Indictment of Michael Flynn Reveals How the FBI Criminalized the Presidential Transition

Where is the ACLU when you really need them?

The Special Counsel was appointed to determine whether Russia colluded with Trump to steal the election. Michael Flynn was indicted for a conversation he had with the Russian ambassador on December 28, 2016, seven weeks after the election.

That was the day after the outgoing president expelled 35 Russian diplomats—including gardeners and chauffeurs—for interfering in the election. Yes, that really happened.

The Obama administration had wiretapped Flynn’s conversation with the ambassador, hoping to find him saying something they could use to support their wild story about collusion.

The outrage, for some reason, is not that an outgoing administration was using wiretaps to listen in on a successor’s transition. It is that Flynn might have signaled to the Russians that the Trump administration would have a different approach to foreign policy.

How dare Trump presume to tell an armed nuclear state to stand down because everyone in Washington was in a state of psychological denial that he was elected?

Let’s establish one thing early here: It is okay for an incoming administration to communicate its foreign policy preferences during a transition even if they differ from the lame duck administration.

In 1980, President-elect Reagan’s transition was dominated by negotiations between outgoing President Jimmy Carter and the Iranians about the fate of 52 hostages that were being held in the Tehran.

Carter proposed to the Iranians a series of concessions on sanctions in return for the hostages. The Iranians demanded $24 billion additional dollars.

Even though he had not yet been inaugurated and was still technically a private citizen, Reagan weighed in on the negotiations. He said, “I don’t think you pay ransom for people that have been kidnapped by barbarians.”

That statement scuttled Carter’s negotiations. Edwin Meese later confirmed the … (read more)

Source: Observer