Thread by @SethAbramson

(THREAD) The evidence will show that Trump Jr. was the key Presidential Transition Team official Flynn received his Russia marching orders from—thus putting him at the center of a plot to violate the Logan Act.

I explain the details in this thread. I hope you'll read and share.

1/ The Statement of Offense in the Flynn case establishes two dates of offense for the Making False Statements "criminal information"—that's what the charge is called in this instance—Flynn pled to.

The dates are December 22, 2016 and December 29, 2016. documentcloud.org/documents/4319…

2/ On December 22, the SoO says Flynn spoke to "a very senior member of the Presidential Transition Team," who instructed him to illegally "influence governments" to vote against a Security Council resolution on Israel. Reports have identified the "very senior member" as Kushner.

3/ On December 29, the SoO says Flynn spoke to "a senior official of the Presidential Transition Team," who conferred with "senior members" of the Team before telling Flynn to illegally negotiate sanctions policy with Russia. Reports now identify that official as K.T. McFarland.

4/ McFarland was Flynn's Deputy—and not only wasn't authorized to give orders to Flynn, but would never have done so given her position as his Deputy (nor would Flynn have taken orders from her). Fox News first reported McFarland's role, seemingly pegging her as the guilty party.

5/ There weren't many people on the Presidential Transition Team who had the authority to order Flynn to violate the Logan Act by illegally negotiating Russian sanctions—or, frankly, *order* him to do *anything*, given his own senior position.

Jared Kushner was one such person.

6/ Kushner orchestrated the coup inside the Presidential Transition Team that led to the ouster of Chris Christie—who refused to hire Flynn into a national security role—and the hiring of Flynn for just such a role.

That's why Kushner could give orders to Flynn on December 22.

7/ But whereas Kushner was the "very senior official" involved in the December 22 event, he not only *wasn't* the "senior official" involved on December 29 but couldn't have been one of those McFarland conferred with—as he was in Hawaii, not at Mar-a-Lago. abcnews.go.com/US/senior-trum…

8/ Here's Jared and Ivanka on their December 2016 Christmas vacation.

These photos provide Kushner an alibi for the December 29th events described in Flynn's Statement of Offense. hollywoodlife.com/2016/12/27/jar…

9/ But Trump Jr. was in Palm Beach on December 28, 2016—and indeed vacationed in Palm Beach for much of December 2016 and all the way through the big New Year's Eve party his dad threw at Mar-a-Lago. You can find photos from throughout his vacation online. dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4…

10/ Trump Jr. was on the Executive Committee of the Presidential Transition Team.

And his selection was *extremely* controversial.

Trump risked credible allegations of graft in order to position his son atop the NatSec (and other) transition sub-teams. thehill.com/blogs/ballot-b…

11/ So what was—and is—the relationship between Donald Trump Jr. and K.T. McFarland? Was he just another Presidential Transition Team member to her?

Nope.

They were—are—friends. He helped her get her job on the transition.

An excerpt from a December 12, 2016 POLITICO article:

12/ While of course everyone reading this knows we'll eventually discover that Trump himself gave the order for Flynn to illegally negotiate with Russia—and ABC News, quoting a Flynn confidant, has already reported exactly this—Mueller can't gain access to Trump for an interview.

13/ Right now conservatives are making hay over ABC erroneously reporting that Trump ordered Flynn to violate the law *pre-election*—putting them in the bizarre position of saying that at least Trump *only* ordered Flynn to violate the law *post-election*. money.cnn.com/2017/12/02/med…

14/ Let's be clear—Trump ordered Flynn to violate the law pre-election. Flynn was a key Trump NatSec advisor for 4 months before he went to Moscow to dine with Putin, and admitted in an interview he and Putin talked policy. Think he didn't discuss that trip with Trump beforehand?

15/ But right now we don't have a Flynn confidant saying Flynn said that—and of course Flynn wouldn't have told *any* confidant about pre-election sanctions negotiations, as revelation of those would be the ballgame on a Trump-Russia conspiracy—so ABC's Ross has to be suspended.

16/ But Ross's suspension obscures the news he *accurately* reported—that Flynn's confidant says Trump ordered the illegal sanctions negotiations during the transition period. And they *were* illegal—which is why Trump went to great pains to call them legal. Because they weren't.

17/ But Mueller can't get at Ross's source, and can't at this stage interview Trump, so who can we be reasonably certain (a) knows exactly what happened at Mar-a-Lago on December 29th, 2016; (b) has no executive privilege to claim; and (c) has already lied about Russia?

Don Jr.

18/ Don is already on record receiving Kremlin agents in his dad's house in early June of 2016 and then claiming he never told his dad about it. He's on record saying he'd "love" to negotiate with the Russians. He's on record lying about his contact with the Russians.

Now this.

19/ Any investigator worth their salt sees Flynn's SoO; sees McFarland had no authority over Flynn; sees Don's relationship with McFarland and his transition-team position; sees his presence at Mar-a-Lago on December 29th; and knows he—*perhaps* with others—gave Flynn his orders.

20/ Don already spoke to investigators, and I'll bet the house he didn't tell them about his actions on December 29, 2016.

And if he didn't—and if they asked him anything like the right questions—he committed a crime.

And Flynn knows it.

And Flynn is cooperating.

Stay tuned.

PS/ Note: no one in the Trump-Russia scandal will have a Logan Act violation as the worst allegation against them.

The point is that Don was involved in illegal behavior; it hasn't been reported; he likely lied about it; that's a serious crime. Charge him and see what he knows.