In the hunt to take down Trump, Robert Mueller's probe has snared a number of individuals, although none for 'Russian collusion' yet. Some like Micheal Cohen and Paul Manafort are actually guilty of crimes committed without the help of the Special Counsel. Others it would appear are guilty of crimes because of the Special Counsel. One such case is that of Micheal Flynn whose biggest crime was being a harsh critic of the Obama administration. Obama (Flynn claims) forced him into early retirement in 2014 over disagreements about policy and then advised Trump not to hire him. Trump of course did appoint him as National Security Advisor.
Now we are getting some revelations that shed light into not just the Obama administration's FBI misdeeds but the overreach of Robert Mueller's probe. The Judge who will sentence Flynn, Judge Emmet Sullivan received a sentencing memo filed by Flynn's lawyers this week. The memo sheds new light on the Flynn-FBI meeting in January 2017. That meeting eventually led to Flynn being charged with lying to the FBI. How that all played out and some new and disturbing facts is described in this Wall Street Journal article by Kim Strassel.
https://outline.com/GL9ZLM
The meeting
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...was arranged by then-Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, who personally called Mr. Flynn on other business, then suggested he sit down with two agents to clear up the Russia question. Mr. McCabe urged Mr. Flynn to conduct the interview with no lawyer present—to make things easier.
The agents (including the infamous Peter Strzok) showed up within two hours. They had already decided not to inform Mr. Flynn that they had transcripts of his conversations or give him the standard warning against lying to the FBI. They wanted him “relaxed” and “unguarded.” Former Director James Comey this weekend bragged on MSNBC that he would never have “gotten away” with such a move in a more “organized” administration.
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Judge Sullivan has run into this kind of shady operating tactics by the FBI before.
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..as he wrote for the Journal last year, he got a “wake-up call” in 2008 while overseeing the trial of then-Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska. Judge Sullivan ultimately assigned a lawyer to investigate Justice Department misconduct.
The investigator’s report found prosecutors had engaged in deliberate and repeated ethical violations, withholding key evidence from the defense. It also excoriated the FBI for failing to write up 302s and for omitting key facts from those it did write.
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Take a wild guess at who was the FBI Director for that case. Yep. Non other than Mr. 'straight arrow' Robert S. Mueller III.
One of the more remarkable tidbits is the date of the Flynn 302 which was used to convict him of lying. Aug. 22, 2017, seven months after the interview.
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Texts from Mr. Strzok and testimony from Mr. Comey both suggest the 302 was written long before then. Was the 302 edited in the interim? If so, by whom, and at whose direction?
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That would be interesting to know.
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Judges have the ability to reject plea deals and require a prosecutor to make a case at trial. The criminal-justice system isn’t only about holding defendants accountable; trials also provide oversight of investigators and their tactics. And judges are not obliged to follow prosecutors’ sentencing recommendations.
No one knows how Judge Sullivan will rule. His reputation is for being no-nonsense, a straight shooter, an advocate of government transparency.
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