Is Mueller about to frog march Michael Flynn — or is something else playing out?
If this report from NBC’s Ken Dilanean, Carol Lee, and Julia Ainsley is any indication, the answer is that unless Flynn Sr. cuts a deal immediately, it’s probably a big, big yes:
Federal investigators have gathered enough evidence to bring charges in their investigation of President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser and his son as part of the probe into Russia’s intervention in the 2016 election, according to multiple sources familiar with the investigation.
Michael T. Flynn, who was fired after just 24 days on the job, was one of the first Trump associates to come under scrutiny in the federal probe now led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller into possible collusion between Moscow and the Trump campaign.
Mueller is applying renewed pressure on Flynn following his indictment of Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, three sources familiar with the investigation told NBC News.
And the whole Russian connections thing is not Flynn’s only problem:
Mueller’s team is also examining whether Flynn attempted to orchestrate the removal of a chief rival of Turkish President Recep Erdogan from the U.S. to Turkey in exchange for millions of dollars, two officials said.
It is surprising that the press hasn’t considered that Flynn’s effort to help an autocrat snatch his most popular and powerful critic from American asylum could actually be a bigger problem than the Russia mess.
NBC’s report follows on this report published late yesterday by The Inquisitr:
Michael Flynn could be turning on Donald Trump, with a report that the former national security adviser is now cooperating with investigators in the probe of Russian collusion during the 2016 presidential election. …
Flynn could now be turning against Trump and other former campaign ofiicials. Claude Taylor, a former White House staffer under Bill Clinton and now an independent journalist reporting on the Russia investigation on Twitter, has claimed that Flynn has now become a cooperating witness in the investigation. Though Taylor has come under scrutiny for what at times appear to be outlandish claims regarding the Russia investigation, he has also been ahead of a number of stories, [having broken] news about sealed indictments and the investigation centering on Jared Kushner.
At the top of the 11amEST hour of MSNBC’s AM Joy, Ken Dilanean said that the story is “in flux” and it indicates that both Flynn’s lawyers and Mueller’s team are maneuvering toward a resolution — either indictment or a deal.
There has also been a development on the Paul Manafort/Rick Gates front; it seems the latter indcitee and cheeky monkey somehow “forgot” to disclose that he too has multiple passports:
Rick Gates failed to disclose he had a second passport until three days after he surrendered to face charges with Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman that they hid their work as agents of Ukraine and laundered millions of dollars, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors for Special Counsel Robert Mueller cited that omission as one of several reasons they oppose Gates’s request to ease his bail terms, which confine him to his home in Richmond, Virginia, with electronic monitoring. Gates asked the judge to end the monitoring and allow him to travel around the U.S. and internationally.
The prosecutors said Gates’s lawyers didn’t tell them until Thursday about the second passport, even though he represented that he only had one when he pleaded not guilty in federal court in Washington on Monday.
Gates’s lawyers said in their request Thursday that he would be surrendering an additional passport, which had been pending, as well as another travel document.
Rick, Rick, Rick! That’s not going to go down well with Bob Mueller.
