White House reveals another Flynn meeting with the Russian ambassador

Matthew Yglesias · Thursday, March 02, 2017, 5:28 pm

This one featured Jared Kushner too.

Michael Flynn has already resigned as national security adviser after having misled the public and members of the Trump administration about talks he held during the transition with Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak.

And with Attorney General Jeff Sessions in the news after making apparently false statements about his own meetings with Kislyak and recusing himself from further investigations into contacts between Trumpworld and Russia, the Trump administration is now disclosing an additional meeting. This one featured Kislyak, Flynn, and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, and was first reported by the New York Times:

Michael T. Flynn, then Donald J. Trump’s incoming national security adviser, had a previously undisclosed meeting with the Russian ambassador in December to “establish a line of communication” between the new administration and the Russian government, the White House said on Thursday.

Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law and now a senior adviser, also participated in the meeting at Trump Tower with Mr. Flynn and Sergey I. Kislyak, the Russian ambassador. But among Mr. Trump’s inner circle, it is Mr. Flynn who appears to have been the main interlocutor with the Russian envoy — the two were in contact during the campaign and the transition, Mr. Kislyak and current and former American officials have said.

It’s not at all inappropriate or unusual for members of a presidential transition’s national security team to meet with representatives of a foreign government. It is highly unusual for a president’s son-in-law to be considered a key member of the national security team, especially when the son-in-law in question has no experience in government, diplomacy, or military affairs.

Such, however, is the way of the Trump administration.

Read more
http://www.vox.com/2017/3/2/14795758/flynn-kushner-kislyak