The highly classified transcript between former National Security Advisor Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn and former Russian Ambassador to the United States Sergey Kislyak would answer once and for all exactly what was said between the then senior government officials. Kislyak’s phone was being monitored by U.S. intelligence but that didn’t stop senior U.S. officials from leaking the conversation to the media. In fact, it was that essence of Flynn’s conversation with Kislyak that eventually led to Flynn being fired from his role as President Donald Trump’s national security advisor.
Knowing exactly what was said could be a game changer. Prosecutors don’t want that to happen. In fact, they argue that the transcripts aren’t essential to Flynn’s prosecution, in which he has already pleaded guilty. Isn’t that interesting, since it was senior government officials who broke the law and leaked the fact to the media that the two had spoken by phone.
Joshua Geltzer, a former Justice Department official told the New York Times, Sunday that intelligence collection “would be a rare step to make public.”
“What you see in today’s filing is the government trying to avoid disclosing that material,” he said.
Interesting, again since it was the government that made it public in the first place.
Shouldn’t prosecutors be more concerned about the fact that government officials, who had access to such highly classified information, be investigated and held accountable for the leak?
Prosecutors made this argument to Federal District Court of Columbia Judge Emmet G. Sullivan late Friday night when they refused to oblige by his court order to have the transcripts released.
Flynn’s conversations with Kislyak occurred in December 2016 and were a turning point for the FBI in its investigation into the Trump campaign at the time. By January, the highly classified conversation, which was obtained by a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant was leaked to The Washington Post. It was followed by more leaks that alleged the campaign was in cahoots with Russia and a plethora of inaccurate stories across cable networks accusing Flynn of being in the pocket of the Russian government.
Of course, now, these allegations have been debunked by four separate investigations, to include Mueller’s own report, which found that no American conspired with Russia in the 2016 presidential election.
