Kushner directed Flynn to lobby foreign officials over U.N. vote: report

[DonViejo]

Source: The Hill




BY JOHN BOWDEN - 01/05/18 11:45 AM EST

President Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner directed former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn to lobby foreign officials ahead of a December 2016 U.N. vote that condemned Israeli settlements, according to several people familiar with the efforts.

Flynn's guilty plea in December stated that a “a very senior member of the Presidential Transition Team” “directed Flynn” during the transition period to “influence those governments to delay the vote or defeat the resolution." That "very senior member" was in fact Kushner, according to The Wall Street Journal's sources.

The lobbying efforts failed, and in December of 2016 the U.N. voted to condemn a new wave of Israeli settlements as a "flagrant violation" of international law with "no legal validity."

Flynn plead guilty in December to lying to FBI investigators over his contact with the foreign officials over the U.N. vote during the transition, and entered a plea agreement with prosecutors from Robert Mueller's special counsel office.

Read more: http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/367602-kushner-directed-flynn-to-lobby-foreign-officials-over-un-vote-report

[Phoenix61]

1. Drip, drip, drip

Dang Meuller's good. Glad I'm not on his list.

[UpInArms]

2. Moving this back up for exposure

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

3. K & FuckingR!!!! nt

[ProudProgressiveNow]

4. K&R nt

[WheelWalker]

5. Kicked and recommended

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. Since Obama's administration abstained on the vote, I'm not sure how important this is

https://www.un.org/press/en/2016/sc12657.doc.htm

If they'd been lobbying to oppose what the US government said, it'd be serious. But since Obama sat on the fence, I can't see this as being a "gotcha" moment.

Edit to add: you can get past the firewall for the WSJ article by following the link from their tweet:

Link to tweet

[karynnj]

7. The US abstaining meant the resolution passed - which is what the US wanted

If it was nothing, why was there a HUGE reaction against President Obama and Secretary Kerry by the Israel hawks, Netanyahu and the evangelicals?

You could argue that had the Obama administration could have taken a STRONGER position and voted for the resolution that - in essence - was standard US policy and had been written to meet the definition of what we would allow to pass. I suspect that allowing this resolution to pass - and even more John Kerry's speech - was done because they wanted to get their position - for the two state solution and the danger of more and more settlements completely on the record ... knowing that it was not a politically popular thing to do. (In Kerry's case, I consider that speech at what is likely to be the end of his most prominent position to be a bookend with his 1971 speech at the other side. Both heart felt, both controversial, and both speaking truth.) I think the US (non orthodox) Jewish, US liberal etc position of being for a two state solution was very sincere, even as it became increasing less likely. I heard Kerry saying there was a narrow window, that was closing to achieve this as far back as 2004. There were many articles in the Haaretz, the US Jewish press, and in some mainstream media in 2014, after the talks failed and as there was another war with Gaza saying that liberal zionism, which is essentially based on a real two state solution, was dead. I think that resolution -and that talk - was intended as the last gasp of arguing that that was the best thing to do. It was a desperate plea.

[BumRushDaShow]

8. Potential Logan Act violation.

[Volaris]

9. First of all,

Who the fuck on that team thought that Kushner would have the authority to tell anybody to do anything (let alone flynn..If that were me I'd have told his inlaw ass to go get bent).
Secondarily to that, what they couldn't wait a whole month to start wrecking the joint LEGALLY?

[NastyRiffraff]

10. Wow.

It's going down. Who knows what else Flynn has to say? He's probably spilled all of it to Mueller already.

[meow2u3]

11. K&R for exposure of yet another potential crime

[floppyboo]

12. Collusion with Israel has been long overlooked - about time!

This isn't new news, not for Kushner et al but going back administrations. Hopefully collusion and pay back with this foreign power will get the attention it deserves.

[2naSalit]

13. Surprise, surprise, surprise....nt

[pecosbob]

14. Looks like prima facie Logan Act violation to me, but then I'm not a lawyer

[RandomAccess]

15. I hope it at least galled him to be taking orders

from the likes of Kushner.

[dalton99a]

16. President's son-in-law directed National Security Adviser to do something

No, nothing wrong with that picture