December 4, 2017
SHE WAS RIGHT THAT SANCTIONING PUTIN PUNISHED DONALD:
McFarland Contradicted Herself on Russia Contacts, Congressional Testimony Shows (Michael S. Schmidt and Sharon LaFraniere, Dec. 4, 2017, NY Times)
An email sent during the transition by President Trump's former deputy national security adviser, K.T. McFarland, appears to contradict the testimony she gave to Congress over the summer about contacts between the Russian ambassador and Mr. Trump's former national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn.Ms. McFarland had told lawmakers that she did not discuss or know anything about interactions between Sergey I. Kislyak, who had been Moscow's ambassador to the United States, and Mr. Flynn, according to Senate documents.But emails obtained by The New York Times appear to undermine those statements. In a Dec. 29 message about newly imposed Obama administration sanctions against Russia for its election interference, Ms. McFarland, then serving on Mr. Trump's transition team, told another transition official that Mr. Flynn would be talking to the Russian ambassador that evening.
Emails Dispute White House Claims That Flynn Acted Independently on Russia (Michael S. Schmidt, Sharon LaFraniere and Scott Shane, Dec. 2, 2017, NY Times)
On Dec. 29, a transition adviser to Mr. Trump, K. T. McFarland, wrote in an email to a colleague that sanctions announced hours before by the Obama administration in retaliation for Russian election meddling were aimed at discrediting Mr. Trump's victory. The sanctions could also make it much harder for Mr. Trump to ease tensions with Russia, "which has just thrown the U.S.A. election to him," she wrote in the emails obtained by The Times.
Posted by Orrin Judd at December 4, 2017 7:02 PM