MESSAGE
| DATE | 2020-05-30 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
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| SUBJECT | Subject: [Hangout - NYLXS] Man Bites Dogs - FBI - GUILTY
|
https://www.wsj.com/articles/intelligence-chief-declassifies-transcripts-of-calls-between-michael-flynn-and-then-russian-ambassador-11590785234
wsj.com
Transcripts of Michael Flynn’s Calls With Russian Ambassador Released
Dustin Volz and Aruna Viswanatha
9-12 minutes
WASHINGTON—Michael Flynn urged Russia’s ambassador during the 2016
presidential transition to refrain from escalating a standoff over
sanctions levied by the outgoing Obama administration, according to a
transcript of a conversation that led to Mr. Flynn’s firing as national
security adviser.
The record of the Dec. 29, 2016 call, released Friday along with
transcripts of other conversations between Mr. Flynn and then-Ambassador
Sergey Kislyak that were intercepted by U.S. intelligence agencies,
confirm earlier reports of an episode that helped cloud the beginning of
the Trump administration and fueled aspects of the Russia probe led by
special counsel Robert Mueller.
The transcripts, lightly redacted and dating from December 2016 to
January 2017, were accompanied by summaries of the calls written up in
U.S. intelligence reports.
Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe sent the declassified
material to members of Congress. Sen. Ron Johnson (R., Wis.), the
chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs
Committee, released them. Mr. Ratcliffe was sworn in as the intelligence
director on Monday.
Mr. Flynn resigned weeks into his tenure over his conflicting statements
about those calls and later pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about
them. Mr. Flynn asked in January to withdraw his guilty plea and the
Justice Department this month moved to drop the charge.
The released transcripts include a conversation from Dec. 29, 2016, in
which Mr. Flynn urged Mr. Kislyak to convey to the Kremlin his hope that
Moscow would moderate its reaction to sanctions levied by outgoing
President Obama that were imposed in response to Russian election
interference.
“They’re gonna dismiss some number of Russians out of the country, I
understand all that and I understand that,” Mr. Flynn said. “But what I
would ask Russia to do is to not—is—is—if anything—because I know you
have to have some sort of action—to, to only make it reciprocal. Make it
reciprocal. Don’t—don’t make it—don’t go any further than you have to.
Because I don’t want us to get into something that has to escalate, on
a, you know, on a tit for tat. You follow me, Ambassador?”
Democrats have pointed to Mr. Flynn’s conversation with Mr. Kislyak as
evidence of possible collusion and interference in international
affairs, justifying the Mueller probe, while Republicans see it as a
normal national security pursuit by a new official who was then unfairly
targeted.
A lawyer for Mr. Flynn, Sidney Powell, said the transcripts showed there
was “nothing wrong at all with Gen. Flynn’s conversations with the
ambassador.”
“He should be applauded for asking for cooler heads to prevail and
trying to keep things on an even keel—encouraging the mutual interest of
Russia and the United States in stability in the Middle East and
fighting radical Islam,” Ms. Powell said.
In his 2017 guilty plea, Mr. Flynn admitted that he falsely told the FBI
that he didn’t ask the ambassador to refrain from escalating the
situation, or that he didn’t remember any follow-up conversation in
which the ambassador told him that Russia had moderated its response
based on Mr. Flynn’s request.
A transcript of the follow-up conversation, dated Dec. 31, 2016, also
was released Friday. “I just wanted to tell you that our conversation
was also taken into account in Moscow and…Your proposal that we need to
act with cold heads, uh, is exactly what is uh, invested in the
decision,” Mr. Kislyak told Mr. Flynn, adding, “We are hoping within two
weeks we will be able to start working in more constructive way,”
according to the transcript.
After hearing about Russia’s decision to limit its reaction, Mr. Flynn
responded: “Good.”
The transcripts were provided to Republican and Democratic members of
Congress who had requested their release after former acting Director of
National Intelligence Richard Grenell made public a list of Obama
administration officials who had been granted permission to see Mr.
Flynn’s identity in intelligence reports collected by the National
Security Agency. The officials who requested the reports were authorized
to receive them, according to NSA officials.
Much of the conversations show Mr. Flynn discussing plans for engagement
with Moscow after the presidential transition, with a desire to work
closely on areas of mutual geopolitical interest, including in the
Middle East. In the released transcripts, Mr. Flynn didn’t address with
Mr. Kislyak allegations of Russia’s efforts to hack into Democrats’
emails and release them during the 2016 election.
On one call, Mr. Flynn discussed the common threat of the Islamic State
extremist group, suggesting that the U.S.-Russia coordination could help
defeat a “common enemy.”
The Dec. 29 call also shows how Mr. Kislyak pushed to set up a “secure
video line” for Mr. Trump to use to communicate with Russian President
Vladimir Putin after his inauguration.
“And our proposal is to have the conversation on the twenty first (of
January 2017) between our Presidents,” Mr. Kislyak says. “And the idea
of Mr. Putin is first of all to congratulate uh, your President-Elect or
the President, at the time, and maybe to discuss small number, briefly,
of issues that are on our agenda.”
In moving to drop the criminal case against Mr. Flynn, the Justice
Department has argued that the transcripts didn’t show Mr. Flynn to be
engaged in criminal activity, and that the FBI didn’t have a proper
reason to interview Mr. Flynn about the phone calls.
The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Adam Schiff (D.,
Calif.) said he believed the transcripts showed that the FBI was right
to question Mr. Flynn, because Mr. Flynn’s public statements about the
calls were at odds with what the transcripts showed.
“As a result of lying to both the FBI and the vice president, Flynn
posed a severe counterintelligence risk because the Russians knew the
real contents of Flynn’s communications and that he lied about them to
the some of the most senior officials in the U.S. government,” Mr.
Schiff said.
He added that Mr. Flynn’s calls showed that he was “trying to mute the
Russian reaction to sanctions imposed by the Obama administration” in
response to Russian government interference that sought to help Mr.
Trump win.
Sen. Charles Grassley (R., Iowa), a leading Senate Republican, said the
transcripts show Mr. Flynn did nothing wrong.
“Lt. Gen. Flynn, his legal team, the judge and the American people can
now see with their own eyes—for the first time—that all of the innuendo
about Lt. Gen. Flynn this whole time was totally bunk,” Mr. Grassley
said. “There was nothing improper about his call, and the FBI knew it.”
Mr. Johnson said he released the transcripts to the public “because the
American people have a right to know what did and did not occur,”
regarding Mr. Flynn’s conversations with Mr. Kislyak. He also said he
would continue to investigate the matter.
“This is an important step in my committee’s ongoing investigation of
the apparent flurry of ‘unmasking’ of U.S. persons affiliated with the
Trump campaign and transition teams by numerous members of President
Obama’s administration.”
Calls between Mr. Flynn and other foreign officials during the
presidential transition weren’t released Friday. Most of the unmasking
requests disclosed earlier this month were made before Mr. Flynn’s Dec.
29 call with Mr. Kislyak and appeared to involve officials not focused
on Russia policy.
An Office of the Director of National Intelligence official wouldn’t
comment on the possible release by Mr. Ratcliffe of additional transcripts.
Unmasking U.S. identities in intelligence reports occurs thousands of
times annually, according to statistics maintained by the ODNI. Current
and former intelligence officials have described the practice as a
routine activity undertaken by national security officials in all
administrations.
The rate of unmasking has increased during the Trump administration,
surging in 2018 by 75% over the previous year, according to statistics
released by the intelligence community. Officials have attributed the
rise in part to a need to identify U.S. businesses targeted by foreign
hacking, and the rate fell in 2019 to become consistent with earlier years.
Key Excerpts From the Flynn-Kislyak Transcript
“They’re gonna dismiss some number of Russians out of the country, I
understand all that ... But what I would ask Russia to do is to
not—is—is—if anything—because I know you have to have some sort of
action—to, to only make it reciprocal. Make it reciprocal. Don’t—don’t
make it—don’t go any further than you have to.”
—Mr. Flynn, Dec. 29, 2016
“And then what we can do is, when we come in, we can then have a better
conversation about where, where we’re gonna go, uh, regarding uh,
regarding our relationship.”
—Mr. Flynn, later during the call on Dec. 29, 2016
“Your proposal that we need to act with cold heads is exactly what is
invested in the decision ... And I just wanted to tell you that we found
that these actions have targeted not only against Russia, but also
against the president elect.”
—Mr. Kislyak, Dec. 31, 2016
Write to Dustin Volz at dustin.volz-at-wsj.com and Aruna Viswanatha at
Aruna.Viswanatha-at-wsj.com
Copyright ©2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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