November 30, 2017 / by emptywheel

 

On the Jared and Flynn Stories

Amid reports that Mike Flynn is flipping like a pancake, CNN reported (in addition to a report that Mueller’s team canceled a grand jury appearance for former Flynn business associates) that Jared Kushner was asked a bunch of questions about Flynn in an interview earlier this month.

Before reading the details CNN provides, however, consider this line in the story:

It’s not clear that this is the only time that Kushner will meet with the special counsel’s team.

That is, the subtext here is that, even as Mueller’s team preps a plea deal with Flynn, he’s well aware that he remains a key target in conjunction with Flynn events, and may get hauled back before Mueller’s team for all the other stuff. Effectively, they were locking in Kushner’s testimony — including, presumably, about what kind of permission/instructions Flynn had to engage in the corrupt foreign deals he was pushing — from Kushner and his pop-in-law before flipping Flynn.

So here’s how CNN describes the Flynn questions:

Mueller’s team specifically asked Kushner about former national security advisor Michael Flynn, who is under investigation by the special counsel, two sources said. Flynn was the dominant topic of the conversation, one of the sources said.

[snip]

The conversation lasted less than 90 minutes, one person familiar with the meeting said, adding that Mueller’s team asked Kushner to clear up some questions he was asked by lawmakers and details that emerged through media reports. One source said the nature of this conversation was principally to make sure Kushner doesn’t have information that exonerates Flynn.

The meeting took place around the same time the special counsel asked witnesses about Kushner’s role in the firing of former FBI Director James Comey and his relationship with Flynn, these people said.

That means, as we speak, Flynn is providing his side of this story, and explaining why Jared was so intent on firing Mueller because Mueller was actively investigating Flynn.

As I’ve long said, you get to Jared through Flynn. It seems like Jared’s team is now hoping he gets a second chance at testimony before he gets busted himself.

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Originally Posted @ https://www.emptywheel.net/2017/11/30/on-the-jared-and-flynn-stories/