The problem with prosecuting leakers in open court is that it will always require revealing more information than the government wants to release.

In this particular case, the substance of the leak is that a private citizen made a phone call to the Russian Ambassador. Good luck with that one.

 

Wrong, the prosecutor can and will use evidence already made public.

 

Try The Weekly World News.

 

But of course, if this were Hillary, you be calling for her assassination. But hey, everything is ok because these are rightwingers.

 

As I said, good luck with that.

The leaks that are plaguing the Trump Administration are office gossip. He can bluster and spit and threaten all he likes, but there's nothing he can do about it. Gossip has always been a part of Trump's professional life since he had a public image. Now, it's biting him on the ass and he doesn't know what to do. In the past, he threatened to sue if he didn't like a news story. That never intimidated anyone then, and it won't now.

 

This was not leaked "office gossip". It was a private telephone conversation that was secretly recorded by an American intelligence agency and was considered highly classified. Who ever leaked the information about the conversation to the Washington Post committed a felony. The Post reporter, David Ignatius committed a felony when he published the classified material.

Do you really think there will be no repercussions over this and all involved will get a free pass?

 

Let me point out again a very simple question. If there was any truth to M4M's OP why isn't Flynn going to the right wing press and screaming his head off?

Because there is no truth to what M4M posted. That's why.

And another thing that needs to be pointed out is Trump and his team has done a lot of blustering towards Iran but the one thing neither Trump nor anyone on his team has done is threaten to end the Iran nuclear deal. In fact the most Trump has said since becoming president is its a bad deal but will have to stand.

But there is another thing that is actually hilarious. And that is all the news outlets that are re-running clips of all the times Trump praised leaks about Hillary Clinton during the campaign. Especially praising Wikileaks and Russia for the leaks.

Trump loved leaks and leakers back then. Now not so much.

 

You got nothing. The actual text of the phone call maybe classified, but you can't classify the knowledge that a phone call was made. That's like saying, "There's a safe at the CIA and it's full of classified material."

I do really think we won't see any Congressional Committees investigating anything, this term. They've got a new rule about it.

 

Now let's get this straight. It's the media's fault - well, sort of. They treated Flynn unfairly by publishing the information they received unofficially from the White House. They did this all because Hillary lost the election and she rigged the voting to win the popular vote (voter fraud, but if she had that kind of power how could she lose the election). So you see, bottom line is that Flynn never would have spoken to Russia, never would have lied by omission, never would have been caught and never would have resigned if Hillary hadn't lost the election.

See? It's simple.

 

This evening on the radio show WRKO-Boston, the executive producer conducted a live interview with the Free Beacon journalist who authored the OP story.

He stands by the story and provided lots of background detail and remarks about the information gathering process. So I started to look deeper, and I haven't found anything to undermine the story's credibility.

I see a lot of ad hominem attacks against the author and impeachment of the source, but I don't see anyone providing any rebuttals to the story on its substance and merits.

Regrettably I still have Distant Lover on ignore. No doubt if I could see him posting here, he would be pointing out the argumentative and logical fallacies on this thread (ad hominem fallacy and impeachment of source). No doubt he would also be taking many people here to task for the vitriolic zeal with which they hope their president will fail.

Hmm. Should I take him off ignore, just to see how fair and balanced he is, after eight years of upbraiding people for hoping for Obama's failure?

Then again... maybe not....

 

The only reason the public learned about Flynn’s "phone call" is because someone inside the U.S. government violated the criminal law by leaking the contents of Flynn’s intercepted communications.

In the spectrum of crimes involving the leaking of classified information, publicly revealing the contents of SIGINT — signals intelligence — is one of the most serious felonies. Journalists (and all other nongovernmental citizens) can be prosecuted under federal law for disclosing classified information only under the narrowest circumstances; reflecting how serious SIGINT is considered to be, one of those circumstances includes leaking the contents of intercepted communications, as defined this way by 18 § 798 of the U.S. Code: Whoever knowingly and willfully communicates … or otherwise makes available to an unauthorized person, or publishes … any classified information … obtained by the processes of communication intelligence from the communications of any foreign government … shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both.

 

Can YOU say "Crazy Town"?


Dem launches panel to review presidential removal procedures

2/15/17

Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) on Wednesday launched a working group to review the Constitution’s 25th Amendment, which outlines how a sitting president can be removed from office.

Blumenauer said he became concerned about the amendment's potential shortcomings after growing worried over President Trump’s behavior.

He pointed to Trump's claim that there was sunny weather during his inauguration when, in fact, it rained. Trump and his aides have also repeatedly issued baseless claims about the inauguration’s crowd size and voter fraud in the presidential election.

“Like many people, I’ve noticed renewed interest in the 25th Amendment, as we’ve seen erratic behavior out of the White House and inability of Donald Trump to even tell whether it rained on him during his inaugural speech and repeating false statements that are demonstrably wrong,” Blumenauer said in a House floor speech.

------------------------------

Hey Earl, how many times was the lie repeated, "If you like it, you can keep it. PERIOD!!!!"?????? He knew it was a lie.

 

Now I have told you before that watching Fox News makes you stupid and ignorant and those are two different things. There is no law against news outlets publishing and/or broadcasting classified material.

http://www.acslaw.org/acsblog/hlpr-...secuted-for-publishing-classified-information

And now you just keep lying. Not only can't the Washington Post or its reporter be prosecuted there was no leak of classified material. What was leaked was the fact that the DOJ went to Trump and his team and told them Flynn was lying about his phone call with the Russian ambassador and that could make him vulnerable to Russian blackmail.

 

I just can't believe at how naive you people are. It really is unbelievable...

 

Well there are many who can't believe Trump supporters are so set on keeping their blinders on, still
looking through rose colored glasses, and refusing to accept the realities as they are unfolding.

When they realize that they're drowning in the Trump rhetoric that they once were enamored with,
they'll at some point, be begging for someone to throw them a life ring.

Yours is ready and waiting for you by the way. All you have to do is ask!

 

no matter how loud Trump shouts, or protests about leaks etc, Flynn went because he broke the law and then lied about it. Trump knew but didn't care, once found out he blamed everyone , but himself. He is a typical bully who has got away with everything- until now. Sadly he managed to be elected President of the US, SOMETHING THAT THE REST OF THE WORLD IS GOING TO HAVE TO LIVE WITH FOR A WHILE- HOPE HE DOESNT CAUSE A WORLD WAR THROUGH HIS BAD JUDGEMENT

 

+1

While they whip each other into a frenzy over this non-story, life goes on and the business of the nation is still being done.

All day they did happy dances over Mike Flynn.

Meanwhile the United States and Israel moved definitively toward the solving the Palestinian problem for the first time in decades by abandoning the two state doctrine.

Ten threads on Flynn, topped by a thread about some dumb fashion show. And none of the bobbleheads know or care about the meetings with Israel.

 

It's a non story that Trumps trusted advisor had committed treason?

 

Treason? Well, geeze. That would be a story. If it were the story.