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The Truth Campaign

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If you’re inclined to feel sorry for General Flynn, don’t.

18 U.S.C. § 219(a) provides that:

Whoever, being a public official, is or acts as an agent of a foreign principal required to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938 or a lobbyist required to register under the Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 in connection with the representation of a foreign entity, as defined in section 3(6) of that Act shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for not more than two years, or both.

Emphasis added.

A retired military officer is a “public official” for the purposes of 18 U.S.C. § 219.  See here at footnote 5.

Now, read the indictment of Bijan Rafiekian, a/k/a “Bijan Kian” and Kamil Ekim Alptekin.  As you do, recognize that “Person A” is General Flynn.

Then remember that this is the same individual who led a mob-like crowd to shout about the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party, a former Secretary of State, “Lock her up!”

(BTW, the “Truth Campaign” was the original working title for the campaign that Flynn et al. were working on for the Turkish government.  The name of the campaign was later changed to “Operation Confidence.”)

Comments

    • Well, it makes sense, doesn’t it? You can’t be a public official of more than one country at a time, after all. There’s that whole oath to the Constitution and all. And as a retired flag officer, he should have known that he’s under strict rules, e.g. from Vox:https://www.vox.com/world/2017/4/27/15452168/michael-flynn-law

      Flynn’s new problems don’t stop there. Cummings also released a 2014 letter in which the Pentagon explicitly warned Flynn that there were restrictions on what he could accept — even as a retired officer — from a foreign government. Flynn, the Defense Department said, was barred from accepting money, gifts, or travel “unless congressional consent is first obtained.”

      I remember reading that more-or-less all business dealings of retired flag-rank officers must be pre-approved by the DoD, or something like that.

    • Heck, the “Oath of Naturalization” required me (when I was 17) to forsake all other allegiances, or some such. I’m not going to look it up, and there’s all this sharp lawyering about whether or not it allows people to be citizens of other nations also, but the “plain reading to an educated layman” is that when you naturalize as an American, you give up any others, period.

      I should think that as a nation, we should -want- our allegiances to be jealous.

  2. Flynn also lied about not being a foreign agent while contracted for $600,000 to be one for Erdogan. The contract stipulated that he would work to deliver Gulen to Turkey, even though Gulen had been cleared of any extradictable offense. The guy is a complete low-life, as are the people in the White House who kept him on as National Security head knowing he was compromised. I hate to say it, but I suspect that Flynn is getting off in return for his services as a former member of the Deep State and keeping quiet about that crowd, which includes some on the Mueller team and their friends. No clean hands in this affair.

    • Wasn’t there something about Flynn being involved in a plot to kidnap Gulen and drag him out of the country? That sounds less like “unregistered foreign agent” and a lot more like “conspiracy to commit kidnapping.”

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