Between he and his son’s involvement in spreading the Pizzagate conspiracy and top national security officials’ distaste for the resulting “clown show,” retired Gen. Michael Flynn isn’t having a great time in the media. Yet despite all the fuss, President-elect Donald Trump hasn’t change his tune about nominating the controversial figure to the national security adviser post — a position that would give Flynn access to America’s most pressing military and diplomatic secrets. Hence why a new Washington Post story about Flynn’s mishandling of sensitive classified information during his tenure as the U.S. military intelligence chief in Afghanistan is so distressing.
According to the Post‘s investigation, U.S. Army records obtained via the Freedom of Information Act indicate Flynn “inappropriately shared” classified intelligence with foreign officers deployed by allied nations while in Afghanistan. What’s more, the military’s official investigation in 2010 determined Flynn didn’t have the proper authorization to share the material, but ultimately concluded “no actual or potential damage to national security” resulted from his unknowing actions.
The Post reports Flynn has acknowledged the investigation on prior occasions, but has never discussed it in detail. Instead the retired general has often downplayed its severity, which accounts by “former U.S. officials familiar with the matter [who] said that Flynn was accused of telling allies about the activities of other agencies in Afghanistan, including the CIA.” Plus there’s the matter of “Flynn’s prior assertion that he had permission to share the sensitive information,” which the files reviewed by the Post “call into question.”
However, the ultimate kicker comes in the form of the realization that Flynn’s known sharing of classified information with parties who weren’t cleared for it sounds oddly familiar. For as the Post reminds its readers, the national security adviser pick’s boss spent a great deal of his presidential campaign railing against his rival, Hillary Clinton, for allegedly mishandling classified intelligence during her initial email investigation:
During the presidential race, Flynn campaigned vigorously for Republican nominee Donald Trump and drew attention for his scalding attacks against Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton for mishandling classified material. Clinton was investigated by the FBI for allowing classified information to be transmitted on her private email server when she ran the State Department. No charges were filed against the former secretary of state, but the issue dogged her for more than a year.
Not to mention Flynn’s own words on the matter at the Republican National Convention, where he spoke at length about Clinton’s putting “our nation’s security at extremely high risk with her careless use of a private email server.” The Trump surrogate demanded the then-presumed Democratic presidential nominee leave the race for her supposed actions, noting that if he’d done “a tenth of what she did,” he “would be in jail today.”
(Via Washington Post)