Subpoena Issued for Flynn Documents

Yesterday evening, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence issued a subpoena to Mike Flynn for documents relating to the Russia investigation. The announcement was made jointly by committee chair Republican Richard Burr of North Carolina, and vice-chair Mark Warner, Democrat from Virginia. The announcement notes:

The Committee first requested these documents in an April 28, 2017 letter to Lieutenant General Flynn, but he declined, through counsel, to cooperate with the Committee’s request.

NBC's Frank Thorpe reports that this is the first subpoena issued by the Senate Intel Committee since the 9/11investigation.

This is in addition to the subpoena issued by a grand jury for Flynn's Russia-related documents (as reported by CNN, auto-play at link). As Alex Whiting explained at Newsweek (another auto-play at link), this is not a sign that charges are imminent, and such subpoena orders are a normal part of the grand jury's investigative function. Nevertheless, it signals the investigation is not closing anytime soon.

By contrast, Senate and Congressional committees more often ask for voluntary cooperation first. The fact that Burr and Warner have publicly called out Flynn for his non-cooperation is not a good sign for him. (That's probably why Roger Stone is babbling about how he will voluntarily cooperate, while also whining about how he has been disparaged and also Comey was bad, blah blah blah. My advice would be to stop talking, dude, except that actually I hope you will incriminate yourself, so DO PROCEED, Mr. Stone.)

That doesn't mean that Burr or any other Republicans are abandoning Trump; possibly they hope they can scold Flynn as a scapegoat and be done with it. But I doubt any good of this comes for Flynn--and that's good for the rest of the country.

Of course, that may be complicated by Trump's alleged continued loyalty to Flynn. As reported by Kimberly Dozier, Asawin Suebsaeng, and Lachlan Markay at the Daily Beast, staffers are having to practically sit on Trump to keep him from contacting Flynn. That would be witness tampering, of course, which helped bring Nixon down. So again, if I'm giving advice--go for it, Don! Call him, text, send a note on ruled paper covered in hearts and elaborately folded into a small rectangle! By all means, incriminate yourself!

Just another day of these fucking guys.