MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow on Monday reported on how Michael Flynn changed his position on a major national security issue involving a NATO ally -- in return for money.
The events occurred during the heat of the 2016 presidential campaign, when Flynn was a retired United States Army Lieutenant General and top advisor to Donald Trump.
Maddow reminded of 2016 attempted coup in Turkey -- which has the second largest army of any NATO allies.
"And that night in Cleveland, Ohio, the top national security adviser to the Donald Trump campaign, he himself was giving a speech to a conservative group in Cleveland, and he diverged from his prepared remarks to tell people about this coup that was at this moment breaking out in turkey," Maddow noted.
"And Mike Flynn basically explained to that conservative audience that night in Cleveland, as the coup was going on, that the coup was basically awesome, that it was something that that audience there should literally applaud because basically, it would be great if the Turkish government was overthrown in that coup that night," she explained.
"Thanks to a new federal felony indictment that was just unveiled today, now we know prosecutors say it took at most 11 days for Mike Flynn, Donald Trump's national security adviser, to do an absolute U-turn on that important national security issue in exchange for a big pile of money," Maddow reported.
The Flynn Group charged $600,000 for the about-face.
Maddow noted on how Flynn wanted to return Fethullah Gülen, a Turkish cleric living in Pennsylvania, to the country.
"For the low, low price of $600,000, he will not only stop telling Americans that they should applaud that coup, he will help the government that was the target of that coup hunt down the guy they're blaming it on," Maddow explained.
"National security matters affect all of us and you can't get anywhere near the lurid story of Mike Flynn and his lies to investigators and his schemes and his foreign entanglements that he was covering up while he was involved in these sensitive matters, all the ways he was caught, all the warnings and the red flags flying around, you can't get anywhere near this lurid saga of Mike Flynn as a national security and counterintelligence disaster at the highest levels of this administration without at least wondering why the Trump administration did not care about any of this," Maddow noted.
"Flynn as national security adviser -- given what we now know what was going on with Flynn and what we now know the law enforcement community and the intelligence agencies knew what was going on with Flynn and what they warned the incoming Trump folks about Flynn -- Flynn as national security adviser is something that just seems impossible in retrospect," Maddow concluded.
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