I never ceased to be amazed at the dishonesty and laziness of the media when it comes to reporting anything about Michael Flynn and the astonishing miscarriage of justice in bringing charges against him. The documents declassified and released by the DNI last Friday exonerate General Flynn and expose the FBI and the Mueller team as gargantuan liars. Even though Friday’s release of the declassified summaries and transcripts was overshadowed quickly by rioting in Minnesota (you know, if it bleeds and burns it is the lede), the documents reveal General Flynn as the consummate professional keen on serving his country and the Russian Ambassador as disgusted by the petulance and arrogance of the Obama administration.

The declassified material released by newly installed Director for National Intelligence actually consists of two different sets of documents. First, there are five summaries of conversations for 22, 23, 29 (two) December 2016 and 5 January. Second, there are the full transcripts of the conversations for December 23, December 29, December 31 in 2016, and January 12 and January 19, 2017.

To summarize, a total of eight different calls between Kislyak and Flynn were recorded between December 22, 2016 and January 19, 2017.

Five of the eight calls were initiated by Ambassador Kislyak: Mike Flynn only called Kislyak three times and two of those were in response to calls from Kislyak, who requested a call back or left a message.

Here are the specifics of those calls.

• December 22, 2016–This call apparently was made by Michael Flynn to the Russians, responding to a request from President-elect Trump to ask Russia not to support the Egyptian UN Security Council resolution condemning Israel. (Note–Flynn make calls to most members of the UN Security Council).
• December 23, 2016–Ambassador Kislyak calls Michael Flynn to report on his conversation with President Putin regarding the previous day’s request. Michael Flynn emphasizes to Kislyak that the mutual goal is/should be stability in the Middle East. Flynn tells Kislyak, “We will not achieve stability in the Middle East without working with each other against this radical Islamist crowd.” Kislyak remarks, “responding to your telephone call, and our conversations we will try to help to postpone the vote and to allow for consultations.”
• December 29, 2016–Kislyak calls Flynn and leaves a simple message, “need to talk.”
• December 29, 2016–Michael Flynn returns Kislyak’s phone call. First, Kislyak wants to discuss the Middle East policy. The Russians want to convey to the President-elect that the Russians will not be supporting the American colleagues at the Security Council. Flynn says it is good. Second, the Russians are very interested with working with the President-elect’s team to help the peace process in Syria. Thirdly, the Kremlin would like to . . . have a first conversation on January 21 rst between the presidents. Putin’s idea is to congratulate Trump and discuss issues. . . . Flynn tells Kislyak: Do not allow this administration to box us in right now! . . . . depending on what  actions the Obama Administrations takes over this current issue of the cyber stuff, . . . they’re gonna dismiss some number of Russians out of the country, I understand all that . . . I know you have to have some sort of action, but to only make it reciprocal; don’t go any further than you have to because I don’t want us to get into something that have to escalate to tit-for-tat. . . . I really do not want us to get into the situation where we everybody goes back and forth and everybody had to be a tough guy here. We don’t need that right now. We need cool heads to prevail. And we need to be very steady about what we are going to do because we have absolutely a common threat in the Middle East.
• December 31, 2016–Russian Ambassador Kislyak calls General Flynn. Kislyak tells Flynn, “And I just wanted to tell you that we found that these actions [were] targeted not only against Russia, but also against the president elect. . . . and with all our rights to respond we have decided not to act now because, its because people are dissatisfied with the lost . . .  elections and, and its very deplorable. . . . Flynn responds, “we are not going to agree on everything, you know that, but, but I think that we have a lot of things in common. A lot. And we have to figure out how, how to achieve those things, . . .and be smart about it and keep the temperature down globally, as well as not just here in the United States and also over in Russia.
• January 5, 2017–Lt. General Mike FLYNN phones Ambassador Sergey KISLYAK to express his condolences on the death of GRU Director Igor SERGUN, who died unexpectedly today from unknown causes.
• January 12, 2017–Mike Flynn returns Kislyak’s phone call and discusses possible conference on Syria in Astana.
• January 19, 2017–Kislyak leaves voicemail for Flynn, inquiring about scheduling of a phone call between Putin and Trump after the inauguration.

Republished by permission Sic Semper Tyrannis.

Picture by U.S. Institute of Peace – ‘Passing the Baton’, CC BY 2.0, Link.