Was Michael Flynn Targeted By the "Deep State"...or Was He Protected?
Newly obtained document may explain why Michael Flynn lied in 2017 for what, in hindsight, seems like no reason at all
A newly obtained document through open-sourced investigation suggests the entire Obama administration preferred to cast now-retired Lt. General Michael T. Flynn in a negative light dating back to January 2014, despite his 33 years of prior service.
This policy toward Flynn was reflected by the Obama Administration even to the incoming Trump admin, who was eventually targeted by the same outgoing administration’s holdover officials on that very basis.
Was the Obama Administration attempting to use the Russia question as a lever against Trump to keep Obama DOJ and intelligence officials in their offices long enough to secure an impeachment?
Was there a larger purpose to shoving Michael Flynn out of the Obama camp?
A look back on the 2020 document declassified by Ric Grenell and sent to Chuck Grassley’s office shows Samantha Power requested the unmasking of American names from Classified documents as early as November 30, 2016 - before the calls with Sergei Kislyak ever transpired.
The memo specifies that it is a “list of recipients who may have received Lt. Gen. Flynn’s identity” in an unmasking request.
Until now, I have found no further information on the specifics of these requests. Until now…
“…2016-55756…
…In her Cabinet capacity, Amb Power is closely following [redacted]…
…Approved…
…2016-11-30…”
Cited in the document as the reasons for redacting the “handling Justification” are all common rubberstamp redactions, commonly used to bury basically any possible information:
(b)(1)
(b)(3)-18 USC 798
(b)(3)-50 USC 3024(i)
(b)(3)P.L. 86-36
Surrounding Events in Context
The very next day, December 1, 2016, NSA responded to Ambassador Power’s request and issued its guidelines for dissemination of the unmasking.
It included, “No further action may be taken without prior approval of NSA.”
Flynn’s call with Russian Ambassadaor Kislyak would not be arranged for approximately another three weeks.
Unmasked Document Predates Flynn’s Obama Admin “Ouster”
The most startling discovery of unmasking is that affixed to each document is the NSA’s release stamp, which identifies from which file the intelligence came, and the date on which it was collected.
In this case, the date of this source document with Michael Flynn’s name collected incidentally from communicating with a foreign entity under surveillance by the National Security Agency, is stamped as 20130930, which appears to represent the date September 30, 2013.
It was learned in Inspector General Horowitz’s report that the Trump campaign had been under investigation since the “Steele Dossier” was being compiled in June of 2016. That now-famous dossier was created from within an orbit of known informants, spies, and operatives of global - and primarily British intelligence services.
Christopher Steele’s orbit included the Cambridge Intelligence Forum, with tight connections to former head of British intelligence MI-6 Sir Richard Dearlove, official MI-5 historian Sir Christopher Andrew, known FBI/CIA operative Stefan Halper, and Russian-born U.K. citizen and scholar, Svetlana Lokhova.
Unironically, this same orbit is who orchestrated the February dinner meeting between then-DIA Director Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn and Svetlana Lokhova, five months after Flynn’s name landed on NSA wiretapping collection.
Also unironically (this word will wear out), nearly all of these individuals have scooted safely under the limelight since the release of the Mueller Report and the Horowitz Report.
Power’s Questionable Unmasking
According to current press, Michael Flynn was tapped to become incoming President Donald J. Trump’s National Security Advisor on November 17, 2016, roughly two weeks after the election. Flynn accepted the position the next day on November 18, 2016.
Samantha Power's first requests dated November 30, 2016 were for specific documents, and all documents returned the same U.S. person's name to be unmasked: Michael Flynn. This could not be a coincidence.
The Horowitz Report outlined in its Executive Summary that Christopher Steele was officially released as an FBI source in November 2016, coinciding with Samantha Powers’ request to unmask specific documents, or conversations of foreign entities.
If a tip to Power was lodged as a matter of her official U.N. business, what was U.N. Ambassador Power’s official focus on November 30, 2016?
Throughout that day, the official U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Twitter (now X) account “@AmbPower44” tweeted about issues including North Korean nuclear ambition, the Syrian Civil War, specifically Aleppo, and a visit with the author Elie Wiesel.
As a Syrian ally, though, Russia was mentioned in her the official “tweets,” lending some credence that perhaps the Ambassador was pursuing intelligence on Russian intentions in the region.
Who would have seemingly had the most current and relevant Russian intelligence within the Obama Administration?
Christopher Steele. It would most likely have been gathered through his known network of players who were also connected to the issues surrounding Flynn’s ouster from the Obama administration to begin with - Halper, Dearlove, and Andrew.
As made clear through this new document, after September 30, 2013 there was an official intel paper trail with Michael Flynn's name on it, attached to a foreign person of interest, that James Clapper would have been fully aware of…
…along with James Comey.
In fact, the Horowitz Report (excerpt below) mentions an FBI Intelligence Memorandum that went out the exact same day (November 30, 2016), but the memo was framed in the report (as most everything else) primarily in the context of Carter Page and Paul Manafort.
In 2020, the Washington Examiner reported that,
“DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz previously testified that this briefing was a “pretext” to gather evidence on the candidate and his foreign policy adviser to help in their counterintelligence investigation. Pientka’s notes were categorized under “Foreign Agents Registration Act — Russia, Sensitive Investigative Matter.”
It may also be reasonable to assume that Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates were already privy to Michael Flynn’s 2013 NSA intercept due to the nature of the information, the climate of diplomacy at the time, and surrounding events in Syria.
It’s important to remember Flynn’s own words about U.S. action in Syria around the time period. Flynn has in the past strongly insinuated (and government has hardly pushed back) that Americans trained and partnered with the terrorists that they also openly condemned, thus creating “ISIL”.
Watch below around 10:00 (running time: 45 minutes; Credit: Al Jazeera):
British Intelligence in American Politics
Svetlana Lokhova had been a colleague or student of Stefan Halper, Christopher Andrew, and Sir Richard Dearlove since early 2013, after she filed a gender discrimination lawsuit against her former employer, Sverbank in the U.K. in February.
Lokhova was awarded £ 3.2 million ($ 4.5 million) by a Central London Labor Court on April 7, 2015 for the lawsuit.
During Lokhova’s involvement with Cambridge University and the Cambridge Intelligence Seminar (CIS), she worked closely and regularly with Stefan Halper (FBI/CIA), Sir Richard Dearlove (MI-6), and Sir Christopher Andrew (MI-5).
She participated in at least three lecture conferences, all sponsored by her employer and colleagues. Her program and their figureheads were all deeply entrenched in Corpus Christi, Texas as well.
Lokhova attended her first conference in Wales at The 6th biennial CIISS Conference on May 23, 2013.
Flynn’s Russia Trip
Weeks later, in June 2013, Flynn was walking into GRU headquarters in Moscow where he would meet Sergey Kislyak for the first time. A second meeting between the officials was planned for 2014, but was reportedly denied clearance for the meeting by James Clapper after Russia invaded Crimea.
Coincidental with the timeline of the NSA collection of Flynn’s communications at the very end of September, The New Yorker reported in 2017 that,
“Normally, a D.I.A. director serves for three or more years, but, in late 2013, Clapper and Michael Vickers, the Under-Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, were concerned about the tumult inside the agency and told Flynn that his tenure would last just two years. Flynn unsuccessfully tried to extend his term when his successor’s nomination was delayed. Shedd later became the acting director.”
There were even more coincidental timings with Flynn’s career moves, communications, and events to come that correlated with the people who would also soon ensnare him.
Lokhova's next speaking engagement happened two months following the September 30, 2013 NSA-Flynn intercept, in Corpus Christi, Texas, which also coincided with “late 2013” that Clapper raised concern.
Hunter Biden’s Bohai Harvest-RST Partners, or BHR Partners was founded on or around November 1, 2013.
This seminar also highlights that Svetlana Lokhova had access to Russian spy documents in her position at Cambridge, whether herself or through her colleagues.
In attendance at the February 6-8 seminar that Svetlana attended was also a Turkish intelligence historian.
Flynn’s Fall From Grace
By January of 2014, it had already been reported that Flynn's "falling from grace" with the Obama administration had begun, but without any public detail as to why, and the details since have proven scant and subjective.
Michael Flynn had notably been scheduled to speak at a CIS seminar in Corpus Christi on February 28, 2014.
This seminar was intended to be where GRU spies could meet with the top U.S. Military spy, Michael Flynn.
U.S. Intelligence’s Open Secret
One thing was for certain however. Between the date of Flynn’s communications collection and the tentative date for his second appointment with Kislyak and GRU officals, the innards of the Obama administration had heel-turned to damage control without ever uttering a word publicly of the collection.
Unironically, instead of Russian officials meeting directly with Flynn in 2014, another opportunity to connect with Russian intelligence presented itself when, according to Lokhova’s defamation suit against Halper, Cristopher Andrew arranged a dinner between Lokhova and Flynn following a February 2014 conference in the U.K.
(Republication by Virginia Defamation Law Blog)
On April 30, 2014, Lt. General Michael T. Flynn announced his retirement from the Defense Intelligence Agency which would become effective on August 7th, 2014.
Destruction of Direct Evidence - Legally
It’s no surprise that the only copy of the January 24, 2017 FBI Agent Pientka interview of Michael Flynn (without attorneys) was destroyed by Peter Strzok “per FBI protocol” using Pientka’s username and then edited with meticulous intent.
(Image: ClintonFoundationTimeline.com)
RECAP:
Michael Flynn had communications collected on him in 2013 as DIA Director.
It is still unknown who the foreign target of the surveillance was on September 30, 2013.
I could locate no FARA registration or official documentation of the communication with a foreign target that occurred on September 30, 2013 with Michael Flynn.
If these communications with foreign people of interest were not registered nor approved as DIA, then why did the Obama Administration protect Michael Flynn from recourse at all costs, and subsequently, why did four investigations completely skirt this (seemingly) simple piece of information?
Could that be the source for President Trump’s “outlandish” claim that the Obama Administration approved Flynn’s conversations with Russian diplomats?
Is that why James Clapper of all people reacted so harshly to the claim?
Could this explain how multiple government agencies and entire branches of government managed to conveniently ask all the questions except these?
More to come in this story…
Be sure to check out my first attempt at ever assembling an entire song completely solo from start to finish, here… It holds special relevance to this story:
