{"id":179669,"date":"2017-12-01T20:57:00","date_gmt":"2017-12-02T01:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2017\/12\/01\/pass-the-popcorn-18\/"},"modified":"2017-12-01T20:57:00","modified_gmt":"2017-12-02T01:57:00","slug":"pass-the-popcorn-18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2017\/12\/01\/pass-the-popcorn-18\/","title":{"rendered":"Pass the Popcorn"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"border: 1px solid black; float: right; margin: 0px 10px; padding: 5px; text-align: center; width: 330px;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"180\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/OgsTSwyNtpM\" width=\"320\"><\/iframe><br \/><i>Lock Him UP!<\/i><\/div>\n<p>Michel Flynn has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/politics\/michael-flynn-charged-with-making-false-statement-to-the-fbi\/2017\/12\/01\/e03a6c48-d6a2-11e7-9461-ba77d604373d_story.html\">just copped a plea with Robert Mueller<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: blue;\">Former national security adviser Michael Flynn pleaded guilty Friday to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak and, in an ominous sign for the White House, said he is cooperating in the ongoing probe of possible coordination between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin to influence the 2016 election.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span> <span style=\"color: blue;\">When Flynn was forced out of the White House in February, officials said he had misled the administration, including Vice President Pence, about his contacts with Kislyak. But court records and people familiar with the contacts indicated he was acting in consultation with senior Trump transition officials, including President Trump\u2019s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, in his dealings with the diplomat.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span> <span style=\"color: blue;\">Flynn\u2019s plea revealed that he was in touch with senior Trump transition officials before and after his communications with the ambassador.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span> <span style=\"color: blue;\">\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span> <span style=\"color: blue;\">\u201cMy guilty plea and agreement to cooperate with the Special Counsel\u2019s Office reflect a decision I made in the best interests of my family and of our country. I accept full responsibility for my actions.\u201d<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span> <span style=\"color: blue;\">\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span> <span style=\"color: blue;\">The records say that a \u201cvery senior member of the Presidential Transition Team\u201d directed Flynn to contact officials from foreign governments, including Russia, about the U.N. resolution on Israel. That official is also not named, but people familiar with the matter said it refers to Kushner. According to one transition team official, Kushner told Flynn that blocking the resolution was a top priority of the president-elect.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"color: blue;\"><br \/><\/span> <span style=\"color: blue;\">Abbe Lowell, Kushner\u2019s attorney, declined to comment.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The article implies that there was a Logan Act violation, but but there hasn&#8217;t been a single successful prosecution under the Logan act in the 218 years it has been on the books, and the behaviors seem to fall under the rubric of free speech.<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, the, &#8220;The best interests of my family and of our country,&#8221; comment implies that a part of the plea deal might have involved his son not getting prosecuted.<\/p>\n<p>In any case, it should be an interesting time, in the Chinese curse sense, in the White House right now. (Caveat: What follows a likely a parody account)<\/p>\n<blockquote data-lang=\"en\">\n<div dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Trump is &#8220;melting down&#8221; over Michael Flynn news. Launched coffee pot into a West Wing hallway &amp; &#8220;not taking any calls all day.&#8221;<\/div>\n<p>\u2014 Rogue WH Snr Advisor (@RogueSNRadvisor) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RogueSNRadvisor\/status\/936616273940586496?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 1, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lock Him UP! Michel Flynn has just copped a plea with Robert Mueller: Former national security adviser Michael Flynn pleaded guilty Friday to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak and, in an ominous sign for the White House, said he is cooperating in the ongoing probe of possible coordination &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[573,394,407,374],"class_list":["post-179669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-donald-trump","tag-foreign-relations","tag-justice","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179669"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179669\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}