General Flynn And Hillary's Emails – Compare And Contrast

I’m glad the mainstream media could spill so much ink obsessing about Clinton’s emails and the potential leak of classified information, despite no evidence ever being presented that national security was compromised in any way. It stands in stark contrast to the minimal amount of press that Trump’s National Security Adviser, General Michael Flynn, who has admitted sharing classified information with the British and Australians, has received. It has now been revealed that he was also investigated for sharing classified information with the Afghanis back in 2010. I think the general assumption that anything shared with the Afghanis and the Karzai government back then would eventually get back to the Taliban and al-Qaeda. According to the Washington Post article, “Although Flynn lacked authorization to share the classified material, he was not disciplined or reprimanded after the investigation concluded that he did not act ‘knowingly’ and that ‘there was no actual or potential damage to national security as a result.” This is in direct contradiction to Flynn’s earlier assertions about this investigation when he said he had shared information with the British and Australians in Afghanistan. Flynn said, “I did it with the right permissions when you dig into that investigation. I’m proud of that one. Accuse me of sharing intelligence in combat with our closest allies, please.” Some of the information that Flynn apparently shared with the Afghanis contained classified information about CIA activities in Afghanistan, something that clearly may have put CIA assets in serious danger.

Shockingly, this wasn’t the first time that Flynn had been accused of the unauthorized sharing national security secrets with a foreign power. Just the year before, in 2009, Flynn had disclosed sensitive information about US intelligence on a Pakistani group that was believed to be attacking US forces in Afghanistan. Again, secrets shared with the Pakistani government had a way of ending up in the hands of Al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups supported by the Pakistani intelligence service, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

Interestingly, James Clapper was the man who reprimanded Flynn over the 2009 incident in Pakistan. Clapper later recommended Flynn for the Director of National Intelligence but then forced Flynn out of that position in 2014 over concerns about Flynn’s abusive management style. More interestingly, General James Mattis was responsible for the investigation of Flynn’s leaks in Afghanistan in 2010. Mattis is Trump’s nominee to become Secretary of Defense. Amazingly, Flynn managed to share sensitive national security secrets with multiple countries over the span of just two years without authorization. In addition, he was essentially fired from his last management position. Yet he was merely reprimanded, protected by his fellow generals, and allowed to fail up to his new position of National Security Adviser.

You may be thinking that the media will highlight this story with multiple front page articles a la Clinton’s emails when Flynn comes up for Senate confirmation. And you would be wrong. Not only because the media wouldn’t bother to do that but, more importantly, because the position of National Security Adviser does not require Senate approval.

During the campaign, Flynn said this, “If I, a guy who knows this business, if I did a tenth, a tenth of what she [Clinton] did, I would be in jail today.” Flynn assuredly did well more than ten times the damage Clinton was accused of but never did. And rather than being in jail, he is the chief national security officer in the Trump administration.