The Michael Flynn Fallout Congress should include the leaked transcripts in its Russia probes.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-michael-flynn-fallout-1487117950
Michael Flynn’s resignation as national security adviser is an opportunity for Donald Trump to stabilize his White House operation. But it’s also an opening for Congress to clarify the troubling intelligence machinations over Mr. Flynn’s 2016 campaign contacts with Russia.
Mr. Flynn became a political liability after his account of Dec. 29 phone calls with the Russian ambassador was contradicted by news reports. In his resignation letter, the former intelligence officer said he had given Vice President Mike Pence “incomplete information” about whether he had discussed U.S. sanctions against Russia on these calls.
Initially Mr. Flynn claimed Russian sanctions hadn’t come up in the conversations, and that’s what the Vice President said in defending him on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” But U.S. officials then leaked to the press that transcripts of Mr. Flynn’s phone calls show that sanctions were discussed. “This was an act of trust, whether or not he misled the Vice President was the issue,” White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Tuesday.
Fair enough, if that’s the real reason. But as troubling is the fact that Mr. Flynn may have been targeted for political destruction by intelligence sources inside the government. We wrote Tuesday that the existence of transcripts of Mr. Flynn talking with a foreign official suggests that he may have been the subject of a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA) warrant.
Some media outlets have reported that the FBI requested the warrant as part of the Obama Administration’s investigation into contacts between associates of Mr. Trump and Russian banks. Democrats are now demanding hearings, which they believe will expose more serious and unseemly interactions between Vladimir Putin and the Trump campaign. The House and Senate intelligence committees are already investigating Russian election meddling.
But readers should understand how rare it is for electronic intercepts of a private U.S. citizen—which Mr. Flynn was at the time—to be leaked to the press. The conversations of American citizens are supposed to be protected, lest private reputations be ruined without accountability. So it’s unsettling to read that so many in the government claim to have read the transcripts of Mr. Flynn’s conversations with the Russian ambassador, and then spoke about them to the press.
If these leaks are retribution against Mr. Flynn by an intelligence community aggrieved by Mr. Trump’s negative comments during the campaign, then the White House has a bigger problem than a national-security job opening. It faces a bureaucratic insurrection that can do great damage with other leaks that may or may not include accurate information.
This should also worry civil libertarians who claim to be worried about the surveillance state. Yet the same voices who call Edward Snowden a hero don’t seem concerned about the leaks of these transcripts about Mr. Flynn. They fret about Mr. Trump’s speculative authoritarian menace but don’t want to ask if authoritarian tactics were used against Mr. Flynn.
The House and Senate intelligence committees ought to include any FISA warrants and leaks as part of their probe. Someone—perhaps the President—should declassify any FISA order request and the Flynn transcripts if they don’t harm other reputations.
As for Mr. Flynn’s successor, the White House is floating the names of three retired military officers, including David Petraeus, who would be first-rate. But Mr. Trump may benefit from taking some time to consider what he really wants in that job.
He already has military voices in his councils and perhaps he should consider other points of view. He needs someone who understands strategy, not merely tactics; who has the strength and experience to impose some discipline on the NSC; and who will be an honest broker who will give Mr. Trump genuine policy choices. Former diplomat John Bolton could also do the job. Better for Mr. Trump to take his time and get it right rather than make a hasty pick he might later regret.
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