American Republican Senator Chuck Grassley posted on his website a transcript of negotiations between former US National Security Advisor Michael Flynn and former Russian Ambassador to Washington Sergey Kislyak. Documents were provided by US National Intelligence Director John Ratcliffe. Recall that these materials played a key role in the investigation of the case of the alleged “interference” of Russia in the 2016 US elections.

According to published documents, in the transcript of the conversation dated December 29, 2016 Flynn asks “to transfer to Moscow” that the outgoing Obama administration should be prevented from striving to deprive Trump’s team, elected as president, of “freedom of maneuver”. A former national security adviser mentions claims against Russia for alleged cyber attacks that Moscow has denied, and the Obama administration’s plans to expel Russian diplomats from Washington.

“I know that Russia will be obliged to take some kind of retaliatory action, but I ask that I limit myself to this. Do not go further than necessary, because I do not want the matter to go to an escalation of the situation and mirror measures. Do you understand? ”Flynn said.

Kislyak replied that he was aware of the situation, but also asked that Moscow’s position be taken into account. The indirect speech of the Russian ambassador is set forth in the documents, but a supporting quote is not given.

“I know you can believe me! I understand that very well, ”Flynn said in response.

He also repeated the request for a moderate response to the actions of the Obama administration and said that if Russia sends 60 US diplomats, it will "paralyze the work of the embassy."

“Let's take equivalent measures. When the administration (Trump. - RT ) takes office, we will discuss in more detail where we will move with regard to our relations, ”Flynn said.

Assessing the declassified data, Chuck Grassley said that there was no compromising evidence, and the representatives of the Federal Bureau of Investigation knew about this from the very beginning.

“Now Lieutenant General Flynn, his team of lawyers, a judge and the entire American people can first make sure for the first time that all this time the insinuations addressed to Lieutenant General Flynn are completely groundless. There was nothing wrong with his telephone conversation, and the FBI knew that, ”said the Republican senator.

Grassley also regretted that the American public was able to “read materials against Flynn only after almost three and a half years.” According to the politician, the former Deputy Attorney General of the United States Rod Rosenstein and the team of Special Attorney Robert Muller "very diligently tried to deprive" the Americans of this data.

  • Former US National Security Advisor Michael Flynn
  • © Jonathan Ernst / Reuters

“After all the missteps and malicious actions of the FBI and the Ministry of Justice employees during the investigation of the“ Russian trace ”, we can no longer take their word for it. To deal with this mess, you need to establish oversight and ensure transparency, ”Grassley said.

However, Democrat Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, took the opposite position. In his opinion, the records provided, on the contrary, testify to a lie told by Flynn not only to the FBI, but also to Vice President Mike Pence: “The transcript of the telephone conversation indicates that Lieutenant General Flynn secretly discussed the US reaction to Russia's impudent interference in the elections and lied about it to the FBI and vice president. Not surprisingly, in the light of such incriminating facts (President. - RT ), Trump and his allies are trying to rewrite history. ”

It is worth noting that at the same time, the intelligence community declassified five transcripts: three of them are dated December 23, 29 and 31, 2016, two more conversations occurred on January 12 and 19, 2017. In them, Flynn and Kislyak discussed the settlement of the Syrian crisis and the overall situation in the Middle East.

“Breathe life into the Russian business”

Recall, Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, the former head of the Pentagon intelligence department, became National Security Advisor to Donald Trump in January 2017. However, less than a month later he was forced to resign due to allegations of providing allegedly inaccurate information about his contacts with Sergei Kislyak, the then Russian ambassador to the United States.

Shortly thereafter, the FBI initiated an investigation into Flynn in the case of the “connections” of Donald Trump's election headquarters with Russia as part of the commission of special prosecutor Robert Muller. At the same time, Flynn was accused of giving false testimonies.

As experts previously noted, the ex-adviser to Trump was caught in the so-called trap of perjury. This is confirmed by internal documents of the FBI, declassified by the court and published by Flynn's lawyers. In office memos, bureau leaders discussed how to "make him lie."

According to the published data, the conversation with the investigators was conducted without a lawyer, and agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation specifically interrogated the suspect in such a way as to get an inaccurate answer to the questions that they had already clarified and under this pretext to accuse Flynn of giving false evidence.

At first, Trump's former adviser collaborated with the investigation and pleaded guilty, but at the end of January 2020, he demanded full acquittal, saying that the FBI deceived his testimony, which was recognized as false.

The Flynn case was one of the main components of the investigation of the Mueller commission, which was conducted for two years and ended in March 2019. At the same time, the final report was sent to Congress, which said that Trump could not reveal a conspiracy with Moscow, but the document contained the statement that Russia allegedly "interfered" in the US presidential election. Russian authorities have repeatedly denied such allegations by the American side.

However, the Flynn trial is still ongoing. Trump's former adviser was never sentenced for allegedly concealing from the FBI some of the information about contacts with Kislyak. In May, the US Department of Justice closed the criminal case against Flynn, but a court in the District of Columbia intends to hear the opinions of independent expert organizations before making any decision.

In turn, Donald Trump called the investigation against Flynn a "political scam." He stated this in an interview with the American television channel Fox Business.

According to Konstantin Blokhin, a leading researcher at the Center for Security Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Flynn’s case really is “over-politicized.”

  • Symbols of the U.S. intelligence community
  • Reuters
  • © Dado Ruvic

“It was when Flynn’s resignation happened that the theme of the notorious“ interference ”of Russia in the elections was simultaneously promoted. You could even say that then was the peak of the whole story. And the Democrats clung to this direction in order to discredit Trump and bring the matter to impeachment, ”the expert said in an interview with RT.

In his opinion, the opponents of the head of the White House are currently “trying to find all kinds of ways to expand the front of the fight against him, as well as to breathe new life into the so-called Russian cause”.

Yuri Rogulev, director of the Franklin Roosevelt Foundation for the Study of the United States at Moscow State University, explained to RT that "it’s extremely difficult for Democrats to admit their mistakes," so they don’t refuse the far-fetched idea that it was Russia that helped Trump become president.

“Representatives of the Democratic Party continue to insist on this. They are grabbing at the declassified recordings of the Flynn and Kislyak negotiations, calling them evidence of the guilt of the former presidential adviser, although in reality this is completely wrong, ”the analyst said.

“It will be exaggerated even more actively”

According to experts, despite the lack of incriminating information in the declassified recordings of the negotiations between Flynn and Kislyak, representatives of the Democratic Party will continue to promote the topic of “Russian interference”, including in the 2020 presidential election.

Recall that the last series of such statements by representatives of the Democratic Party appeared after in February the American media began to exaggerate again the topic of Russian “interference” in the upcoming election process in the United States.

So, the US presidential candidate from the Democratic Party, Joe Biden, at a meeting with voters said he was not surprised by this information and “guarantees” that Russia is involved in this. 

Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren, in turn, said that Russia's "interference" in the US election was a threat to US national security. 

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump noted that US media reports about "Russian intervention" is another "disinformation campaign" launched by Democrats in Congress. He wrote about this on his page on Twitter.

The Russian side also once again rejected allegations of "interference" in the US election. The Russian Embassy in the United States called on American politicians to stop allegations against Russia, stressing that the Russian position on this issue is "simple and understandable": "The Russian Federation does not" intervene "in the internal processes of other countries."

“Without a doubt, this topic of Russian intervention will be discussed even more actively by the democrats and in the media controlled by them,” Yuri Rogulev believes.

However, despite all the efforts of the representatives of the Democratic Party, Flynn’s case will end with his full justification, the expert predicts.

  • Television broadcasts a news report about the recent meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian Ambassador to the United States Sergei Kislyak, May 15, 2017
  • © Jonathan Ernst / Reuters

“Moreover, the former presidential adviser can be returned to the presidential administration, but most likely, to another position,” Rogulev said.

However, in general, the story of the Flynn affair “will not greatly affect Trump’s election chances,” the analyst believes.

“Now, factors like the economic downturn and other negative consequences of the coronavirus pandemic are much more likely to affect Trump’s re-election. The position of the current head of the White House and the likelihood that he will remain in the presidential chair for a second term, to a greater extent, depend on them, ”concluded Rogulev.