By Jameson Parker on April 27, 2017 2:49 pm ·

With questions mounting, Sean Spicer finally found an answer as to why Donald Trump hired known foreign agent and possible criminal Michael Flynn to be his National Security Advisor: It’s Obama’s fault.

The Trump White House came up with their excuse seemingly overnight. Prior to Spicer’s comments, the administration flailed for months. Meanwhile, Flynn’s actions and Trump’s cover up of them have swelled into a firestorm. Reporters have discovered that the now-fired Flynn was working for the Turkish government while on Trump’s campaign, that Flynn told Trump’s team that he was engaged in this illegal activity, and that the Pentagon had warned Flynn to cut it out as early as 2014.

Former national security adviser Michael Flynn was warned by the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2014 against accepting foreign payments as he entered retirement, according to new documents obtained by the House oversight committee.

The inspector general of the Department of Defense also opened an investigation of Flynn earlier this month, according to an April 11 letter released by the oversight committee Thursday.
A final nail in Flynn’s coffin when it was learned that he was also accepting money from RT, the state-sponsored television station which largely operates as a propaganda tool for the Russian government. Flynn hid these payments, adding an additional level of wrongdoing.

None of which stopped Trump from hiring Flynn as his top military advisor, defending him for weeks, then ultimately saying he didn’t think Flynn had done anything wrong despite his resignation. Trump, who once boasted that he only hired the best people, has predictably decided to blame Obama rather than accept responsibility. A sad pattern that he leans on for many of his failings.

General Flynn was a career military officer who maintained a high level security clearance throughout his career in the military. His clearance was last reissued by the Obama administration in 2016 with full knowledge of his activities.

Spicer overlooks the fact that the military actually forced Flynn out in disgrace that same year for being “disruptive” and a warmonger who didn’t listen to his superiors. He also overlooks that Trump, who by then knew of Flynn’s history, decided to hire him as a full-time surrogate for his campaign, host him at the RNC (where Flynn led “lock her up” chants), then promoted him to National Security Advisor once elected.

Trump is a natural born scam artist but this desperate stab at passing the buck will be a hard sell even to his most ardent supporters.