Eavesdropping on Flynn was the legal, obvious intelligence move

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Publication Type: 
Other Writing
Publication Date: 
February 16, 2017

Does the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence understand intelligence gathering?

After all, that committee is charged with oversight over the United States’ vast surveillance bureaucracy. And yet, comments from the chair of the committee, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), suggest that he is unclear on the concept.

This week, President Donald J. Trump’s national security adviser Michael Flynn stepped down amid news that he had discussed U.S. sanctions against Russia with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak before Trump was sworn in as president.

By doing so, Flynn may have violated the Logan Act, a law prohibiting private individuals from talking with a foreign governments in an effort to influence foreign policy contrary to the interests of the United States. Flynn had assured Vice President Mike Pence and others that he had not discussed the sanctions or the incoming Trump administration’s likely position on them with Kislyak.

However, the Washington Post reported that intelligence officials had recorded Flynn’s conversations with the Russian ambassador to the U.S. before Trump took office.

The recordings reportedly contradict Flynn’s reassurances. The man had to go.

Read the full piece at The Hill