shaking the rattle. he is saying look out, because he is prepared to give him a sentence in prison and strongly suggesting that the defense take the hint and delay this sentence to see if there is more cooperating that they can do. the judge has clearly signaled that he is not buying the recommendation that the joint recommendation really of the defense and the prosecution of zero jail time based on flynn s cooperation. the judge said it is a serious offense for a government official to lie no the fbi in the white house. and he said that flynn was acting as an unregistered agent of a foreign government while he was serving as national security adviser and he found flynn s behavior disgusting, and astonishingly, he asked if mueller s team ever suggested charging him with treason which i have a hard time understanding that, because treason means aid
administration delve deeper into the conspiracy theories and the strange ties with russia, and as you say, emerge under investigation. it is worth taking back and we are focused on the judge and how extraordinary this is that it is the national security adviser to the president of the united states and arguably the second most important person in the nation responsible for tr security, and the reason that the judge is frustrated is that he lied about the contacts with the russian ambassador about wanting to have the sanctions lifted. he lied about his contacts with the russian ambassador about a u.n. security resolution, and these are not trivial things. he lied about the work on behalf of the turkish government. oso these are really significant lies he has told to the u.s. government while in the white house, and cooperating what is clear to me the reason for the last-minute play by the lawyers
the white house, one rule that you are careful to keep is to not comment on ongoing independent legal matters. the president of the united states when it was barack obama was very careful not the comment, and influence the ongoing legal matters, but we have seen this president just donald trump blow through the norms as it relates to commenting on the investigation, and we have seen him actively trying to undermine the independence of the investigation s and trying to mettle, and by saying that someone who is cooperating is a rat. he is sending the message that he is working against the rule of law in this kcountry, and whether it is the justice department or the intelligence community, you rely on people to cooperate with you to get to the bottom of things that happened and to get to the bottom of the national security threats in the country. so what james comey is point in out there is that we are in a extraordinary situation where
but it is within the judge s per view, and within his job to do that and to the look at everything. so it is then again, the judge may know that there are matters that flynn, you know, he has not cooperated on that he could have, and again, we don t know everything that the judge knows. i think that, you know, that he may be really just trying to get flynn to sort of stay with the program, if you will. and ben rhodes, out in california, who has been with s us. as a former national security official, as we have been pointing out, you should not, and we should not underplay the significance of what mike flynn was doing leading into the white house, and during the campaign, and leading into the white house, an inside of the white house in those opening days of the administrations regarding reopening the fbi investigation into gulon, the turkish cleric exiled in pennsylvania who has done nothing wrong. i remembered cases where joe biden was with erdogan back in 2015 or 2016 more likely
president. what happens struck me with michael flynn is that trump has always treated him with kid gloves compared to others, comey, michael cohen, where he has gone hot and cold. he is very concerned with what michael flynn has to say about him. and i suspect that has to do with the fact that michael flynn was his national security adviser. that brings whatever interactions were inappropriate about russia, russian policy, about turkish policy. that brings it into the oval office. it s not something that has to do with the campaign. the other reaction i have seeing what s happening today and with the senate intelligence report, that even that the russian trolls and bots were going after robert mueller and trying to discredit him is how wrong it is to look at this issue through the prism as we often do of how it impacts american politics and