Thread by @JohnQBarrett

1/ Thread: In light of today’s @nytimes report that the #FBI in mid-May ‘17 began to investigate whether President Trump is a #Russian agent, look again at Special Counsel #Mueller’s Dec. 4 pre-sentencing Memorandum in the Michael #Flynn case.

2/ Mueller was appointed Special Counsel about a week after the FBI opened this investigation of Trump. Mueller was appointed to supervise it & other matters, both counter-intelligence & criminal, all related to Russia.

3/ One of the criminal matters was whether Flynn, in Jan. ’17 when he was National Security Adviser, lied to the FBI about recent conversations with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S.

4/ Under Mueller, that criminal investigation resulted in Flynn pleading guilty in Dec. ’17 to making false statements to the FBI, & to Flynn cooperating with the ongoing investigation(s).

5/ Last month, to assist the Judge who was preparing to sentence Flynn (that’s still to come), Mueller filed this Memorandum: documentcloud.org/documents/5425…

6/ The Memorandum stresses, significantly & suggestively, the Foreign Agents Registration Act (#FARA).

7/ It is proper that Mueller disclosed, in connection with Flynn’s sentencing, that he broke the law by lying in his belated #FARA filings about his work for Turkey—this confession to additional criminal conduct is part of his cooperation.

8/ More broadly, this aspect of the Memorandum, like other charges & guilty pleas that Mueller obtained earlier, shows that investigation of #FARA crimes & their prosecution is an important dimension of his law enforcement work.

9/ What if #Trump in ‘15 & ‘16, when he was both head of the Trump Organization & presidential candidate opining on Russia-related issues, was a paid foreign agent of #Russia within the meaning of #FARA & failed to register as the law requires?