A major scandal involving Mr. Michael Flynn, the former National Security Adviser who resigned Monday, and a Russian ambassador to the U.S. has besmirched an already tumultuous White House. Responses to it from Republicans, who wield the power as the majority in the House and Senate, don’t come close to equaling the severity of the incident. Mr. Flynn, a close adviser to the then-President-elect, spoke to a Russian ambassador about potentially lifting sanctions imposed on the country by outgoing President Mr. Barack Obama due to Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election.
The Justice Department, which at the time was led by Acting Attorney General Sally Yates, told the White House last month that Mr. Flynn, who denied speaking to the ambassador about sanctions, had misled them about his communications and was susceptible to being blackmailed by the Russians due to the deception of his superiors. Vice President Mr. Mike Pence on television was a staunch defendant of Mr. Flynn, who eventually lost the trust of the former Indiana Governor, reports say. In his resignation letter, the disgraced military man said he had inadvertently briefed the VP and others with incomplete information.
It’s been questioned as to why. If the White House did indeed know that Mr. Flynn had been compromised a month ago, why was he still given the access that came with his position. Mrs. Kellyanne Conway wouldn’t say when or if her boss was actually notified of Mr. Flynn’s perceived duplicity. It’s also unclear whether Mr. Flynn was actually acting on behalf of Mr. Trump.
So many answers are needed post-Flynn’s resignation, yet so few Republicans, the President included, are asking the right questions. Speaker of the House Mr. Paul Ryan laid the responsibility of disclosure and transparency at the feet of the Trump administration, but Mr. Trump, and other Republicans, as of Wednesday seemed to prioritize investigating the leaks from the White House to the news media, not Mr. Flynn.
“I want to hear from the FBI as to how this got out. We don’t even known if this is true. We just known this from press reporters,” Rep. Devin Nunes of California, who chairs the Intelligence Committee, said.
Mr. Trump, in a tweet, said “the real story” is why so many “illegal leaks” are coming out of Washington.
The Democrats have taken the opposite tone, calling for investigations into contacts made both during and after the campaign between Mr. Trump’s aides and Russia.
A joint statement released by Rep. John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Elijah E. Cummings of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the House Committee, said Congress needs to know who authorized Mr. Flynn’s actions, permitted them and “continued to let him have access to our most sensitive national security information despite knowing these risks.” The statement also said disclosed should be anyone else in the White House that is a “current and ongoing risk to our national security.”
Senator Elizabeth Warren has called for a bipartisan inquiry into Russia and warned that Mr. Flynn’s controversy shouldn’t overshadow the Trump administration’s “disturbing ties to Russia.”
I am of the opinion that whatever can be made public about this incident, and more broadly the relationship between Mr. Trump and Russia, should absolutely be disclosed. The findings should spark the necessary actions, if applicable, even if that action is impeachment. For the many times Russia and Trump are mentioned together in a controversial sentence, a coincidence is not sufficient enough to explain it.
Mr. Trump and his administration, absent of Mr. Flynn, deserve the presumption of innocence, but ignore we shouldn’t the presence of probable cause, which requires us to observe more closely and probe more aggressively. The public has not only the right to know, but a right to know more than they know now. If Mrs. Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server put the country at risk and warranted hearings, investigations and chants of “lock her up,” then Mr. Flynn’s behavior deserves that and then some.
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