Report : Kushner Instructed Flynn To Contact Russians About UN Vote While Obama Adminstration Was Still In Power
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/kushner-senior-transition-official-told-flynn-contact-russia
It was reportedly Jared Kushner who directed Mike Flynn to call officials from Russia and other countries regarding an Israel-related UN Security Council resolution weeks before President Donald Trump took office, according to a slew of reports out Friday.
An unnamed individual referred to only as a “very senior member of the Presidential Transition Team” emerged in charging documents filed Friday by Special Counsel Robert Mueller as part of Flynn’s plea deal for lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russian officials.
The Washington Post , NBC , Buzzfeed and Bloomberg’s Eli Lake spoke to sources who identified Trump’s son-in-law and close adviser as the “very senior member” who told Flynn to try to delay a vote on a resolution critical of Israeli settlement construction.
“Jared called Flynn and told him you need to get on the phone to every member of the Security Council and tell them to delay the vote,” a person who was in the room with Flynn told Buzzfeed, adding that Kushner emphasized that the move “was a top priority for the President.”
That tracks with what a former transition official told Bloomberg about Kushner ordering Flynn to ask every foreign minister or ambassador from a country on the council to delay or oppose the resolution, which condemned Israeli housing construction in East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank as a violation of international law.
Trump and Kushner both have warm relationships with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who fervently opposed the resolution.
Flynn’s statement of offense says that he contacted Russia’s then-ambassador to the U.S., Sergey Kislyak, to make his request on Dec. 22, spoke to him about it again on Dec. 29, and subsequently lied about it in an interview with federal agents.
Kushner reportedly met with Mueller’s team in November for an interview that focused primarily on Flynn’s Russia contacts.
Former prosecutors told TPM that the generous terms of Flynn’s plea deal suggest he must have critical information about other Trump officials even closer to the center of power than he was. Kushner fits that bill.
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Ted Lieu Retweeted CNN International
My prediction? The next time agents & prosecutors for Special Counsel Mueller interview # Kushner , they will read him his Miranda rights.
Ted Lieu added,
Trump's team was attempting to conduct rogue foreign policy while the Obama administration was still in office, including attempting to influence a United Nations vote.
Trying to pre-establish relations as the inauguration was but a month away. you don't wait until the day after to open up the dialog.............
Jared Kushner almost certainly broke the law. The next question is, how much does he love his wife? Will he go to prison for her father?
What law?
1 Stat. 613, January 30, 1799, codified at 18 U.S.C. § 953 (2004).
Here’s how the Times laid out the context:
"No doubt, you will hear Israel apologists argue that the Logan Act claim is specious since the resolution ended up passing anyway. They will claim that the Trump machinations were an abject failure, so its actions should be mitigated by this fact. But Logan doesn’t make allowances for whether a betrayal of U.S. interests is successful or not. The very act of sabotage is itself the offense.
It’s clear in this case that Mueller will not use Logan as the direct charge in court to prosecute Flynn or Kushner. As I mentioned, a violation of the Act alone has never led to a conviction. But lying about one’s action pursuant to a Logan Act violation is an eminently prosecutable offense. That’s perjury and a standard federal case. This is what Flynn has confessed to.
Next up, without doubt, will be Kushner. He’s next in Mueller’s sites. But unlike Flynn, he can’t cop a plea. If he did so, this would lead directly to Trump, since Kushner without doubt pursued this matter under direct order from Trump. Kushner must protect the big guy. That’s why it’s likely Mueller will actually file charges against Kushner, indict him and prosecute him. Whether he wins the case will determine whether Trump goes down as the next target."
So the first successful prosecution in the history of the Logan Act (on the books since 1799) will be of an adviser to an elected President? Was the First Amendment repealed at some point last year?
If the only actual underlying crime Mueller can find is an alleged Logan Act violation, his investigation is a joke.
When they asked Kushner if he instructed Michael Flynn to contact the Russians , what do you think Kushner said? Do you think he admitted it or do you think he lied? To the FBI.
Kushner is so incompetent that he may be too stupid to actually commit perjury. Nothing he does or did would surprise me.
But where's the collusion? Where's the underlying crime? Liberals and their friends in the media have been talking it up like a proven fact since the election and this is the payoff?
Seriously, if this amounts to prosecutions of "process crimes" because of a b.s. Logan Act violation that would never survive judicial scrutiny then Mueller will be a laughingstock.
It seems that Netanyahu may have asked Trump and Kushner to subvert the foreign policy of the president of the United States. And they complied. You think that is a trifling matter?
Of course. Trump was the President elect and its common sense that he would not want his predecessor to wreck relations with foreign powers out of spite during his last few days in office. Letting foreign countries know what the positions of the US Government will be for the next four years and asking them to maintain the status quo and avoid rash, stupid actions is both common sense and common practice. .
If asking other countries to maintain the status quo and protect an ally is the sum of his wrongdoing, you have zero chance of removing him from office.
Of course. And this is normally done out in the open... not in secret. The whole idea is to announce to the whole world what the next four years will be.
It was done in the open. It was all over the coverage at the time,
This would be great fun if it weren't for what's happening on Capitol Hill.
So Kushner is guilty of helping out the only modern democracy in the Middle East while Obama was trying to help a terrorist sponsoring country that has no respect for human rights?
Good for Kushner.
Obama is gone. Kushner is now. Can we talk about Kushner please?
Ummmm I think he just did. Obama only entered the post as a modern "comparison".
No, actually.
He cited X as having screwed up (Obama, in this case) as though that somehow validates what Y (Kushner) did later. In fact, there's no connection whatsoever between the two. It's a smokescreen, a deflection. An attempt to avoid talking about Kushner.
All politics is connected. And the funny thing is all this happened (allegedly) AFTER the election. Still no smoking gun that Russia somehow handed the election to Trump.
Trump is going down for obstruction of justice and money laundering, mark my words.
Credible.
No, i didn't, I never said he was going down for collusion at all. Why are you lying and saying I said something that I did not? The Trump team has ADMITTED collusion with Russia, but that isn't what Trump is in big trouble over, never was, it may not even be illegal. Once again, why are you posting lies about me?
I'm sure Trump just acted "extremely careless". Btw when are Democrats like Feinstein going down for sending a threatening letter to the IG that investigated Clinton and gave her a scathing report?
Maybe it's the same Russians the DNC paid off for their fake dossier.
Oh, c'mon Bf.... That is so-o-o-o weak! You should be embarrassed. I expect you to be clever, at least.
Until Trump took office, no one speaking for Trump had any authority to conduct US foreign policy.
Good look hanging your hat on a mythical Logan Act violation. After 200 plus years, this is going to be the case that that gets a conviction. Sure.
Were you advocating Obama resign for reaching out to Iran before he was inaugurated? The idea that an elected President can't communicate his views to other countries is simply preposterous.
You know, I am not brightest light bulb in the room as most of you will agree, so, leave your comments on that out.
However, I am really distressed on what is going on.
What I would like, if at all possible, would be for a conservative and a liberal to point out the facts as presented to us. No hate involved, no Obama, Clinton and no he said/she said. And, no opinions unless they are based on facts.
Do you think that could be accomplished? I hope so.
After the election, Obama made it clear that he was going to reverse the US's decades long position on Israel and suddenly abstain on a motion to sanction Israel that Obama masterminded.
Trump, about to becomes President, wanted to postpone the UN vote a few weeks until he was in office. The incoming Trump administration reached out to at least 12 countries, including Russia, to inform them of the new administration's position on the issue. That Trump opposed the sanctions and tried to stop their imposition was public knowledge at the time.
As part of the outreach, Flynn talked to the Russian Ambassador about it. When questioned about talking to the Russian ambassador by the FBI, Flynn lied about it.
Now Flynn plead guilty for lying to the FBI. That's it.
Thank you.
I just don't understand why he felt it necessary to lie. Never remember a lie serving a person well.
So basically we have what, 2 guilty pleas to lying to the FBI, and 2 indictments for money laundering years before the campaign. Still not seeing any collusion.
I think that Mueller has determined that it is his role in all this to try and get rid of Donald Trump from the national political stage, and he is going to do whatever he can. I wish him good luck and god speed.
John, do you also believe in Santa and the Easter Bunny?
Mueller is getting up in years a little. He wants to do one more great thing for the country before he rides into the sunset. Getting rid of Trump would fit that bill, and more.
He's not taking a break he's suffering from lack of a Snickers:
LOL
every transition team for every administration has done the same.
(it would be lackadaisical not too)