The Big Q
by digby
So Flynn was talking to the Russian ambassador during the election campaign. Oh.
When the news first emerged in June that the Democratic National Committee had been cyber-penetrated, private cyber experts immediately concluded that Russian intelligence was the culprit. Trump and his campaign, though, refused to acknowledge that. But on August 17, Trump, as the GOP presidential nominee, began receiving briefings from the US intelligence committee. And the material presented to him included the intelligence community’s assessment that Russia was meddling in the US election. Flynn was with Trump for this briefing. So whatever was being reported in the media, as of mid-August, Flynn knew that US intelligence believed Moscow was trying to undermine the election. And on October 7, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Department of Homeland Security issued a statement publicly announcing this conclusion.
This means that during the campaign, Flynn, a high-ranking Trump aide, was knowingly talking with a senior official of a regime that was trying to undermine the election to benefit Trump. So what did they chat about? Did Flynn warn Kislyak not to mess with US democracy? Or did he give the Russians reasons to prefer Trump over Hillary Clinton and, consequently, more motivation for their covert efforts to nudge the election toward Trump?
What Flynn told Kislyak during the campaign could be much more important than their discussions about the sanctions prior to the inauguration. There is a possibility that Flynn, acting on behalf of the Trump campaign, signaled to Putin that his decision to assist Trump was on the money. Of course, there are even darker possibilities of more direct collusion.
I have no idea what really went on, of course. But the stuff that happened at the GOP convention has always struck me as very, very weird. It’s one thing for the Russians to hack the campaign, if that’s what happened. It’s creepy but not entirely surprising. If Trump’s campaign was involved in it it’s a whole different story. That’s the question we’re homing in on.
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