After Michael Flynn resigned from his role as President Donald Trump’s national security adviser on Monday night, two top Democrats in the House demanded a briefing from the FBI and Justice Department about Flynn’s actions and what the White House knew about his contact with Russia.
“We were shocked and dismayed to learn this evening of reports that three weeks ago, U.S. law enforcement officials warned the White House Counsel that General Flynn had provided false information to the public about his communications with the Russian government, but that the Trump Administration apparently did nothing about it – neither to clarify the truth to the American public or to stop General Flynn from being an ongoing national security concern,” Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), ranking member of the Oversight Committee, and Rep. John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI), ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, said in a joint statement.
They wrote that Flynn “was unfit to be the National Security Advisor, and should have been dismissed three weeks ago.”
“Now, we in Congress need to know who authorized his actions, permitted them, and continued to let him have access to our most sensitive national security information despite knowing these risks. We need to know who else within the White House is a current and ongoing risk to our national security,” the congressmen wrote.
“While Congressional Republicans have turned a blind eye to their constitutional duty to conduct oversight on these issues, we Democrats believe that this new disclosure warrants a full classified briefing by all relevant agencies, including the Department of Justice and the FBI, as soon as possible and certainly before Thursday, February 16. We are communicating this request to the Department of Justice and FBI this evening,” Cummings and Conyers said.
According to several reports, the Justice Department warned the White House in January that Flynn could be susceptible to blackmail by Russia due to his communications with the Russian ambassador.
As soon as Chaffetz finishes investigating The Muppets, he’ll be right on it.
Keep on pushing, guys. This might well blow up into something much, much bigger…
This from Josh:
As the Russia story submerged out of view in the first days of February, the Acting Attorney General had already warned the White House about Michael Flynn’s deceptions and susceptibility to blackmail. She was fired for refusing to enforce the immigration executive order days later. Though the White House now denies it, it seems that the President and his top advisors took no action in response to these warnings.
Holy “Bin Ladin determined to strike in the US” Batman
These fuckers are willfully ignorant.
Criminal Willful Ignorance.
This IS something bigger, and as reluctant as Chaffetz and other GOPers are to have to go there, I suspect they are already starting to do the calculus and are going to realize that 2018 is going to turn into a tsunami election if they continue doing nothing.
They just want of figure out how to contain the damage to the less number of people as possible.
Which, IMO, why Flynn is going to turn out to be a horrible person for that role. Because he is NOT going to accept being the one thrown under the bus, not the level that Congress will need to go after him. But that’s the path the WH has laid out for them.
“2018 is going to turn into a tsunami election if they continue doing nothing.”
Hard to believe it won’t be a tsunami regardless.