Article by Elizabeth Vaughn in "RedState":
Dan Bongino opened his podcast today by telling his viewers of a text message he received on Wednesday night from a friend who asked, “What country do we even live in anymore?”
Good question.
The deep state and the mainstream media have always had a symbiotic relationship, but until candidate Donald Trump came on the scene in 2015, it’s never been quite this evident.
The media played a critical role in promoting the Russian collusion hoax and most of the time, they were well aware of this. But at other times, they may not have realized they were seen simply as “useful idiots” by deep state operatives who needed them to advance their agendas.
In an October 24, 2019 filing, Flynn’s lawyers allege that Col. James Baker, Director of the Office of Net Assessment at the Pentagon (ONA), leaked copies of the transcripts from Flynn’s December 2016 telephone calls to then-Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak to the The Washington Post’s David Ignatius, with whom Baker had regularly scheduled lunches.
The filing also claims that then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper called Ignatius on or before January 10, 2017 and said “words to the effect of ‘Take the kill shot on Flynn.’”
On
January 12, 2017, Ignatius did indeed take the kill shot and published
an article about Flynn’s phone calls with Kislyak. This often cited
piece marked the beginning of Flynn’s current troubles.
(To my knowledge, it has not yet been proven that Baker leaked the transcripts. But, whomever it was who did leak this material has committed a felony.)
Next, Bongino highlighted an article which had obviously been planted for political purposes. On January 23, 2017, the day before FBI agents arrived at the White House to interview Gen. Flynn, two Washington Post reporters, likely unwittingly, reprised their roles as useful idiots and performed an indispensable service. Ellen Nakashima and Greg Miller wrote an article entitled “FBI reviewed Flynn’s calls with Russian ambassador but found nothing illicit.”
FBI agents knew the article would put Flynn at ease, make him more willing to speak with them. Flynn would be less apt to request a lawyer and likely wouldn’t request that the FBI go through the proper channels, the White House Counsel’s office, to set up an interview, Bongino explained.
Obviously, they were right, because when the agents arrived at the White House, they reported that Flynn had been relaxed and genial. He viewed them as his allies. He didn’t realize they had come for an ambush.
This article was published for one reason, Bongino told viewers, to get Flynn to let his guard down, to soften him up. He said, “That article is damning…Both of these things can’t be true. The article in The Washington Post said there was nothing illicit about the calls. That can’t be true if the next day, the FBI went to interview Flynn about illicit calls…Either they were illicit or they weren’t…And you should be asking yourself why would they leak that to two useful idiots in the media like Nakashima and Miller. Because they knew they’d print it. And they knew Flynn would read it. And they knew Flynn’s guard [would be] down.”
Bongino pointed out another consequential detail at the bottom of the cover letter which accompanied the documents that were turned over to Flynn’s legal team last Friday. He credits the anonymous lawyer who posts on Twitter as “Techno Fog” for spotting this.
If you scroll down to the bottom of the first page in the Scribd document below, you’ll notice the following notation in the footnote: (DOJSCO-700023473 – DOJSCO700023475)
DOJSCO: Department of Justice, Special Counsel Office?
Does this mean the Special Counsel’s office had these documents all along? The ones they said they didn’t have? It sure looks that way.
Bongino says, “So what you’re telling me Techno, who is always light years ahead of the case, is that the Bob Mueller Special Counsel team may have already had the documents they turned over? Wouldn’t that be a little diamond in the rough?…When does the Bob Mueller/Andy Weissman investigation start?
Finally, Bongino told viewers that “Motives Matter.” He looked at why Flynn had become a target of the Obama Administration. First, he featured an article written by Michael Ledeen in May 2019 which appeared in The Washington Examiner. Ledeen writes:
A second reason for their animosity toward Flynn was his very vocal opposition to the Iran deal, which Obama saw as his signature negotiation.
Next, Bongino featured an article written by John Solomon and Sara Carter in July 2017. Two years earlier, Flynn had intervened on behalf of a decorated counterterrorism agent who had accused then Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe and other top officials of sexual discrimination.
For these and I’m sure other similar reasons, many Obama Administration officials, including Obama himself, felt that “Flynn had to go down.”
On November 10, 2016, two days after President Trump’s stunning victory over Hillary Clinton, he met with President Obama in the Oval Office for a 90 minute meeting. Former White House officials later told NBC News that Obama warned the President-elect about two individuals. The first was Kim Jong Un. And the other was Gen. Michael Flynn.
The Dan Bongino Show, episode #1240, can be seen at this link:
https://youtu.be/iayPQ8S5wlU
https://www.redstate.com/elizabeth-vaughn/2020/04/30/dan-bongino-identifies-several-overlooked-details-it-was-worse-than-we-thought/
(To my knowledge, it has not yet been proven that Baker leaked the transcripts. But, whomever it was who did leak this material has committed a felony.)
Next, Bongino highlighted an article which had obviously been planted for political purposes. On January 23, 2017, the day before FBI agents arrived at the White House to interview Gen. Flynn, two Washington Post reporters, likely unwittingly, reprised their roles as useful idiots and performed an indispensable service. Ellen Nakashima and Greg Miller wrote an article entitled “FBI reviewed Flynn’s calls with Russian ambassador but found nothing illicit.”
FBI agents knew the article would put Flynn at ease, make him more willing to speak with them. Flynn would be less apt to request a lawyer and likely wouldn’t request that the FBI go through the proper channels, the White House Counsel’s office, to set up an interview, Bongino explained.
Obviously, they were right, because when the agents arrived at the White House, they reported that Flynn had been relaxed and genial. He viewed them as his allies. He didn’t realize they had come for an ambush.
This article was published for one reason, Bongino told viewers, to get Flynn to let his guard down, to soften him up. He said, “That article is damning…Both of these things can’t be true. The article in The Washington Post said there was nothing illicit about the calls. That can’t be true if the next day, the FBI went to interview Flynn about illicit calls…Either they were illicit or they weren’t…And you should be asking yourself why would they leak that to two useful idiots in the media like Nakashima and Miller. Because they knew they’d print it. And they knew Flynn would read it. And they knew Flynn’s guard [would be] down.”
Bongino pointed out another consequential detail at the bottom of the cover letter which accompanied the documents that were turned over to Flynn’s legal team last Friday. He credits the anonymous lawyer who posts on Twitter as “Techno Fog” for spotting this.
If you scroll down to the bottom of the first page in the Scribd document below, you’ll notice the following notation in the footnote: (DOJSCO-700023473 – DOJSCO700023475)
DOJSCO: Department of Justice, Special Counsel Office?
Does this mean the Special Counsel’s office had these documents all along? The ones they said they didn’t have? It sure looks that way.
Bongino says, “So what you’re telling me Techno, who is always light years ahead of the case, is that the Bob Mueller Special Counsel team may have already had the documents they turned over? Wouldn’t that be a little diamond in the rough?…When does the Bob Mueller/Andy Weissman investigation start?
Finally, Bongino told viewers that “Motives Matter.” He looked at why Flynn had become a target of the Obama Administration. First, he featured an article written by Michael Ledeen in May 2019 which appeared in The Washington Examiner. Ledeen writes:
He was essentially fired from the Defense Intelligence Agency by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who told him he should retire. This came on the heels of Flynn’s sworn congressional testimony criticizing the Obama administration’s failed Afghanistan policy. This showed, once again, that Flynn understood how badly we were doing, and would not collude with the intelligence community. Indeed, he intended to carry out an audit of covert funding since the creation of the Central Intelligence Agency (none has been done in all those years).
A second reason for their animosity toward Flynn was his very vocal opposition to the Iran deal, which Obama saw as his signature negotiation.
Next, Bongino featured an article written by John Solomon and Sara Carter in July 2017. Two years earlier, Flynn had intervened on behalf of a decorated counterterrorism agent who had accused then Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe and other top officials of sexual discrimination.
For these and I’m sure other similar reasons, many Obama Administration officials, including Obama himself, felt that “Flynn had to go down.”
On November 10, 2016, two days after President Trump’s stunning victory over Hillary Clinton, he met with President Obama in the Oval Office for a 90 minute meeting. Former White House officials later told NBC News that Obama warned the President-elect about two individuals. The first was Kim Jong Un. And the other was Gen. Michael Flynn.
The Dan Bongino Show, episode #1240, can be seen at this link:
https://youtu.be/iayPQ8S5wlU
https://www.redstate.com/elizabeth-vaughn/2020/04/30/dan-bongino-identifies-several-overlooked-details-it-was-worse-than-we-thought/