion</a> seeking to drop the government’s case against Flynn, citing the FBI’s interview tactics. And on Wednesday, Grenell tried to use his own power as the director of national intelligence to provide grist in support of the other fork of the Flynn defense. <h2 style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 1rem;">“Unmasking” and what Grenell’s document shows</h2>On Tuesday, The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/12/us/politics/richard-grenell-declassification-unmasking-list.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">reported</a> that Grenell had declassified and provided to the Justice Department what the paper described as “an Obama-era document related to President Trump’s former national security adviser Michael T. Flynn” and “a list of Obama administration officials who sought to learn the identities of Trump associates swept up in surveillance of foreign officials.” Later that day, Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson <a href="https://www.grassley.senate.gov/sites/default/files/2020-05-12%20RHJ%20CEG%20to%20ODNI%20%28Unmaskings%29.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">sent a letter</a> to Grenell and Barr asking for the document. Grenell <a href="https://twitter.com/CBS_Herridge/status/1260635048967094272/photo/1" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">provided</a> it to the senators on Wednesday, and it was immediately leaked to CBS News’ Catherine Herridge, a former Fox reporter <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/catherine-herridge/catherine-herridge-joins-foxs-news-side-exodus" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">whose work</a> often <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/new-cbs-reporter-catherine-herridge-is-driving-democratsand-some-of-her-own-colleaguescrazy?ref=home" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">promotes</a> Republican talking points. Herridge then <a href="https://twitter.com/CBS_Herridge/status/1260635048967094272" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">published</a> the letter on <a href="https://twitter.com/CBS_Herridge/status/1260635872271228928" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">Twitter.</a> (The document <a href="https://twitter.com/MattGertz/status/1260941163516887040" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">did not turn out</a> to be precisely what the Times had reported. It had been generated on May 4, not during the “Obama era,” and dealt solely with cases involving Flynn, not “Trump associates” more generally.) In <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/qanda-what-is-unmasking-who-does-it-and-why/2020/05/14/ae254782-95ea-11ea-91d7-cf4423d47683_story.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">NSA reports</a> derived from the legal surveillance of foreign targets, analysts anonymize (“mask”) the names of U.S. persons to protect their privacy. It is routine for senior officials to ask the NSA to reveal (“unmask”) those identities in cases where they believe that information is necessary to understand the intelligence. The NSA has a standard procedure for doing this, including a review of the justification of the person seeking the unmasking. For context, Trump administration officials sought and received the unmasking of U.S. persons from the NSA more than <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/michael-flynn-unmasking-obama-biden/2020/05/13/d9593030-9545-11ea-82b4-c8db161ff6e5_story.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">10,000 times</a> in 2019 and nearly <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/nsa-reports-75-increase-in-unmasking-u-s-identities-under-foreign-surveillance-law-in-2018-11556641509" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">17,000 times</a> in 2018. The document is a list created at Grenell’s request of <a href="https://www.grassley.senate.gov/sites/default/files/2020-05-13%20ODNI%20to%20CEG%20RHJ%20%28Unmasking%29.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">several dozen</a> “officials who submitted requests” to the NSA between Trump’s election and the end of January 2017 to unmask an identity which turned out to be Flynn, as detailed in an <a href="https://twitter.com/CBS_Herridge/status/1260635048967094272/photo/2" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">attached memorandum</a> to Grenell from NSA Director Paul Nakasone. It provides the names of the officials, which include then-Vice President Biden, Cabinet secretaries, and intelligence agency leaders, and the date on which their requests were processed. It is the second version of the document -- as Nakasone detailed, the list was originally provided in alphabetical order but revised to be chronological. That’s it. Contrary to the insinuations from the right-wing figures, the document provides no evidence that any single unmasking was related to Flynn’s calls with Kislyak. In fact, the <a href="https://www.emptywheel.net/2020/05/13/of-over-40-potential-unmaskings-of-mike-flynn-during-the-transition-just-one-led-to-criminal-charges/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">record suggests</a> none of them were the original unmasking that first discovered Flynn had made the call, as that one was done by the FBI from its own intercept, not the NSA’s. Nor does it show that Flynn was in some way targeted -- by definition, unmasking occurs when senior administration officials don’t know the name of an American referenced in an intelligence report.Indeed, there is no indication in the document that anyone listed behaved inappropriately -- in fact, it <a href="https://twitter.com/CBS_Herridge/status/1260635872271228928/photo/1" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">makes clear</a> that the Obama-era unmaskings happened by the book. “Each individual was an authorized recipient of the original report and the unmasking was approved through NSA’s standard process, which includes a review of the justification for the request,” it states. It also points out that the NSA cannot confirm that any of the persons who requested the unmaskings eventually saw the information.<h2 style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 1rem;">Grenell’s noninformation plot</h2>Grenell is <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/21/opinion/richard-grenell-trump.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">totally unqualified</a> for his post. While previous occupants of his position ran intelligence agencies, he at most was a consumer of their products during a brief stint as U.S. ambassador to Germany. What he brings to the table instead, along with unswerving loyalty to the president, is broad experience in public relations and shaping news cycles, which he <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180608010453/http:/richardgrenell.com/about/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">honed</a> as a spokesperson for Republican politicians and for the U.S. mission to the United Nations, a strategic communications consultant for domestic and foreign clients, a Fox contributor, and a notably unhinged Twitter troll.Grenell personally requested, sought revisions to, declassified, and provided the document to Congress in precisely this form, showing precisely what he wanted to become public. If he wanted the document to include more information -- by for example, including the actual documents for which Flynn’s name was unmasked, or summaries thereof -- it would. Without that, despite the right-wing chorus linking Grenell’s document to Flynn’s Kislyak calls, it doesn’t provide evidence that any single unmasking had anything to do with them. In fact the majority of the unmaskings predate the calls and thus could not be related. Indeed, it doesn’t even indicate that Flynn was a participant in the intercepts used in the intelligence reports in which his name was unmasked, as the New York Times’ Charlie Savage points out:</div></div><div class="paragraph paragraph--type--twitter-tweet paragraph--view-mode--editorial" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="field field--name-field-twitter-tweet field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden fielditem" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="paragraph paragraph--type--stories-text paragraph--view-mode--editorial" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="fancy-elems-wrapper field field--name-field-stories-text-formatted field--type-text-long field--label-hidden field__item" style="box-sizing: border-box;">If Grenell had wanted the document to include less information -- by, for example, limiting the date range to after Flynn’s December 29 calls with Kislyak, which would reduce the list from 39 names to only eight -- it would. What he produced is a very long list of names that maximized its impact, with no information whatsoever that any of them were involved in something the least bit inappropriate. That is, presumably, exactly what he wanted to do. Perhaps Grenell has no evidence of wrongdoing, and few or none of the unmaskings reference the Kislyak calls (which is not implausible, as the FBI <a href="https://www.emptywheel.net/2020/05/13/of-over-40-potential-unmaskings-of-mike-flynn-during-the-transition-just-one-led-to-criminal-charges/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">derived and distributed</a> its own intercepts of the call with no masking as part of their already in-progress counterintelligence probe of Flynn). In that case, he’s declassified and released this information for a political purpose.Perhaps he does have that evidence, but isn’t releasing it for now so he can continue to dribble documents out and generate more news stories as the presidential election approaches. In that case, he’s withholding that information for a political purpose.Fox’s propagandists understand that their role in this noninformation campaign is to fill in the gaps left by the document with feverish, often fact-free speculation. Fox’s Tucker Carlson <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/tucker-carlson-amoral-obama-administration-creeps-should-be-punished-for-ruining-michael-flynns-life" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">described</a> Flynn’s unmasking as a “domestic spying operation” that was “hidden under the pretext of national security,” and that the Obama administration officials involved are “amoral creeps” who committed “felonies” and should be “punished.” His prime-time colleague Hannity <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExXaE8lKBTA" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">opened his Monday show</a> by asking, “What did Barack Hussein Obama know and when did he know it? Tonight, we will unravel the biggest abuse of power scandal in American history.” He also <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/hannity-warns-biden-flynn-unmasking-story-straight" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">attacked</a> Biden for “lying” about the story and <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/michael-flynn/sean-hannity-great-american-republic-will-disintegrate-your-eyes-if-obama-officials" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">claimed</a> on Wednesday that if the officials involved in Flynn’s unmasking don’t face “justice,” “the great American republic will disintegrate before your eyes.” Despite how little information the Grenell document provides, they are convinced that it vindicates their conspiracy theories. Meanwhile, Fox personalities are <a href="https://twitter.com/revrrlewis/status/1260876847396597761" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">attacking</a> the mainstream press for <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/michael-flynn/sean-hannity-great-american-republic-will-disintegrate-your-eyes-if-obama-officials" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">not obsessing over</a> the story, with Hannity arguing that this proves they are “Democratic shills.” On Friday, Trump himself picked up that angle, <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1261270084644896768" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">praising</a> the Fox morning show for “covering, supremely, the greatest political scandal in the history of the United States, OBAMAGATE,” while pillorying CNN, MSNBC, The Washington Post, and The New York Times as “Fake News” for failing to do so. It’s no coincidence that Trump and Fox are trying to bully the mainstream press into giving the story more attention. They are counting on journalists to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/05/14/2016-nightmare-is-already-repeating-itself/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">repeat the failures of the 2016 election </a>and flood the zone with context-free scandal coverage that dirties up the president’s opponent. That’s the play Trump is calling, and the leaders of the Justice Department and intelligence community are eagerly supporting the effort, and will likely continue dropping noninformation and disinformation until Election Day.</div></div></div></div><div></div>=<div>
</div><div><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/trumprussia/after-barrs-doj-drops-flynn-charges-right-wing-media-set-sights-sally-yates-and-barack">https://www.mediamatters.org/trumprussia/after-barrs-doj-drops-flynn-charges-right-wing-media-set-sights-sally-yates-and-barack</a></div><div>
<div><div>many lnx vids</div><div>
</div><div>After the Justice Department under Attorney General William Barr filed a motion to drop charges against former Trump administration national security adviser Michael Flynn, right-wing media voices are stepping up a new campaign: to incriminate former President Barack Obama, former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, and others for supposedly launching the Flynn investigation — and the wider Trump-Russia investigation in the first place.</div><div>
</div><div>Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to FBI investigators aboutmultiple phone calls he had in late December 2016 with Russia’s then-Ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak during the transition period between the 2016 election and President Donald Trump’s inauguration. During the call, Flynn had discussed the possible lifting of sanctions that Obama had just placed on Russia. (Flynn was fired by the White House when it was revealed that he also lied to Vice President Mike Pence about the conversation.)</div><div>
</div><div>The newest angle on the case from right-wing media hinges upon Yates’ recollection that Obama had “learned information about Flynn,” as he discussed in a White House meeting on January 5, 2017. Flynn’s pivotal interview with the FBI later occurred on January 24, 2017. (This element also ties into the search by both the Justice Department and right-wing media to find the government sources who leaked the details of Flynn’sphone calls to the media.)</div><div>
</div><div>Right-wing voices have claimed that Flynn was “set up” by the FBI agents who interviewed him, exposing him to perjury charges. Obama’s possible knowledge of the wiretapped calls, and his telling Yates that something was going on with Flynn, become a new hook for conservatives to accuse investigators of pursuing an illegitimate investigation against Trump and his aides. But the fact remains that he was interviewed as part of a legitimate inquiry, and he was caught telling lies to multiple people.</div><div>
</div><div>And with the Barr Justice Department now moving to throw out Flynn’s guilty plea, the hunt is on against Obama, Yates, and other officials — including presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.</div><div>
</div><div>On May 7, the same day that Barr’s DOJ filed to drop the case against Flynn, Tom Fitton, head of the right-wing legal organization Judicial Watch, appeared on Fox Business’ Lou Dobbs Tonight and pointed the finger at Yates as well as Obama: “Now, Yates was obviously involved too, because she was pushing the Logan Act fraud on the White House as well to get Flynn fired. No clean hands here, Lou. No clean hands.”</div><div>
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</div><div>CitationFrom the May 7, 2020, edition of Fob Business’ Lou Dobbs Tonight</div><div>
</div><div>Fox News anchor Ed Henry appeared on Tucker Carlson Tonight to discuss how Yates found out that Obama was aware of the Flynn probe. “Remember, she was at the Obama Justice Department at the end,” Henry said, “and she is having a hard time processing this from Barack Obama. Why did he know that information about Flynn?”</div><div>
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</div><div>CitationFrom the May 7, 2020, edition of Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Tonight</div><div>
</div><div>Sean Hannity also called Thursday on his radio show for Barr to “investigate Barack Obama and Joe Biden's Department of Justice.” Later on his Fox News show, he interviewed Flynn’s attorney Sidney Powell. “Who would have told Barack Obama? And I'd like to know what he knew and when he knew it,” Hannity said. “I want to know what Biden knew and when he knew it.”</div><div>
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</div><div>CitationFrom the May 7, 2020, edition of Fox News’ Hannity</div><div>
</div><div>On the Friday morning edition of Fox & Friends, former U.S. Attorney Brett Tolman further said that “Sally Yates may be key to” proving that Obama had directed the Flynn investigation. He also said that the Obama administration's “questionable sanctions” against Russia had been a “Trojan horse,” apparently setting up Flynn in order to go after Trump and stop his policies.</div><div>
</div><div>“It’s so true,” co-host Brian Kilmeade responded. “By the way, if you want to continue your policies, Hillary Clinton had to win the election. When she didn’t, they had to come up with a Plan B. This looks like their Plan B.”</div><div>
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</div><div>CitationFrom the May 8, 2020, edition of Fox News’ Fox & Friends</div><div>
</div><div>And on the May 8 edition of Fox Business’ Mornings with Maria Bartiromo, former Assistant U.S. Attorney Andy McCarthy — a staunch defender of presidential prerogatives for Trump — claimed new documents show that “the top officials of the Obama Justice Department and the Obama intelligence community were here pushing against what the FBI wanted to do in terms of handling the Flynn case.” Bartiromo responded by asking if “this goes all the way up to the Obama administration in terms of the coup to take Donald Trump down?”</div><div>
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</div><div>CitationFrom the May 8, 2020, edition of Fox Business’ Mornings with Maria Bartiromo</div><div>
</div><div>Trump himself appeared later on in the Friday episode of Fox & Friends for a phone interview, during which co-host Steve Doocy asked about Yates’ recollections of the meeting with Obama: “Have you thought about calling him up and finding out what he knew or calling Joe Biden up and asking him what he knew?”</div><div>
</div><div>“No I'd rather have it come out in papers,” Trump said — also seeming to allude to details of the wider Trump-Russia investigation, both before and after the election itself. “Why would I call them up? They tried to take down the president of the United States — a sitting, duly-elected president of the United States — before I even won, and this was going on — this was the fake dossier that was totally fake.”</div><div>
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</div><div>CitationFrom the May 8, 2020, edition of Fox News’ Fox & Friends</div><div>
</div><div>Trump also later added: “If this were a Republican, and if this were — 25 people would be in jail for 50 years already. They’d be in jail for 50 years, and it would’ve happened two years ago.”</div><div>
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</div><div>CitationFrom the May 8, 2020, edition of Fox News’ Fox & Friends</div><div>
</div><div>However, in the recent impeachment saga over Trump’s pressuring of Ukraine to investigate Biden’s son, Fox News and other right-wing media voices actually defended the idea that a president could personally order investigations of his opponents. In fact, it was Trump’s own impeachment attorney Alan Dershowitz who argued to the Senate that the president could pressure another party into investigating a political opponent, because that president’s election (or by implication, the defeating of the opponent) would be “in the public interest.”</div><div>
</div><div>But even by this right-wing media argument, this comparison would be incorrect. The Justice Department’s own inspector general report on the Trump-Russia investigation busted a number of right-wing media conspiracy theories, affirming for example that the entire probe resulting in Flynn’s charges had a legitimate beginning: The FBI received a tip that Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos said that “the Trump team had received some kind of suggestion from Russia that it could assist this process with the anonymous release of information during the campaign that would be damaging to [Hillary] Clinton (and President Obama).”</div><div>
</div><div>By contrast, Trump actually attempted to launch baseless investigations of his political rival — the same thing right-wing media are now twisting the Flynn saga to accuse Obama of doing.</div><div>
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</div><div>=</div></div></div>he was in a deal that req elimination of sanctions? trms?flipped? coop witness?subpoena for his Biz records, fight over corp personhoodprolly neglected= <div>=</div><div>post impeach purge 220; he has still not been sentneced (right after roger sent rollback by barr]</div><div>
</div><div><div class="mag-header" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 19px; padding: 0px; position: relative; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h3 class="magcat-titlte entry-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; letter-spacing: 1px;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/barr-installs-outside-prosecutor-to-scrutinize-michael-flynn-case-more-political-interference-at-doj/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; display: block; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.4;">Barr installs outside prosecutor to scrutinize Michael Flynn case</a></h3><div class="grid-post-box-meta mag-meta" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 7px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/jake-johnson/" title="Posts by Jake Johnson" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Jake Johnson</a> / <a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/common-dreams/" title="Posts by Common Dreams" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Common Dreams</a></div></div><div class="mag-excerpt entry-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Attorney General William Barr has reportedly installed an outside prosecutor to scrutinize the criminal case against President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn.</div></div><div></div><div>=</div><div>trumpista?!</div><div>
</div><div><a href="https://www.salon.com/2019/10/29/former-trump-aide-who-now-works-for-devin-nunes-reportedly-leaked-ukraine-whistleblowers-name/">https://www.salon.com/2019/10/29/former-trump-aide-who-now-works-for-devin-nunes-reportedly-leaked-ukraine-whistleblowers-name/</a></div><div>
</div><div>former Trump aide who now works for Devin Nunes reportedly leaked Ukraine whistleblower’s name</div><section class="title-container" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h2 style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; line-height: 1.42;">Derek Harvey, a former Trump adviser who now works for Nunes, outed the whistleblower who reported Trump's call</h2></section> <section class="writer-container" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 2em; padding: 0px 11px 0px 0px;"><h5 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; text-transform: uppercase; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 0.5rem;"><a href="https://www.salon.com/writer/igor-derysh" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; background-color: transparent;">IGOR DERYSH</a></h5><h6 style="box-sizing: border-box; text-transform: uppercase; padding-bottom: 0.5rem; margin: 0px;">OCTOBER 29, 2019 </h6></section><article style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.9em;">Atop aide to Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., leaked documents identifying the Ukraine whistleblower’s name in an attempt to out him, <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/devin-nunes-aide-is-leaking-the-ukraine-whistleblowers-name-sources-say?ref=scroll" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; background-color: transparent;">The Daily Beast</a> has reported.Derek Harvey, a former adviser to President Trump who now works for Nunes on the House Intelligence Committee, handed notes to House Republicans identifying the whistleblower’s name ahead of closed-door depositions in the Trump impeachment inquiry in hopes of getting the name in the record of the proceedings, which Intelligence Committee chair Adam Schiff vowed to release, sources told The Daily Beast.The allegation follows a Saturday <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/in-impeachment-inquiry-republican-lawmakers-ask-questions-about-whistleblower-loyalty-to-trump-and-conspiracy-theories/2019/10/26/bf733450-f760-11e9-a285-882a8e386a96_story.html" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;">Washington Post report</a> that Republican lawmakers and aides have “repeatedly” used the whistleblower’s purported name during the secret depositions. The Post reported that Harvey was “passing notes the entire time” one former Trump official was being questioned, suggesting that he was feeding Republicans questions.Mark Zaid, an attorney for the whistleblower, warned that exposing his client’s identity would put him and his family at risk.“Exposing the identity of the whistleblower and attacking our client would do nothing to undercut the validity of the complaint’s allegations,” Zaid told The Daily Beast. “What it would do, however, is put that individual and their family at risk of harm. Perhaps more important, it would deter future whistleblowers from coming forward in subsequent administrations, Democratic or Republican.”<div id="salon_auto_video" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box;"><div data-video-id="salon-830043" data-egami-player="yes" data-no-player-no-ad="hide" id="salon_instream_1" class=" propervideo-main_player_container" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-align: -webkit-center; background-size: 100%; width: 726.656px; overflow: hidden; height: 0.1px;"><div id="propervideo-middle_player" style="box-sizing: border-box; height: 408.734px; margin: auto; width: 726.656px; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 408.734px; position: relative; display: flex !important;"><img id="propervideo-back_image" src="https://mediaproxy.propervideo.io/width/600/https://i.vimeocdn.com/video/800565979_1280x720.jpg" style="box-sizing: border-box; max-width: 100%; height: 408.734px; margin: auto; width: 726.656px; position: absolute; top: 0px;" /><div id="propervideo-overlay_container" style="box-sizing: border-box; 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background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border-width: initial; border-style: none; border-color: initial; opacity: 0.8; padding: 0px; margin-left: 1vh; font-weight: bold;"><svg class="pv_icon pv_restart_icon" role="img" viewbox="0 0 512 512" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" /></button><button id="propervideo-fullscreen_button" class="fullscreen" style="cursor: pointer; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border-width: initial; border-style: none; border-color: initial; opacity: 0.8; padding: 0px; margin: 0px 1vh; display: flex;"><svg class="pv_icon pv_expand_icon" role="img" viewbox="0 0 448 512" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" /></button></div></div><div id="propervideo-video_overlay_link" class="propervideo-video-launch-link propervideo-video-overlay-link font-m bold" style="box-sizing: border-box; opacity: 0; height: 408.734px; position: absolute; background-color: black; background-position: center center; background-size: 14%; background-repeat: no-repeat; width: 726.656px; z-index: 0; cursor: pointer; transition: opacity 0.5s ease-in-out 0s; top: 0px; background-image: url(" https="https" propervideo.io="propervideo.io" images="images" expand-icon2.png="expand-icon2.png">Far-right news outlets like OANN and the Gateway Pundit have identified an official they claim to be the whistleblower.The whistleblower’s account has long since been <a href="https://www.salon.com/2019/10/29/white-house-staffer-twice-raised-concerns-after-listening-to-trumps-ukraine-call-testimony-reveals/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; background-color: transparent;">corroborated by witnesses from Trump’s administration</a>.Harvey has also spread a false story claiming that the whistleblower contacted a Democratic staffer on the Intelligence Committee before submitting his <a href="https://www.salon.com/2019/09/27/7-of-the-most-alarming-claims-in-the-whistleblower-complaint-against-president-trump_partner/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;">complaint</a> about Trump’s July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and the subsequent cover-up. Harvey was apparently attempting to “discredit” the whistleblower as a partisan, a source told The Daily Beast.Democrats grew so “alarmed” at Republican lawmakers’ “eagerness” to go after the Democratic staffer in question that they reached out to Republican leaders about the matter.“We are aware of these unsupported and false attacks on a respected member of our staff,” a senior Intelligence Committee official told The Daily Beast. “It is completely inappropriate, and we have previously urged the Republican leadership to address this situation.”This isn’t the first time Harvey has passed similar information to conservatives. Harvey compiled a set of documents that contained a list of State Department officials he suspected of being disloyal to Trump, <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/brian-hook-is-trumps-point-man-on-iran-and-under-investigation" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;">The Daily Beast</a> reported in March. Harvey previously worked at the White House as a member of the National Security Council, where he was hired by former national security adviser Mike Flynn during the latter's brief tenure. Harvey was later <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/mcmaster-removes-flynn-pick-derek-harvey-national-security-council-n787146" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;">fired</a> by Flynn's successor, H.R. McMaster.Harvey is not the only Nunes associate doing the White House’s dirty work. Politico <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2019/10/23/nunes-protege-ukraine-trump-055837" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;">reported</a> that Kash Patel, a former Nunes staffer who now works on the National Security Council, fed Trump damaging information about Ukraine. Patel got his White House position after <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/kash-patel-devin-nunes-ally-who-fought-russia-probe-gets-senior-white-house-national-security-job" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;">leading Nunes’ effort</a> to discredit the FBI investigation into the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia.Nunes himself has been using his time at the closed-door depositions trying to defend Trump by repeatedly citing the Steele dossier, <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/devin-nunes-raised-steele-dossier-in-closed-door-trump-impeachment-hearing-with-gordon-sondland" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;">The Daily Beast</a> reported earlier this month. The dossier is at the heart of the Republican conspiracy theory that operatives of the "deep state" had conspired to stop Trump in 2016. It was completely irrelevant to the topics discussed at the depositions, sources told the outlet, describing Nunes’ questioning as “nutso.”On Monday, Nunes <a href="https://www.salon.com/2019/10/29/devin-nunes-compares-journalists-to-assassins-as-he-spreads-conspiracy-theories-on-fox-news/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; background-color: transparent;">appeared on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News prime-time show</a> to declare the impeachment inquiry, which has uncovered damning revelations from members of Trump’s administration, the “Ukraine hoax.”Despite <a href="https://www.salon.com/2019/10/23/white-house-taylors-testimony-was-part-of-coordinated-smear-campaign-from-far-left-and-radicals/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;">near-daily revelations from Trump staffers</a>, Nunes claimed that the “hoax” is based on “conspiracy theories” and bragged that he won’t discuss them with reporters.“These aren’t real reporters. They are assassins,” Nunes said. “They are assassins that are taking information from the Democrats on the Intelligence Committee and they are spreading it out there.”Schiff, who replaced Nunes as chairman of the Intelligence Committee after Democrats won a House majority last year, hit out at Republicans for ignoring the <a href="https://www.salon.com/2019/10/22/trumps-ukraine-envoy-gives-congress-most-damning-evidence-yet-in-impeachment-probe/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; background-color: transparent;">mounting evidence against Trump</a> and for their criticisms of the investigation.“It will be said of House Republicans,” <a href="https://twitter.com/RepAdamSchiff/status/1186417580652814337" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none;">Schiff tweeted</a>, “When they found they lacked the courage to confront the most dangerous and unethical president in American history, they consoled themselves by attacking those who did.”</div></video></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></article>no lnx=== 619 about to be sentenced politico<div class=" story-intro format-s" itemscope="" itemprop="mainEntityOfPage" itemtype="http://schema.org/Article" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 1.25em; margin-right: 344.859px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="summary " style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 1.25em;"><header class="" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><h1 class=" " style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; line-height: 1.12; letter-spacing: -0.02rem;">Trump applauds Flynn's hiring of FBI critic as new lawyer</h1></header><footer class="meta" style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-box-align: center; align-items: center; margin-top: 0.5em;"><div itemprop="author" itemscope="" itemtype="https://schema.org/Person" style="box-sizing: border-box;">By <a href="https://www.politico.com/staff/caitlin-oprysko" rel="author" class="url fn" target="_top" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.25s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: 700;">CAITLIN OPRYSKO</a>

06/13/2019 08:03 AM EDT</div></footer></div></div>President Donald Trump on Thursday hailed Michael Flynn's move to hire a lawyer who has been a fierce critic of the FBI’s investigation into the former national security adviser.“General Michael Flynn, the 33 year war hero who has served with distinction, has not retained a good lawyer, he has retained a GREAT LAWYER, Sidney Powell,” Trump tweeted. “Best Wishes and Good Luck to them both!”The message from Trump is one of the strongest indicators Flynn, who pleaded guilty to lying to investigators about his contacts with the Russian ambassador during the presidential transition, remains in the president’s good graces and hints that a pardon might still be within the realm of possibility.Flynn continues to be a recipient of the president's public support despite having been fired for having lied to Vice President Mike Pence about his conversations with the Russian ambassador.Last week, Flynn fired his legal team and hired Powell, a former Justice Department attorney who has publicly dinged the investigation into Flynn, accusing the FBI of spying on the retired Army general as part of a "setup," arguing he should withdraw his guilty plea and that his case should be dismissed.Flynn's former legal team, which took a less hostile approach to his defense, <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2018/12/18/judge-admonishes-flynn-ahead-of-sentencing-1068033" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.25s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">attempted to advance</a> such an argument late last year, earning his lawyers an admonishment from the judge handling his case.Powell <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2019/06/12/michael-flynn-lawyer-1362006" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition: all 0.25s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none;">told POLITICO</a> on Wednesday that Flynn would continue to cooperate with the government while he awaits sentencing.Trump’s tweet comes less than a week after federal prosecutors released a voicemail left by former Trump lawyer John Dowd for one of Flynn’s attorneys just after Flynn withdrew from a joint defense agreement with the president in order to cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller. In the voicemail, Dowd appeals to Flynn lawyer Robert Kelner for a "heads up" on information that could implicate the president and compromise "national security.""Remember what we’ve always said about the president and his feelings toward Flynn and ... that still remains," Dowd said.Though a transcript of that voicemail was included in Mueller’s report, the audio release has renewed speculation that the Trump team was dangling a pardon. Trump has appeared to hint at possible pardons for several of his former associates who were wrapped up in Mueller’s investigation, repeatedly refusing to rule them out for Flynn or for his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort.=scary dl? no lnx op ed
The Western Journal
Exclusive from Gen. Flynn: This Is My Letter to AmericaBy Michael FlynnPublished August 5, 2020 We are witnessing a vicious assault by enemies of all that is good, and our president is having to act in ways unprecedented in decades, maybe centuries.The biblical nature of good versus evil cannot be discounted as we examine what is happening on the streets of America.It’s Marxism in the form of antifa and the Black Lives Matter movement versus our very capable and very underappreciated law enforcement professionals, the vast majority of whom are fighting to provide us safe and secure homes, streets and communities.When the destiny of the United States is at stake, and it is, the very future of the entire world is threatened.As Christians, shouldn’t we act? We recognize that divine Providence is the ultimate judge of our destiny. Achieving our destiny as a freedom-loving nation, Providence compels us to do our part in our communities.[TRENDING: Skateboarder in Biden's Backyard Hits Nominee's 'You Ain't Black' Comment, Explains Why He's on the Trump Train]It encourages us in this battle against the forces of evil to face our fears head-on. No enemy on earth is stronger than the united forces of God-fearing, freedom-loving people.We can no longer pretend that these dark forces are going to go away by mere prayer alone. Prayers matter, but action is required.This action is needed at the local, state and federal levels. Action is also required in the economic, media, clerical and ecclesiastical realms.Decide how you can act within your abilities. Stand up and state your beliefs. Be proud of who you are and what you stand for. And face, head-on, those community “leaders” who are willing to allow dark forces to go beyond peaceful protests and destroy and violate your safety and security.[poll: Do you think Christians in America need to stand up and act?Yes No Enter your email  Completing this poll entitles you to The Western Journal news updates free of charge. You may opt out at anytime. You also agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.]]Churches and houses of worship must return to normal. We invite everyone of goodwill to not shirk their responsibilities and instead act in a fraternal fashion. If for no other reason or with no other ability, act in a spirit of charity.We cannot disrespect or disregard natural law along with our own religious liberties and freedoms.I am witnessing elderly people lose their connection to all that is good in their lives: connections to their faith, their families and their individual freedoms, especially the simple act of attending church, something they’ve been doing for decades.Let us not be intimidated or fear those who cry out that we are in the minority; we are not.Good is always more powerful and will prevail over evil.[RELATED: Mary Beth Brown: COVID Gave Leftists the Perfect Opportunity To Steal Our Freedoms]However, evil will succeed for a time when good people are divided from each other and their personal lives — children away from their teachers, preachers from their congregations, customers from their local businesses.America will never give in to evil. Americans work together to solve problems.We do not and should not ever allow anarchy and the evil forces behind it to operate on any street in our nation.No one should have to fear for their very life because some dark, disturbed force is challenged by the very essence of what America stands for.We are “one nation under God” and it is our individual liberties that make us strong, not liberties given to our government. Our government has no liberty unless and until “we the people” say so.God bless America and let’s stand by everything that was and is good in our lives, in our communities and in our country.Otherwise, America as the true North Star for humanity will cease to exist as we know it.
The views expressed in this opinion article are those of their author and are not necessarily either shared or endorsed by the owners of this website. If you are interested in contributing an Op-Ed to The Western Journal, you can learn about our submission guidelines and process here.We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards. Michael FlynnSummary Recent Posts ContactRetired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn served as national security advisor to President Donald TrumpTags: American left, antifa, Black Lives Matter, Christianity, conservatives, Donald Trump, faith, God, prayer
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Commentary: There is a well-crafted establishment media narrative that police officers routinely shoot suspects as a way to wipe out black and brown folks, and that poisonous lie is currently serving as fuel for violent civil unrest throughout the nation.Herschel Walker's Son: If Kindergartners Can Obey Teachers, Grown Men Can Obey Police OfficersDo Not Sell My Info----h<a href="https://www.vox.com/world/2017/2/13/14559822/trump-islam-muslims-islamophobia-sharia" style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">ttps://www.vox.com/world/2017/2/13/14559822/trump-islam-muslims-islamophobia-sharia</a>  <div class="story-interrupt format-s pos-alpha predetermined fixed-story-third-paragraph" style="box-sizing: border-box; clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; width: 313.5px; float: left; margin-right: 31.3438px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="g" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 26px;"><div data-hveid="CAMQAA" data-ved="2ahUKEwi_nYPxvuniAhUORK0KHXysAf0QFSgAMAR6BAgDEAA"><div class="rc" style="position: relative;"><div>
</div><div>Last July, a sharply dressed man named Frank Gaffney <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FldU613M0N4" style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" text-decoration="text-decoration" inherit="inherit" vertical-align="vertical-align" font-style="font-style" line-height="line-height" margin="margin" px="px" padding="padding" transition="transition" color="color" s="s" ease="ease" background-color="background-color" fill="fill" border-bottom="border-bottom" solid="solid" transparent="transparent" font-weight="font-weight">walked</a> onto the stage of a crowded convention center in downtown Denver and proceeded to calmly warn his audience that Muslims were working to conquer America from the inside.</div><div>
</div>Speaking without notes at a glass lectern, Gaffney — who worked, decades ago, as a Pentagon official in the Reagan administration — told the audience that political leaders from both parties had spent years covering up the true threat to the US. It didn’t come from terrorists acting in the name of Islam. It came from Islam itself.Gaffney said that sharia, the Arabic term for Islamic law, was a “brutally repressive, totalitarian, political, military, and legal program” for gradually subverting Western governments and replacing them with ones that adhere to harsh Islamic dictates. And in the US, those efforts were already well underway.“This program of subversive, stealthy penetration and takedown is operating. It’s, in fact, been at work for 50 years,” <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FldU613M0N4" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600;">he said</a>. “Our government has been subverted.”Gaffney wasn’t speaking metaphorically. He accused “agents of Hillary Clinton” of shredding files about Muslim radicals living both inside and outside the US and said that then–Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson was surrounded by “a small echo chamber which is filled by Muslim Brotherhood operatives.”The notion of senior US officials intentionally weakening American national security or appointing advisers who were literal members of a Middle Eastern Islamist movement is preposterous. But it’s important to take Gaffney seriously: He isn’t some little-known crank pumping out Islamophobic literature on the internet, and the event wasn’t a fringe gathering outside the political mainstream.It was instead the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FldU613M0N4" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600;">2016 Western Conservative Summit</a>, a major meeting of thousands of Republican activists in Denver billed as “the largest gathering of conservatives outside of Washington, D.C.” Other featured speakers included then-GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump, Sarah Palin, major conservative media figures like Hugh Hewitt and Erick Erickson, and two sitting US senators.Gaffney is an important cog in a vast and growing ecosystem that exists just out of sight of most Americans — one that has spent years pushing the notion that there is a creeping, quiet plot to take over America from within. It is a plan that springs from Islamic scripture itself, and is supported by most mainstream Muslim organizations, most mosques, and, in all likelihood, your Muslim neighbor.The only way to be safe from the threat, according to Gaffney and other self-proclaimed "counter-jihadists," is to slash Muslim immigration, arrest key leaders of the Muslim American community, and shut down huge numbers of mosques. They have not gone so far as to propose outright ethnic cleansing; Gaffney, in his speech, says he has Muslim friends. Their dream, instead, is to destroy the Muslim American community without kicking out Muslims.The dire warnings are spread through an influential lobby, slick documentaries, and best-selling books with titles like The Truth About Muhammad: Founder of the World's Most Intolerant Religion. And now that fearful vision of Islam has found a home in the Trump White House.
[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Truth_About_Muhammad" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Truth_About_Muhammad&ved=2ahUKEwij8-Kch57iAhWWhJ4KHVKTA0YQFjAAegQIBBAB" style="cursor: pointer;" /><h3 class="LC20lb" style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline-block; line-height: 1.33;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Truth_About_Muhammad" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Truth_About_Muhammad&ved=2ahUKEwij8-Kch57iAhWWhJ4KHVKTA0YQFjAAegQIBBAB" style="cursor: pointer;"></a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Truth_About_Muhammad" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Truth_About_Muhammad&ved=2ahUKEwij8-Kch57iAhWWhJ4KHVKTA0YQFjAAegQIBBAB" style="cursor: pointer;"></a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Truth_About_Muhammad" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Truth_About_Muhammad&ved=2ahUKEwij8-Kch57iAhWWhJ4KHVKTA0YQFjAAegQIBBAB" style="cursor: pointer;"></a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Truth_About_Muhammad" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Truth_About_Muhammad&ved=2ahUKEwij8-Kch57iAhWWhJ4KHVKTA0YQFjAAegQIBBAB" style="cursor: pointer;">The Truth About Muhammad - Wikipedia</a></h3><div class="g" style="line-height: 1.2; 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cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;">The Truth About Muhammad: Founder of the World's Most intolerant Religion (2006) is a book by Robert Spencer, the director of Jihad Watch and Dhimmi Watch ...</a><div class="P1usbc" data-ved="2ahUKEwij8-Kch57iAhWWhJ4KHVKTA0YQrz0wAHoECAQQBg" style="display: table; margin: 5px 0px; line-height: 1.54;"><a class="fl" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=related:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Truth_About_Muhammad+The+Truth+About+Muhammad:+Founder+of+the+World%27s+Most+Intolerant+Religion&tbo=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwij8-Kch57iAhWWhJ4KHVKTA0YQHzAAegQIBBAF" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;" /><div class="VNLkW" style="display: table-row; vertical-align: top;"><a class="fl" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=related:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Truth_About_Muhammad+The+Truth+About+Muhammad:+Founder+of+the+World%27s+Most+Intolerant+Religion&tbo=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwij8-Kch57iAhWWhJ4KHVKTA0YQHzAAegQIBBAF" style="text-decoration-line: none; 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cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"></a><a class="fl" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=related:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Truth_About_Muhammad+The+Truth+About+Muhammad:+Founder+of+the+World%27s+Most+Intolerant+Religion&tbo=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwij8-Kch57iAhWWhJ4KHVKTA0YQHzAAegQIBBAF" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"></a><a class="fl" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=related:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Truth_About_Muhammad+The+Truth+About+Muhammad:+Founder+of+the+World%27s+Most+Intolerant+Religion&tbo=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwij8-Kch57iAhWWhJ4KHVKTA0YQHzAAegQIBBAF" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"></a><a class="fl" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=related:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Truth_About_Muhammad+The+Truth+About+Muhammad:+Founder+of+the+World%27s+Most+Intolerant+Religion&tbo=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwij8-Kch57iAhWWhJ4KHVKTA0YQHzAAegQIBBAF" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"></a><a class="fl" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=related:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Truth_About_Muhammad+The+Truth+About+Muhammad:+Founder+of+the+World%27s+Most+Intolerant+Religion&tbo=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwij8-Kch57iAhWWhJ4KHVKTA0YQHzAAegQIBBAF" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"></a><a class="fl" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=related:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Truth_About_Muhammad+The+Truth+About+Muhammad:+Founder+of+the+World%27s+Most+Intolerant+Religion&tbo=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwij8-Kch57iAhWWhJ4KHVKTA0YQHzAAegQIBBAF" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"></a><a class="fl" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=related:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Truth_About_Muhammad+The+Truth+About+Muhammad:+Founder+of+the+World%27s+Most+Intolerant+Religion&tbo=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwij8-Kch57iAhWWhJ4KHVKTA0YQHzAAegQIBBAF" style="text-decoration-line: none; 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cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"></a><a class="fl" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=related:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Truth_About_Muhammad+The+Truth+About+Muhammad:+Founder+of+the+World%27s+Most+Intolerant+Religion&tbo=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwij8-Kch57iAhWWhJ4KHVKTA0YQHzAAegQIBBAF" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"></a><a class="fl" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=related:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Truth_About_Muhammad+The+Truth+About+Muhammad:+Founder+of+the+World%27s+Most+Intolerant+Religion&tbo=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwij8-Kch57iAhWWhJ4KHVKTA0YQHzAAegQIBBAF" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;" /><a class="fl" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=related:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Truth_About_Muhammad+The+Truth+About+Muhammad:+Founder+of+the+World%27s+Most+Intolerant+Religion&tbo=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwij8-Kch57iAhWWhJ4KHVKTA0YQHzAAegQIBBAF" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;" /><a class="fl" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=related:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Truth_About_Muhammad+The+Truth+About+Muhammad:+Founder+of+the+World%27s+Most+Intolerant+Religion&tbo=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwij8-Kch57iAhWWhJ4KHVKTA0YQHzAAegQIBBAF" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;" /><a class="fl" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=related:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Truth_About_Muhammad+The+Truth+About+Muhammad:+Founder+of+the+World%27s+Most+Intolerant+Religion&tbo=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwij8-Kch57iAhWWhJ4KHVKTA0YQHzAAegQIBBAF" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;" /><a class="fl" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=related:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Truth_About_Muhammad+The+Truth+About+Muhammad:+Founder+of+the+World%27s+Most+Intolerant+Religion&tbo=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwij8-Kch57iAhWWhJ4KHVKTA0YQHzAAegQIBBAF" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;" /><a class="fl" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=related:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Truth_About_Muhammad+The+Truth+About+Muhammad:+Founder+of+the+World%27s+Most+Intolerant+Religion&tbo=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwij8-Kch57iAhWWhJ4KHVKTA0YQHzAAegQIBBAF" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;" /><a class="fl" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=related:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Truth_About_Muhammad+The+Truth+About+Muhammad:+Founder+of+the+World%27s+Most+Intolerant+Religion&tbo=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwij8-Kch57iAhWWhJ4KHVKTA0YQHzAAegQIBBAF" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;">Author‎: ‎</a><a class="fl" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Spencer(writer)" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Spencer(writer)&ved=2ahUKEwij8-Kch57iAhWWhJ4KHVKTA0YQs2YoADAAegQIBBAI" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">Robert Spencer</a></div><div class="G1Rrjc" data-ved="2ahUKEwij8-Kch57iAhWWhJ4KHVKTA0YQsz0oATAAegQIBBAJ" style="display: table-cell; padding-left: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">Publisher‎: ‎<a class="fl" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regnery_Publishing" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regnery_Publishing&ved=2ahUKEwij8-Kch57iAhWWhJ4KHVKTA0YQs2YoADAAegQIBBAK" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">Regnery Publishing</a></div></div></div><div class="osl" style="margin-top: 0px;">‎<a class="fl" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Truth_About_Muhammad#Response" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Truth_About_Muhammad%23Response&ved=2ahUKEwij8-Kch57iAhWWhJ4KHVKTA0YQ0gIoADAAegQIBBAM" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; line-height: 1.54;">Response</a> · ‎<a class="fl" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Truth_About_Muhammad#Reviews" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Truth_About_Muhammad%23Reviews&ved=2ahUKEwij8-Kch57iAhWWhJ4KHVKTA0YQ0gIoATAAegQIBBAN" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; line-height: 1.54;">Reviews</a> · ‎<a class="fl" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Truth_About_Muhammad#References_and_notes" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Truth_About_Muhammad%23References_and_notes&ved=2ahUKEwij8-Kch57iAhWWhJ4KHVKTA0YQ0gIoAjAAegQIBBAO" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; line-height: 1.54;">References and notes</a></div></div></div></div></div><div class="g" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 26px;"><div data-hveid="CAMQAA" data-ved="2ahUKEwij8-Kch57iAhWWhJ4KHVKTA0YQFSgAMAF6BAgDEAA"><div class="rc" style="position: relative;"><div class="r" style="margin: 0px; line-height: 1.54;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Truth-About-Muhammad-Intolerant-Religion/dp/1596985283" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.amazon.com/Truth-About-Muhammad-Intolerant-Religion/dp/1596985283&ved=2ahUKEwij8-Kch57iAhWWhJ4KHVKTA0YQFjABegQIAxAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /><h3 class="LC20lb" style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline-block; line-height: 1.33;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Truth-About-Muhammad-Intolerant-Religion/dp/1596985283" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.amazon.com/Truth-About-Muhammad-Intolerant-Religion/dp/1596985283&ved=2ahUKEwij8-Kch57iAhWWhJ4KHVKTA0YQFjABegQIAxAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;"></a><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Truth-About-Muhammad-Intolerant-Religion/dp/1596985283" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.amazon.com/Truth-About-Muhammad-Intolerant-Religion/dp/1596985283&ved=2ahUKEwij8-Kch57iAhWWhJ4KHVKTA0YQFjABegQIAxAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;"></a><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Truth-About-Muhammad-Intolerant-Religion/dp/1596985283" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.amazon.com/Truth-About-Muhammad-Intolerant-Religion/dp/1596985283&ved=2ahUKEwij8-Kch57iAhWWhJ4KHVKTA0YQFjABegQIAxAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;"></a><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Truth-About-Muhammad-Intolerant-Religion/dp/1596985283" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.amazon.com/Truth-About-Muhammad-Intolerant-Religion/dp/1596985283&ved=2ahUKEwij8-Kch57iAhWWhJ4KHVKTA0YQFjABegQIAxAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Truth-About-Muhammad-Intolerant-Religion/dp/1596985283" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.amazon.com/Truth-About-Muhammad-Intolerant-Religion/dp/1596985283&ved=2ahUKEwij8-Kch57iAhWWhJ4KHVKTA0YQFjABegQIAxAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Truth-About-Muhammad-Intolerant-Religion/dp/1596985283" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.amazon.com/Truth-About-Muhammad-Intolerant-Religion/dp/1596985283&ved=2ahUKEwij8-Kch57iAhWWhJ4KHVKTA0YQFjABegQIAxAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Truth-About-Muhammad-Intolerant-Religion/dp/1596985283" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.amazon.com/Truth-About-Muhammad-Intolerant-Religion/dp/1596985283&ved=2ahUKEwij8-Kch57iAhWWhJ4KHVKTA0YQFjABegQIAxAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Truth-About-Muhammad-Intolerant-Religion/dp/1596985283" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.amazon.com/Truth-About-Muhammad-Intolerant-Religion/dp/1596985283&ved=2ahUKEwij8-Kch57iAhWWhJ4KHVKTA0YQFjABegQIAxAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Truth-About-Muhammad-Intolerant-Religion/dp/1596985283" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.amazon.com/Truth-About-Muhammad-Intolerant-Religion/dp/1596985283&ved=2ahUKEwij8-Kch57iAhWWhJ4KHVKTA0YQFjABegQIAxAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Truth-About-Muhammad-Intolerant-Religion/dp/1596985283" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.amazon.com/Truth-About-Muhammad-Intolerant-Religion/dp/1596985283&ved=2ahUKEwij8-Kch57iAhWWhJ4KHVKTA0YQFjABegQIAxAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Truth-About-Muhammad-Intolerant-Religion/dp/1596985283" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.amazon.com/Truth-About-Muhammad-Intolerant-Religion/dp/1596985283&ved=2ahUKEwij8-Kch57iAhWWhJ4KHVKTA0YQFjABegQIAxAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Truth-About-Muhammad-Intolerant-Religion/dp/1596985283" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.amazon.com/Truth-About-Muhammad-Intolerant-Religion/dp/1596985283&ved=2ahUKEwij8-Kch57iAhWWhJ4KHVKTA0YQFjABegQIAxAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Truth-About-Muhammad-Intolerant-Religion/dp/1596985283" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.amazon.com/Truth-About-Muhammad-Intolerant-Religion/dp/1596985283&ved=2ahUKEwij8-Kch57iAhWWhJ4KHVKTA0YQFjABegQIAxAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Truth-About-Muhammad-Intolerant-Religion/dp/1596985283" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.amazon.com/Truth-About-Muhammad-Intolerant-Religion/dp/1596985283&ved=2ahUKEwij8-Kch57iAhWWhJ4KHVKTA0YQFjABegQIAxAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">The Truth About Muhammad: Founder of the World's Most Intolerant ...</a></h3>
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cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;">The Truth About Muhammad: Founder of the World's Most Intolerant Religion [Robert Spencer] on Amazon.com. FREE shipping on qualifying offers.</a></div><div class="s" style="max-width: 48em; line-height: 1.54;"><a class="fl" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=related:https://www.amazon.com/Truth-About-Muhammad-Intolerant-Religion/dp/1596985283+The+Truth+About+Muhammad:+Founder+of+the+World%27s+Most+Intolerant+Religion&tbo=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwij8-Kch57iAhWWhJ4KHVKTA0YQHzABegQIAxAF" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;">]]</a></div></div></div></div><a class="fl" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=related:https://www.amazon.com/Truth-About-Muhammad-Intolerant-Religion/dp/1596985283+The+Truth+About+Muhammad:+Founder+of+the+World%27s+Most+Intolerant+Religion&tbo=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwij8-Kch57iAhWWhJ4KHVKTA0YQHzABegQIAxAF" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;">Senior strategist Steve Bannon is a devotee of Gaffney’s ideas, as are National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and CIA Director Mike Pompeo. Trump’s political adviser, Kellyanne Conway, has done polling for Gaffney designed to illustrate the scale of the threat Muslims pose to America. And Trump himself has said things that sound like they could have been ripped from counter-jihadist literature.</a><a class="fl" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=related:https://www.amazon.com/Truth-About-Muhammad-Intolerant-Religion/dp/1596985283+The+Truth+About+Muhammad:+Founder+of+the+World%27s+Most+Intolerant+Religion&tbo=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwij8-Kch57iAhWWhJ4KHVKTA0YQHzABegQIAxAF" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;">When the new president announced his ban on immigrants from seven Muslim-majority nations, it was widely seen as Trump moving to quickly carry out one of his most explicit — and most controversial — campaign promises. Yet it made no sense as a counterterrorism policy: No immigrant from one of the seven targeted countries has ever killed anyone in a terrorist attack on US soil.</a><a class="fl" href="https://www.google.com/search?q=related:https://www.amazon.com/Truth-About-Muhammad-Intolerant-Religion/dp/1596985283+The+Truth+About+Muhammad:+Founder+of+the+World%27s+Most+Intolerant+Religion&tbo=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwij8-Kch57iAhWWhJ4KHVKTA0YQHzABegQIAxAF" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;">That’s because the real motivation was rooted in counter-jihadist logic. The movement’s thinkers have, for years, advocated a similar ban on Muslim immigration. They look to Europe and see Muslim immigrants creating a continent </a><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2017/01/29/unnamed-white-house-official-on-implementing-travel-ban-it-really-is-a-massive-success-story/?utm_term=.06cd8a11c5c0" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600; background-color: transparent !important;">ridden with terrorism</a> and nearly lost to Islamist subversion. The Muslim ban only makes sense when seen as part of their plan to prevent America from going down the same path — by keeping out as many Muslims as possible.The counter-jihadist influence in the Trump administration appears far from exhausted. They have long wanted to designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a foreign terrorist organization, because they see major American Muslim organizations as Brotherhood fronts — and now that’s <a href="http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/02/cia-memo-designating-muslim-brotherhood-could-fuel-extremism-214757" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600; background-color: transparent !important;">reportedly</a> a major priority inside the Trump White House.Trump’s policies reflect an even scarier kind of prejudice than his own: one with a plan.<h3 id="xmIqh1" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px 0px 0.6rem; padding: 0px;">The theory: ISIS represents the soul of Islam</h3>Gaffney is the president of the Center for Security Policy, or CSP, a right-wing think tank located just blocks from the White House. In 2010, it convened a panel to study the Islamic threat to America. The group — which included former CIA Director R. James Woolsey and former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency Edward Soyster — called itself “Team B II.”The original Team B was a working group put together in the ’70s as a kind of devil’s advocate in the Gerald Ford administration. Its goal was to provide a hawkish counterpoint to the softer detente policy toward the Soviet Union favored by the White House. Team B argued that communism was an insatiably aggressive doctrine, one that could not be appeased — a conclusion that would influencing Ronald Reagan’s foreign policy ideology.Team B II aimed to do something similar, but for radical Islamism and today’s Republican Party. They drew on the arguments of a loose intellectual movement that had coalesced on blogs in the years after 9/11, and had come to refer to itself as the “counter-jihad.”Counter-jihadists believe that mainstream scholars of Islam, and counterterrorism experts in governments the world over, have fundamentally misunderstood the nature of the Islamist threat. Their basic mistake is that they overemphasize differences between Muslims, like the Sunni-Shia split, and assume that ISIS and al-Qaeda are aberrant distortions of Islam.The truth, counter-jihadists believe, is more like the opposite. They argue that a correct reading of Islamic scripture shows that violence is intrinsic to Islam — that the religious doctrine itself, properly understood, commands Muslims to kill subjugate unbelievers. People who say otherwise — and CSP lumps both George W. Bush and Barack Obama into this category — are either willfully or unintentionally deceiving the American public.In the years since its publication in 2010, <a href="http://www.voltairenet.org/IMG/pdf/Shariah-The_Threat_to_America_Team_B_Report.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600;">the “Team B II” report</a> — titled “Shariah: The Threat to America” — has become something of a counter-jihadist bible. It’s the clearest and most comprehensive summary of their ideas. To understand what they believe, and why they believe it, you have to understand this report.The great enemy in the report is something called “sharia.” An Arabic word that literally translates as “law,” it’s the vast body of rules and regulations that guide daily life for believing Muslims — everything from not eating pork to who can lawfully be killed in a time of war to whether to charge interest on bank loans.<div class="c-float-right" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0px 36.9844px; padding: 0px; float: right; width: 332.953px;"><aside id="ZrZHMH" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><q style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: italic; line-height: 1.25; margin: 0px 0px 1.2rem; padding: 0px 0px 1.2rem; text-transform: uppercase; display: block; border-bottom: 4px solid rgb(209, 209, 209); border-top: 4px solid rgb(209, 209, 209);">“UNDER ISLAMIC LAW, LYING IS NOT ONLY PERMISSIBLE, BUT OBLIGATORY”</q></aside></div>But because there is no single authority in Islam (like, say, the pope in the Catholic Church), there is no single, official, agreed-upon interpretation of sharia. The thousands of rules and regulations that collectively make up the body of sharia have been deeply contested among Muslim scholars — and even individual Muslims — since the birth of Islam, with no agreement even on many vital issues.Team B II argues that sharia is different from similar moral codes in other religions, like the Jewish law that governs the rules for keeping kosher. They argue that sharia is fundamentally political; that its aim is to govern the lives of all people, and not just Muslims, by seizing control of the world’s governments.“There is ultimately but one sharia,” the report holds. “It is totalitarian in character, incompatible with our Constitution, and a threat to freedom here and around the world. Sharia’s adherents are making a determined, sustained, and well-financed effort to impose it on all Muslims and non-Muslims, alike.”To make this argument, Team B II’s authors rely heavily on something called “abrogation.” This is a complex concept in Islamic legal theory, but it basically boils down to the idea that when trying to determine the “correct” answer to some legal question — say, whether it’s okay to drink alcohol, for instance — later verses in the Quran carry more weight than earlier ones. That is, the later verses abrogate, or override, the earlier ones.This stems from the fact that the Quran was revealed to the Prophet Mohammed not all at once, but rather over a period of 23 years. During that time, the circumstances in which Mohammed and the early Muslim community were living changed quite a bit. The earlier verses of the Quran came down while Mohammad was more of an itinerant preacher in Mecca, whereas the later verses came down during a time when Mohammed controlled the city of Medina and commanded a large Muslim army.The result is that the later verses tend to be more concerned with real-world administrative rules and military doctrine — including verses about conquering unbelievers — while the earlier verses are more focused on broader, more universal concepts of spirituality.As a result of the doctrine of abrogation, Team B II claims, all Muslims are obligated to conquer the West and replace its governments with an Islamic theocracy called a caliphate. But one would be hard-pressed to find a single credible Islamic scholar who interprets it this way.For Islamic legal scholars, abrogation is but one tool used to interpret the Quran, and not an ultimate trump card. And the Quran, like the Bible, contains scriptures that both endorse and reject violence. In the full context of Islamic law, the injunctions to kill and conquer are often interpreted as being specific to that time and place in history, and do not necessarily overrule other, more peaceful verses in the Quran (e.g., <a href="https://quran.com/2/256" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600; background-color: transparent !important;">“let there be no compulsion in religion”</a>).Team B II dismisses this as a form of tactical, sharia-sanctioned lying. There is an actual Arabic term for permissible lying in sharia, called taqiyya. It’s an obscure medieval ruling that basically permits Muslims to verbally blaspheme God or renounce their religion without incurring God’s wrath if they are under compulsion to do so.So, for instance, if a Muslim were traveling in a land where being Muslim could get him killed and is captured by the authorities, he is allowed to say he isn’t Muslim — or even do things like praise pagan gods or slander the Prophet Mohammed — if his survival is on the line, without God getting mad. It’s a sort of get-out-of-jail-free card. It’s also a concept generally associated with Shia Islam, as <a href="https://sites.duke.edu/tcths/files/2013/06/Muslim_American_Terrorism_Since_9.11_Why_So_Rare.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600; background-color: transparent !important;">nearly all Sunni Islamic legal scholars reject the concept outright</a>.But the counter-jihadists have taken this medieval concept and turned it into a devious trick that Muslims are using to hide their true violent intentions.They assert that the peaceful interpretations of Islam offered by Muslim authorities are a form of taqiyya designed to obscure the true nature of Islam from gullible Westerners. They point to things like the 9/11 hijackers going to strip clubs and drinking alcohol as examples of terrorists using taqiyya to blend in. And while the 9/11 hijackers certainly did those things, and may even have tried to justify their actions by saying they were just trying to blend in, they were all Sunni Muslims and therefore never would’ve used the concept of taqiyya to justify their actions.“Under Islamic law, lying is not only permissible, but obligatory for Muslims in some situations,” Team B II writes in its report. “What Muslim audiences are required to know about Islam is not the same thing as what non-Muslim Western audiences are allowed to know — or encouraged to think — by Islamic authorities.”This quickly takes on the character of a conspiracy theory. Any attempt to cite an Islamic authority who takes a different view of the Quran is only proof, to the counter-jihadists, that you are taken in by sharia propaganda. In that sense, arguing with the counter-jihadists is something of an impossible task. It’s a bit like attempting a point-by-point rebuttal of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.<h3 id="d984Qs" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px 0px 0.6rem; padding: 0px;">How a conspiracy theory goes from the fringes to the White House</h3><h3 id="d984Qs" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px 0px 0.6rem; padding: 0px;">[vid act for am]</h3><h3 id="d984Qs" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px 0px 0.6rem; padding: 0px;">When you ask credentialed experts on Islam and terrorism about counter-jihadist theories today, they usually don’t know whether to laugh or cry.</h3>“It's hard to reply without sounding snooty,” Will McCants, the director of the Brookings Institution’s Project on US Relations with the Islamic World, tells me in response to a question about counter-jihadists. “[They] sell a lot of books and scare the hell out of Americans, but their policy recommendations range from vague to downright harmful.”McCants is not wrong about the books. America Alone, a 2006 book alleging that ”a large majority of Western Muslims support the terrorists’ strategic goals,” cracked the top five of the New York Times’s best-seller list. Several other counter-jihadist books, including The Politically Correct Guide to Islam and Because They Hate, made the best-seller list around the same time.What few reviews of these books could be found in mainstream publications were not kind. Yale lecturer Daniel Luban wrote that they “can justly be called the new McCarthyism” in a review of the genre published in the Jewish magazine <a href="http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/43069/the-new-anti-semitism-2" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600; background-color: transparent !important;">Tablet</a>.Regardless, the success of counter-jihadist literature spawned a whole mini industry — what author Nathan Lean termed <a href="https://go.redirectingat.com/?id=66960X1516588&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fdp%2FB009AW0ER8%2Fref%3Ddp-kindle-redirect%3F_encoding%3DUTF8%26btkr%3D1" rel="nofollow noopener" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600; background-color: transparent !important;">“the Islamophobia Industry.”</a> In 2008, an organization called the Clarion Project distributed 28 million copies of a documentary titled <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-t2gzOCSHRk" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600; background-color: transparent !important;">Obsession</a>, which alleged that more than 100 million Muslims were in thrall to “militant Islam.”Another Clarion video, The Third Jihad: Radical Islam’s Vision for America, was blurbed by former New York City mayor and current White House cybersecurity adviser Rudy Giuliani and Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ). Clarion’s 2015 mini documentary <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSPvnFDDQHk" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600;">By the Numbers</a>, starring a Muslim woman named Raheel Raza who alleges a majority of her co-religionists want sharia to set national law, has more than 4 million views on YouTube.These works found a large audience, mostly among conservatives, largely as a result of America’s encounter with Islamic extremism over the course of the 2000s. The 9/11 attacks, interestingly, did not themselves spark an immediate turn against Muslims.Part of this can be attributed to concerted efforts by the George W. Bush administration to discourage such sentiments. Indeed, just a little over a month after the 9/11 attacks took place, Bush <a href="https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/infocus/ramadan/islam.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600; background-color: transparent !important;">issued a message</a> to commemorate the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, stating, "The Islam that we know is a faith devoted to the worship of one God, as revealed through The Holy Qur'an. It teaches the value and the importance of charity, mercy, and peace."But as the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq dragged on and more and more American service members died in those countries at the hands of Muslims, and as terrorist attacks in the name of Islam continued to take place around the world, many Americans started to blame Islam in general for the continuing bloodshed.[graf]Under the Obama administration, this took on an overtly partisan flavor. When Bush defended Islam, few Republicans were interested in attacking him. Barack Hussein Obama got no such dispensation: Republicans <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-11-21/republicans-accuse-obama-of-going-soft-on-the-islamic-state" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600; background-color: transparent !important;">attacked him</a> as soft on ISIS and claimed he was more interested in protecting “the image of Islam” than in protecting America. Influential right-wing pundits <a href="http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/videos/a46511/bill-oreilly-obama-muslim/" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600; background-color: transparent !important;">suggested</a> he was an Islamist sympathizer or even a secret Muslim himself.All of this, combined with Trump’s much more overt anti-Islam rhetoric, has helped turn the Muslim religion into a partisan issue:<div id="4dj1xr" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div data-analytics-viewport="autotune" data-analytics-label="vox-partisan-attitudes-towards-islam-october-2016:3860" id="vox-partisan-attitudes-towards-islam-october-2016graphic" data-autotune-alt-embed-type="image" data-autotune-alt-embed-url="https://apps.voxmedia.com/at/vox-partisan-attitudes-towards-islam-october-2016/screenshots/screenshot_s@2.png" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Right-wing media, recognizing the appeal of the counter-jihadist message among their audience, has embraced this extreme anti-Islam narrative the counter-jihadists are peddling. A study published by <a href="http://nhmc.org/sites/default/files/Social%20Networks%20for%20Hate%20Speech_UCLA%20CSRC.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600;">UCLA’s Chicano Studies Research Center</a> found that guests with extreme anti-Muslim views made up 11 percent of all guests on prominent conservative talk radio during a period they studied in 2010. Two prominent counter-jihadists appeared on Fox News 15 times between September 2015 and February 2016, according to a count by <a href="https://mediamatters.org/research/2016/02/18/fox-news-the-home-of-two-newly-designated-anti/208671" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600;">Media Matters</a>. Prominent televangelists spread the anti-Islam gospel to yet another group of reliable conservatives. Pat Robertson, the host of the widely broadcast 700 Club, once said <a href="http://mediamatters.org/research/2008/04/09/700-clubs-robertson-islam-is-not-a-religion-it/143166" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600;">on air</a> that “Islam is a political system that is bent on world domination.”All of this is supplemented by a vast grassroots network, centering on a group called ACT for America. Billing itself as the <a href="http://www.actforamerica.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600; background-color: transparent !important;">“the NRA of National Security,”</a> it claims to have a membership of 500,000 nationwide, clustered in 1,000 chapters around the country.Its president, Brigitte Gabriel, is the author of one of those mid-2000s counter-jihadist bestsellers (Because They Hate). A Lebanese Christian immigrant who calls herself “one of the leading terrorism experts in the world,” Gabriel has no formal background in terrorism, either through working in government or academia. According to her book, the highest level of education she received was a one-year course in business administration at a YWCA. Her claim to authority stems, allegedly, from experiences of persecution at the hands of Muslims during the Lebanese civil war in the 1980s — a historically dubious story that Lebanese-American journalist Michael Young once labeled a <a href="https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/commentaryanalysis/the_dark_angel_gabriel" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600; background-color: transparent !important;">“con act.”</a>In a speech in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdZJ7TFcj6s&t=3443s" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600; background-color: transparent !important;">May 2016</a> at the Oasis Church in Middletown, Ohio, Gabriel delivered an accessible and entertaining speech on the counter-jihadist view of Islam. In her telling, the history of Islam is a history of bloodshed. Between Islam’s founding in the seventh century and the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire in 1924, she says, “Islam was responsible for 270 million people across the globe — killed by the sword.”This violence was not accidental, Gabriel told the rapt crowd. It was the core of Islam itself.Gabriel believes that for 12 years, Mohammed attempted to peacefully proselytize — and failed, miserably. Only when he turned to violence, to conversion at the point of the sword, did he begin to win success.“Islam went from being strictly a spiritual movement, after 12 years, to becoming a political movement cloaked in religion,” she says. “Jihad is mentioned in the Quran 40 times — 36 times out of 40 as a holy war against the infidels, to either kill them or subjugate them.”These are all historically inaccurate claims. Haroon Moghul, a fellow at the New America Foundation, <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/01/2013127211920494.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600;">writes</a> that they “play loose and fast with very different eras, places and peoples,” in order to put together a narrative of a uniformly aggressive Islam. Yet Gabriel’s group has been profoundly influential.[twt mar  lago sec breifing look who i ran into djt]Her activists have worked tirelessly to pass legislation, based on a template constructed by Gaffney and CSP in-house counsel David Yerushalmi, that would ban state courts from considering sharia a valid source of law. By 2016, they had succeeded in <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/five-myths-about-sharia/2016/06/24/7e3efb7a-31ef-11e6-8758-d58e76e11b12_story.html?utm_term=.a1145c741fe8" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600; background-color: transparent !important;">nine states</a>: Alabama, Kansas, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arizona, South Dakota, Arizona, and Tennessee.“No court, administrative agency, or other governmental agency may enforce any provisions of any religious code,” the <a href="https://thinkprogress.org/south-dakota-governor-signs-unconstitutional-anti-muslim-bill-c0bfc738a004#.5npawfu3o" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600;">South Dakota version reads</a>, neutral language obscuring <a href="https://thinkprogress.org/south-dakota-governor-signs-unconstitutional-anti-muslim-bill-c0bfc738a004#.5npawfu3o" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600;">the clear intent</a>.More alarmingly, the ideas pushed by Gabriel and CSP have been embraced by the most important members of the Trump White House.“Most people in the Middle East, or at least 50 percent, believe in being sharia-compliant,” Bannon said on the<a href="https://go.redirectingat.com/?id=66960X1516588&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fsoundcloud.com%2Fbreitbart%2Fbreitbart-news-daily-rosemary-jenks-december-8-2015" rel="nofollow noopener" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600;"> Breitbart Daily News</a> radio show in 2015. “Sharia-compliant” is an innocuous phrase commonly used by Muslims to denote that something is in line with Islamic law: For instance, you can find <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/10/11/shariah-compliant-islamic-financing-usa-europe/16828599/" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600;">sharia-compliant home mortgage companies</a> in the US that cater primarily (but not exclusively) to Muslims, because Islamic law forbids Muslims from collecting or paying interest on loans.The Team B II report’s authors sees things like sharia-compliant financial institutions as an insidious threat to the US Constitution (they never really explain how a home mortgage company that doesn’t charge interest threatens the Constitution).It’s not just Bannon.But the Team B II report also frequently uses the term “sharia-compliant” to describe not institutions or practices, but people: specifically, Muslims with dangerous, anti-American beliefs, anti-constitutional beliefs. And this is exactly the way Bannon is using the term. “If you're sharia-compliant or want to impose sharia law, the United States is the wrong place for you,” Bannon proclaimed.In his 2016 book<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=fdZJDAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=sharia+katherine+gorka&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjIgf7IvfTRAhWDRiYKHShCBQ0Q6AEIQzAG#v=onepage&q=sharia&f=false" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600;"> The Field of Fight</a>, Trump’s new national security adviser, Michael Flynn, wrote that Islamic scholars are attempting to trick the West to obscure the true nature of sharia.“These so-called Islamic scholars keep their message so complicated so as to create chaos, to confuse in order to control,” Flynn writes. “Mao, Pol Pot, Stalin, and Mussolini were more transparent. Sharia is a violent law that is buried in barbaric convictions.”Trump’s new attorney general, Jeff Sessions, said more or less the same thing — in an <a href="http://www.sessions.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/news-releases?ID=8384F9F2-ACBC-40B9-8403-A2E2F9B36843" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600; background-color: transparent !important;">official Senate press release</a>. “Once again we face a totalitarian threat to the free world. This time it’s from ideological and apocalyptic Islam,” Sessions said.“Theologically-based sharia law,” Sessions argued, “fundamentally conflicts with our magnificent constitutional order that separates church and state, and that considers free debate and dissent the way to a better world.”That these individuals all espouse the same weirdly specific interpretation of sharia is not a coincidence. Each one of them is deeply connected to the counter-jihadist world.Bannon hosted counter-jihadists on his Breitbart radio show 41 times, according to a count by <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/09/stephen-bannon-donald-trump-muslims-fear-loathing" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600; background-color: transparent !important;">Mother Jones</a>’s Josh Harkinson. Flynn is an adviser to the board of <a href="https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2016/11/28/following-trump-appointments-anti-muslim-act-america-may-see-growing-influence" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600; background-color: transparent !important;">Gabriel’s ACT for America</a>, and local ACT chapters organized many of the stops on the speaking tour for Flynn’s book. In 2015, Sessions received CSP’s<a href="http://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/2015/10/22/center-celebrates-sen-jeff-sessions-and-adm-james-ace-lyons/" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600; background-color: transparent !important;"> Keeper of the Flame</a> award, in honor of “his leadership on issues of great importance to the national security.”And it goes even deeper than just Trump’s cabinet. Walid Phares, a fringe Lebanese Christian academic who served as Trump’s Middle East policy adviser during the campaign, once <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/96519/romney-walid-phares-sharia-caucus-iowa-pawlenty" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600; background-color: transparent !important;">said</a>, “It is absolutely constitutional and moral that citizens reject Sharia as a legal system that takes away their rights.”<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/07/politics/kfile-gorka-on-fake-news/" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600; background-color: transparent !important;">Sebastian</a> and <a href="https://theintercept.com/2016/11/30/katie-gorka-trump/" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600; background-color: transparent !important;">Katharine Gorka</a>, a married couple who are staples of the counter-jihadist movement, have been given high-level positions on Trump’s staff: Sebastian is now his deputy assistant in the White House, and Katharine was on Trump’s Department of Homeland Security transition team.Trump himself, at times, has sounded a lot like a counter-jihadist.“Sharia authorizes such atrocities as murder of non-believers who won’t convert, beheadings, and more unthinkable acts that pose great harm to American — especially women,”<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWlQ3buH9FI" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600; background-color: transparent !important;"> Trump said</a>, reading off a prepared statement during a December 2015 televised rally defending his proposal for a Muslim ban. “These are people who believe only in jihad. They don’t want our system.”<a href="http://newsok.com/article/feed/1122694" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600;">Several months prior</a> to the rally, Trump had met with staffers at CSP for an hour-long briefing. The subject was the threat from sharia.<h3 id="i0DF9X" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px 0px 0.6rem; padding: 0px;">Counter-jihadists see leading American Muslims as part of the problem</h3><figure class="e-image" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 2.2rem 0px; padding: 0px;">The fact that most Muslims are not killers is, for the counter-jihadists, a most inconvenient fact. Over time, counter-jihadists have put less emphasis on the threat from overtly violent groups, like al-Qaeda and ISIS, and focused instead on a more insidious threat: the “stealth” or “civilization jihad.”<source srcset="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/AYiK6e2JDTUMn0LiXCiruvDaHfI=/0x0:1796x1368/320x0/filters:focal(0x0:1796x1368):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/7967251/GettyImages_104628636.jpg 320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/HjroM9e43EmS72kmSle_Qn0cD0c=/0x0:1796x1368/520x0/filters:focal(0x0:1796x1368):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/7967251/GettyImages_104628636.jpg 520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/-pPh_GHU-l4JYt-4Owz_eh0VrjA=/0x0:1796x1368/720x0/filters:focal(0x0:1796x1368):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/7967251/GettyImages_104628636.jpg 720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/vUWRYzws0_s7BMDYGeiiMl9PAgY=/0x0:1796x1368/920x0/filters:focal(0x0:1796x1368):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/7967251/GettyImages_104628636.jpg 920w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/k286OdExS3wCBpZKQEmrGgfuigM=/0x0:1796x1368/1120x0/filters:focal(0x0:1796x1368):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/7967251/GettyImages_104628636.jpg 1120w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/czRwAR_si6oRC5E65T2VX3-p-NE=/0x0:1796x1368/1320x0/filters:focal(0x0:1796x1368):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/7967251/GettyImages_104628636.jpg 1320w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/1GJFdf5xRzpn8GMtlAm5iy8mG2s=/0x0:1796x1368/1520x0/filters:focal(0x0:1796x1368):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/7967251/GettyImages_104628636.jpg 1520w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/nq6emCzVWPTb6ZPitg0fMjhLpv4=/0x0:1796x1368/1720x0/filters:focal(0x0:1796x1368):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/7967251/GettyImages_104628636.jpg 1720w, https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/wTtknPi-4fy0Dnl9EAef5QdPe-w=/0x0:1796x1368/1920x0/filters:focal(0x0:1796x1368):format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/7967251/GettyImages_104628636.jpg 1920w" sizes="(min-width: 1221px) 846px, (min-width: 880px) calc(100vw - 334px), 100vw" type="image/webp" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /></figure>The foremost theorist of civilization jihad is a writer named Robert Spencer. “He’s author of so many books, and one of the top two or three experts in the world on this great war we’re fighting against fundamental Islam,” Bannon said, when hosting Spencer on<a href="http://www.breitbart.com/radio/2016/08/09/robert-spencer-gop-national-security-leaders-intellectually-bankrupt-to-attack-trump-and-defend-clintons-pitiable-record/" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600;"> Breitbart Daily News</a> on August 9, 2016. “Trump is listening to people like you,” he told Spencer later in the interview.Spencer, like Gabriel and Gaffney, has no formal training in Quranic scholarship. He received an MA in 1986 in religious studies from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and wrote his <a href="http://webcat.lib.unc.edu/record=b2172870_S1" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600; background-color: transparent !important;">master’s thesis</a> on Catholic history.He’s run the blog Jihad Watch, a near-obsessive tracker of Islamist activity, since 2003. He is also the author of 16 books, with titles like The Complete Infidels' Guide to the Koran. Many of his books have been published by Regnery, the conservative publishing giant that also put out both Trump’s and Mitt Romney’s most recent books. Two of Spencer’s tomes made the New York Times best-seller list; there’s a decent chance you’ve seen him on Fox News in the wake of a terrorist attack.In person, Spencer is short and portly, with a neatly trimmed black beard. He’s exceptionally confrontational, constantly trumpeting his willingness to debate all comers on Twitter and on Jihad Watch. When I contacted him for this story, his reply attacked the media — like most counter-jihadists, he sees journalists as some of jihad’s most powerful enablers.“There you go again, Zack,” he wrote in response to one of my questions. “I know you’re a reporter, and a reporter for Vox, so I know where you stand.”Spencer’s 2008 book, Stealth Jihad: How Radical Islam Is Subverting America Without Guns or Bombs, developed one of the most important ideas of the counter-jihad. Its arguments were cited repeatedly and amplified in the Team B II report and also appear, in a simplified form, in speeches delivered by people like Gabriel in towns around the country. Spencer also regularly gives “counterterrorism” seminars based on these arguments to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/religion/anti-muslim-speakers-still-popular-in-law-enforcement-training/2014/03/12/bc8d8e30-aa1c-11e3-8a7b-c1c684e2671f_story.html?utm_term=.699ec9b8b500" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600; background-color: transparent !important;">law enforcement agencies</a>.The central idea is that terrorists aren’t America’s real Muslim problem.“Distracted by foreign wars and the prospect of domestic terror attacks, Americans pay little heed to the true agents of intolerance in their midst,” Spencer writes. “The stealth jihad advances largely unopposed because it is largely unrecognized.”The “agents of intolerance” at the heart of this stealth jihad, Spencer explains, are the Muslim Brotherhood.It’s a group you’re probably at least passingly familiar with. Founded in Egypt in 1928, the Brotherhood is one of the oldest and most influential Islamist groups in history. The group’s goal has long been the toppling of the Egyptian government and its replacement with a Sunni theocracy.Its tactics have varied over time, from promoting grassroots social change to fielding candidates for parliament, and some individuals and groups associated with the Brotherhood in the past have advocated violent revolution. The Brotherhood even managed to gain control over the Egyptian government briefly, when Brotherhood candidate Mohammed Morsi won in the country’s first democratic election following the Arab Spring uprising in 2011.Today, the group’s influence is relatively limited — Egypt’s military dictator, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, overthrew Morsi in 2013 and since then has viciously suppressed Brotherhood activity. According to <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/06/08/egypt-year-abuses-under-al-sisi" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600; background-color: transparent !important;">Human Rights Watch</a>, he has killed more than 1,000 individuals linked to the Brotherhood and arrested many, many more.In Spencer’s telling, though, the Brotherhood is not defined by its founding chapter in Egypt, or even its various open branches and offshoots (like the Palestinian militant group Hamas or the moderate Islamist Ennahda party in Tunisia). The hidden history of the 20th century, according to Spencer, is a history of the Brotherhood’s stealth penetration of the West.“Of course the MB still has the resources to act in the US and Europe,” Spencer tells me. “Its organizations here were well-established and handsomely funded before Sisi came along.”In Stealth Jihad, Spencer rests this claim on a 1991 memo, written by a Muslim Brother named Mohamed Akram. The memo outlines a plan to establish a “global Islamic state,” starting in the United States. This begins, according to Akram, through a “shift from the collision mentality to the absorption mentality” — to move away from open conflict with Western authorities to suborning them from within.This might seem like a pathetically impossible task, given the minuscule number of Muslim Brothers in the US. But — and this is the absolutely critical part — Akram thinks the Brotherhood has powerful allies who might successfully and quietly mainstream its radical agenda. In the memo, he writes out “a list of our organizations and the organizations of our friends.”The Brotherhood, and its present-day allies and friends, [are] really working to forward the ‘grand jihad,’” Spencer writes. “When we scratch the ‘moderate’ surface of groups such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), we find links to terrorist organizations and exhortations to Islamic supremacism.”It reads like a who’s who of Muslim civic organizations in the United States, including the Islamic Society of North America (the continent’s largest Muslim civic group) and the Muslim Students’ Association (the organization that represents Muslim students on virtually every college campus in the United States). This one memo, for Spencer and Gaffney, is solid proof that these organizations are Brotherhood fronts.The Team B II report, two years later, put the point even more clearly.“The majority of Islamic organizations in America are affiliates of or associated with the Muslim Brotherhood in some way,” its authors explain. “Any organization that does not embrace sharia and the MB line has not been able to gain broad recognition as a Muslim-American force.”The evidentiary basis for this claim is extremely thin. For one thing, scholars of the Brotherhood have found no evidence that Akram’s memo was an accurate representation of the Brotherhood’s reach.“Nobody has ever produced any evidence that the document was more than something produced by the daydream of one enthusiast,” Nathan Brown, a George Washington University professor who studies the Brotherhood, told <a href="http://religiondispatches.org/welcome-to-the-shariah-conspiracy-theory-industry/" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600; background-color: transparent !important;">Religion Dispatches’ Sarah Posner</a> in 2011. “Nothing in anything that I have heard has ever struck me as similar in tone or content to the ‘master plan.’”Beyond that, the organizations themselves <a href="https://www.cair.com/about-us/dispelling-rumors-about-cair.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600; background-color: transparent !important;">flatly deny</a> being agents of the Muslim Brotherhood. Of course, as Spencer and his ilk would say, this could just be taqiyya. Except that the groups don’t just deny these affiliations — they openly advocate <a href="https://www.cair.com/about-us/vision-mission-core-principles.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600; background-color: transparent !important;">policies</a> and <a href="http://www.isna.net/isnas-position-statements/" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600; background-color: transparent !important;">interpretations of Islam</a> that directly contradict this supposed grand Muslim Brotherhood plot against American values.That does not stop Spencer, Team B II, and the rest of the counter-jihadists from citing Akram’s memo as gospel. Gaffney still tells audiences to download it (it’s available for free <a href="http://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/2013/05/25/an-explanatory-memorandum-from-the-archives-of-the-muslim-brotherhood-in-america/" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600; background-color: transparent !important;">on CSP’s site</a>).The idea that the Brotherhood dominates Muslim American life serves a critical bridging point in counter-jihadist ideology. It is the only possible explanation for why, despite sharia’s supposed mandate to violence and domination, Muslim Americans <a href="http://www.vox.com/world/2017/1/27/14412420/terrorism-muslims-america-islam-trump" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600; background-color: transparent !important;">are not all that violent</a>. It’s not that they don’t believe in “Islamic supremacism” (a favored counter-jihadist term); it’s that they’re more strategic about it than the dummies in al-Qaeda and ISIS.Militant groups can be bombed and killed. But stealth jihadists cannot: They wield Western commitments to free speech and political tolerance as a shield, allowing them to build up Muslim strength in the West without meaningful opposition.Counter-jihadists latch onto any evidence of links between Muslim civic society and the Muslim Brotherhood to buttress this theory, wrenching quotes from Muslim leaders out of context and casting fringe figures as leading Muslim authorities.Take their strongest and most commonly cited piece of evidence: <a href="https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/federal-judge-hands-downs-sentences-holy-land-foundation-case" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600; background-color: transparent !important;">a 2007 Justice Department case</a> against the Holy Land Foundation, a Muslim charity in the Dallas area that was diverting some of its donations to Hamas, a designated foreign terrorist organization.This is the most significant and largest case of a terror-funding operation using an American Muslim civic group as a front. The Akram memo was uncovered during the HLF investigation.But in addition to the five leaders of the HLF who were actually convicted in the case, more than 246 individuals and Muslim groups, including ISNA and CAIR, were named as “unindicted co-conspirators” in the indictment — meaning the prosecutors believed they were linked to HLF’s scheme but couldn’t prove it.They couldn’t prove it because they had no real evidence for this claim. ISNA and CAIR later filed a suit alleging that the prosecutors had unjustifiably damaged their reputation by mentioning them in the indictment. Their evidence was that counter-jihadists were using it to smear them, and the court agreed.“There is no real dispute that CAIR suffered injury to its reputational interest by being listed as an unindicted co-conspirator in this terrorism case. Press accounts and blog entries have reported, based on this case, that CAIR is a criminal organization that supports terrorism,”<a href="https://go.redirectingat.com/?id=66960X1516588&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.scribd.com%2Fdocument%2F43380629%2F2009-order-on-Holy-Land-Foundation-unindicted-coconspirator-list" rel="nofollow noopener" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600; background-color: transparent !important;"> the presiding judge ruled</a>. “The government has not argued or established any legitimate government interest that warrants publicly identifying CAIR and 245 other individuals and entities as unindicted co-conspirators.”Now a faction in the Trump administration,<a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-muslimbrotherhood-idUSKBN15D0VV" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600;"> reportedly led by Flynn</a>, is pushing to do the same thing by executive fiat — to add the Muslim Brotherhood to the State Department’s list of foreign terrorist organizations.But, as with the Akram memo, the counter-jihadists have not stopped using the HLF case as proof that America’s largest Muslim organizations are part of a stealth jihad. Multiple Republican members of Congress have parroted these accusations, most notably when they accused Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin of having ties to<a href="http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2016/sep/14/sean-duffy/top-hillary-clinton-aide-has-ties-muslim-brotherho/" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600;"> the Muslim Brotherhood</a>. Sen. Ted Cruz, a frequent speaker at CSP events, has repeatedly pushed legislation labeling<a href="http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2016/sep/14/sean-duffy/top-hillary-clinton-aide-has-ties-muslim-brotherho/" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600;"> the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist group</a> — a key recommendation in both Spencer’s book and the Team B II report.The State Department reportedly opposes this <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/07/world/middleeast/muslim-brotherhood-terrorism-trump.html?r=0&mtrref=undefined&gwh=699A76DB99B31334CE1E59E5DBF96190&gwt=pay" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600; background-color: transparent !important;">move as illegal</a>. A new CIA memo, reported by <a href="http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/02/cia-memo-designating-muslim-brotherhood-could-fuel-extremism-214757" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600; background-color: transparent !important;">Politico</a>, warns that it would boost ISIS and al-Qaeda recruiting. Virtually <a href="https://twitter.com/shadihamid/status/829521634314813440" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600; background-color: transparent !important;">every expert on the Muslim Brotherhood</a> thinks it would be unworkable and unwise.Despite all this, the New York Times reports that the move has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/07/world/middleeast/muslim-brotherhood-terrorism-trump.html?r=0&mtrref=undefined&gwh=699A76DB99B31334CE1E59E5DBF96190&gwt=pay" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600; background-color: transparent !important;">broad support in the White House</a>. This should be no surprise: Both <a href="http://www.clarionproject.org/analysis/trump-cabinet-picks-support-banning-muslim-brotherhood" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600; background-color: transparent !important;">Attorney General Sessions and CIA Director Mike Pompeo</a>, while in Congress, co-sponsored Cruz’s bill.“There are organizations and networks here in the United States tied to radical Islam in deep and fundamental ways,” Pompeo told Gaffney in a <a href="http://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/2015/02/26/a-period-of-less-daily-threat-to-americans/" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600; background-color: transparent !important;">February 2015</a> interview on the latter’s radio program. “They’re not just in places like Libya and Syria and Iraq, but in places like Coldwater, Kansas, and small towns all throughout America.”Bannon has long been warning of the threat from the Muslim Brotherhood and stealth jihad; <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/politics/ct-steve-bannon-great-satan-film-20170203-story.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600; background-color: transparent !important;">in 2007</a>, he wrote a documentary script proposal specifically calling CAIR and ISNA "cultural jihadists" secretly working to build “an Islamic Republic in the United States.” Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson, in a<a href="https://go.redirectingat.com/?id=66960X1516588&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fsoundcloud.com%2Fbreitbart%2Fsets%2Fbreitbart-news-daily-62" rel="nofollow noopener" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600; background-color: transparent !important;"> 2016 interview with Bannon</a>, warned of “an explanatory memorandum” uncovered in the Holy Land Foundation trial telling Muslims “to infiltrate, to multiply, to gain positions of power, and to commit what they call ‘civilization jihad.’”Officially labeling the Brotherhood a terrorist group, an odd step given that the Brotherhood has not been linked to a terrorist attack in decades, takes on much darker tones when viewed through a counter-jihadist light. Remember, counter-jihadists think the majority of Muslim American groups in the United States are Brotherhood fronts. It’s illegal for any American to provide assistance to a designated foreign terrorist organization.This, then, could set the stage for a massive federal inquisition into America’s major Muslim organizations based on counter-jihadist conspiracy theories. The text of the <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/senate-bill/2230/text" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600;">Cruz-Sessions-Pompeo</a> bill refers to CAIR and ISNA as “United States-Muslim Brotherhood affiliates,” citing the Holy Land case. Gaffney told<a href="http://newsok.com/article/feed/1122694" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600;"> Bloomberg View’s Eli Lake</a> that "CAIR is one of the organizations [prosecutors] would have to look at” if the Brotherhood were designated a terrorist group.Spencer told me that the solution to the stealth jihad was to “enforce existing laws regarding sedition and subversion,” adding that “Muslim organizations in the West should be called upon to back up their pro-forma condemnations of al-Qaeda and ISIS with transparent, inspectable, honest programs teaching young Muslims why they should reject the understanding of Islam offered by jihad terror groups.”Investigations into, and perhaps prosecutions of, Muslim civic organizations. “Inspectable” programs ensuring that Muslim organizations toe a religious line that counter-jihadists find acceptable. That’s what the counter-jihadists really want from Trump.<h3 id="aOaZLM" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px 0px 0.6rem; padding: 0px;">Europe will soon be “Eurabia” — a fate America might share</h3>In July of last year, I went to Cleveland to report on the Republican National Convention. It was a weird event by any metric, but the high point of strangeness had to be the evening I spent at a party for queer counter-jihadists.The event, organized by Breitbart’s gay firebrand<a href="http://www.vox.com/2016/4/4/11355876/milo-yiannopoulos" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600;"> Milo Yiannopoulos</a>, was called “Wake Up!” — as in, “wake up” to the threat of jihadism. Held in a dark ballroom adorned with pictures of mostly naked, extremely young-looking men posing in red “Make America Great Again” hats, the party attracted a<a href="http://www.vox.com/2016/7/21/12238048/rnc-party-milo" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600;"> fairly infamous crowd</a>.I bumped into Pamela Geller, who co-founded (alongside Spencer) a counter-jihadist group called<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Islamization_of_America" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600; background-color: transparent !important;"> Stop the Islamization of America</a>, since renamed the American Freedom Defense Initiative, wearing a rainbow sequin shirt emblazoned with the slogan “Love Will Win.” Geller is a regular on Fox News and conservative talk radio; she’s one of the most widely known counter-jihadists due to her assuming a leadership role in the fight against the “ground zero mosque” in 2010. She also has a tendency to embrace the most outlandish of conspiracy theories, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20090302233515/http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2008/10/how-could-stanl.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600; background-color: transparent !important;">once publishing</a> a piece on her website suggesting that Barack Obama is the <a href="http://gawker.com/5071373/bombshell-obama-malcom-x-love-child" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600; background-color: transparent !important;">secret love child of Malcolm X</a>.When I ran into her, she was warning a partygoer of the imminent threat from Syrian refugees.“ISIS said they were going to send a jihad army into Europe via migration in 2015. Then two months later, the migration started,” Geller said. The implication — that the refugee crisis was an ISIS plot — wasn’t especially subtle.The ostensibly perilous state of Europe was something of a motif at the party. The featured speaker was Geert Wilders, the virulently anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant leader of the Netherlands’ far-right Party for Freedom (PVV). Wilders, an extremely tall man with slicked-back, Trumpesque hair, gave a fiery speech denouncing the influence of Islam in his homeland.“There is only one Islam, and that Islam has no place in a free society,” Wilders told the crowd. “We should de-Islamize our societies. It’s a matter of our existence.”One could not have hoped for a better summary of the counter-jihadist view of Europe. Proponents see the continent as a dark twin of America, a “there but for the grace of God” dystopia the Islamists are on the verge of conquering.The key culprit, in their minds, is immigration. Prior to World War II, the Muslim population in Europe was negligible. After the war, a need to rebuild the continent led Europe to bring in a lot of people from the nearby Middle East and North Africa as guest workers. Many of these guest workers stayed, and eventually brought over their families. These people formed Muslim communities, which continue to be a draw for new Muslim immigrants today, at the same time that birthrates among white Europeans were slowing down.The result was a rapidly growing Muslim minority in Western Europe. In 1950, 2 percent of Europeans were Muslim. That figure was 4 percent by 1990, and <a href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/07/19/5-facts-about-the-muslim-population-in-europe/" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600; background-color: transparent !important;">6 percent by 2010</a>.In 2005, a Cairo-born woman named Gisèle Littman published a book warning of the dangers of this demographic shift, titled<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=hfK9SqHSaccC&printsec=frontcover&dq=bat+ye%27or&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj53-7Hl_zRAhXDRyYKHavUBPYQ6AEIJTAC#v=onepage&q=bat%20ye%27or&f=false" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600; background-color: transparent !important;"> Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis</a>. Littman, who publishes under the name Bat Ye’or (Hebrew for “daughter of the Nile”), dropped out of a master’s program at the University of Geneva in the 1960s. Nevertheless, she spent much of her life publishing “academic” tomes on Islam and Europe, arguing that the history of Islam is an unbroken history of theologically driven conquest.In Eurabia, Ye’or posited that Muslim immigration to Europe was not the benign economic migration it seemed. It was, instead, a dark plot — a plan, dating back to 1973, “superimposed on Europe by powerful governmental lobbies.” The goal was to Islamize Europe, to reduce European whites to “dhimmitude” — a term she uses for second-class citizenship granted to non-Muslims in an Islamic society.In the pages of Jihad Watch and CSP publications, the notion that Muslim immigrants are imposing their rule on a hapless and clueless European majority is simply common sense. Every crime or terrorist attack committed by a Muslim, every law granting religious accommodations to Muslims, is cast as proof of the coming of Eurabia.Eurabia has gotten scant mention in the American press; mainstream historians have scorned it. Yet the book’s thesis has risen to the level of dogma among American counter-jihadists; Geller <a href="http://pamelageller.com/2010/02/bat-yeor-new-euro-arab-judeophobia-bears-the-destruction-of-the-west-within-itself.html/" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600; background-color: transparent !important;">has called</a> Ye’or “the world's leading scholar and historian on Islamic expansionism in Europe, the Middle East and the West.”At the 2015 Values Voter Summit, the big annual gathering for right-wing evangelicals, <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/09/26/brigitte-gabriel-europe-is-eurabia-right-now/" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600; background-color: transparent !important;">Bannon sat down with ACT’s Gabriel</a> to talk about the European refugee crisis. He referred to it as a Muslim “invasion,” and asked Gabriel if that was an overstatement.“It is not,” she replied. “Europe will no longer be Europe by 2050. Europe has already become Eurabia. Europe is Eurabia right now.”For this reason, immigration occupies a central role in the counter-jihadist imagination. If Muslim immigration turned Europe into a terror-ridden nightmare on the brink of sharia rule, then the first priority in the United States needs to be making sure the same thing can’t happen here. The Muslim Brotherhood is most easily defeated when you deny it foot soldiers.One of the key recommendations of CSP’s Team B II report is that “immigration of those who adhere to sharia must be precluded.” More recently, CSP and ACT for America have been out front in opposing the resettlement of Syrian refugees. CSP has teamed up with longtime anti-refugee activist<a href="http://www.vox.com/world/2017/2/2/14475264/refugees-syrian-muslim-video-sharia" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600; background-color: transparent !important;"> Ann Corcoran</a>, who got her start in 2006 opposing the resettlement of <a href="https://www.pri.org/stories/2016-04-01/she-was-once-environmental-lobbyist-now-she-blogs-against-refugees" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600; background-color: transparent !important;">African refugees</a> in her area of rural Maryland. A CSP video starring her has racked up nearly 3 million views on YouTube.“This process of Muslim colonization is called the hijra,” Corcoran says in the video, using the Arabic word for migration. “Mohammed told his followers to migrate and spread Islam, in order to dominate all the lands of the world ... and that’s exactly what they’re doing now.”<h3 id="Kp71aY" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px 0px 0.6rem; padding: 0px;">The “Muslim ban” and the counter-jihad</h3>When Trump initially announced his plan for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States,” way back in December 2015, his campaign statement cited a poll conducted by CSP as the key piece of justification.“A poll from the <a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=0012iZ2DfVoOoQvhNkb3BL7YYJ1ZFEOio7lN92dBm_4lO-5mN5s6wazTT_tx3U9FKxUb9WbmXOPsWC50pJlcz2R9GVIb-IkKDgm4YFoaRC6Ie7IZb4chRYYWc18EtLsh5cAIbKCV1KtiPd4j9VNFhsTEl0Kkn931x1coL4WM1xyrBDWOJreetStRGrv60RjCBRHN1qkw6Mlr54lWainK8MvB6J96hljIHKrL_onSVXD8JlYo9UsD3ozfWQP8U7cziRaLWvvsREb5Do3LFkdxbUbcSSmhz84mbMcg38XI7njQbM0HDxaPYZ6uw&c=a_5oRYlAOFINdDKvzBPUU8HJhUxJIl8TmxOj7GSfsax8A2dXOE9S3g&ch=LUOZxOJd-RIXhI9KmDkk0IpWi711QS4_LNrHk4QWT6vvOg7WQ8QQ7A" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600;">Center for Security Policy</a> released data showing ‘25% of those polled agreed that violence against Americans here in the United States is justified as a part of the global jihad,’”<a href="https://www.donaldjtrump.com/press-releases/donald-j.-trump-statement-on-preventing-muslim-immigration" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600;"> the statement read</a>. “51% of those polled, ‘agreed that Muslims in America should have the choice of being governed according to sharia.’”This poll was, unsurprisingly, shot full of methodological problems. It was an<a href="http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2015/dec/09/donald-trump/trump-cites-shaky-survey-call-ban-muslims-entering/" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600; background-color: transparent !important;"> online opt-in poll</a>, meaning that it was not a random sample of American Muslims, and several questions were written in such a way that the answers would end up sounding extremist no matter what.More interestingly, though, is the person who conducted the poll on CSP’s behalf. It was none other than Kellyanne Conway, who would go on to become Trump’s campaign manager and chief press surrogate. According to<a href="http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/12/kellyanne-conway-immigration-islam-bannon-trump" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600; background-color: transparent !important;"> Mother Jones’s Pema Levy</a>, who first reported the link, Conway’s firm had a relationship with CSP that dated back to 1998."It's very alarming to me that such a high number of individuals, Muslims living in the US, would say, 'Well, we can have a choice' [to follow sharia]," Conway said during a June 2015 appearance on a CSP podcast. “The Muslims living in the US themselves — 27 percent of them, anyway — say that this is what the purpose of jihad is, to either punish nonbelievers (16 percent) or, the other 11 percent, to undermine non-Muslim states."This is the way in which the “Muslim ban” makes sense. Not as something Trump dreamed up by accident, but as a direct product of the counter-jihad’s influence on the president of the United States. You can even see the counter-jihadist influence in the text of the executive order itself.“In order to protect Americans, the United States must ensure that those admitted to this country do not bear hostile attitudes toward it and its founding principles,” the <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/01/27/executive-order-protecting-nation-foreign-terrorist-entry-united-states" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600; background-color: transparent !important;">order reads</a>. “The United States cannot, and should not, admit those who do not support the Constitution, or those who would place violent ideologies over American law.”When the Trump administration talked about the Muslim ban to press, they warned that unfettered Muslim entry into the country would bring about a constant drumbeat of low-level terrorism — a warning that sounded a lot like some counter-jihadists’ descriptions of contemporary Europe.“We don't want a situation where 20, 30 years from now, it's just like a given thing that on a fairly regular basis that there's domestic terror strikes, that stores are shut up or that airports have explosive devices planted or people are mowed down in the street by cars and automobiles and things of that nature,” an unnamed senior administration official told <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2017/01/29/unnamed-white-house-official-on-implementing-travel-ban-it-really-is-a-massive-success-story/?utm_term=.7e5f53ef71fd" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600; background-color: transparent !important;">the Washington Post</a>’s Jenna Johnson. “These are the realities that we're living in today.”<h3 id="nS3vtm" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px 0px 0.6rem; padding: 0px;">How counter-jihadists want to change America — if Trump will let them</h3>There is a counter-jihadist master plan.In 2015, CSP issued a follow-up report to the Team B II report. Titled <a href="http://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Secure_Freedom_Strategy_01-23-15.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600;">“The Secure Freedom Strategy,”</a> and authored by “the Tiger Team,” it fleshed out a broad slate of specific policy actions that could be taken to act on Team B’s diagnosis of the problem. Something like Trump’s ban on refugees entering the country is in there, as is the Flynn-Sessions-Pompeo plan for listing the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization.Those aren’t the only two examples. The report spends a great deal of time lambasting the Obama administration for failing to openly name Islamism as our enemy.“The Obama administration’s increasingly institutionalized secularist — if not actively pro-Islamic — policies have largely prevented the U.S. government from engaging in strategic information operations aimed at exposing and undermining the supremacist doctrine of shariah and the terrorism it commands,” its authors write. “Public clarity about that threat has also been compromised by the distortion of intelligence analysis and terminology used to describe Islam, jihad, and shariah.”This has obvious resonances with the Republican attacks on Obama for failing to call terrorists “radical Islamists.” But it also targets, specifically, President Obama’s “Countering Violent Extremism” initiative — a program that focuses on preventing Americans from being attracted to violent political movements, Islamist and non-Islamist alike. This, the Tiger Team argues, is a way of downplaying the threat from the more dangerous stealth jihad.Now both<a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-extremists-program-exclusiv-idUSKBN15G5VO" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600; background-color: transparent !important;"> Reuters</a> and<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2017/02/03/the-trump-administration-is-showing-white-nationalists-it-wont-fight-them-at-all/?tid=ss_tw&utm_term=.534ae936f936" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600; background-color: transparent !important;"> CNN</a> have reported that the Trump team is planning to revamp the CVE program to focus solely on Islamism. Its new name? “Countering Islamic Extremism,” nomenclature that a) is focused exclusively on Islam, and b) deemphasizes the threat from violence specifically.News of the Trump team’s plans delighted counter-jihadists, who have long attacked US government counterterrorism training for downplaying the threat from sharia. Spencer told me the revamp of the CVE program was the Trump initiative that he was most excited about.Spencer is being a bit premature — as of right now, the reports about the program still aren’t confirmed. But his glee points to something important, something missed in taking these things in isolation.The Trump team is incredibly disorganized: According to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/05/us/politics/trump-white-house-aides-strategy.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600; background-color: transparent !important;">one New York Times account</a>, Trump staffers still haven’t figured out how to turn on the lights in the White House Cabinet room. They also have an insurgent ideology, one that’s in many ways at odds with what you hear from mainstream Republicans — especially on foreign policy. There just isn’t a clear sense of what they want to do on a lot of issues, or what specific tools they could use to do it.The counter-jihadists, by contrast, are extremely organized. They have a think tank that has put out detailed policy proposals, intellectuals with fairly large megaphones who can argue for the think tank’s ideas, and a large activist network that’s surprisingly well-connected inside the Republican Party.And, of course, they have a lot of like-minded sympathizers in the White House. So if the Trump team needs policy ideas on national security and terrorism, it’s entirely likely that they’d turn to CSP for help. Indeed, the explicit point of the Tiger Team’s Secure Freedom Strategy was to provide a comprehensive blueprint for a “war” on sharia to a White House that’s willing to listen.So what are their actual policy proposals?The report advocates reorienting training for counterterrorism staff around “the threat doctrine — sharia,” essentially meaning that the US should teach its spies and law enforcement officials that Islam is their enemy. It proposes “rolling up and shutting down [Muslim Brotherhood] front groups in the United States,” by which it means the main Muslim organizations in America. It suggests ending university programs that promote “Muslim-Christian dialogue,” and replacing them with “corresponding educational activities exposing the true nature of sharia and the Muslim Brotherhood’s operations.”Some recommendations are even more jarring. The report calls on the US government to use “sharia adherent advocacy and practices as legal premises for deportation and stripping of American citizenship” — in other words, kicking out Muslims who publicly announce that they live by Islamic moral codes. Former Speaker of the House and staunch Trump supporter Newt Gingrich has fervently embraced this idea, telling Sean Hannity in June 2016 that the US government should <a href="http://video.foxnews.com/v/5036444136001/" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600; background-color: transparent !important;">deport all Muslims who believe in sharia</a>.The CSP report further states that “over eighty percent of U.S. mosques have been shown to be sharia-adherent and promoting jihad,” and that “they are incubators of, at best, subversion and, at worst, violence and should be treated accordingly.” The clear implication is that the US government should shut down 80 percent of American mosques and arrest their imams on charges of promoting terrorism.This isn’t just a blueprint for war on sharia — it’s a blueprint for war on the Muslim American community. For using the power of the state to shut down Muslim organizations, arrest believing Muslims, and close the vast majority of mosques.Prominent politicians have endorsed this plan (though it’s not clear if they’ve read it all the way through). At a 2015 CSP conference, the entirety of which is uploaded to YouTube, both <a href="http://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/2015/02/10/watch-live-defeat-jihad-summit/" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.1s ease 0s, background-color 0.1s ease 0s, fill 0.1s ease 0s; border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; font-weight: 600;">Gingrich and Cruz</a> labeled the Secure Freedom plan a sound strategy for fighting jihadism — a move that garnered very little attention at the time. The document is too obscure, and too boring, for most people to root through it.But these ideas in it cannot be seen as obscure anymore.“I definitely see individuals with this [counter-jihadist] network having a huge influence within this administration,” Yasmine Taeb, a lobbyist at the Friends Committee on National Legislation who focuses on terrorism and civil liberties, tells me. “[Trump’s] policies are ones that they’ve been advocating for ... which is scary.”According to McCants, the Brookings scholar on Islam, “national security professionals on both sides of the aisle are freaking out” about the influence of counter-jihadists on Trump.Would Trump be able to implement all of the policies in the Secure Freedom Strategy by executive fiat? Almost certainly not. More to the point, it’s not clear that he’d want to: Shutting down 80 percent of America’s mosques is extreme even for him, well beyond anything he’s said publicly.The point, rather, is that this is where the people who are advising the president are coming from. Their repeated public statements, and the administration’s policy alignment with some key counter-jihadist priorities, cannot be ignored. These ideas, ideas which when taken to their logical conclusion end in a mass campaign of persecution targeting Muslim Americans, are now the dominant approach to terrorism among the president’s closest advisers.Watching the video of Gaffney’s speech at the Western Conservative Summit no longer feels like watching the ramblings of a coot. It feels like peering through a window into the way the Trump White House sees the world.<div></div></div></div>hmmn<a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/RussiaLago/comments/9529qd/the_shadows_of_erik_prince_peter_thiel_and/">https://www.reddit.com/r/RussiaLago/comments/9529qd/the_shadows_of_erik_prince_peter_thiel_and/</a>punked? by twitterbots?!<ul style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 50px; list-style: none;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 7px; padding: 0px; list-style: square; position: relative; line-height: 1.7;">28/50 General Michael Flynn, an advisor of the Trump campaign and then Mr. Trump’s national security advisor, called himself “General Misha” and followed and retweeted Russian material from five Russian accounts. He later confessed to a federal crime (<a href="https://threadreaderapp.com/hashtag/RoadToUnfreedom" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">#RoadToUnfreedom</a>, p. 241).</li></ul><div><a href="https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/top-takeaways-from-bombshell-report-flynn-wanted-to-give-nuclear-tech-to-saudis-may-have-broken-law/">https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/top-takeaways-from-bombshell-report-flynn-wanted-to-give-nuclear-tech-to-saudis-may-have-broken-law/</a></div><div>
</div><div>Fired National Security Advisor and admitted felon Michael Flynn reportedlypursued the transfer of nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia.Whistleblowers are saying that the National Security Council’s ethics lawyer found that Flynn may violated a conflict of interest statute.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 28.672px; vertical-align: top; background-color: rgb(254, 254, 254);">Despite the lawyer’s recommendation that this should be abandoned, top Flynn aide Derek Harvey allegedly continued on, speaking to Flynn “every night” even after Flynn was fired for lying to the FBI. Flynn has since pleaded guilty to that crime and <a href="https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/memo-reveals-flynn-helped-with-several-mystery-investigations/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">cooperated with investigators in multiple ongoing probes.</a>One of those investigations, we learned, had to do with Flynn’s ex-business partner Bijan Kian. Kian and Turkish-Dutch national Kamil Ekim Alptekin <a href="https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/michael-flynns-ex-business-partner-wants-to-push-trial-back-until-september-blames-the-shutdown/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">were allegedly involved</a> “in a conspiracy to covertly influence U.S. politicians and public opinion against a Turkish citizen living in the United States whose extradition had been requested by the Government of Turkey.” That Turkish citizen has been identified as cleric Fethullah Gulen. Gulen was accused by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of orchestrating a failed coup.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 28.672px; vertical-align: top; background-color: rgb(254, 254, 254);">Another one of these up-to-now redacted investigations Flynn <a href="https://oversight.house.gov/news/press-releases/multiple-whistleblowers-raise-grave-concerns-with-white-house-efforts-to" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">may have flipped on was revealed</a> on Tuesday. Here are the key takeaways.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 28.672px; vertical-align: top; background-color: rgb(254, 254, 254);">Dealings with Saudis Raise Questions About Trump Administration PolicyThe House Oversight Committee has opened an investigation. Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) already commented that the investigation is “crucial” for understanding the Trump Administration’s aims.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 28.672px; vertical-align: top; background-color: rgb(254, 254, 254);">Flynn was allegedly involved in the following proposal, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna973021?twitter_impression=true" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">per NBC News</a>:<blockquote style="margin: 5px 10px 12px; padding: 4px 13px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; quotes: none; background-color: rgb(229, 229, 229); clear: both;">The proposal, which involved enlisting the U.S. nuclear power industry to build nuclear plants across the Middle East, was backed by a group of retired generals who formed a firm called IP3. Flynn described himself in financial disclosure filings as an “advisor” to a subsidiary of IP3, IronBridge Group Inc., from June 2016 to December 2016 — at the same time he was serving as Trump’s national security adviser during the presidential campaign and the presidential transition, the report says.</blockquote>Not only was Flynn told he might have violated the law, the Trump administration’s pursuit of this nuclear tech transfer, Cummings said, appears “ongoing.”<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 28.672px; vertical-align: top; background-color: rgb(254, 254, 254);">These goals may even raise new speculation about why President Donald Trump, for instance, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/20/world/middleeast/trump-saudi-khashoggi.html" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">responded the way he did</a> in the aftermath of Saudi Arabian agents’ assassination of journalist and permanent U.S. resident Jamal Khashoggi.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 28.672px; vertical-align: top; background-color: rgb(254, 254, 254);">Rick Gates Knew About This, TooFlynn’s aide Derek Harvey reportedly had a conference call with Trump friend Tom Barrack and former Trump campaign deputy chairman Rick Gates. Gates, it should be noted, was also deputy chair of the Trump Inaugural Committee, which is also under investigation by federal prosecutors. If Gates knew about it Special Counsel Robert Mueller likely knew about it.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 28.672px; vertical-align: top; background-color: rgb(254, 254, 254);">What this means is that, in all likelihood, the reason Mueller keeps pushing back Gates’ sentencing status updates is that Gates has cooperated in the cases against Paul Manafort, Flynn, and perhaps the Trump Inauguration.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 28.672px; vertical-align: top; background-color: rgb(254, 254, 254);">Federal prosecutors in Manhattan are reportedly looking into whether Trump‘s Inauguration Committee misspent some of the $107 million raised from contributors or accepted money in exchange <a href="https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/trumps-inauguration-committee-under-investigation-over-allegations-of-influence-purchasing-misspent-funds/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">for access and influence</a> within the Trump administration.Remember the Judge Who Wondered if Flynn Could Be Accused of “Treason”?<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 28.672px; vertical-align: top; background-color: rgb(254, 254, 254);">Back in December 2018, Law&Crime’s Ronn Blitzer <a href="https://lawandcrime.com/awkward/judge-quickly-backtracks-apologizes-after-floating-crazy-idea-michael-flynn-committed-treason/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">aptly described</a> U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan wondering aloud about Flynn and treason as a “crazy idea.” Sullivan knew it, too.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 28.672px; vertical-align: top; background-color: rgb(254, 254, 254);">Sullivan blasted Flynn during his sentencing hearing, particularly for acting as an unregistered foreign agent for Turkey.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 28.672px; vertical-align: top; background-color: rgb(254, 254, 254);">“You were an unregistered agent of a foreign country while serving as the National Security Advisor to the president!” he <a href="https://twitter.com/stevenportnoy/status/1075072332853624844" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">said</a>. “Arguably, this undermines everything this flag over here stands for! Arguably, you sold your country out!”<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 28.672px; vertical-align: top; background-color: rgb(254, 254, 254);">He asked prosecutors if Flynn’s conduct “rises to the level of treasonous activity?”  and then asked again, “Could he have been charged with treason?” Mueller’s team said no, pointing out that Flynn had ceased his dealings with Turkey before he took office.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 28.672px; vertical-align: top; background-color: rgb(254, 254, 254);">Sullivan called for a recess and when he came back, he said, “Don’t read too much into the questions I asked. I’m not suggesting he committed treason.”<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 28.672px; vertical-align: top; background-color: rgb(254, 254, 254);">The rest of the day went without much more ceremony and Sullivan declined to sentence Flynn then and there. He gave the parties until March 13 to file a status report with the court. It would be interesting to see how Sullivan might react to the revelation that Flynn may have knowingly and willfully violated or directed someone to violate the law for the purpose of pushing through a nuclear technology transfer involving a foreign power that has most recently been implicated in a murder and a cover-up that received global attention.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 28.672px; vertical-align: top; background-color: rgb(254, 254, 254);">Bonus: All of This Makes the Narrative that Flynn Was Entrapped Look Pretty Bad<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 28.672px; vertical-align: top; background-color: rgb(254, 254, 254);">All of the days-on-end debate about whether the FBI did or didn’t entrap Flynn basically ended when Flynn was given <a href="https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/michael-flynn-was-given-every-opportunity-to-argue-he-was-innocent-and-entrapped-he-didnt/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">multiple opportunities to challenge</a> the circumstances of the FBI interview that got him busted in court, and he declined do so.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 28.672px; vertical-align: top; background-color: rgb(254, 254, 254);">Remember when Mueller said this to silence the doubters? “When the defendant said he did not remember something they knew he said, they used the exact words the defendant had used in order to prompt a truthful response. But the defendant never corrected his false statements. The interview was voluntary, and lacked any indicia of coercion.”The current investigation isn’t dealing with “mak[ing] false statements about his communications with the Russian ambassador (Kislyak) weeks before the FBI interview.” It’s about national security. <p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 28.672px; vertical-align: top; background-color: rgb(254, 254, 254);">
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<div><div id="mw-content-text" lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr" style="direction: ltr;"><div class="mw-parser-output">Bijan R. Kian, sometimes written Bijan Rafiekian, is an <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranian_Americans" title="Iranian Americans" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Iranian-American</a> businessman. He has been an executive or board member of many businesses and organizations.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bijan_Kian#cite_note-bloom-1" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[1]</a>Kian was a member of the Board of Directors of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Export%E2%80%93Import_Bank_of_the_United_States" title="Export–Import Bank of the United States" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Export–Import Bank of the United States</a> from 2006 to 2011,<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bijan_Kian#cite_note-eximpressrel-2" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[2]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bijan_Kian#cite_note-whoweare-3" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[3]</a> after being nominated by President <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W.Bush" title="George W. Bush" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">George W. Bush</a> and receiving Senate confirmation.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bijan_Kian#cite_note-4" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[4]</a>Kian was a partner of retired <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Army" title="United States Army" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">United States Army</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lieutenant_General(United_States)" class="mw-redirect" title="Lieutenant General (United States)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Lieutenant General</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Flynn" title="Michael Flynn" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Michael Flynn</a> in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flynn_Intel_Group" title="Flynn Intel Group" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Flynn Intel Group</a> and worked with the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidential_transition_of_Donald_Trump" title="Presidential transition of Donald Trump" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">incoming Trump administration's transition team</a> on matters relating to the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_the_Director_of_National_Intelligence" class="mw-redirect" title="Office of the Director of National Intelligence" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Office of the Director of National Intelligence</a>.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bijan_Kian#cite_note-5" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[5]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bijan_Kian#cite_note-6" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[6]</a>The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Counsel_investigation(2017%E2%80%93present)" title="Special Counsel investigation (2017–present)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">US Special Counsel's office opened an investigation</a> into Flynn and the Flynn Intel Group, including Kian, in 2017.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bijan_Kian#cite_note-7" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[7]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bijan_Kian#cite_note-8" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[8]</a> On December 17, 2018, several months after Flynn entered into a cooperation agreement with the Special Counsel's office, and two weeks after Flynn pleaded guilty in Federal court for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_investigations_into_Trump_and_Russia(2017)#January" title="Timeline of investigations into Trump and Russia (2017)" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">lying to the FBI</a>, Kian and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamil_Ekim_Alptekin" title="Kamil Ekim Alptekin" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Kamil Ekim Alptekin</a> were indicted in US Federal Court as well. At the time he was charged with illegally acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government, and for conspiracy to unlawfully kidnap Turkish cleric <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fethullah_G%C3%BClen" title="Fethullah Gülen" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">Fethullah Gülen</a>, who lives in the U.S., and bring him to Turkey.<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bijan_Kian#cite_note-9" style="text-decoration-line: none; background: none;">[9]</a></div></div></div></div><div class="g" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 30px;"><div data-hveid="CAAQAA" data-ved="2ahUKEwj2quiVzJPhAhUMQq0KHRWFBeYQFSgAMAl6BAgAEAA"><div class="rc" style="position: relative;"><div class="r" style="margin: 0px; line-height: 1.54;"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/michael-flynns-business-partner-charged-with-illegally-lobbying-for-turkey/2018/12/17/46fb3762-020a-11e9-9122-82e98f91ee6f_story.html" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/michael-flynns-business-partner-charged-with-illegally-lobbying-for-turkey/2018/12/17/46fb3762-020a-11e9-9122-82e98f91ee6f_story.html&ved=2ahUKEwj2quiVzJPhAhUMQq0KHRWFBeYQFjAJegQIABAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;"></a><h3 class="LC20lb" style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline-block; line-height: 1.33;"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/michael-flynns-business-partner-charged-with-illegally-lobbying-for-turkey/2018/12/17/46fb3762-020a-11e9-9122-82e98f91ee6f_story.html" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/michael-flynns-business-partner-charged-with-illegally-lobbying-for-turkey/2018/12/17/46fb3762-020a-11e9-9122-82e98f91ee6f_story.html&ved=2ahUKEwj2quiVzJPhAhUMQq0KHRWFBeYQFjAJegQIABAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">Michael Flynn's business associates charged with illegally lobbying for ...</a></h3>
<div class="TbwUpd" style="display: inline-block; line-height: 1.54; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"><cite class="iUh30" style="font-style: normal; padding-top: 1px; line-height: 1.43;">https://www.washingtonpost.com/.../michael-flynns...partner.../46fb3762-020a-11e9-91...</cite></div></div><div class="s" style="max-width: 48em; line-height: 1.54;">Dec 18, 2018 - Bijan Kian made his first appearance in court Monday; a second defendant ... prosecutors say he and business partner Bijan Kian took hundreds of ... In fact, Flynn had called a senior transition official at Trump's Florida resort, ...</div></div></div></div><div class="g" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 30px;"><div data-hveid="CAEQAA" data-ved="2ahUKEwj2quiVzJPhAhUMQq0KHRWFBeYQFSgAMAp6BAgBEAA"><div class="rc" style="position: relative;"><div class="r" style="margin: 0px; line-height: 1.54;"><a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/17/ex-associates-of-former-trump-aide-michael-flynn-indicted-in-turkey-case.html" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/17/ex-associates-of-former-trump-aide-michael-flynn-indicted-in-turkey-case.html&ved=2ahUKEwj2quiVzJPhAhUMQq0KHRWFBeYQFjAKegQIARAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /><h3 class="LC20lb" style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline-block; line-height: 1.33;"><a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/17/ex-associates-of-former-trump-aide-michael-flynn-indicted-in-turkey-case.html" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/17/ex-associates-of-former-trump-aide-michael-flynn-indicted-in-turkey-case.html&ved=2ahUKEwj2quiVzJPhAhUMQq0KHRWFBeYQFjAKegQIARAB" style="cursor: pointer; 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text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/17/ex-associates-of-former-trump-aide-michael-flynn-indicted-in-turkey-case.html" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/17/ex-associates-of-former-trump-aide-michael-flynn-indicted-in-turkey-case.html&ved=2ahUKEwj2quiVzJPhAhUMQq0KHRWFBeYQFjAKegQIARAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/17/ex-associates-of-former-trump-aide-michael-flynn-indicted-in-turkey-case.html" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/17/ex-associates-of-former-trump-aide-michael-flynn-indicted-in-turkey-case.html&ved=2ahUKEwj2quiVzJPhAhUMQq0KHRWFBeYQFjAKegQIARAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/17/ex-associates-of-former-trump-aide-michael-flynn-indicted-in-turkey-case.html" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/17/ex-associates-of-former-trump-aide-michael-flynn-indicted-in-turkey-case.html&ved=2ahUKEwj2quiVzJPhAhUMQq0KHRWFBeYQFjAKegQIARAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/17/ex-associates-of-former-trump-aide-michael-flynn-indicted-in-turkey-case.html" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/17/ex-associates-of-former-trump-aide-michael-flynn-indicted-in-turkey-case.html&ved=2ahUKEwj2quiVzJPhAhUMQq0KHRWFBeYQFjAKegQIARAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/17/ex-associates-of-former-trump-aide-michael-flynn-indicted-in-turkey-case.html" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/17/ex-associates-of-former-trump-aide-michael-flynn-indicted-in-turkey-case.html&ved=2ahUKEwj2quiVzJPhAhUMQq0KHRWFBeYQFjAKegQIARAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/17/ex-associates-of-former-trump-aide-michael-flynn-indicted-in-turkey-case.html" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/17/ex-associates-of-former-trump-aide-michael-flynn-indicted-in-turkey-case.html&ved=2ahUKEwj2quiVzJPhAhUMQq0KHRWFBeYQFjAKegQIARAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/17/ex-associates-of-former-trump-aide-michael-flynn-indicted-in-turkey-case.html" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/17/ex-associates-of-former-trump-aide-michael-flynn-indicted-in-turkey-case.html&ved=2ahUKEwj2quiVzJPhAhUMQq0KHRWFBeYQFjAKegQIARAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">Ex-associates of former Trump aide Michael Flynn indicted in Turkey ...</a></h3>
<div class="TbwUpd" style="display: inline-block; line-height: 1.54; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"><cite class="iUh30" style="font-style: normal; padding-top: 1px; line-height: 1.43;">https://www.cnbc.com/.../ex-associates-of-former-trump-aide-michael-flynn-indicted-i...</cite></div><div class="action-menu ab_ctl" style="display: inline; position: relative; margin: 1px 3px 0px; user-select: none; vertical-align: middle;"><a class="GHDvEf ab_button" href="https://www.google.com/search?ei=tLOTXN-4EofctQWo2I6IDw&q=bijan++kian+trump+flynn+partner+teansition&oq=bijan++kian+trump+flynn+partner+teansition&gs_l=psy-ab.3...21277.28843..30589...0.0..0.271.3109.0j17j2......0....1..gws-wiz.6PNVIgCkQlA#" id="am-b10" aria-label="Result Options" aria-expanded="false" aria-haspopup="true" role="button" jsaction="m.tdd;keydown:m.hbke;keypress:m.mskpe" data-ved="2ahUKEwj2quiVzJPhAhUMQq0KHRWFBeYQ7B0wCnoECAEQAg" style="border-radius: 0px; cursor: default; font-weight: bold; height: 12px; line-height: 27px; 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cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;" /> and Kamil Alptekin were charged in U.S. District Court in Eastern ... A former business  of President Donald  first national ... Kian served on  team, in the division related to the Office ...Dec 17, 2018 - Bijan KianpartnerTrump'sTrump's transition</div></div></div></div><div class="g" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 30px;"><div data-hveid="CAIQAA" data-ved="2ahUKEwj2quiVzJPhAhUMQq0KHRWFBeYQFSgAMAt6BAgCEAA"><div class="rc" style="position: relative;"><div class="r" style="margin: 0px; line-height: 1.54;"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/17/us/politics/flynn-turkey-bijan-kian.html" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/17/us/politics/flynn-turkey-bijan-kian.html&ved=2ahUKEwj2quiVzJPhAhUMQq0KHRWFBeYQFjALegQIAhAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;"></a><h3 class="LC20lb" style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline-block; line-height: 1.33;"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/17/us/politics/flynn-turkey-bijan-kian.html" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/17/us/politics/flynn-turkey-bijan-kian.html&ved=2ahUKEwj2quiVzJPhAhUMQq0KHRWFBeYQFjALegQIAhAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">Former Michael Flynn Business Associates Indicted in Turkey ...</a></h3>
<div class="TbwUpd" style="display: inline-block; line-height: 1.54; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"><cite class="iUh30" style="font-style: normal; padding-top: 1px; line-height: 1.43;">https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/17/us/politics/flynn-turkey-bijan-kian.html</cite></div></div><div class="s" style="max-width: 48em; line-height: 1.54;">Dec 17, 2018 - Two former business associates of Michael T. Flynn, President Trump's ... Charges against the two former associates, Bijan Kian and Ekim Alptekin, ... with the Russian ambassador during the transition after the 2016 election.</div></div></div></div><div class="g" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 30px;"><div data-hveid="CAMQAA" data-ved="2ahUKEwj2quiVzJPhAhUMQq0KHRWFBeYQFSgAMAx6BAgDEAA"><div class="rc" style="position: relative;"><div class="r" style="margin: 0px; line-height: 1.54;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bijan_Kian" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bijan_Kian&ved=2ahUKEwj2quiVzJPhAhUMQq0KHRWFBeYQFjAMegQIAxAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /><h3 class="LC20lb" style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline-block; line-height: 1.33;"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bijan_Kian" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bijan_Kian&ved=2ahUKEwj2quiVzJPhAhUMQq0KHRWFBeYQFjAMegQIAxAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;"></a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bijan_Kian" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bijan_Kian&ved=2ahUKEwj2quiVzJPhAhUMQq0KHRWFBeYQFjAMegQIAxAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;"></a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bijan_Kian" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bijan_Kian&ved=2ahUKEwj2quiVzJPhAhUMQq0KHRWFBeYQFjAMegQIAxAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bijan_Kian" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bijan_Kian&ved=2ahUKEwj2quiVzJPhAhUMQq0KHRWFBeYQFjAMegQIAxAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bijan_Kian" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bijan_Kian&ved=2ahUKEwj2quiVzJPhAhUMQq0KHRWFBeYQFjAMegQIAxAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bijan_Kian" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bijan_Kian&ved=2ahUKEwj2quiVzJPhAhUMQq0KHRWFBeYQFjAMegQIAxAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bijan_Kian" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bijan_Kian&ved=2ahUKEwj2quiVzJPhAhUMQq0KHRWFBeYQFjAMegQIAxAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bijan_Kian" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bijan_Kian&ved=2ahUKEwj2quiVzJPhAhUMQq0KHRWFBeYQFjAMegQIAxAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bijan_Kian" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bijan_Kian&ved=2ahUKEwj2quiVzJPhAhUMQq0KHRWFBeYQFjAMegQIAxAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bijan_Kian" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bijan_Kian&ved=2ahUKEwj2quiVzJPhAhUMQq0KHRWFBeYQFjAMegQIAxAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">Bijan Kian - Wikipedia</a></h3>
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cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"></a><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:AjIoJzpVJZYJ:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bijan_Kian+&cd=13&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:AjIoJzpVJZYJ:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bijan_Kian%2B%26cd%3D13%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwj2quiVzJPhAhUMQq0KHRWFBeYQIDAMegQIAxAE" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"></a><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:AjIoJzpVJZYJ:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bijan_Kian+&cd=13&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:AjIoJzpVJZYJ:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bijan_Kian%2B%26cd%3D13%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwj2quiVzJPhAhUMQq0KHRWFBeYQIDAMegQIAxAE" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;" /><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:AjIoJzpVJZYJ:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bijan_Kian+&cd=13&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:AjIoJzpVJZYJ:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bijan_Kian%2B%26cd%3D13%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwj2quiVzJPhAhUMQq0KHRWFBeYQIDAMegQIAxAE" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;" />Bijan R. Kian, sometimes written , is an Iranian-American businessman. He has ... Kian was a  of retired United States Army Lieutenant General  ... the incoming administration's  team on matters relating to the ...  aide was key player in  Turkish work.Bijan RafiekianpartnerMichael FlynnTrumptransitionTrump transitionFlynn's</div></div></div></div><div class="g" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 30px;"><div data-hveid="CAQQAA" data-ved="2ahUKEwj2quiVzJPhAhUMQq0KHRWFBeYQFSgAMA16BAgEEAA"><div class="rc" style="position: relative;"><div class="r" style="margin: 0px; line-height: 1.54;"><a href="https://www.apnews.com/6e4dfd935c4a408b8383402f4d9a54e9" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.apnews.com/6e4dfd935c4a408b8383402f4d9a54e9&ved=2ahUKEwj2quiVzJPhAhUMQq0KHRWFBeYQFjANegQIBBAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;"></a><h3 class="LC20lb" style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline-block; line-height: 1.33;"><a href="https://www.apnews.com/6e4dfd935c4a408b8383402f4d9a54e9" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.apnews.com/6e4dfd935c4a408b8383402f4d9a54e9&ved=2ahUKEwj2quiVzJPhAhUMQq0KHRWFBeYQFjANegQIBBAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">Flynn's ex-business associates charged with illegal lobbying - AP News</a></h3>
<div class="TbwUpd" style="display: inline-block; line-height: 1.54; padding-bottom: 1px; padding-top: 1px;"><cite class="iUh30" style="font-style: normal; padding-top: 1px; line-height: 1.43;">https://www.apnews.com/6e4dfd935c4a408b8383402f4d9a54e9</cite></div></div><div class="s" style="max-width: 48em; line-height: 1.54;">Dec 17, 2018 - (AP) — Two business associates of Michael Flynn, President Donald ... Bijan Kian and Ekim Alptekin are accused in an indictment of conspiring to ... Rafiekian, a one-time business partnerof former National Security Adviser ... On Monday, Kian, a former Trump transition official whose full name is Bijan ...</div></div></div></div><div class="g" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 30px;"><div data-hveid="CAUQAA" data-ved="2ahUKEwj2quiVzJPhAhUMQq0KHRWFBeYQFSgAMA56BAgFEAA"><div class="rc" style="position: relative;"><div class="r" style="margin: 0px; line-height: 1.54;"><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/michael-flynn-donald-trump-robert-mueller-turkey-erdogan-gulen-bijan-kian-special-counsel-russia-investigation-6c521b698f67/" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://thinkprogress.org/michael-flynn-donald-trump-robert-mueller-turkey-erdogan-gulen-bijan-kian-special-counsel-russia-investigation-6c521b698f67/&ved=2ahUKEwj2quiVzJPhAhUMQq0KHRWFBeYQFjAOegQIBRAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /><h3 class="LC20lb" style="font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline-block; line-height: 1.33;"><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/michael-flynn-donald-trump-robert-mueller-turkey-erdogan-gulen-bijan-kian-special-counsel-russia-investigation-6c521b698f67/" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://thinkprogress.org/michael-flynn-donald-trump-robert-mueller-turkey-erdogan-gulen-bijan-kian-special-counsel-russia-investigation-6c521b698f67/&ved=2ahUKEwj2quiVzJPhAhUMQq0KHRWFBeYQFjAOegQIBRAB" style="cursor: pointer; 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text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/michael-flynn-donald-trump-robert-mueller-turkey-erdogan-gulen-bijan-kian-special-counsel-russia-investigation-6c521b698f67/" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://thinkprogress.org/michael-flynn-donald-trump-robert-mueller-turkey-erdogan-gulen-bijan-kian-special-counsel-russia-investigation-6c521b698f67/&ved=2ahUKEwj2quiVzJPhAhUMQq0KHRWFBeYQFjAOegQIBRAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/michael-flynn-donald-trump-robert-mueller-turkey-erdogan-gulen-bijan-kian-special-counsel-russia-investigation-6c521b698f67/" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://thinkprogress.org/michael-flynn-donald-trump-robert-mueller-turkey-erdogan-gulen-bijan-kian-special-counsel-russia-investigation-6c521b698f67/&ved=2ahUKEwj2quiVzJPhAhUMQq0KHRWFBeYQFjAOegQIBRAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/michael-flynn-donald-trump-robert-mueller-turkey-erdogan-gulen-bijan-kian-special-counsel-russia-investigation-6c521b698f67/" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://thinkprogress.org/michael-flynn-donald-trump-robert-mueller-turkey-erdogan-gulen-bijan-kian-special-counsel-russia-investigation-6c521b698f67/&ved=2ahUKEwj2quiVzJPhAhUMQq0KHRWFBeYQFjAOegQIBRAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/michael-flynn-donald-trump-robert-mueller-turkey-erdogan-gulen-bijan-kian-special-counsel-russia-investigation-6c521b698f67/" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://thinkprogress.org/michael-flynn-donald-trump-robert-mueller-turkey-erdogan-gulen-bijan-kian-special-counsel-russia-investigation-6c521b698f67/&ved=2ahUKEwj2quiVzJPhAhUMQq0KHRWFBeYQFjAOegQIBRAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/michael-flynn-donald-trump-robert-mueller-turkey-erdogan-gulen-bijan-kian-special-counsel-russia-investigation-6c521b698f67/" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://thinkprogress.org/michael-flynn-donald-trump-robert-mueller-turkey-erdogan-gulen-bijan-kian-special-counsel-russia-investigation-6c521b698f67/&ved=2ahUKEwj2quiVzJPhAhUMQq0KHRWFBeYQFjAOegQIBRAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;" /><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/michael-flynn-donald-trump-robert-mueller-turkey-erdogan-gulen-bijan-kian-special-counsel-russia-investigation-6c521b698f67/" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://thinkprogress.org/michael-flynn-donald-trump-robert-mueller-turkey-erdogan-gulen-bijan-kian-special-counsel-russia-investigation-6c521b698f67/&ved=2ahUKEwj2quiVzJPhAhUMQq0KHRWFBeYQFjAOegQIBRAB" style="cursor: pointer; text-decoration-line: none;">This Trump-endorsed conspiracy theory about Michael Flynn just had ...</a></h3>
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cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;" />, a member of  team, has been charged with ... It's been a year since , President Donald 's former ... when the former national security adviser's business  was charged ...Dec 17, 2018 - Bijan KianTrump's transitionMichael FlynnTrumppartner</div></div></div></div><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:sWA8qxCDfuQJ:https://thinkprogress.org/michael-flynn-donald-trump-robert-mueller-turkey-erdogan-gulen-bijan-kian-special-counsel-russia-investigation-6c521b698f67/+&cd=15&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:sWA8qxCDfuQJ:https://thinkprogress.org/michael-flynn-donald-trump-robert-mueller-turkey-erdogan-gulen-bijan-kian-special-counsel-russia-investigation-6c521b698f67/%2B%26cd%3D15%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwj2quiVzJPhAhUMQq0KHRWFBeYQIDAOegQIBRAE" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;"></a><div class="story_summary" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="text" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 27px; letter-spacing: -0.2px;"><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:sWA8qxCDfuQJ:https://thinkprogress.org/michael-flynn-donald-trump-robert-mueller-turkey-erdogan-gulen-bijan-kian-special-counsel-russia-investigation-6c521b698f67/+&cd=15&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:sWA8qxCDfuQJ:https://thinkprogress.org/michael-flynn-donald-trump-robert-mueller-turkey-erdogan-gulen-bijan-kian-special-counsel-russia-investigation-6c521b698f67/%2B%26cd%3D15%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwj2quiVzJPhAhUMQq0KHRWFBeYQIDAOegQIBRAE" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;">House Democrats are accusing the Trump administration of moving toward transferring highly sensitive nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia in potential violation of U.S. law. Critics say the deal could endanger national security while enriching close allies of President Trump. Saudi Arabia is considering building as many as 16 nuclear power plants by 2030, but many critics fear the kingdom could use the technology to develop nuclear weapons and trigger a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. We speak with Democratic Congressmember Ro Khanna of California and Isaac Arnsdorf, a reporter with ProPublica. Arnsdorf first wrote about the intense and secretive lobbying effort to give nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia in 2017. His reporting was cited in the House report.</a></div><hr class="hidden-xs" style="box-sizing: content-box; height: 1px; margin: 40px 0px; border: none; clear: both; background: rgb(236, 238, 239);" /></div><div class="mobile_anchor_target" id="transcript" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><h5 class="transcript" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; line-height: 1;"><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:sWA8qxCDfuQJ:https://thinkprogress.org/michael-flynn-donald-trump-robert-mueller-turkey-erdogan-gulen-bijan-kian-special-counsel-russia-investigation-6c521b698f67/+&cd=15&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:sWA8qxCDfuQJ:https://thinkprogress.org/michael-flynn-donald-trump-robert-mueller-turkey-erdogan-gulen-bijan-kian-special-counsel-russia-investigation-6c521b698f67/%2B%26cd%3D15%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwj2quiVzJPhAhUMQq0KHRWFBeYQIDAOegQIBRAE" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;">Transcript</a></h5><div class="grey_description fine_print" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px; font-style: italic; line-height: 19px;"><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:sWA8qxCDfuQJ:https://thinkprogress.org/michael-flynn-donald-trump-robert-mueller-turkey-erdogan-gulen-bijan-kian-special-counsel-russia-investigation-6c521b698f67/+&cd=15&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:sWA8qxCDfuQJ:https://thinkprogress.org/michael-flynn-donald-trump-robert-mueller-turkey-erdogan-gulen-bijan-kian-special-counsel-russia-investigation-6c521b698f67/%2B%26cd%3D15%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwj2quiVzJPhAhUMQq0KHRWFBeYQIDAOegQIBRAE" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;">This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.</a></div><div class="text" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 27px; letter-spacing: -0.2px;"><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:sWA8qxCDfuQJ:https://thinkprogress.org/michael-flynn-donald-trump-robert-mueller-turkey-erdogan-gulen-bijan-kian-special-counsel-russia-investigation-6c521b698f67/+&cd=15&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:sWA8qxCDfuQJ:https://thinkprogress.org/michael-flynn-donald-trump-robert-mueller-turkey-erdogan-gulen-bijan-kian-special-counsel-russia-investigation-6c521b698f67/%2B%26cd%3D15%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwj2quiVzJPhAhUMQq0KHRWFBeYQIDAOegQIBRAE" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;">JUAN GONZÁLEZ: House Democrats are accusing the Trump administration of moving toward transferring highly sensitive nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia in potential violation of U.S. law. Critics say the deal could endanger national security while enriching close allies of President Trump. Saudi Arabia is considering building as many as 16 nuclear power plants by 2030, but many critics fear the kingdom could use the technology to develop nuclear weapons and trigger a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. During an interview with 60 Minutes last year, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman made clear that if Iran acquired nuclear weapons, Saudi Arabia would do the same.</a><blockquote style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-left: 30px; border-left: 3px solid rgb(241, 242, 243);"><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:sWA8qxCDfuQJ:https://thinkprogress.org/michael-flynn-donald-trump-robert-mueller-turkey-erdogan-gulen-bijan-kian-special-counsel-russia-investigation-6c521b698f67/+&cd=15&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:sWA8qxCDfuQJ:https://thinkprogress.org/michael-flynn-donald-trump-robert-mueller-turkey-erdogan-gulen-bijan-kian-special-counsel-russia-investigation-6c521b698f67/%2B%26cd%3D15%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwj2quiVzJPhAhUMQq0KHRWFBeYQIDAOegQIBRAE" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;">CROWN PRINCE MOHAMMED BIN SALMAN: [translated] Saudi Arabia does not want to acquire any nuclear bomb. But without a doubt, if Iran developed a nuclear bomb, we will follow suit as soon as possible.</a></blockquote><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:sWA8qxCDfuQJ:https://thinkprogress.org/michael-flynn-donald-trump-robert-mueller-turkey-erdogan-gulen-bijan-kian-special-counsel-russia-investigation-6c521b698f67/+&cd=15&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:sWA8qxCDfuQJ:https://thinkprogress.org/michael-flynn-donald-trump-robert-mueller-turkey-erdogan-gulen-bijan-kian-special-counsel-russia-investigation-6c521b698f67/%2B%26cd%3D15%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwj2quiVzJPhAhUMQq0KHRWFBeYQIDAOegQIBRAE" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;">JUAN GONZÁLEZ: On Thursday, the House Oversight Committee issued an interim report on the proposed Saudi deal, after multiple whistleblowers came forward accusing several top White House advisers and Trump allies of attempting to push through the transfer of the nuclear technology despite legal and ethical warnings. At the center of the controversy is the company IP3, which was formed to help U.S. companies build nuclear plants in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere in the region, in what they dubbed a “Middle East Marshall Plan.” Former national security adviser Michael Flynn worked as an adviser for a subsidiary of the firm before entering the White House, and reportedly continued to advocate on behalf of the company once in office. IP3 was co-founded by former Reagan official Bud McFarlane, who pleaded guilty to participating in the Iran-Contra cover-up in 1988.</a><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:sWA8qxCDfuQJ:https://thinkprogress.org/michael-flynn-donald-trump-robert-mueller-turkey-erdogan-gulen-bijan-kian-special-counsel-russia-investigation-6c521b698f67/+&cd=15&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:sWA8qxCDfuQJ:https://thinkprogress.org/michael-flynn-donald-trump-robert-mueller-turkey-erdogan-gulen-bijan-kian-special-counsel-russia-investigation-6c521b698f67/%2B%26cd%3D15%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwj2quiVzJPhAhUMQq0KHRWFBeYQIDAOegQIBRAE" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;">AMY GOODMAN: The House report also names several other high-ranking Trump officials and allies reportedly involved in the proposed Saudi deal, including Trump’s son-in-law, his adviser Jared Kushner; Energy Secretary Rick Perry; and Trump’s billionaire friend Tom Barrack, who served as chair of Trump’s inaugural committee. According to the report by the congressional committee, the White House may still be discussing the plan.</a><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:sWA8qxCDfuQJ:https://thinkprogress.org/michael-flynn-donald-trump-robert-mueller-turkey-erdogan-gulen-bijan-kian-special-counsel-russia-investigation-6c521b698f67/+&cd=15&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:sWA8qxCDfuQJ:https://thinkprogress.org/michael-flynn-donald-trump-robert-mueller-turkey-erdogan-gulen-bijan-kian-special-counsel-russia-investigation-6c521b698f67/%2B%26cd%3D15%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwj2quiVzJPhAhUMQq0KHRWFBeYQIDAOegQIBRAE" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;">We’re joined now by two guests. In Washington, D.C., Democratic Congressmember Ro Khanna of Silicon Valley in California joins us. He serves on the House Oversight Committee. And here in New York, Isaac Arnsdorf is with us, a reporter with ProPublica. He first wrote about the intense and secretive lobbying effort to give nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia in 2017. His reporting was cited in the House report.</a><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:sWA8qxCDfuQJ:https://thinkprogress.org/michael-flynn-donald-trump-robert-mueller-turkey-erdogan-gulen-bijan-kian-special-counsel-russia-investigation-6c521b698f67/+&cd=15&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:sWA8qxCDfuQJ:https://thinkprogress.org/michael-flynn-donald-trump-robert-mueller-turkey-erdogan-gulen-bijan-kian-special-counsel-russia-investigation-6c521b698f67/%2B%26cd%3D15%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwj2quiVzJPhAhUMQq0KHRWFBeYQIDAOegQIBRAE" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;">We welcome you both to Democracy Now! Congressmember Ro Khanna, let’s begin with you. What are you doing on the House Oversight Committee? What is the leadership doing there?</a><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:sWA8qxCDfuQJ:https://thinkprogress.org/michael-flynn-donald-trump-robert-mueller-turkey-erdogan-gulen-bijan-kian-special-counsel-russia-investigation-6c521b698f67/+&cd=15&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:sWA8qxCDfuQJ:https://thinkprogress.org/michael-flynn-donald-trump-robert-mueller-turkey-erdogan-gulen-bijan-kian-special-counsel-russia-investigation-6c521b698f67/%2B%26cd%3D15%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwj2quiVzJPhAhUMQq0KHRWFBeYQIDAOegQIBRAE" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;">REP. RO KHANNA: Well, it’s a very serious matter. Here’s why people should care. The Saudis have been giving arms to al-Qaeda in Yemen. There’s reports of that. And the last thing we want to do as a country is to transfer nuclear secrets to Saudi Arabia, which could lead to proliferation and a threat to our security.</a><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:sWA8qxCDfuQJ:https://thinkprogress.org/michael-flynn-donald-trump-robert-mueller-turkey-erdogan-gulen-bijan-kian-special-counsel-russia-investigation-6c521b698f67/+&cd=15&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:sWA8qxCDfuQJ:https://thinkprogress.org/michael-flynn-donald-trump-robert-mueller-turkey-erdogan-gulen-bijan-kian-special-counsel-russia-investigation-6c521b698f67/%2B%26cd%3D15%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwj2quiVzJPhAhUMQq0KHRWFBeYQIDAOegQIBRAE" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;">And as the journalist you have on has reported, there is a lot of financial conflict of interest here. Tom Barrack, who headed up the president’s inaugural committee to raise $100 million-plus, is also pushing for this deal and has financial interest in the deal. So the Oversight Committee is going to have an investigation to see what are the financial interests that are driving this administration to potentially sell nuclear secrets to the Saudis and what laws have been violated, because, as you know, they have to come to Congress, under the Atomic Energy Act, and offer certain guidelines, which they haven’t done.</a><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:sWA8qxCDfuQJ:https://thinkprogress.org/michael-flynn-donald-trump-robert-mueller-turkey-erdogan-gulen-bijan-kian-special-counsel-russia-investigation-6c521b698f67/+&cd=15&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:sWA8qxCDfuQJ:https://thinkprogress.org/michael-flynn-donald-trump-robert-mueller-turkey-erdogan-gulen-bijan-kian-special-counsel-russia-investigation-6c521b698f67/%2B%26cd%3D15%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwj2quiVzJPhAhUMQq0KHRWFBeYQIDAOegQIBRAE" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;">JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Congressman, this attempt by the administration is still very much alive. There was a meeting February 12th, just last week, in the White House between President Trump and some nuclear power developers. What do you know about that meeting and what came out of there?</a><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:sWA8qxCDfuQJ:https://thinkprogress.org/michael-flynn-donald-trump-robert-mueller-turkey-erdogan-gulen-bijan-kian-special-counsel-russia-investigation-6c521b698f67/+&cd=15&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:sWA8qxCDfuQJ:https://thinkprogress.org/michael-flynn-donald-trump-robert-mueller-turkey-erdogan-gulen-bijan-kian-special-counsel-russia-investigation-6c521b698f67/%2B%26cd%3D15%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwj2quiVzJPhAhUMQq0KHRWFBeYQIDAOegQIBRAE" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;">REP. RO KHANNA: Well, we need to find out more facts. That’s why we need an investigation. We need to know who was in that meeting, what was discussed, whether they followed the law that the Atomic Energy Act requires. I mean, even when we transfer nuclear technology to allies, such as India, when George Bush did that, it requires years of process. It requires the consultation of Congress. Here you’re talking about the potential sale of nuclear secrets to the Saudis, who aren’t an ally, who have engaged in the proliferation of weapons that are being used against our own troops, and there is no process for notification of Congress. And you have extensive reporting of people who gain—stand to gain billions of dollars from these investments.</a><a class="fl" href="https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:sWA8qxCDfuQJ:https://thinkprogress.org/michael-flynn-donald-trump-robert-mueller-turkey-erdogan-gulen-bijan-kian-special-counsel-russia-investigation-6c521b698f67/+&cd=15&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us" ping="/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search%3Fq%3Dcache:sWA8qxCDfuQJ:https://thinkprogress.org/michael-flynn-donald-trump-robert-mueller-turkey-erdogan-gulen-bijan-kian-special-counsel-russia-investigation-6c521b698f67/%2B%26cd%3D15%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus&ved=2ahUKEwj2quiVzJPhAhUMQq0KHRWFBeYQIDAOegQIBRAE" style="text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; display: block; padding: 7px 18px; outline: 0px;">AMY GOODMAN: So, Isaac Arnsdorf, the report of the House Oversight Committee cites your reporting. You did a </a><a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-inc-podcast-house-panel-trump-advisers-saudi-nuclear-deal-michael-flynn-tom-barrack" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; border: 0px;">piece</a> yesterday. You did a <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/white-house-may-share-nuclear-power-technology-with-saudi-arabia" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; border: 0px;">piece</a> last year. Explain first what the “Middle East Marshall Plan” is and then the financial interests of people like, well, Trump, a close confidant, spoke at the Republican National Convention, Tom Barrack, headed the inaugural committee, Michael Flynn and others.ISAAC ARNSDORF: So, the “Middle East Marshall Plan” was this idea that bubbled up in this company that you mentioned, IP3, which was that they can strengthen economic and political ties between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia by having the U.S. companies export nuclear power technology to Saudi Arabia. And they started lobbying the Trump administration, and initially the Trump transition, about how this would fit with Trump’s ideas about his approach to the Middle East and make America great, restoring American jobs in American industry.And Tom Barrack was very receptive to this idea, because he was promoting a similar kind of economic outreach to the region. He had a lot of ties with the leaders there. And thanks to the support of Tom Barrack and also General Flynn, who was involved in the project before he was in the White House, the project, the idea, gained a lot of traction in the early days of the administration.AMY GOODMAN: And take it through to now.ISAAC ARNSDORF: So, initially, in the first three months, as detailed by the whistleblowers who spoke to the House Oversight Committee, this was really something that was happening in kind of a—kind of being rushed through the National Security Council, and that wasn’t complying with the requirements of the Atomic Energy Act, that requires all kinds of review, because, obviously, the U.S. very tightly controls this technology, because it can be misused to build nuclear weapons.More recently, the administration has been taking steps to go through that formal process and have negotiations with the Saudis about reaching a formal agreement to share nuclear power technology. If that were to happen, Congress would not have to actually ratify the treaty, but it would have 90 days to pass a joint resolution that could block it.JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, you would think, though, with all the stuff that’s happened in relationship to Saudi Arabia—the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the decision by Congress to cut off military aid to the war in Yemen—that there would be some reconsideration of the Trump administration of such a controversial move. What’s your sense of what the thinking is, going on here?ISAAC ARNSDORF: Well, there was already a lot of bipartisan skepticism about the idea of sharing nuclear power technology, and calls to tell Congress more about what was happening in those negotiations, or even call off those negotiations. And you’ve certainly seen an escalation, since all the things that you mentioned, of members of both parties saying, “We need to put a pause on this. We need to get some more information.”AMY GOODMAN: Let’s turn to Energy Secretary Rick Perry speaking last year at a meeting of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee. Energy Secretary Perry was asked to respond to concerns about nuclear proliferation in light of U.S. negotiations with Saudi Arabia on nuclear energy.<blockquote style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-left: 30px; border-left: 3px solid rgb(241, 242, 243);">ENERGY SECRETARY RICK PERRY: That goes right to the point that we tried to make with the Saudi crown prince in our conversations with him and with his team, that not only will it send a powerful message if they go into an acceptable one, two, three, with additional protocols, but that we—that they do that, because if they don’t, the message that’s sent—if the Chinese or the Russians, which don’t require any of that, not only does it send the message—I think the wrong message—by the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, but it also sends the message to the United States that we’re no longer the leader in the world when it comes to civil nuclear power—Westinghouse, best reactor builder in the world. … The second point that we tried to really drive home to the crown prince was that if you want the best reactors in the world, you have to come to the United States, and you have to use Westinghouse.</blockquote>AMY GOODMAN: Congressmember Ro Khanna, the significance of the testimony of Rick Perry, the energy secretary, and his involvement here?REP. RO KHANNA: Well, I think it’s a worldview into how the Trump administration looks at the relationship with the Saudis. It’s all about money, whether it’s selling them arms sales or selling nuclear secrets. There’s no moral consideration. I mean, Tom Barrack, as recently as a week ago, was out there defending the Khashoggi murder and defending the Saudi regime’s murder of Khashoggi. He actually said, appallingly, that the United States has done worse, which I totally disagree with. But it gives you a sense of what’s driving this. It’s financial interests. It’s selling interests into the Saudis for money, and no concern for our security and no concern for the morality of the Saudis’ policies.JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Isaac, in that clip, the energy secretary referred to the one, two, three. A lot of people are not familiar with that. Could you talk about the legal limitations on what the administration can do or can’t do in terms of transferring nuclear power technology?ISAAC ARNSDORF: So, that refers to the section of the Atomic Energy Act that requires these negotiations and these agreements before sharing this technology. And what the secretary was describing there is really a very challenging policy problem, where the Saudis want nuclear power—maybe they have a legitimate interest in diversifying their economy from oil, but, as you heard the crown prince describe in the clip that you played, maybe they also want to keep up with their neighbor Iran, with potential military implications. So, the Saudis want nuclear power. They’re pursuing it. If the U.S. doesn’t help them get it, are they going to turn around and go to Russia or China? And then there are going to be even less security assurances than they would have with the U.S. So, that’s a very real policy problem that security experts struggle with.But what you’re seeing with the Trump administration is that they are arriving at an answer to that policy problem that, based on what we’ve seen out of the House Oversight Committee, was, to a large extent, based on people with conflicts of interest promoting this for other reasons.AMY GOODMAN: I also want to talk about Jared Kushner’s connection to this. The House report states, “In January 2018, Brookfield Business Partners, a subsidiary of Brookfield Asset Management, announced its plans to acquire Westinghouse Electric for $4.6 billion. Westinghouse Electric is the bankrupt nuclear services company that is part of IP3’s proposed consortium to build nuclear reactors in Saudi Arabia, and which stands to benefit from the Middle East Marshall Plan. In August 2018, Brookfield Asset Management purchased a partnership stake in 666 Fifth Avenue, a building owned by Jared Kushner’s family company.” Isaac?ISAAC ARNSDORF: This is especially interesting given that Jared Kushner is on his way to the region very shortly. And there’s a lot of discussion in the House Oversight Committee’s report about materials being prepared for conversations between Kushner and the president, and obviously Jared Kushner has developed a very close relationship with MBS, the crown prince, and was reportedly described as “in his pocket.”AMY GOODMAN: Ro Khanna, would you like to add to this?REP. RO KHANNA: Well, I would just say we need transparency. But here is one thing that the president and the administration could do to show some distance from the Saudi regime, and that is to sign the War Powers Resolution that will stop U.S. support for the Saudi war crimes in Yemen. As you know, we passed it through the House; next week, the Senate is going to take it up. And I hope that the president will sign it and at least put some distance between U.S. policy with the Saudis. But we need to understand all of the financial interests that administration officials and their friends have with the Saudis and what’s driving our policy.AMY GOODMAN: One last thing, Congressmember Ro Khanna. You’re a leader in the Congress around the issue of Yemen. Talk about the legislation that was just passed and how getting nuclear power to Saudi Arabia, which could conceivably be turned into nuclear weapons, plays into this picture of the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.REP. RO KHANNA: Well, I appreciate your reporting on this. There are nearly 14 million Yemenis who face the potential of famine. That is because the Saudis have been bombing the port cities, and food and medicine isn’t being allowed in. It’s being inspected, and that’s leading to hyperinflation in Yemen. People don’t have food and medicine.We passed in the House the War Powers Resolution that would stop the U.S. support for the Saudi bombing in Yemen. It’s expected to pass the Senate next week or in the next couple weeks. That will be the first time in the history of this country that the War Powers Resolution has ever passed, since 1973. And what that will do is make it unambiguously clear that the United States doesn’t support the Saudi bombing. As it is, since we passed the House resolution, we’ve seen a temporary ceasefire in the bombing campaign, and some hopeful signs that food and medicine will go in.I think it would be the exact wrong message for us to be selling nuclear secrets to the Saudis, especially given the reporting that the Saudis are transferring some of these weapons to al-Qaeda in Yemen. And in terms of the point that Russia or China may supply the Saudis, the United States has prevented that type of action when we want to. We prevented it in Iran. We’re trying to prevent it in other countries. There’s no reason the United States should tolerate any sale of nuclear weapons to the Saudis.AMY GOODMAN: Well, we’re going to leave it there but continue to follow this issue. Ro Khanna, Democratic congressmember from California, member of the House Oversight Committee, that’s going to be investigating this Saudi nuclear issue. Also with us, in New York, Isaac Arnsdorf, a reporter with ProPublica, who first wrote about the intense and secretive lobbying effort to give nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia in 2017, his reporting cited in the House report. And we’ll link to your latest <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-inc-podcast-house-panel-trump-advisers-saudi-nuclear-deal-michael-flynn-tom-barrack" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; border: 0px;">report</a>, “House Panel Probes Trump Advisers’ Push for Saudi Nuclear Deal.”This is Democracy Now! When we come back, we’ll be joined by a man whose father possibly faces the death penalty in Saudi Arabia. He’s in prison</div></div>11/16 nyt
President-elect Donald J. Trump’s pick for national security adviser, retired Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, has been much more outspoken about militant Islamists than he has about China and North Korea, the two main strategic concerns of the United States in Asia.
That has left scholars and analysts looking for clues about his views on Asia. A book published in July for which he was a co-author, “The Field of Fight: How We Can Win the Global War Against Radical Islam and Its Allies,” offers some tea leaves. The half-dozen mentions of China and North Korea are couched in generalities, but there are glimpses into what the general thinks of the two nations.
General Flynn wrote that the United States needed to confront a global “alliance” between “radical Islamists” and the governments of China and North Korea, as well as Russia.
China and North Korea are officially secular Communist states, and China has blamed religious extremists for violence in Muslim areas of its Xinjiang region. In the book, General Flynn acknowledges that people may find the idea of an alliance between the Communist nations and jihadists to be strange, but asserts that it exists. He does not go into details on the alliance.
General Flynn is about to take on one of the most important foreign policy jobs in the United States government. He will be expected to coordinate policy-making agencies, manage competing voices and act as Mr. Trump’s main adviser, and perhaps arbiter, on foreign policy.
By appointing General Flynn, a former Army intelligence officer, Mr. Trump has signaled that he intends to prioritize policy on the Middle East and jihadist groups, though the Obama administration seems to have stressed to Mr. Trump the urgency of dealing with North Korea’s nuclear program.
General Flynn is an outspoken critic of political Islam and has advocated a global campaign led by the United States against “radical Islam.” He once wrote in a Twitter post that “Fear of Muslims is RATIONAL.”
Based on his book, that campaign is the framework through which General Flynn sees China and North Korea. In the introduction, he wrote that radical Islamists “are not alone, and are allied with countries and groups who, though not religious fanatics, share their hatred of the West, particularly the United States and Israel.”
The introduction continued, “Those allies include North Korea, Russia, China, Cuba and Venezuela.”
The general expanded on his definition of the anti-Western alliance: “The war is on. We face a working coalition that extends from North Korea and China to Russia, Iran, Syria, Cuba, Bolivia, Venezuela and Nicaragua. We are under attack, not only from nation-states directly, but also from Al Qaeda, Hezbollah, ISIS and countless other terrorist groups.”

“Suffice to say, the same sort of cooperation binds together jihadis, Communists and garden-variety tyrants,” he added.
General Flynn mentioned reports that North Korea had cooperated with Syria and Iran on nuclear programs and trade. Iran is the “linchpin” of the global anti-Western network, he wrote.
The general also wrote that there was a common ideology that bound the nations and militant Islamists together. “There are many similarities between these dangerous and vicious radicals and the totalitarian movements of the last century,” he wrote. “No surprise that we are facing an alliance between Radical Islamists and regimes in Havana, Pyongyang, Moscow and Beijing. Both believe that history, and/or Allah, blesses their efforts, and so both want to ensure that this glorious story is carefully told.”
....
11/16 nyt<div class="css-1fanzo5 StoryBodyCompanionColumn" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" display="display" flex="flex" flex-direction="flex-direction" row="row" height="height" px="px" width="width" color="color" rgb="rgb" style="margin: 0px auto 1rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit;"><div class="css-4w7y5l" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px calc((100% - 630px) / 2); padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; width: 630px; max-width: 630px;"><p class="css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0" times="times" new="new" roman="roman" serif="serif" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" width="width" px="px" max-width="max-width" style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.8125rem;">President-elect Donald J. Trump’s pick for national security adviser, <a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/18/us/politics/michael-flynn-national-security-adviser-donald-trump.html?r=0&module=inline" title="" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">retired Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn</a>, has been much more outspoken about militant Islamists than he has about China and North Korea, the two main strategic concerns of the United States in Asia.<p class="css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0" times="times" new="new" roman="roman" serif="serif" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" width="width" px="px" max-width="max-width" style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.8125rem;">That has left scholars and analysts looking for clues about his views on Asia. A book published in July for which he was a co-author, “<a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="http://us.macmillan.com/thefieldoffight/lieutenantgeneralretmichaeltflynn/9781250106223" title="" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">The Field of Fight: How We Can Win the Global War Against Radical Islam and Its Allies</a>,” offers some tea leaves. The half-dozen mentions of China and North Korea are couched in generalities, but there are glimpses into what the general thinks of the two nations.<p class="css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0" times="times" new="new" roman="roman" serif="serif" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" width="width" px="px" max-width="max-width" style="margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.8125rem;">General Flynn wrote that the United States needed to confront a global “alliance” between “radical Islamists” and the governments of China and North Korea, as well as Russia.<p class="css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0" times="times" new="new" roman="roman" serif="serif" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" width="width" px="px" max-width="max-width" style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.8125rem;">China and North Korea are officially secular Communist states, and China has <a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/31/world/asia/chinas-leader-lays-out-plan-to-pacify-restive-region.html?module=inline" title="" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">blamed religious extremists</a> for violence in Muslim areas of its Xinjiang region. In the book, General Flynn acknowledges that people may find the idea of an alliance between the Communist nations and jihadists to be strange, but asserts that it exists. He does not go into details on the alliance.</div><span style="margin-left: auto; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; align-items: center;" /><aside class="css-17l9gfh" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px auto; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; display: flex; width: 210px; -webkit-box-align: center; align-items: center;"></aside></div><div class="css-1fanzo5 StoryBodyCompanionColumn" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" display="display" flex="flex" flex-direction="flex-direction" row="row" height="height" px="px" width="width" color="color" rgb="rgb" style="margin: 0px auto 1rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit;"><div class="css-4w7y5l" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px calc((100% - 630px) / 2); padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; width: 630px; max-width: 630px;"><p class="css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0" times="times" new="new" roman="roman" serif="serif" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" width="width" px="px" max-width="max-width" style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.8125rem;">General Flynn is about to take on one of the most important foreign policy jobs in the United States government. He will be expected to coordinate policy-making agencies, manage competing voices and act as Mr. Trump’s main adviser, and perhaps arbiter, on foreign policy.<p class="css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0" times="times" new="new" roman="roman" serif="serif" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" width="width" px="px" max-width="max-width" style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.8125rem;">By appointing General Flynn, a former Army intelligence officer, Mr. Trump has signaled that he intends to prioritize policy on the Middle East and jihadist groups, though the Obama administration seems to have stressed to Mr. Trump the urgency of <a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/25/world/asia/donald-trump-china-trade-security.html?module=inline" title="" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">dealing with North Korea’s nuclear program</a>.<div class="css-rpp6yo" data-testid="inline-message" style="font-weight: 700; margin: 25px auto; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 19px; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: border-box; max-width: 630px; text-align: center;"><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;" /></div><div class="css-10klw3m optimizelyOK vi_inline" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; height: 0px;"><p class="css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0" times="times" new="new" roman="roman" serif="serif" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" width="width" px="px" max-width="max-width" style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.8125rem;">General Flynn is an outspoken critic of political Islam and has advocated a global campaign led by the United States against “radical Islam.” He once <a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://twitter.com/GenFlynn/status/703387702998278144" title="" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">wrote in a Twitter post</a> that “Fear of Muslims is RATIONAL.”<p class="css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0" times="times" new="new" roman="roman" serif="serif" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" width="width" px="px" max-width="max-width" style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.8125rem;">Based on his book, that campaign is the framework through which General Flynn sees China and North Korea. In the introduction, he wrote that radical Islamists “are not alone, and are allied with countries and groups who, though not religious fanatics, share their hatred of the West, particularly the United States and Israel.”<p class="css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0" times="times" new="new" roman="roman" serif="serif" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" width="width" px="px" max-width="max-width" style="margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.8125rem;">The introduction continued, “Those allies include North Korea, Russia, China, Cuba and Venezuela.”<p class="css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0" times="times" new="new" roman="roman" serif="serif" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" width="width" px="px" max-width="max-width" style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.8125rem;">The general expanded on his definition of the anti-Western alliance: “The war is on. We face a working coalition that extends from North Korea and China to Russia, Iran, Syria, Cuba, Bolivia, Venezuela and Nicaragua. We are under attack, not only from nation-states directly, but also from Al Qaeda, Hezbollah, ISIS and countless other terrorist groups.”</div><aside class="css-o6xoe7" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px auto; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; display: flex; width: 210px; -webkit-box-align: center; align-items: center;"><div class="css-1n4qhbn ejk1mx12" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; width: 210px; max-width: 210px;"><h2 class="css-ohexsw" style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px 0px 12px; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(226, 226, 226); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 14px; vertical-align: baseline; letter-spacing: 0.02em;">
</h2><div id="pp_edpick-wrapper" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;" /></div></aside></div><div class="css-1fanzo5 StoryBodyCompanionColumn" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" display="display" flex="flex" flex-direction="flex-direction" row="row" height="height" px="px" width="width" color="color" rgb="rgb" background-color="background-color" style="margin: 0px auto 1rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit;"><div class="css-4w7y5l" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px calc((100% - 630px) / 2); padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; width: 630px; max-width: 630px;"><p class="css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0" times="times" new="new" roman="roman" serif="serif" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" width="width" px="px" max-width="max-width" style="margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.8125rem;">“Suffice to say, the same sort of cooperation binds together jihadis, Communists and garden-variety tyrants,” he added.<p class="css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0" times="times" new="new" roman="roman" serif="serif" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" width="width" px="px" max-width="max-width" style="margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.8125rem;">General Flynn mentioned reports that North Korea had cooperated with Syria and Iran on nuclear programs and trade. Iran is the “linchpin” of the global anti-Western network, he wrote.<p class="css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0" times="times" new="new" roman="roman" serif="serif" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" width="width" px="px" max-width="max-width" style="margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.8125rem;">The general also wrote that there was a common ideology that bound the nations and militant Islamists together. “There are many similarities between these dangerous and vicious radicals and the totalitarian movements of the last century,” he wrote. “No surprise that we are facing an alliance between Radical Islamists and regimes in Havana, Pyongyang, Moscow and Beijing. Both believe that history, and/or Allah, blesses their efforts, and so both want to ensure that this glorious story is carefully told.”<p class="css-1ygdjhk evys1bk0" times="times" new="new" roman="roman" serif="serif" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" width="width" px="px" max-width="max-width" style="margin: 0px 0px 1.25rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.8125rem;">....</div></div>mmaOver the past year, Sean Hannity and the cast of Fox News figures have deployed numerous theories in an effort to discredit and lay groundwork for an authoritarian response to the Mueller investigation. From referring to the investigation as “witch hunt” to claiming collusion isn’t a crime, the extended Fox News universe <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="https://mediamatters.nationbuilder.com/r?u=3YhLhUxTGfXV40jjcf0E7zQgA_lKgFY2qUmWqav0z4RHGVFzH6TI7XgZ6UxDZD_LZYmknN5mF7wFmlOyEPNRT_7ZuQlYEUcOapnNmsZQofsYuKBT7T3VGOzdldHkvBjwYB0t7lp8BeUgb_oX-qX2lSrVhHVMIGZ5HYLKHIWQUFLbSZobEYDFbPXnQMs3z_qc&e=2fd18ded548fce9ef66e074aaf01da3d5df1923b&utm_source=mediamatters&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1223weekly&n=7&v=1499">has tried it all</a>.When it comes to Trump's former National Security Adviser, Fox figures have taken to accusing the FBI of duping Michael Flynn into lying. Pro-Trump media have <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="https://mediamatters.nationbuilder.com/r?u=3YhLhUxTGfXV40jjcf0E7zQgA_lKgFY2qUmWqav0z4T8KsU_kNiqQEHW7tuVDykwG9N_u0ZbUlg_D2scb7B5ZGvgzyJVU-iP8LNcTjoVr0sn3Vax52JHyA6EQGJxQLjb1LzM9t9Zs_IMz3iIZmB1Aq7t-yvM0T0Crm2jvxcpffjh6izb91MaBHX08RG7dyv9ds_h7m8ZLT9jc4BbztoLsA&e=2fd18ded548fce9ef66e074aaf01da3d5df1923b&utm_source=mediamatters&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1223weekly&n=8&v=1499">spent most of 2018</a> floating conspiracy theories about Flynn's guilty plea.Those conspiracy theories have now been debunked. A federal judge did not throw out Flynn's guilty plea on Tuesday. Flynn and his lawyers instead conceded on the record that he knowingly lied to the FBI and did not believe his rights had been violated. Fox News personalities were forced deploy new spins on the situation. Each propagandist took their turn trying out new theories, seemingly throwing everything at the wall to see what might stick.Just before the hearing, Fox guest Matt Schlapp <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="https://mediamatters.nationbuilder.com/r?u=3YhLhUxTGfXV40jjcf0E7z4H6Szh2ve6Id8D7jzs32-zSWdFUsz4eqiVAhEDv_9rXrN1sal1jhmJB9dLyl3abWWCIqd3JcrMJb8EDBUHBmO6jsEpf5K-w9Pkx-e6p6bXIVSPYVXYkALsShIOX-hzEFObs08Pi-OBg5F1ou6GGcP6FB9wFm27AJdyDlt6tqyDpZ_aUIcXIbG1vRwnAi3XBA&e=2fd18ded548fce9ef66e074aaf01da3d5df1923b&utm_source=mediamatters&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1223weekly&n=9&v=1499">compared</a> Flynn's actions to "pulling off mattress tags, jaywalking, parking tickets."Things really picked up speed after the hearing. Fox legal analyst Gregg Jarrett claimed that Judge Emmet Sullivan begged Flynn to throw out his guilty plea, and when he didn’t, the judge began to lash out at Flynn. As Matt Gertz explained, <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="https://mediamatters.nationbuilder.com/r?u=3YhLhUxTGfXV40jjcf0E7zQgA_lKgFY2qUmWqav0z4QAza-2mhKIZDNKTdeqm4AzQGUh0fqSWopBZEfI2AQFyM5hmkmK41ffEVl7PMQZx3CAGNQ1eqAntiiRocYUIlFX5tLSUkHWkZ5Sf8eC2--7xs8uaeM0tFaX2Fplw3BWWcg&e=2fd18ded548fce9ef66e074aaf01da3d5df1923b&utm_source=mediamatters&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1223weekly&n=10&v=1499">this makes no sense</a>. Lou Dobbs took a simpler route, <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="https://mediamatters.nationbuilder.com/r?u=3YhLhUxTGfXV40jjcf0E7z4EVfCjbZoWmUaHTpg4MOmgMX8q8IH5xU1bd8x4BZSjGVhxfC2JRQLsCndpQZBenVT8X4nCEH9PMBlcyEgsmilqBilRDSOmQbYyigCRK57B&e=2fd18ded548fce9ef66e074aaf01da3d5df1923b&utm_source=mediamatters&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1223weekly&n=11&v=1499">simply bashing the judge</a>. And fittingly, Fox & Friends utilized the most convenient strategy: virtually ignore the issue entirely. Fox & Friends dedicated <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="https://mediamatters.nationbuilder.com/r?u=3YhLhUxTGfXV40jjcf0E7zQgA_lKgFY2qUmWqav0z4QZR-gMZKYQRDwJ0WL8uS3GhubiNIiw6REQ-NyTunmfhHWNhSyZ7TPZrqEiJG4DOqMjWh4i3FIVGJ39h08M0g_TvAjBXh6WymFtHlHJur3lp0NbjdkbKm7Hksujmt7aZc&e=2fd18ded548fce9ef66e074aaf01da3d5df1923b&utm_source=mediamatters&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1223weekly&n=12&v=1499">less than five minutes</a> to the Flynn case during their Wednesday broadcast.Gertz <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="https://mediamatters.nationbuilder.com/r?u=3YhLhUxTGfXV40jjcf0E7zQgA_lKgFY2qUmWqav0z4QAza-2mhKIZDNKTdeqm4AzQGUh0fqSWopBZEfI2AQFyM5hmkmK41ffEVl7PMQZx3CAGNQ1eqAntiiRocYUIlFX5tLSUkHWkZ5Sf8eC2--7xs8uaeM0tFaX2Fplw3BWWcg&e=2fd18ded548fce9ef66e074aaf01da3d5df1923b&utm_source=mediamatters&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1223weekly&n=13&v=1499">summed up Fox’s efforts</a>: “If Fox propagandists had any standards or capacity for honesty, the Sullivan and Flynn saga might cause them to re-examine much of their unhinged Mueller coverage. They don't, so it won't -- and it's on to the next conspiracy theory.”Where do we go from here? Fox is <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="https://mediamatters.nationbuilder.com/r?u=3YhLhUxTGfXV40jjcf0E7z4H6Szh2ve6Id8D7jzs32-5w3rbYH-yKVubWBc2A9BJSgdLRjELp90ca5kGE3CX2shubiO0MvVwuahzW-br1xJtDAAO_9Chz4_tHdrqNfYjQ3xcHEqI9DOiTjvb277oi-k8xrj_wOVYBdPXH9MX33M_8Png_2jxoiyK1b7tPc78RpH8wHnGnjVldV657v0xCQ&e=2fd18ded548fce9ef66e074aaf01da3d5df1923b&utm_source=mediamatters&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=1223weekly&n=14&v=1499">already floating</a> a pardon for Flynn.<a href="https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/michael-flynn-associates-indicted-lobbying-turkey">https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/michael-flynn-associates-indicted-lobbying-turkey</a>Monday, The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/17/us/politics/flynn-turkey-bijan-kian.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">reported</a> that two former business partners of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn were indicted in federal court:<blockquote>Charges against the two former associates, Bijan Kian and Ekim Alptekin, were unsealed on Monday in an Alexandria, Va., courtroom. The two men were charged with a conspiracy to violate federal lobbying rules, and Mr. Alptekin also was charged with making false statements to F.B.I. investigators.The indictment is further evidence of a broad crackdown on unregistered foreign lobbying growing from the inquiry by Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel who has investigated foreign flows of money from Ukraine, Turkey and other countries designed to manipulate decision-making in Washington. Mr. Mueller referred the Turkey case to prosecutors in Northern Virginia earlier this year.</blockquote>Flynn, who <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/01/us/politics/michael-flynn-guilty-russia-investigation.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">pleaded guilty</a> to lying to federal investigators in the Russia probe last year, and who Mueller told a court has provided "<a href="https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/heres-why-robert-mueller-just-revealed-trumps-criminal-former-adviser-michael" style="text-decoration-line: none;">substantial assistance</a>" to the investigation, has been unsettlingly close to the Turkish government. In 2016, he wrote an <a href="https://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/foreign-policy/305021-our-ally-turkey-is-in-crisis-and-needs-our-support" style="text-decoration-line: none;">editorial</a> attacking Fethullah Gulen, a dissident cleric living in the United States who was accused by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of masterminding a <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36815476" style="text-decoration-line: none;">failed coup attempt</a> against him. Flynn and his son were even <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/nov/10/michael-flynn-trump-turkish-dissident-cleric-plot" style="text-decoration-line: none;">accused</a> of plotting a conspiracy to kidnap Gulen and hand him over to Turkish authorities.Prosecutors allege that Flynn and Kian sought to lobby members of Congress to extradite Gulen, and Alptekin, a Turkish businessman with ties to Erdoğan, helped finance the project.It is unclear whether this scheme had any impact on U.S. policy. But the Turkish foreign minister <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/16/world/turkey-cavusoglu-cleric-gulen/index.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">claims</a> Trump administration officials are now working on a plan to extradite Gulen, and <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/white-house-weighs-booting-erdogan-foe-u-s-appease-turkey-n933996" style="text-decoration-line: none;">reportedly</a> even considered doing so as a bargaining chip to persuade Erdoğan to back down from his standoff with Saudi Arabia over the suspected <a href="https://www.alternet.org/these-are-gritty-details-murder-jamal-khashoggi" style="text-decoration-line: none;">political murder</a> of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The idea of the U.S. handing over a dissident of an autocratic regime to ease international outcry against an atrocity committed by another autocratic regime would be horrifying on a number of levels.<interaction data-token="5b96855f8198b4e625350260" data-context="true" data-tags="" data-fallback="true" />If Flynn's associates illegally worked to influence any of this, they must be held to account — and the public deserves answers.butina lavrov---kt mcf<div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">McFarland’s interview with Senate Foreign Relations Committee staff members went ahead, as planned, on July 19th, even though she couldn’t review her e-mails or calendars beforehand. During the closed-door session, staffers asked McFarland if she took part in any phone calls with Russian officials during the transition. According to officials, McFarland answered that she served as a note-taker during transition phone calls with the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, and the Russian foreign minister,Sergey Lavrov. After the interview, committee staff members checked and found only one call, in November, between Trump and Putin, which was before McFarland joined the transition, and no call with Lavrov. Aides said that McFarland had botched her answers. She was forced to send a clarification letter to the committee, acknowledging that her recollections of the calls were mistaken.</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">On July 20th, McFarland appeared before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for her confirmation hearing. That same month, Senator Cory Booker, a Democrat from New Jersey, had given McFarland a series of written questions, including one about whether she had ever discussed “contacts with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak directly with General Flynn?” McFarland’s curt written response read, “I am not aware of any of the issues or events as described above.”</div>long<div>
</div><div><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/20/us/russia-interference-election-trump-clinton.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/20/us/russia-interference-election-trump-clinton.html</a></div><div>
</div><div>nyt</div><div>...</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Mr. Trump had steamrollered his primary opponents in part by taking aim at Republican foreign policy orthodoxy. The post-9/11 wars were foolish and costly, he would often say at campaign events. America’s allies were deadbeats and freeloaders, he told supporters, who cheered in agreement. Russia was not an existential threat, he said, but a potential ally in beating back terrorist groups.</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">In early March 2016, the establishment struck back. In an open letter, dozens of the party’s national security luminaries vowed publicly to try to stop the election of a candidate “so utterly unfitted to the office.”</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">They took particular umbrage at Mr. Trump’s remarks about the Russian president, writing that his “admiration for foreign dictators such as Vladimir Putin is unacceptable for the leader of the world’s greatest democracy.”</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">But Mr. Trump was not cowed. He soon signed on new advisers and aides, including some who had been pushed to the fringe of a political party that had long lionized President Ronald Reagan for staring down Soviet leaders at the height of the Cold War.</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">To the Kremlin, they must have looked like a dream team.</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Mr. Flynn, the former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, had long viewed Russia as a natural ally in what he saw as a “world war” against radical Islam. In June 2013, when he was D.I.A. chief, he sat inside the imposing headquarters of the G.R.U., Russia’s military intelligence agency, and chatted with officers. Two years later, he sat at Mr. Putin’s elbow at a gala dinner in Moscow.</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Mr. Manafort, a longtime Republican lobbyist, had earned millions working for a pro-Kremlin leader in Ukraine and had a history of business dealings with Oleg Deripaska, a Russian aluminum magnate close to Mr. Putin. He was nearly broke when he joined the Trump campaign in March 2016 — hired to help prevent a mass defection of convention delegates — and yet he offered to work on the campaign unpaid.</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Carter Page, a businessman who spent several years working in Moscow, was virtually unknown in Washington when Mr. Trump appointed him a foreign policy adviser. But the S.V.R., Russia’s foreign intelligence service, knew who he was.</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">In 2013, Mr. Page met in New York with a Russian spy posing as an attaché at the United Nations and passed along energy industry documents in hopes of securing lucrative deals in Moscow.</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">The F.B.I., which had been tracking Russian spies when Mr. Page came on the bureau’s radar, determined that he had no idea he was meeting with a Russian agent.</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">“I promised him a lot,” said the spy, Victor Podobnyy, speaking to another Russian intelligence officer about his dealings with Mr. Page, according to an F.B.I. transcript. “How else to work with foreigners? You promise a favor for a favor.”</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">The new team was in place by the end of March, and Mr. Trump had a new message that was strikingly similar to one of Mr. Putin’s most ardent talking points.</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">“I think NATO’s obsolete,” Mr. Trump said during an interview on ABC’s “This Week.”</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">“NATO’s not meant for terrorism,” he went on to say. “NATO doesn’t have the right countries in it for terrorism.”</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">By then, the Russian intelligence operation to intervene in the American election — including efforts to infiltrate and influence the Trump campaign — had begun.</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Mr. Papadopoulos, the 28-year-old campaign adviser, did not know this when he met in the cafe of the London hotel with Mr. Putin’s “niece” (he has no niece) and an obscure Maltese professor in late March. The academic had taken an interest in Mr. Papadopoulos when he joined the campaign.</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">F.B.I. agents have identified the professor, Joseph Mifsud, as a likely cutout for Russian intelligence, sent to establish contact with Mr. Papadopoulos and possibly get information about the direction of the Trump campaign. He disappeared after his name surfaced last October, and his whereabouts is unknown. At one point he changed his WhatsApp status to a simple, if cryptic, message: “Alive.”</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Professor Mifsud arranged an email introduction between Mr. Papadopoulos and a Russian foreign ministry official. The American also exchanged emails with Olga Polonskaya, the woman in the cafe. “We are all very excited by the possibility of a good relationship with Mr. Trump,” she wrote in one message, and the two discussed a possible meeting between Mr. Putin and Mr. Trump.</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Over time, though, Mr. Papadopoulos came to question whether the messages were actually from Ms. Polonskaya. The woman he had met in the cafe barely spoke English. The emails he received were in nearly perfect English.</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">“I even remember sending her a message asking if I’m speaking to the same person I met in London because the conversations were so strange,” he said during an interview this month.</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">In late April, Mr. Trump gave his first major foreign policy address in the ballroom of a historic Washington hotel. Some of the speech was a familiar litany of Republican policy positions — hawkish warnings to Iran and pledges to be tough on terrorism. But midway through the speech, as Russia’s ambassador to the United States watched from the front seats, Mr. Trump pivoted and said the United States and Russia should look for areas of mutual interest.</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">“Common sense says this cycle, this horrible cycle of hostility, must end, and ideally will end soon,” he said.</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Video</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">The Associated PressPublished OnSept. 17, 2018]</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">“That’s the signal to meet,” Mr. Papadopoulos wrote in an email to his Russian foreign ministry contact that evening, meaning that Mr. Trump’s favorable comments about Russia suggested he might be interested in meeting Mr. Putin.</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Just one day earlier, Professor Mifsud had told the campaign aide about a possible gift from Moscow: thousands of hacked emails that might damage Mrs. Clinton’s candidacy.</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">It was a breathtaking revelation. But there was no evidence that Mr. Papadopoulos — while ambitious and eager for advancement in the bare-bones campaign — passed the information along to anyone inside the Trump circle.</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">More than two years later, Mr. Papadopoulos says he has “no recollection” of telling anyone in the campaign about the emails. He said he was supposed to have a phone call that day with Stephen Miller, a top campaign adviser, but it was postponed. If the two men had talked, Mr. Papadopoulos said, he might have shared the information.</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">“How fate works sometimes, I guess,” said Mr. Papadopoulos, who has been sentenced to 14 days in jail for lying to the F.B.I.</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">As Mr. Trump continued to win primaries and vacuum up convention delegates late in the spring, the Russians made multiple attempts to establish contact with campaign officials.</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">A Republican operative connected to the N.R.A. tried to arrange a meeting between Mr. Trump and a Russian central banker at an N.R.A. convention in Kentucky in May. “Putin is deadly serious about building a good relationship with Mr. Trump,” wrote the operative, Paul Erickson, in an email with the subject “Kremlin connection.” “Ever since Hillary compared Putin to Hitler, all senior Russian leaders consider her beyond redemption.”</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Mr. Page, the foreign policy adviser, was invited to deliver the commencement address at the prestigious New Economic School in Moscow. That invitation now appears to have been an effort both to gain information about the Trump campaign and to influence it by feting Mr. Page in the Russian capital. Russian television that year was describing him as a “famous American economist,” but he was an obscure figure in this country.</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">At that time, the last American to give the commencement speech was Mr. Obama, who used the opportunity to criticize Russia for its treatment of Georgia and Ukraine.</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">Mr. Page, though, criticized the “hypocrisy” of the United States and its NATO allies for lecturing Russia about bullying its neighbors, which were former Soviet republics, while the Westerners were taking “proactive steps to encourage regime change overseas.” During his time in Moscow, Mr. Page met with at least one top Russian official and numerous business leaders.</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">And there was the now infamous June 2016 approach to Donald Trump Jr. by Russians whom he and his father had known from their days taking the Miss Universe pageant to Moscow. The Russians met at Trump Tower in Manhattan with top campaign officials after promising damaging information on Mrs. Clinton.</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">
</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">See the timeline of events that surround the Trump Tower meeting.</div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">...</div><div></div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/msnbcs-rachel-maddow-explains-how-we-finally-know-why-mike-flynn-lied">https://www.alternet.org/msnbcs-rachel-maddow-explains-how-we-finally-know-why-mike-flynn-lied</a>As the Mueller investigation has moved along, names like Roger Stone, Paul Manafort and Michael Cohen have moved to center stage.On Friday, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow went back to the start of the saga, when Donald Trump staffers like Michael Flynn and his aide K. T. McFarland were the focus of investigation and speculation."The big question about Flynn—and this has been raised over and over again by critics of the Mueller investigation—why did Mike Flynn lie about this?" Maddow asked. "There's always been something hard to figure out about the Flynn case... why did Mike Flynn lie about this stuff?"Flynn was fired from his job as national security adviser after he apparently lied to Vice President Mike Pence about his communication with Russian officials. But this was far from his only lie, Maddow said.<interaction data-token="5b96855f8198b4e625350260" data-context="true" data-tags="" data-fallback="true" />"Mike Flynn also lied about those conversations he had with Russia talking about sanctions," she said. "He lied in public. He lied to reporters. He lied to the FBI. Why were they lying about it? I mean, on its face, they didn't need to. It would make sense that they'd be talking about sanctions to the Russian government conceivably. They're the top two security officials in the National Security Agency for the incoming administration. Obviously there is going to be a change on the policy. It's not that weird. But they lied about it."Because Flynn and McFarland lied, Maddow said, "they were both compromised by Russia from the very beginning.""Because, of course, Russia knew the truth, right?" she said. "Russia was on the other end of the phone. They knew that these guys had been having conversations about Russia, right? It wasn't secret from Russia. But it was being kept secret from the American public, the American press, the American Congress, and even the FBI."At this point, Maddow circled back to the Trump Tower Moscow project, which Cohen and others lied about—and which came to an abrupt halt on the very same day that it was revealed Russian hackers were seeking to influence the election."The story about Russian government hackers being exposed for their role in trying to get into our elections—that was the reason they stopped working on the Trump Tower project that day. The secret project they'd been working on for many, many, many months including direct contact with the Kremlin and planned travel to Moscow stopped that day. Why? What was the connection between those two things?" Maddow asked."If the big picture Russian dream here is to have their very own president of the U.S.A., if their dream is to compromise an American presidential candidate so that candidate is beholden to them and then install that compromised candidate as president, then the Trump Tower Moscow project which compromises Trump and the election interference campaign [ruins it]," she said. "Install the candidate, and then leverage the candidate to lift sanctions and free Russia to do what it wants. Now, over this past week, we suddenly can see the full plan."Watch the segments below.<div>=</div><div>TRMS: artemko gave ukraine plan tio m cohen who said he gave it to flynn but also said not? 5/18</div><div></div>=<div>
</div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/bombshell-gop-report-says-mike-flynn-went-infamous-russian-spymasters-house-2015-very-productive">https://www.alternet.org/bombshell-gop-report-says-mike-flynn-went-infamous-russian-spymasters-house-2015-very-productive</a></div><div>
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</div><div></div></div><div class="content-list-component bn-content-list-text yr-content-list-text text" data-beacon="{" p="p" mnid="mnid" citation="citation" data-beacon-parsed="true" data-rapid-cpos="9" data-rapid-subsec="paragraph" data-rapid-parsed="subsec" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" roboto="Roboto" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; width: 705px; max-width: 720px; min-width: initial;">s team said that Friday’s news does not show any wrongdoing.</div><div class="content-list-component bn-content-list-text yr-content-list-text text" data-beacon="{" p="p" mnid="mnid" citation="citation" data-beacon-parsed="true" data-rapid-cpos="10" data-rapid-subsec="paragraph" data-rapid-parsed="subsec" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" roboto="Roboto" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; width: 705px; max-width: 720px; min-width: initial;">“As the congressman has acknowledged before, the meeting was a dinner with two longtime acquaintances ― Manafort and Weber ― from back in his White House and early congressional days. The three reminisced and talked mostly about politics. The subject of Ukraine came up in passing,” Ken Grubbs, Rohrabacher’s spokesman, told HuffPost in an email. “It is no secret that Manafort represented [pro-Putin Ukrainian President] Viktor Yanukovych’s interests, but as chairman of the relevant European subcommittee, the congressman has listened to all points of view on Ukraine. We may only speculate that Manafort needed to report back to his client that Ukraine was discussed.”</div><div class="content-list-component bn-content-list-text yr-content-list-text text" data-beacon="{" p="p" mnid="mnid" citation="citation" data-beacon-parsed="true" data-rapid-cpos="11" data-rapid-subsec="paragraph" data-rapid-parsed="subsec" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" roboto="Roboto" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; width: 705px; max-width: 720px; min-width: initial;">Still, Rohrabacher has emerged as an important figure in the investigations into potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian efforts to help President Donald Trump and hurt his rival Hillary Clinton.</div><div class="content-list-component bn-content-list-text yr-content-list-text text" data-beacon="{" p="p" mnid="mnid" citation="citation" data-beacon-parsed="true" data-rapid-cpos="12" data-rapid-subsec="paragraph" data-rapid-parsed="subsec" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" roboto="Roboto" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; width: 705px; max-width: 720px; min-width: initial;">One of a mere handful of well-known GOP figures in Washington who were enthusiastic about Trump before his election victory, Rohrabacher was <a href="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/white-house/article119973813.html" data-beacon="{" p="p" lnid="lnid" under="under" consideration="consideration" mpid="mpid" plid="plid" http="http" www.mcclatchydc.com="www.mcclatchydc.com" news="news" politics-government="politics-government" white-house="white-house" article119973813.html="article119973813.html" data-beacon-parsed="true" class="bn-clickable" data-ylk="subsec:paragraph;cpos:12" data-rapid-parsed="slk" data-rapid_p="14" data-v9y="1" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgb(13, 190, 152) 0px -2px 0px inset;">once under consideration</a> to be the new administration’s secretary of state. He has cast doubt on the conclusions of the U.S. intelligence community about the election and said voters <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2016/12/16/politics/kfile-rohrabacher-russian-hacking/index.html" target="blank" data-beacon="{" p="p" lnid="lnid" benefited="benefited" from="from" the="the" hacks="hacks" mpid="mpid" plid="plid" https="https" www.cnn.com="www.cnn.com" politics="politics" kfile-rohrabacher-russian-hacking="kfile-rohrabacher-russian-hacking" index.html="index.html" data-beacon-parsed="true" class="bn-clickable" data-ylk="subsec:paragraph;cpos:12" data-rapid-parsed="slk" data-rapid_p="15" data-v9y="1" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgb(13, 190, 152) 0px -2px 0px inset;">benefited from the hacks</a>of Clinton campaign messages. Last year, he <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2017/08/29/politics/kfile-rohrabacher-rendezvous/index.html" data-beacon="{" p="p" lnid="lnid" met="met" with="with" julian="Julian" assange="Assange" mpid="mpid" plid="plid" https="https" www.cnn.com="www.cnn.com" politics="politics" kfile-rohrabacher-rendezvous="kfile-rohrabacher-rendezvous" index.html="index.html" data-beacon-parsed="true" class="bn-clickable" data-ylk="subsec:paragraph;cpos:12" data-rapid-parsed="slk" data-rapid_p="16" data-v9y="1" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgb(13, 190, 152) 0px -2px 0px inset;">met with Julian Assange</a> of WikiLeaks, the group that released the stolen Clinton materials, and said he wanted to give Trump information proving the hack was not committed by Russia. Soon afterward, top Republicans <a href="http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-russia-rohrabacher-subcommittee-20171026-story.html" target="blank" data-beacon="{" p="p" lnid="lnid" curtailed="curtailed" his="his" powers="powers" mpid="mpid" plid="plid" http="http" www.latimes.com="www.latimes.com" politics="politics" la-pol-ca-russia-rohrabacher-subcommittee-20171026-story.html="la-pol-ca-russia-rohrabacher-subcommittee-20171026-story.html" data-beacon-parsed="true" class="bn-clickable" data-ylk="subsec:paragraph;cpos:12" data-rapid-parsed="slk" data-rapid_p="17" data-v9y="1" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgb(13, 190, 152) 0px -2px 0px inset;">curtailed his powers</a> on his influential subcommittee. And in 2016, Rohrabacher had meetings with Trump adviser <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/mueller-probing-pre-election-flynn-meeting-pro-russia-congressman-n819676" data-beacon="{" p="p" lnid="lnid" michael="Michael" flynn="Flynn" mpid="mpid" plid="plid" https="https" www.nbcnews.com="www.nbcnews.com" news="news" us-news="us-news" mueller-probing-pre-election-flynn-meeting-pro-russia-congressman-n819676="mueller-probing-pre-election-flynn-meeting-pro-russia-congressman-n819676" data-beacon-parsed="true" class="bn-clickable" data-ylk="subsec:paragraph;cpos:12" data-rapid-parsed="slk" data-rapid_p="18" data-v9y="1" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgb(13, 190, 152) 0px -2px 0px inset;">Michael Flynn</a> ― who is now cooperating with Mueller ― and with Russian lawyer <a href="http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/10/03/gop-congressman-met-in-moscow-with-kremlin-linked-lawyer-at-center-of-russia-investigation/" data-beacon="{" p="p" lnid="lnid" natalia="Natalia" veselnitskaya="Veselnitskaya" mpid="mpid" plid="plid" http="http" foreignpolicy.com="foreignpolicy.com" gop-congressman-met-in-moscow-with-kremlin-linked-lawyer-at-center-of-russia-investigation="gop-congressman-met-in-moscow-with-kremlin-linked-lawyer-at-center-of-russia-investigation" data-beacon-parsed="true" class="bn-clickable" data-ylk="subsec:paragraph;cpos:12" data-rapid-parsed="slk" data-rapid_p="19" data-v9y="1" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgb(13, 190, 152) 0px -2px 0px inset;">Natalia Veselnitskaya</a> ― who is known for a Trump Tower meeting she had with Donald Trump Jr., Manafort and others hoping that Russia would share information damaging to Clinton.</div><div class="content-list-component bn-content-list-text yr-content-list-text text" data-beacon="{" p="p" mnid="mnid" citation="citation" data-beacon-parsed="true" data-rapid-cpos="13" data-rapid-subsec="paragraph" data-rapid-parsed="subsec" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" roboto="Roboto" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; width: 705px; max-width: 720px; min-width: initial;">The 15-term congressman is courting controversy even as he faces what observers describe as his toughest re-election race yet in a California district that seems to be <a href="http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-friedersdorf-rohrabacher-oc-20171026-story.html" data-beacon="{" p="p" lnid="lnid" turning="turning" more="more" liberal="liberal" mpid="mpid" plid="plid" http="http" www.latimes.com="www.latimes.com" opinion="opinion" op-ed="op-ed" la-oe-friedersdorf-rohrabacher-oc-20171026-story.html="la-oe-friedersdorf-rohrabacher-oc-20171026-story.html" data-beacon-parsed="true" class="bn-clickable" data-ylk="subsec:paragraph;cpos:13" data-rapid-parsed="slk" data-rapid_p="20" data-v9y="1" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgb(13, 190, 152) 0px -2px 0px inset;">turning more liberal</a>. He appears unfazed.  </div><div class="content-list-component bn-content-list-text yr-content-list-text text" data-beacon="{" p="p" mnid="mnid" citation="citation" data-beacon-parsed="true" data-rapid-cpos="14" data-rapid-subsec="paragraph" data-rapid-parsed="subsec" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" roboto="Roboto" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5em; width: 705px; max-width: 720px; min-width: initial;">“My constituents couldn’t care less about this,” Rohrabacher told The New York Times last year. “They are not concerned about Russia.”</div>== House Intelligence Committee issued seven subpoenas Wednesday, ramping up its investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 election and into whether names of <a id="PEBSL000163" title="Donald Trump" href="http://www.latimes.com/topic/politics-government/donald-trump-PEBSL000163-topic.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">President Trump</a>’s associates were improperly revealed in classified intelligence reports.Subpoenas went to Trump’s former national security advisor, <a id="PEGPF00206" title="Michael Flynn" href="http://www.latimes.com/topic/unrest-conflicts-war/defense/michael-flynn-PEGPF00206-topic.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Michael Flynn</a>, and to the president’s longtime personal attorney, <a id="PEPLT001217" title="Michael Cohen" href="http://www.latimes.com/topic/politics-government/michael-cohen-PEPLT001217-topic.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Michael Cohen</a>. The <a id="ORGOV0000134" title="U.S. Senate" href="http://www.latimes.com/topic/politics-government/government/u.s.-senate-ORGOV0000134-topic.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Senate</a> Intelligence Committee and a federal grand jury in Virginia also have issued subpoenas for Flynn’s business records.In a statement, the House committee said it had issued subpoenas seeking “testimony, personal documents and business records” from Flynn and Cohen. It also approved subpoenas for the Flynn Intel Group LLC and for Michael D. Cohen & Associates PC.“We hope and expect that anyone called to testify or provide documents will comply with that request, so that we may gain all the information within the scope of our investigation. We will continue to pursue this investigation wherever the facts may lead,” Rep. K. Michael Conaway (R-Texas), the committee chairman, and Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Burbank), the ranking member, said in a statement.</div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>