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Flynn Working with Mueller, But Trump Shouldn’t Worry. Yet.
Michael Flynn plead guilty today to lying to the FBI and has agreed to cooperate with Robert Mueller’s investigation into possible Trump-Russia collusion. Flynn made the following statement:
After over 33 years of military service to our country, including nearly five years in combat away from my family, and then my decision to continue to serve the United States, it has been extraordinarily painful to endure these many months of false accusations of “treason” and other outrageous acts. Such false accusations are contrary to everything I have ever done and stood for. But I recognize that the actions I acknowledged in court today were wrong, and, through my faith in God, I am working to set things right. My guilty plea and agreement to cooperate with the Special Counsel’s Office reflect a decision I made int eh best interests of my family and of our country. I accept full responsibility for my actions.
As the news broke on Twitter, media types went into their usual #Resist frenzy:
The clear link was Donald Trump pic.twitter.com/iNPHB8ulcE
— Sarah Kendzior (@sarahkendzior) December 1, 2017
BREAKING NEWS: Mike Flynn to Plead Guilty to Making False Statements in One Hour
The jig is up, Mr. President. This is the beginning of the end for this administration. Mike Flynn, based on this plea, is squawking like a bird for Bob Mueller.
And he knows everything.
— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) December 1, 2017
joy behar getting handed the flynn news is the definition of, well, joy pic.twitter.com/Ush7sH5K3r
— David Mack (@davidmackau) December 1, 2017
And James Comey wasn’t about to be left out of the smug celebration:
“But justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream” Amos 5:24 https://t.co/o89PSY1YBd
— James Comey (@Comey) December 1, 2017
We’ve been through countless media fire drills, with reporters assuring us that each breaking news item would surely lead to Trump’s impeachment. Because of this, I reserved judgment until one particular expert weighed in: Clear-eyed former prosecutor Andy McCarthy.
In his piece for National Review, he writes “for all the furor, we have a small-potatoes plea in Flynn’s case — just as we did in Papadopoulos’s case.”
[A]s I explained in connection with George Papadopoulos (who also pled guilty in Mueller’s investigation for lying to the FBI), when a prosecutor has a cooperator who was an accomplice in a major criminal scheme, the cooperator is made to plead guilty to the scheme. This is critical because it proves the existence of the scheme. In his guilty-plea allocution (the part of a plea proceeding in which the defendant admits what he did that makes him guilty), the accomplice explains the scheme and the actions taken by himself and his co-conspirators to carry it out. This goes a long way toward proving the case against all of the subjects of the investigation.
That is not happening in Flynn’s situation. Instead, like Papadopoulos, he is being permitted to plead guilty to a mere process crime. A breaking report from ABC News indicates that Flynn is prepared to testify that Trump directed him to make contact with the Russians — initially to lay the groundwork for mutual efforts against ISIS in Syria. That, however, is exactly the sort of thing the incoming national-security adviser is supposed to do in a transition phase between administrations. If it were part of the basis for a “collusion” case arising out of Russia’s election meddling, then Flynn would not be pleading guilty to a process crime — he’d be pleading guilty to an espionage conspiracy.
We’re sure to learn more in the coming weeks about what Flynn knew, when he knew it, and how Trump was involved. But, once again, the media is celebrating a lot of smoke, without confirming there’s a fire.
Published in Politics
The only scandal here is prosecutorial misconduct. Once again, we have a special prosecutor interviewing a witness about matters already fully known to the special prosecutor, for no purpose other than to elicit a false statement which can then become the basis for prosecuting the witness. It is entrapment, pure and simple. Put this on top of Mueller’s efforts to destroy Flynn financially and to go after his son, only to gain control of Flynn as a puppet witness, and it adds up to appalling. Flynn is probably guilty of failing to register as a foreign agent and he certainly deserved to be fired for lying to the Vice President, but the one who should be going to jail is Mueller.
I would very much like to see a rule of evidence prohibiting a prosecutor from relying on testimony from someone who has received a plea deal. Such a witness has no credibility.
For those that have bought in the Trump-Russian collusion story this is a big deal. For people that have actually been using their eyes, ears, and brain this is another injustice by an unaccountable special counsel.
The reason you don’t like it is that it’s a lie and a look-you-in-the-eye lie. He’s a scumbag, bought and sold.
For those who bought into the collusion story but do not understand what is actually happening (like Behar, et al.) this is a big deal. Or for propagandists who want to pretend that it is a big deal, they will say it is. For those paying attention it is not.