Quote (IceMage @ Jun 2 2019 07:53pm)
For context, this is a voicemail from Dowd after Flynn withdrew from the Joint Defense Agreement, and after Flynn's lawyers informed Dowd that Flynn couldn't have confidential communications with the White House or President.
Seems like a pretty dang relevant bit of text that they edited out, where he specifies
'not' confidential information.
Quote
What national security issue is Dowd talking about? Lol... it seems like an obvious pretext to improperly receive information. Cutting out some of the text seems unnecessary, but I don't see how anyone can read Dowd's voicemail as anything but an attempt to get Flynn to provide information that would benefit the president.
Also for context, Flynn's lawyers called Dowd back and reiterated that they couldn't have confidential communications with him or Trump, and Dowd was "indignant and vocal in his disagreement". Swampy lawyer is swampy.
Same national security issue I've been harping on about for years: That it was sensitive diplomacy during a slapfight between the incoming and outgoing administrations and thus involved high level national security with Russia.
Mueller's team and the DoJ in general aren't able to interfere in diplomatic or intelligence concerns. They don't have the excuse of legitimacy a president-elect has, its simply not their area to begin with.
We've had 2 years of strained relations with Russia that have chalked up largely to the Mueller probe and democrats screeching about collusion, its not hard to see how our national security has been affected
Its pretty abundantly clear that Flynn was operating on behalf of Trump, almost certainly with his authorization given that they've never really denied that, have they? The degree to which Flynn was going to talk about the back channel to Russia and Trump's involvement could jeopardize a lot more than any preposterously frivolous Logan Act theories. The legal and ethical cases were in grey areas, the effects on our national security and public discourse were black and white- having the DoJ open that can of words could only make things worse.