4-Star general: Trump, Flynn taxes are key following Russia flap

The repercussions of Michael Flynn’s resignation and alleged connections with Russia are just beginning, according to retired Four-Star General Barry McCaffrey.

McCaffrey, a Magnolia resident who served 32 years and retired as the most highly decorated Four-Star General in US history, spoke with KIRO Radio’s Ron and Don Tuesday, hours after Flynn submitted his resignation from the job of national security adviser. Flynn, the former military intelligence chief, had been embroiled in controversy related to his interactions with Russia’s ambassador.

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White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said Tuesday that the president’s team had been “reviewing and evaluating this issue with respect to General Flynn on a daily basis for a few weeks trying to ascertain the truth.” Spicer said the “evolving and eroding level of trust” from the situation and “a series of other questionable instances is” is what led the president to ask for Flynn’s resignation.

McCaffrey praised Flynn’s work for keeping America safe for a decade after 9/11, calling him the “best intelligence officer of his generation.” However, after being dismissed as defense intelligence chief by the Obama administration for his views on Islamic extremism, became unusually “angry and political.” That included chanting “Lock her up” in relation to Hillary Clinton at the Republican National Convention and retweeting “demented” tweets during the election.

“I don’t know what happened to him,” McCaffrey said.

When it comes to Flynn’s leaving the Trump administration, McCaffrey said it’s a bit harder to follow the storyline but noted, “It’s impossible for me to believe that President Trump wasn’t fully engaged in his communications with the Russians through their ambassador in DC. So we’re going to have more stories coming out in the next few weeks as the media unravels the financial and personal connections of both General Flynn and the president with the Russian authorities.”

McCaffrey said the administration had been told by the acting attorney general, FBI Director and director of National security weeks ago about Flynn’s contact with the Russians, and that since the administration was misleading the public, Flynn was subject to blackmail.

“They’ve known that for three weeks — why didn’t they act?” McCaffrey asked. “I’ve spent a lot of time in the White House. The National Security Advisor’s Office is maybe 80 feet from the Oval Office. The NSA advisor is in the president’s office five times a day. It’s not believable to me that there wasn’t, essentially, a knowledge of everything that Mike Flynn was up to.”

What’s wrong with talking to the Russians?

President Trump has been open about his desire to make amends with the Russians, so why is Flynn’s contact such a big deal?

McCaffrey said he did not think it was an “unreasonable” thing for Flynn to do, noting that no one has ever been prosecuted under the Logan Act, which bars unauthorized citizens from negotiating with foreign governments having a dispute with the United States.

“But it’s entirely possible given Mr. Trump, in public, was talking about changing the relationship with the Russians and assisting them and gaining them as an assistant in confronting ISIS in the international arena,” McCaffrey said. “I don’t think they actually thought they were doing anything wrong. Then somebody must have told them, ‘look this is the Logan Act.'”

“Then there was the implication, as yet undocumented, that it was a Quid Pro Quo, in which General Flynn was perhaps saying ‘look, don’t worry about sanctions, we’re going to do something about it,’ and doing it when it was fully known that the Russians were hacking our election system and trying to assist Trump getting elected, he said. “That, I think, was their worry. Then they started lying about it.

“Spicer didn’t have the right story, the Vice President didn’t have the correct story, but it’s not believable that the President and General Flynn weren’t fully aware of every conversation that took place,” he said.

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Flynn and tax return implications

McCaffrey noted that Russian President Vladamir Putin is an extremely clever politician but is also running a criminal oligarchy: killing people internally and abroad, invading foreign countries, decimating political opposition, threatening NATO allies and trying to destabilize the European Union.

“This is a dangerous man in a dangerous regime who is hostile to US national security and foreign policy interests,” McCaffrey said. “So I think one of the things that has to come out is to see the financial relationship between General Flynn, for starters, and Russian authorities. He was over there sitting on right-hand side of Putin on a paid speech. I think we need to find out more about financial connections, as well as Congress needs to get the IRS to hand over the president’s tax returns and see what financial relationships he has.

“I don’t think there is any implication for treasonous behavior at all, but I do think it’s healthy to see what is the financial relationship between both the President and General Flynn and Russian authorities,” he said

As for who will replace Flynn for the job, McCaffrey said former CIA Director General David Patreus, former national security advisor Stephen Hadley and Former navy admiral Robert Harward are all be strong candidates. Though he said there could be some dark horses.

“Of course there’s an argument for getting a knowledgeable civilian defense intellectual in there,” he said. ” You know, borrow a Harvard professor or a University of Washington Dean. You know, that kind of thing. But we’ll see, there’s lots of people that could do the job.”

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