ISRAEL/LEGAL/LOBBYING/MICHAEL FLYNN/NIKKI HALEY/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/UN: “In the days before a late-2016 vote on a United Nations resolution that criticized Israel, then-President-elect Donald Trump and top aides made a last-ditch push to target a majority of the U.N. Security Council to scuttle the text, people familiar with the situation said.
The lobbying effort, which ultimately failed, was wider and more intense than has been reported, according to interviews with dozens of diplomats and U.S. officials. It was also conducted against the wishes of the sitting U.S. government. The Obama administration’s decision to abstain from the vote criticizing Israel’s settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank was what enabled the Security Council to pass a resolution condemning the country’s settlements for the first time in 36 years.
The December 2016 push by Mr. Trump and his transition team came at the request of Israel and involved top aides including the president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, former national security adviser Mike Flynn and the current U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Nikki Haley, according to the people familiar with the matter.
Though the diplomatic effort was ultimately fruitless, Mr. Flynn’s lies about it to federal officials have formed part of the basis of the December plea deal he struck that requires him to cooperate with investigators looking into whether the Trump team colluded with Russia to win the 2016 election—something both the White House and the Kremlin have repeatedly denied. That criminal probe is led by special counsel Robert Mueller…
Lawyers for Messrs. Flynn and Kushner declined to comment. Ms. Haley didn’t respond to a request for comment.”
-Kate O’Keeffe and Farnaz Fassihi, “Inside the Trump Team’s Push on Israel Vote That Mike Flynn Lied About,” The Wall Street Journal online, Jan. 5, 2018 07:00am