by Margaret Kimberley, published on Black Agenda Report, May 20, 2020
Obama’s fans like to think of the First Black President as scholarly and above the fray of dirty politics, but he appears to have conspired with the FBI to set up the incoming administration.
“Trump’s twitter rants about what he calls Obamagate are in fact accurate.”
Donald Trump is a vile racist and a con man. He always hated Barack Obama and he led the “birther” effort in an attempt to prove that the president was not born in the United States. Trump’s animus towards Obama is obviously racial.
But like the proverbial broken clock, Trump is sometimes right. His twitter rants about what he calls Obamagate are in fact accurate. During the 2016 presidential campaign and after his surprise Electoral College victory, he and his associates were under surveillance by the FBI. FBI Director James Comey set up National Security Adviser Michael Flynn to be prosecuted for lying to federal agents. It is likely that Obama, vice president Joe Biden and other staff were involved in the plan to destabilize a new presidential administration.
Michael Flynn lies at the heart of the Obamagate scandal. Flynn was an army lieutenant general who served in Afghanistan and Iraq and held positions in the Bush, Obama and Trump administrations. He is among those defense and intelligence agency operatives who prove that the deep state and the military industrial complex are quite bipartisan. The Flynns of the world are in the Washington revolving door and appear in top positions whether Democrats or Republicans are in office.
“FBI Director James Comey set up National Security Adviser Michael Flynn to be prosecuted for lying to federal agents.”
His exit from the Obama administration was not voluntary. Flynn was pushed out of his position as Director of National Intelligence in 2014 when he dared to be truthful about intervention in Syria. He knew that the “moderate rebels” narrative was a lie and that the U.S. proxies in Syria were jihadists from groups like ISIS and the al-Qaeda linked al-Nusra front. Flynn was right of course but his candor got him into trouble and he retired from the army. Like so many people in that line of work he then began consulting, that is to say lobbying, on behalf of corporations and foreign governments.
The investigation of Trump known as Crossfire Hurricane began in 2016 when the presidential campaign was still underway. There was never any evidence of Trump campaign involvement with the Russian government. The only collusion was carried out by U.S. intelligence assets in the United Kingdom. The cloak and dagger took place with allies, not the Russian bogeymen.
Known intelligence operatives in the U.K., Stefan Halper and a mysterious professor known as Joseph Mifsud ensnared George Papadopoulos, a low level Trump campaign volunteer, into a trap. They used another U.S. ally, an Australian diplomat, who claimed to have heard Papadopoulos speak of Russian connections.
“The only collusion was carried out by U.S. intelligence assets in the United Kingdom.”
Meanwhile, the Democratic National Committee paid former British spy Christopher Steele for a dossier which was full of salacious information that was in all probability made up out of whole cloth. The information was shopped around to journalists and to politicians like the late John McCain in an effort to discredit Trump before election day.
However, Trump won and created a problem. The elaborate plot came to naught until Flynn, by then a Trump adviser slated to become National Security Adviser, spoke to Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak in December 2016. Again, it was a U.S. ally, this time Israel, which involved itself in domestic politics. The United Nations security council was scheduled to vote on a resolution condemning Israel for expanding its settlements. Obama was on the way out, and as such was ready to let the resolution pass. But the Israelis reached out to the Trump team and asked for a conversation with Russia in an effort to get a security council veto. Flynn spoke to Kislyak on Israel’s behalf, his conversation was intercepted and recorded, and that is how the set up began.
Just four days after Trump’s inauguration James Comey sent two agents to talk to Flynn, who should have known better than to do so. But they were aided in the subterfuge when they leaked a story to the Washington Post, which claimed that Flynn was not a target in any investigation. The ruse worked, Flynn let his guard down and spoke when he shouldn’t have.
“The elaborate plot came to naught until Flynn spoke to Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak.”
In addition to talking about the U.N. resolution, Flynn and Kislyak discussed the sanctions that Obama had ordered against Russia. Flynn advised the Russians not to retaliate because the Obama team would soon be gone. We know they discussed these matters because the entire conversation was recorded by the FBI.
When Flynn’s fate was being determined by Comey’s team one wrote in his notes, “What is our goal? Truth/admission or get him to lie so we can prosecute him or get him fired?” Flynn did leave the White House and was also prosecuted for lying to federal agents when he said he couldn’t recall parts of his conversation.
The feds went after Flynn with a vengeance. He pleaded guilty to lying after the FBI threatened to prosecute his son because their firm didn’t properly disclose its relationship with the Turkish government. That case eventually fell apart but they already had what they wanted. Like dirty law enforcement all over the country they forced a guilty plea. But Flynn is now suing his original attorneys for malpractice and his new counsel is aggressively seeking and getting all of the evidence which was withheld from him.
“Flynn pleaded guilty to lying after the FBI threatened to prosecute his son.”
The term Obamagate has credence because of a January 5, 2017 White House meeting attended by Obama, Comey, National Security Adviser Susan Rice, U.N. ambassador Samantha Power, Joe Biden, CIA director John Brenner and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. Obama spoke of Flynn’s conversations with Kislyak and mentioned prosecuting him under the Logan Act. The Logan Act prohibits private citizens from negotiating with foreign governments. It is seldom used and is widely considered to be unconstitutional. But the main issue is that Obama discussed Flynn with others and began to talk about prosecuting him. The FBI set up took place a few weeks later. In 2016 and 2017 the Obama White House and/or its agencies used selective leaks against Trump, set a perjury trap for one of his associates and began an effort to unmask Flynn, that is to say reveal his name in classified intelligence reports.
So Obamagate is not the latest Trumpian joke. Unfortunately it will probably never be addressed. For one thing the corporate media are a party to the scandal and won’t reveal their role in being happily used against Trump and in pushing the Russiagate fraud for the past four years.
“Obamagate is not the latest Trumpian joke.”
Trump himself is problematic in this regard. The Russiagaters were too clever for their own good when they insisted that Robert Mueller testify to Congress following the release of his long awaited report. But his testimony was a disaster and put Russiagate to bed. But Trump resurrected the issue himself when he discussed Joe Biden in a phone call with the Ukrainian president. He also repeated a bizarre theory about DNC servers being in Ukraine. Trump begat Ukrainegate and got himself impeached thanks to his own stupidity. He can’t be trusted to behave any differently this time around. He brought Obamagate to public attention but if his past behavior is an indicator, he may manage to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory
Obama still has media friends who repeat old discredited information and invent new charges. They will cover up their own role and cover for him too. We can expect the dead horse to be beaten all over again. Unfortunately the word Obamagate will be relegated to the litany of Trump’s bizarro statements and to his overall hatefulness.
That doesn’t mean that this issue should be forgotten. In fact it is imperative that all the truth come out. Democratic Party spy craft couldn’t prevent an election debacle and Trump may win again in spite of their efforts. Obamagate is real and the fact that Trump brought it to public attention should not dissuade anyone from telling the truth.
Margaret Kimberley’s Freedom Rider column appears weekly in BAR, and is widely reprinted elsewhere. Her new book, Prejudential, looks at the history of US Presidents treatment of people of color. She maintains a frequently updated blog as well at patreon.com/margaretkimberley and she regularly posts on Twitter @freedomrideblog. She is a member of the Administrative Committee of the United National Antiwar Movement. Ms. Kimberley lives in New York City, and can be reached via e-Mail at Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgendaReport.com.