Distract much?
President Donald Trump on Thursday seized upon new developments in the Michael Flynn case to reinvigorate his pet conspiracy theories about Obama-era law enforcement and intelligence community officials conspiring to bring him down.
What about the Central Park 5? It’s ok to do it to them?
Should Trump pay any price for his role in what happened to the Central Park 5? Unlike Flynn, they really didn’t do it.
At issue are newly released documents detailing how top FBI officials handled a key January 24, 2017, interview with Flynn, who at the time had just started his brief, ill-fated tenure as Trump’s national security adviser.
FBI leadership was already aware at that time that Flynn had phone calls with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the presidential transition period. In those calls, Flynn advised Kislyak not to respond to new sanctions the Obama administration placed on Russia for interfering (on Trump’s behalf) in the just-completed presidential election. Intercepts of Flynn’s conversations with Kislyak raised concerns within the bureau that Flynn had violated the Logan Act, a law that prohibits unauthorized citizens from negotiating with foreign governments.
The newly unsealed documents, which were released by Flynn’s lawyer on Wednesday and are the first fruits of Attorney General William Barr’s investigation of the Flynn investigation, indicate that FBI officials debated how to question Flynn about his contacts with Russia and whether their aim was to get him to admit any wrongdoing.
In one handwritten note that Trump and his backers in Congress and on Fox News are trumpeting as a bombshell, Bill Priestap, then the FBI’s head of counterintelligence, wrote, “What’s our goal? Truth/Admission or to get him to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired? If we get him to admit to breaking the Logan Act, give facts to DOJ & have them decide. Or, if he initially lies, then we present him [redacted] & he admits it, document for DOJ, & let them decide how to address it.”
Trump and Don Junior and Devin Nunes say this reveals DIRTY COPS.
I suspect that is rather standard SOP, and that Flynn knows it isn’t acceptable to lie to law enforcement agencies.
Here we go with another round of “law and order conservatives are OUTRAGED to discover that what is done routinely to thousands of Americans every year has been done to a privileged white man.”
Flynn pled guilty. Because he did what he was charged with – lying to the FBI – which is a felony crime. He did much more too, but wasn’t charged because he cooperated with the special prosecutor. On what, we don’t know.
Trump can pardon Flynn for his felony crime. He can call him “War Hero Flynn,” or “Good-Looking Flynn,” or “Best Sycophant Flynn,” or whatever he wants. But he can’t undo the guilty plea; he can never make “Convicted Felon Mike Flynn” be an incorrect way to refer to Flynn.
It might be interesting to ask Barr about whether it’s now okay to lie to the FBI.
lawtwitter has been all over this. The unanimous view (from what I’ve seen) is that:
– Convictions for lying to the FBI are very common.
– The released documents are absolutely standard and show the normal level of interview preparation and planning, including discussion.
– Up until now the ‘ law and order’ GOP haven’t given a damn about how this works.
– The law and order types don’t give a damn because this statute is mostly applied to drug dealers, bank robbers and terrorists, who are overwhelming black, brown or middle eastern. (how dare someone be upset at a white person lying).
– Flyn did lie.
– He was already under investigation because he had abnormal contacts with two foreign governments.
– He pled guilty not once but twice.
As Popehat said, if you are genuinely concerned and shocked about this, your immediate reaction should be to campaign to have the law changed. Make it an affirmative defence if the FBI already know the answer to the question they have asked. After all, if they know the answer and you lie, their investigation isn’t impaired in any way. Make it a requirement for the FBI to demonstrate that if they did not know the answer and you lie, that they have to demonstrate that your lie materially changed the course of the investigation. That is the standard of proof required of defendants when the FBI lie on search warrants.
Flynn deserves to be punished. In fact, I suspect that all told he will get off pretty lightly. The incompetent and malevolent administration he worked for really deserves the biggest punishment.
What “breaking news”? There isn’t any “breaking news” to “not cover.”