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A TIMELINE OF THE TRUMP UNDERLINGS: Michael T. Flynn

    A thought came to me last week: In the mind's eye, observing the Presidency of Donald Trump is like watching a train wreck in slow motion—one frame of motion picture film at a time.

     We can expect at least one cheap thrill a day from the present administration, because Donald Trump is the greatest narcissist since Narcissus. He demands that the spotlight be on him during every second. In this never-ending story of seeking constant adoration, Trump surrounds himself with a core group of supporting actors who are similar to our president in many ways. When I was a child at my mother's knee, we called such people "flunkies."
 

Above, is a headshot of retired Lt. General Michael T. Flynn, the first member of President Trump's closest circle to be arrested and far from the sharpest pin in the pegboard. He is said to be an embarrassment to former comrades in arms.

July, 2012 —Flynn was appointed director of the Defense Intelligence Agency by President Obama and served in that capacity until a forced retirement was dictated by Army regulations in 2014.

Dec 2, 2015—It is known that Flynn met with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak at Kislyak's Washington residence, months after Flynn's first meeting with Donald Trump.

Dec 24, 2015 —Perhaps it had to do with his attending  at a gala thrown by state-owned Russian TV, dining at the same table alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin, and being paid $67,000-large by various Russian companies for his "public relations" visit to Russia that included a speech. Flynn was also on the payroll of a Dutch public relations firm that was acting on behalf of the Turkish government at the time.

    Flynn failed to register with the U.S. Justice Department as being an agent for a foreign government until much later (March 8, 2017), after his house of cards began to collapse. But, if ever Russia wanted to breach U.S. Intelligence, Flynn was the number one target. Putin, the old KGB-GRU operative, apparently took on the chore himself.

    During the election campaign, Flynn delighted in introducing Trump to enthusiastic supporters and leading the chant of "Lock her up" at the mention of Hillary Clinton's name.

....and then came an inane tweetfest, now known as "Pizzagate"

December 6, 2016—Talk about Fake News: President Trump fired Michael T. Flynn's son, Michael G. Flynn, from his transition team, for sending tweets that accused Hillary Clinton and her campaign manager of running a child sex ring out of a Washington pizza parlor. I'm not capable of expressing how incredibly stupid this tactic was. Innocent people came close to being killed by a well-meaning patriot who came to the pizza parlor armed with his assault rifle, bent on rescuing children from pedophiles. Luckily for everyone, he turned out to be a poor marksman. 

Jan 1, 2017—Someone in the transition team needs to be blamed for performing a poor job of vetting Flynn. During the transition, he was named Special assistant to President Trump for National Security Affairs.

Twenty-four days into the new administration, it was revealed that Flynn had been discussing the raising of sanctions against Russia with Ambassador Kislyak. The calls had been recorded by the FBI. Flynn denied making them when interviewed by an agent for the FBI.  Without a doubt, this has to be the one thing he most regrets doing, before falling into a troubled sleep every night.

December 29, 2017—Flynn pleaded guilty in Federal Court of lying to the FBI and promised full cooperation with Special Counsel Mueller's investigators. He was not fired by President Trump until two weeks later.

     In a private meeting with then FBI Director James Comey that followed a scheduled meeting concerned with counter-terrorism, the President dismissed all others at the confab, including Justice Department Secretary Sessions and Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, after which, according to James Comey, the President is quoted by Comey as saying "I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go."

    Trump now insists that he never said any such thing to Comey.

  Phil Richardson, Observer of the Human Condition and Aggregator: A website or person that collects relative items of context from a variety of sources.

"He goes doddering on into his old age, making a public nuisance of himself."—Joseph Menchen

Our unending thanks to Jim Bromley, who programs our Archive of Prior Commentaries

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