{"id":807573,"date":"2020-05-18T12:02:23","date_gmt":"2020-05-18T18:02:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=383524"},"modified":"2020-05-18T12:02:23","modified_gmt":"2020-05-18T18:02:23","slug":"opinion-morgan-liddick-actions-in-flynn-case-are-a-gateway-to-tyranny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/opinion-morgan-liddick-actions-in-flynn-case-are-a-gateway-to-tyranny\/","title":{"rendered":"Opinion | Morgan Liddick: Actions in Flynn case are a gateway to tyranny"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image p402_hide\">\n<div class=\"caption-container\">\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"620\" height=\"411\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/06\/Col-Liddick-SDN-061119.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/06\/Col-Liddick-SDN-061119.jpg 620w, https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/06\/Col-Liddick-SDN-061119-300x199.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\"><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>It\u2019s worse than you thought.<\/p>\n<p>On May 13, it became skin-crawlingly evident that the outgoing Obama administration <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/biden-and-other-obama-officials-received-unmasking-information-on-michael-flynn-declassified-records-show\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">targeted a high-ranking member of Donald Trump\u2019s transition team for surveillance<\/a> by the nation\u2019s national security apparatus, leaked a worst-possible take on some of the results of this surveillance, and entrapped the official in perjury, all to obtain damaging information about the President-elect \u2014 true or not.<\/p>\n<p>Read that sentence again and think hard about it: Obama administration officials spied on a U.S. citizen in the United States and then acted on the information they obtained not to protect the country from foreign foes but to attempt to destroy Trump. And yes, both Obama and Vice President Joe Biden knew about the surveillance. If your heart isn\u2019t frozen at this point, you might want to check your pulse.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s be precise:&nbsp;Several U.S. government agencies keep tabs on foreign agents in the United States, and Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak was one of those. Monitoring his telephone conversations, while impolite, is perfectly legal and even expected. But problems seep in when the ambassador speaks with U.S. citizens \u2014 traditionally and legally off-limits to espionage here. To comply with prohibitions, the names of U.S. conversation partners are redacted from any transcript, usually replaced with \u201cUS person 1.\u201d But \u2026<\/p>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col\" readability=\"6\">\n<div class=\"row sd-donation sd-donation-mobile p-0\" readability=\"7\">\n<div class=\"col-xl-4 p-2\">\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/03\/SDN-logo-white-1.png)\" class=\"p-0 mt-2 mb-2 h-75 text-center rocket-lazyload\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/03\/SDN-logo-white-1.png\" class=\"logo m-0 p-0 invisible\"><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><h3 class=\"d-inline mr-3\">Support Local Journalism<\/h3>\n<p><button class=\"btn d-inline\" type=\"button\" onclick=\"handleDonationButtonClickMidArticle()\">Donate<\/button><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Law allows a small number of high-level U.S. government officials to request that these redacted names be \u201cunmasked\u201d if there is sufficient national security rationale to override the usual legal protections. \u201cNeed to know\u201d in the discharge of duties is high on the list of questions to be answered before unmasking occurs, and <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/policy\/national-security\/331642-nsa-granted-2k-unmasking-requests-in-2016-report\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">the identity thus revealed cannot be shared<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>In Gen. Michael Flynn\u2019s case, Obama, Biden, U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, CIA Director John Brennan, FBI Director James Comey and several others <a href=\"https:\/\/townhall.com\/tipsheet\/katiepavlich\/2020\/05\/13\/here-is-the-list-of-obama-administration-officials-who-unmasked-those-close-to-the-trump-campaign-n2568638\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">requested and received his identity<\/a>. Remember, Flynn had been cashiered by Obama after clashes with both Clapper and Brennan over their agencies\u2019 intelligence failures around the growth of the Islamic State.<\/p>\n<p>The recipients were not quite illegal when they met Jan. 5, 2017; the criminal act came when Flynn\u2019s name was leaked to The Washington Post shortly thereafter. If this was done for political purposes, that\u2019s another felony. And though intent is devilishly tricky to prove in court, that January meeting suggests a collaboration at the highest levels of the Obama administration to cripple the Trump presidency before it got off the ground.<\/p>\n<p>Biden denied knowing anything about Flynn\u2019s unmasking when questioned by George Stephanopoulos on \u201cGood Morning America.\u201d When pressed, he corrected himself, saying he \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/biden-says-he-was-aware-investigation-of-michael-flynnhttps:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/biden-says-he-was-aware-investigation-of-michael-flynn\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">thought they were talking about Flynn\u2019s prosecution<\/a>.\u201d But that\u2019s only part of it.<\/p>\n<p>Comey \u2014 perhaps channeling his predecessor J. Edgar Hoover \u2014 set a perjury trap for Flynn. It almost didn\u2019t work: The two agents who interviewed the incoming national security adviser while telling him it was just a friendly chat reported that they detected no willing concealment or evasion;&nbsp;they were about to close the case when word came down that it would remain open based on violation of the Logan Act.&nbsp;We all remember that one: It criminalizes foreign policy initiatives by private U.S. citizens; ostensibly what Flynn did while national security adviser in waiting. True, there never has been a successful prosecution under this law in its 220-year history, but, well \u2026 Trump! And we were off to the races.<\/p>\n<p>With the Mueller probe, questionable prosecutions advanced against other figures in the Trump campaign and administration:&nbsp;Carter Paige, George Papadopoulos, Paul Manafort, Roger Stone. At least in Papadopoulos\u2019 case, there was cooperation among the FBI, CIA and NSA as well as their foreign counterparts, particularly in Britain and Australia. In all cases, demands were made for information damaging to Trump in exchange for leniency. Make no mistake:&nbsp;The entire effort was an attempted coup. To discourage repetition, those involved should be tried, convicted and jailed. Too many Americans already believe there is impunity for those who have the right last name or the right politics. Unrepaired, this belief will poison the republic beyond recovery.<\/p>\n<p>If you are inclined to leniency toward wrongdoers who used the apparatus of government to attempt removal of a sitting president seen as boorish, crude or threatening, you should remember that these actions are the gateway to tyranny. First, anonymous officials remove the outrageous, the menacing, the disturbing.&nbsp;Then, the merely distasteful or truculent. But eventually, the jackboots arrive at your door.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/opinion\/opinion-morgan-liddick-actions-in-flynn-case-are-a-gateway-to-tyranny\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s worse than you thought. On May 13, it became skin-crawlingly evident that the outgoing Obama administration targeted a high-ranking member of Donald Trump\u2019s transition team for surveillance by the nation\u2019s national security apparatus, leaked a worst-possible take on some of the results of this surveillance, and entrapped the official in perjury, all to obtain [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-807573","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-10 18:52:30","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=807573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807573\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=807573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=807573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=807573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}