(THREAD) With the news that Bob Mueller recently interviewed Jared Kushner about his dealings with former Trump NSA Michael Flynn, now's a good time to discuss the many oddities of the Kushner-Flynn relationship. Hope you'll pass on this summary to others who might be interested. 
1/ Mike Flynn was given his first *official* role on the Trump campaign as a result of Kushner's largesse. Trump three times declined to formally name Flynn to his national security team; it took Kushner staging a coup against transition head Chris Christie to bring Flynn aboard.
2/ Chris Christie—a good friend of Trump—refused to allow Flynn on the transition team because he didn't trust him; he believed him to be compromised and (broadly speaking) dishonest and volatile. Kushner ousting his father's pal to officially bring Flynn aboard was *astounding*.
3/ Kushner bringing Flynn aboard the transition team is what enabled the now-infamous Kislyak-Flynn-Kushner meeting at which an illicit, pre-inauguration Kremlin backchannel was discussed. That this occurred so soon after Flynn was officially brought aboard—by Kushner—is telling.
4/ There have been credible analyses (for instance, by @MalcolmNance on MSNBC) of the December 2016 Kislyak-Flynn-Kushner meeting that suggest what the three parties discussed there was espionage—a serious federal felony. So you can be sure Mueller asked Jared about that meeting.
5/ Given that Kushner *orchestrated* Flynn's involvement in the transition, and then immediately joined him in meeting Sergey Kislyak—secretly—at Trump Tower, there is no *earthly* reason for Flynn to have lied to Kushner about his conversations with Kislyak later on that month.
6/ Whatever Kushner has told Mueller and his agents, I can assure you that their working assumption continues to be that Flynn told Jared about his clandestine sanctions negotiations with the Russians at the end of December 2016 and *knew* Flynn was lying to Pence from Day One.
7/ It's important to understand that Jared faces major legal liability for his role in the Trump-Russia scandal for reasons having nothing to do with Flynn: FARA violations; providing false information on government forms; making false statements to Congress and/or investigators.
8/ As to his December 2016 meeting with Flynn and Kislyak, however, it's certainly possible Mueller is looking at Flynn—but not Kushner—for charges stemming from that meeting and (perhaps) the negotiations that came thereafter. Why? Jared was a neophyte; Flynn, a former DIA head.
9/ It's not clear whether Jared had the requisite mens rea (mental state) to formulate criminal intent during the December '16 meeting, as one would presume—and I and others have said so repeatedly—that he was relying, and entitled to rely, on Flynn's national security expertise.
10/ So those who read into Kushner speaking to Mueller that Kushner is not a target but Flynn is are wrong: Kushner has unrelated legal liability, and Abbe Lowell may have permitted Kushner to speak to Mueller on the understanding the questioning would be limited as to its topic.
NOTE/ The thread continues here (sorry for any confusion):
11/ That said, it's extraordinary for a defense lawyer to allow a client to speak to law enforcement on a topic so closely related to a course of conduct for which the client has *obvious* legal liability. You'd only do it under certain circumstances we really must enumerate now.
12/ If you believe your client is dead-to-rights on SF-86 violations—and to clarify an earlier tweet, I wrote "FARA" when I meant to write "SF-86"—you might well have your client cooperate on an investigation into more serious charges in an effort to limit the client's liability.
13/ As to the December 2016 meeting, Attorney Lowell may well believe Kushner can play the "neophyte" card and roll on Flynn *as to any charges arising from that meeting and the negotiations thereafter*. Especially if he was assured Kushner would be questioned on *nothing* else.
14/ But this is a very risky strategy, as information Kushner gives about his activities in December 2016 can still be used as evidence against him—establishing his knowledge, state of mind, and level of expertise—for other charges stemming from conduct on the campaign or after.
15/ For instance, even if Kushner was a babe in the woods at the first meeting with Kislyak, one wonders if any of his actions after Flynn was caught negotiating with Russia in late December could constitute Obstruction or Witness Tampering—given what he knew of Flynn's actions.
16/ But I'm also convinced that Mueller is *not buying* the neophyte act, and that Lowell has made a miscalculation. Remember: Kushner called Kislyak in April 2016, apparently to invite him to the Mayflower Speech, and continues to deny that call though the IC says it has proof.
17/ And in the same 10-day period Kushner and Flynn met with Kislyak, Kushner met with Gorka (a Kremlin agent) again in secret, and then—apparently—lied about the purpose of the meet. Holding two *secret* Russia meetings strongly suggests you knew things weren't on the up and up.
18/ And Kushner then hid from federal investigators *both* of those meetings, the now-infamous Trump Tower meeting in June 2016, and his April 2016 and November 2016 calls to Kislyak—and the November 2016 call suggests *he* set up the December 2016 Kislyak-Flynn-Kushner meeting.
19/ Moreover, Kushner and Flynn were two of Trump's earliest foreign policy advisors—both dating to Summer 2015, when Trump had a *very* small crew running his campaign—so it's now hard for Kushner to say he didn't know a great deal about Flynn's methods, views, and allegiances.
20/ For these reasons, I still see Kushner as one of 4 primary Mueller targets: Trump, Sessions, Kushner, and Flynn (with secondary targets including Manafort, Trump Jr., and a few others). I think people are reading far too much exculpatory data into the Mueller-Kushner meeting.
21/ That said, Lowell may well be making the calculation that either Kushner can earn leniency by being helpful to Mueller *or* he'll get a pardon from Trump if Mueller decides *not* to be lenient. Or—and this does happen—Lowell is just making an enormous strategic mistake here.
22/ I think a Kushner pardon would lead almost immediately to the end of Trump's presidency—it'd be such a watershed moment in the history of U.S. political corruption that I don't think even Republicans in D.C. would stand for it—so Kushner absolutely *can't* count on a pardon.
23/ This makes me think Lowell believes Kushner isn't a Mueller target—which he's wrong about. And *clearly*. This sort of thing, in my experience, happens when a defendant has been lying to his attorney so long that the attorney is giving advice based on the lies he's been told.
24/ We already know Trump has been lying to his attorneys—one of his public spokesmen even quit in part because of those lies—and there's every reason to think Kushner is too, in a desperate bid to escape the legal liability only his attorney (ironically) can help him avoid now.
25/ So, should Kushner have spoken to Mueller? No. Should Lowell insist on more transparency from his client? Yes. Does Kushner still face major criminal liability? Yes—including for things we haven't heard much about yet. Could some of it still involve Flynn? Yes.
Stay tuned.
Stay tuned.
