Michael Flynn’s resignation was an intelligence community hit job of the kind typically reserved for enemies of the state, former intelligence officials told The Daily Caller News Foundation.
“I’ve never seen anything like this before,” retired Col. James Waurishuk told TheDCNF’s Richard Pollock, referring to Flynn’s ouster from the Trump administration. Waurishuk is a veteran military intelligence official who served on the National Security Council. “We’ve never seen to the extent that those in the intelligence community are using intelligence apparatus and tools to be used politically against an administration official.”
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Flynn resigned as national security adviser after news broke alleging he spoke with the Russian ambassador about sanctions before Trump took office — potentially in violation of federal law — and then lied to Vice President Mike Pence about the call. The White House maintains Flynn didn’t break any laws, but couldn’t stay on because he lost the trust of Pence and Trump. (RELATED: Defiant Flynn Insists He Crossed No Lines, Leakers Must Be Prosecuted)
Another narrative picking up steam, however, is that news of the call was the last straw in a campaign to get Flynn out of the administration. Republicans, in particular, have clamored for an investigation into the leak of the classified information. Such leaks are atypical, although they continue to happen as the Trump administration gets underway.
Multiple former intelligence officials told Pollock the whole thing looks like a massive underground campaign inside an intelligence community ticked off at Trump and partial to former President Obama to undermine the new administration.
Retired Marine Col. Bill Cowan, who interacted with intelligence officers in combat zones, said Trump’s CIA director Mike Pompeo has to clean house, or else these kinds of attacks will continue for the next four years. “The director, Pompeo, if he doesn’t get a hold of the agency and its personnel, he can expect four years of this,” he told Pollock. “Clandestine, undercover disinformation, misinformation, psychological information to undermine this administration and this president.”
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