Conservative Conversation + Podcasts

| October 26, 2020

14 COMMENTS

I am offering this brief rumination on the amazing experience my son, Jim, and I had a few nights ago when we attended the Trump Rally here in Pensacola. I will not repeat what we have all seen about the rallies, the size of the turnout, the excitement of the crowd, the music, the famous guests of honor in each State, and all the rest. Nor will I attempt to dress this up with some of the photos we took that night as the images would simply be similar to those you see on your news coverage.

I will, however, share with you one ingredient you can never really feel in its true and genuine reality and force unless you go and personally witness this phenomenon in person.

Love is what you will never fully appreciate until you stand there at the fence and watch Air Force One land and then watch it taxi around in front of the crowd and then when the President of the United States appears in the door and makes his trademark fist pump gesture, the whole atmosphere simply goes electric with the love every single person standing there feels for this man.

It was one of the most amazing phenomena (there’s that word again, but there really is no substitute for what happened) I have ever experienced, and it made me so thankful that I decided to get in the car, fight the traffic, walk the miles (that’s with an “s”) to get from the parking lot to the assembly area and, with my son, feel that which I could only get a mere hint of from watching the rallies on television or online.

I know this may not be much of a revelation to many here and I am not posting this to attempt any kind of persuasion at all. I would also add that I am not trying to deliberately “rile up”, as we say in the South, the Never Trumpers who will make their decision on their vote for the most important office in the world based on the nastiness of some tweets and similar considerations, as is their absolute right.

I will say, however, that I came away from this experience and both seeing and feeling personally the depth of the love of and dedication to this President wondering where in the world all of these gloomy predictions could possibly be coming from and what they are actually, with the emphasis on “actually”, based on?

We hear a lot about the enthusiasm gap in this election. I saw it and felt it Friday night here in Pensacola. It is real and it is palpable. Not one single person there that night, and I am quite sure this is true for all of the rallies, is going to neglect to vote.

I know we are close to November 3 and there may not be many more chances to attend a rally, but I wish all of my friends could experience what we did with rally here; it simply cannot be duplicated any other way than to go and personally see it and feel it.

As for me, I pray for the President every single day and I am praying that God will continue to Bless America!

Sincerely, Jim

Graffiti Invades “The Bubble”

By Jim George

| October 19, 2020

We fondly refer to our little corner of Paradise as “the bubble,” as we are surrounded here in the Westernmost reaches of the Florida Panhandle with natural beauty, delightful climate, gentle breezes off the Santa Rosa Sound, peace, silence and tranquility, and some of the most friendly people we have ever had the pleasure of meeting. As we watched wonderful places we had enjoyed visiting, like Portland, Seattle, and Chicago and places we had fallen in love with, like San Francisco, be ripped apart by savages and/or soiled by the filth of the decadent and depraved, we cozily comforted ourselves in the “sure” knowledge that, to use a phrase with sinister underpinnings, “it couldn’t happen here.”

We were wrong.

The warnings we heard from so many that you may not be interested in barbarians like Antifa and Black Lives Matter but they are definitely interested in you might well have started making a preliminary showing here after all.

Almost literally next door to our new home in “the bubble”, there is a large wildlife preserve. It is as lovely a place for a nice stroll as one can be blessed with. Recently, a very pleasant walkway was built through the width of the woods, called The Godwin Crossover, in honor of the family which donated the preserve to the local government years ago. It was a most welcome addition to the neighborhood as it affords all who come here who want to experience it and, most importantly, respect –the beauty and serenity and inspiration it offers to one and all.

A sign at both entrances proclaims quite clearly that no “motorized” vehicles are allowed. Sadly, it does not go further and spell out in words specific enough for those who are cognitively challenged that no graffiti was to be applied to the handsome beams and planks of which the Crossover was constructed.

Yesterday afternoon, on a bike ride which took me across the Crossover, I was shocked, sickened might be a better word, to see red spray paint scrawled across the side railing with the name of either one of the street thugs who graced us with their “art” or, probably more likely, an enemy they hoped to implicate in their despicable deed.

To those who may say that my reaction may be what the Bard had in mind when he wrote the words “Much Ado About Nothing” I would answer that those few ounces of red spray paint represent to me that the barbarians are not at the gate, they are through the gate, just as the mob tore down the gate to the private community in St. Louis where Mr. and Mrs. McCloskey had their beautiful home assaulted and by which they were personally threatened with serious bodily harm or worse. I am quite sure that the residents of those suburbs of Portland and Seattle and Minneapolis never dreamed their quiet and contented life of “living the dream” would be suddenly invaded by shrieking hooligans in their street and on their lawns screaming every known obscenity at them in the middle of the night because — as I write this I realize how surreal it is that this is happening in America — they are white.

Yes, I know that folks who live in bubbles should not cast petty little complaints about a little bit of spray paint. I am also painfully aware that this kind of unpleasantness pales in comparison with the myriad of serious, monumental, sea-changing events happening every day –at times it seems like every hour. I do recall, however, a very prominent and highly respected scholar named James Q. Wilson created what became known as the “broken windows policing” theory of law enforcement. That theory, put into effect by then-Mayor Giuliani of New York City, held that the full force of the law should be brought to bear on perpetrators as soon as they start even the pettiest of offenses against the public good, such as, obviously, breaking the windows out of storefronts, etc. Giuliani’s enforcement of what was at that time a very controversial approach to policing is widely credited with the rapid clean up of the filth and disorder which had theretofore ruled mid-town Manhattan. How much better off would the battle-worn citizens and small business owners of Portland be right now had they had a Mayor with that kind of courage instead of the pusillanimous and pathetic excuse of a Mayor they have had through riots which have now been going on for months?

I am sure my reaction of sickness at that grotesque defacement was at least in part a product of the anxiety we all feel about Election Day and the days (weeks? months?) of almost-certain upheaval to follow. The emotion I felt was one of real and genuine apprehension that if these petty criminals could enter and soil, even slightly, a residential area with as close to a non-existent crime rate as possible, as has been observed by many, the outcome of the election will be irrelevant. Either way, we will have hell to pay.

Long ago, in the immediate aftermath of World War I, the Irish poet W.B. Yeats warned us about days in which all control is lost. The title is The Second Coming, but the third and fourth lines speak directly to us over the century since this was written:

The Second Coming

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out
When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi
Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it
Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.
The darkness drops again; but now I know
That twenty centuries of stony sleep
Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,
And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

I confess I am very, deeply, gravely troubled by what may be coming our way. The eminent author Michel Anton, creator of the iconic essay The Flight 93 Election in the days leading up to the 2016 election, chose these words as a portion of the title of the first chapter of his new book about the current election, The Stakes, America At The Point Of No Return:

Be Afraid, Very Afraid

While my life experiences and long journey to this remove simply will not permit me to sound like some triggered little “pajama boy” cowering type and say “I’m afraid”, I am admitting that I am deep-in-my-bones concerned at the sheer havoc we may be facing in very short order.

@susanquinn was spot on with her post A Lose-Lose Election For Americans.

How many bright, wise, learned, accomplished, competent, skilled men and women have said throughout history, especially contemporary history, “It can’t happen here”?

It can and will, if “Things fall apart” and “Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.”

The Federal Judiciary Has Well and Truly Disgraced Itself in the Persecution of Gen. Flynn

By Jim George

| July 30, 2020

16 COMMENTS

It is unfathomable to me, as one who spent most of his adult life dedicated to the Rule of Law and the Court system, how these “judges” can, in good conscience, abide what they are doing to a man who put himself in danger to defend his country.

Davell Gardner, Jr. His Life Matters—or, Mattered.

By Jim George

| July 27, 2020

13 COMMENTS

Who knows what he would have become? After all, this is America where life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are guaranteed. He might have been President of the United States, he might have been head of some multinational corporation and a billionaire, or a devoted husband and loving father of his own beautiful children with a very prominent position in some New York City consultancy.

But he will be none of those things because he no longer exists. No one, after his funeral today, will ever again hear this baby’s name, although there may be a few mentions tomorrow not of little Davell, but of what is sure to be described as a movingly emotional eulogy given by The Reverend Al Sharpton. Who else? No, he and his name will no longer exist, because they are inconvenient to the far-far-left media’s narrative to admit that he even existed, much less that he was killed by an animal or animals of his own race. God Forbid that we would ever admit that.

But I would like to remember him here and now: his name was Davell Gardner, Jr. and we should say his name, loud and clear, and we should remember him and his life, because, in the purest sense of that term before it was so utterly profaned by the BLM “movement,” it mattered.

And he should not be just a brief flicker of life which mattered, albeit so pitifully and heartrendingly short. He will, as surely as night follows day, be totally erased from any mention in the media as of two days from now, if not before. He will remain forgotten by the moron who is Mayor of New York City, who just eliminated most of the budget of the NYPD and will certainly be forgotten by the “trained Marxists” who head up the BLM “movement” as it may be safely assumed they were too busy stage-managing the burning and pillaging of American cities to even know of his passing. In all fairness, however, it should be recorded that his funeral and wake will be paid for by an NBA star.

Davell’s Grandmother had this to say:

“They (are) talking about ‘Black Lives Matter,'” said Davell’s grieving grandmother, “but Black lives don’t matter because Black people (are) trying to kill other Black people.” Samantha Garner added what we are all thinking: “It needs to stop! … Catch the bastards!”

His name was Davell Gardner, Jr. We should remember him. God knows what was taken from us when the animal–yes, Pelosi liberals, only an animal would do something like this to a baby boy –pulled the trigger which sent the bullet on its way to end one more life in the world of “leaders” like Bill de Blasio who actually think eliminating the police is the way to save lives.

He was killed by animals and they will keep killing until they are stopped — by, if necessary, overwhelming force. They are trying harder and harder every single day to destroy our Beloved Nation and if a baby boy in his stroller gets in the way, so be it.

They must be stopped or there will be innumerable more Davells cut down because they “were in the way.”

Davell Gardner, Jr. should be remembered.

“Eternal rest grant upon him, O Lord, and let light perpetual shine upon him.”

Davell Gardner, Jr. Rest in peace.

A Signal Victory for Gen. Flynn and Richly Deserved Defeat for “Judge” Sullivan

By Jim George

| June 25, 2020

32 COMMENTS

In what I am sure many of us fervently pray is the end of the detestable, disgraceful persecution of Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, USA, Ret’d, the Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit has granted the Motion for a Writ of Mandamus filed on his behalf — from what I can determine an almost unheard of action by a Federal Court of Appeal — and ordered the bizarrely out of control District Judge to dismiss the case.

Here is a good short summary of the action from Powerline’s Scott Johnson:

In a 2-1 opinion, the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has granted Michael Flynn’s petition for a writ of mandamus ordering Judge Emmet Sullivan to dismiss the case against General Flynn. I commented on the oral argument before the court here on June 12. I have embedded the panel opinion below along with the dissent.

Judge Rao’s opinion for the panel responds in detail to Judge Wilkins’s dissent. I think Judge Rao seeks to dissuade the D.C. Circuit from finding a way to rehear the case en banc under Rule 35 of the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure.

The Flynn case constitutes a sidebar to the biggest political scandal in American history by far. One can only hope that this is, as it should be, the end of the road for this utterly disgraceful case.

As pleased as I am for the General and his family and his astonishingly talented lawyer, Sidney Powell and her team, I fear that since this “Judge” (sorry, he relinquished the right to that honorific the day he called Gen. Flynn a traitor to his country) has the right to appeal for a rehearing to the Full Court, En Banc, and then to apply for Writ of Certiori to the Supreme Court. There is little reason to expect him to start acting like a reasonable member of the Federal Judiciary at this late date.

Whatever happens on that front, this is a great day for Gen. Flynn and his family, and I salute him once again for his remarkable service to his Nation.

“Single Mother Owned, Please Show Mercy, This Is All I Have”

By Jim George

| June 6, 2020

After struggling for days with (mostly very distressing, and, as much as I hate to admit it, downright at times depressing) ideas of how to write about the monstrosity which has descended upon us in the form of “mostly peaceful” riots in numerous cities with untold loss of life and property, deliberate murders like those of retired Police Capt. David Dorn in St. Louis, injuries all across the Nation we love and revere, my search ended when I saw this heart-rending sign in a shop– begging for mercy. Begging! Figuratively on her knees pleading to the animals of lawlessness to please, please, please let her continue to make a living and provide for her children. Please!

I had originally started to write something based on Paul Harvey’s famous broadcast in 1965, entitled “If I Were The Devil”, bringing it up to date to show how what we are seeing in the last week is as pure an example of the work of Lucifer as any of us will ever see but decided, after seeing this image (which I believe, based on what research I was able to find, was of a shop in Santa Monica) nothing could more graphically illustrate the work of the Prince of Hatred than this pathetic sign.

If I were the devil, I would make American citizens beg for their very livelihoods, just like this single mom had to do to try to keep the maundering herds away from her shop.

I have tried, through most of my life, to always get right up after being knocked down, but the images of the last few days have really put that trait to the acid test– the out of control, wanton, despicable destruction by mobs of animals (yes, I know, there’s that word again), the unbelievable failure of those in positions of “leadership” to do anything about the mobs and in some cases to even abet their behavior, the pure hatred for us and for our President coming from so many quarters, such as a Bishop of my Church implying that the President of the United States needed her permission to stand in front of one of the most cherished Churches in America, the abject and truly pitiful scene of our hero, Drew Brees, as fine and generous a human being as ever existed, having to figuratively “kneel” and beg forgiveness for insisting that he will always stand for the flag and the National Anthem, the scenes of citizens sobbing on camera in front of their burned out and destroyed homes and shops.

And, through all of this, I’m expected to still respect the mainstream media and continue to refer to them with the formerly honorable appellation “journalists” as they continue to insist that this is all due to the horrible and, it must be said if one still has a morsel of conviction of the importance of due process of law in America, allegedly, but not proven, inexcusable death of George Floyd which may be, but is not as of this day, proven to be murder and that the torching of private property is not “violence.”

There are times when I wonder if the white-hot hatred we see every day is not going to finally result in the total immolation of the Greatest Nation on Earth, and everything it stands for. The past week has been one of those times.

I pray to God that He will show us the way from this path of suicide to which we seem to be committed over the last decades and I know that He will, in His mercy, help us see our way back to what He guided the Founding Fathers to build. But, at times like this, that dream seems to be getting farther and farther away.

Dear Lord, Grant Us Thy Peace.

‘In Flanders Fields the Poppies Blow, Between the Crosses, Row on Row’

By Jim George

| May 23, 2020

10 COMMENTS

As we enter Memorial Day Weekend, it is right and proper to remember the ones who gave The Last Full Measure so that we might have a level of liberty and freedom never known in world history before our magnificent, glorious, truly exceptional Nation was born. What better way to remember and honor them than by recalling what has been called one of the greatest War Memorial Poems of all time, In Flanders Fields, written by Dr. John MacRae in 1915.

He and a young friend, Alexis Helmers, joined the 18,000 soldiers of the First Canadian Division near Ypres, Belgium, and it was during this battle that the Germans unleashed the first major poison gas attacks of the war. The interesting history of how the poem was born was described as follows:

On 2 May, Alexis Helmer was killed. Because the brigade chaplain was absent, McCrae—as the brigade doctor—conducted the burial service for his friend. Later, at Helmer’s grave, he wrote a few lines of verse that were the beginning of the poem “In Flanders Fields.”

Before the war, McCrae had written poetry in Canada, and some of his work had been published.

McCrae later sent a finished copy of his war poem to The Spectator magazine in London, where it was rejected. But a journalist who visited the hospital took a copy back to Punch magazine, which printed it—anonymously, without McCrae’s name—on 8 December 1915. Within months it became the most popular poem of the war. Its powerful use of the symbol of the poppies blooming from the churned earth led to the tradition, to this day, of the poppy as a symbol of remembrance for those killed in service.

As we remember the fallen and perhaps buy some poppies to help honor their sacrifices, it would be well to recall these haunting lines and remember that the torch is ours “to hold .. high” and to never “break faith with [those] who die…”

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

The Cruelty Heaped upon Gen. Flynn Is Beyond Belief; Sullivan Should Be Removed from the Bench

By Jim George

| May 20, 2020

31 COMMENTS

Sidney Powell, Esq., will go down in history as one of the most skilled, talented, knowledgeable, tenacious, and relentless lawyers ever to take on the unlimited power and resources of the federal government. She has filed an application to the DC Court of Appeals for a writ of mandamus, ordering the rogue Judge Sullivan to grant the Government’s Motion to Dismiss the persecution of Gen. Flynn. The motion, which also calls for the reassignment of the case to another Judge, and the extensive brief which accompanies it, is highly recommended reading for anyone who wants to fully understand the cruelty and indignity heaped upon this honorable man who served his country in uniform for 33 years.

To say that Powell’s brief does not mince words is the mildest possible way to describe the way she goes head-on to attack what this out-of-control Judge is trying to do to Gen. Flynn and his family. In this recovering lawyer’s humble opinion, he deserves every word of it and it is high time he encountered a lawyer with the courage to call him the monster he obviously has become in the years since he performed so heroically in the Sen. Stevens case, about which Powell wrote in her book, Licensed to Lie.

I have written several times here on my views about this wretched persecution, including a post I entitled “The Kafkaesque Persecution of Gen. Flynn,” so I was naturally struck by the following passage in Powell’s brief (p. 29). It describes so well the strange and unlimited hatred of the General, first by the FBI, then the Special Counsel’s office, continued by the Justice (?) Department and its jackboot representative, Brandon van Grack, who should be, at the very least, permanently disbarred, and Judge Sullivan himself:

First, Petitioner, through no fault of his own, has been drawn into a Kafkaesque nightmare that is a cross between The Trial and In the Penal Colony. He has been subjected to deception, abuse, penury, obloquy, and humiliation. Having risked his life in service to his country, he has found himself the target of a political vendetta designed to strip him of his honor and savings, and to deprive the President of his advice. He has been dragged through the mud and forced, through coercion and the artful withholding of information crucial to his defense, to confess to a crime he did not commit—indeed, to a crime that could not exist. Having at last, through the relentless determination of his current counsel, brought the truth to light, he now learns that the judge who is charged with adjudicating his case impartially
has, in Judge Posner’s words, decided to “play … U.S. Attorney.”

This Judge’s latest unlawful shenanigans prompted Powell to describe his unbelievable conduct as follows (p. 32):

The district judge’s latest actions—failing to grant the Government’s Motion to Dismiss, appointing a biased and highly-political amicus who has expressed hostility and disdain towards the Justice Department’s decision to dismiss the prosecution, and the promise to set a briefing schedule for widespread amicus participation in further proceedings—bespeaks a judge who is not only biased against Petitioner, but also revels in the notoriety he has created by failing to take the simple step of granting a motion he has no authority to deny. This is an umpire who has decided to steal public attention from the players and focus it on himself. He wants to pitch, bat, run bases, and play shortstop. In truth, he is way out in left field.

As one who has followed this case rather closely, I no longer have the faintest idea of what this Judge thinks he is doing or why he is doing it. The one thing I do know, however, is that he must be stopped and removed from this case, so that a real Judge can perform the simple, ministerial task of dismissing this persecution so that the General and his family can finally be free to live their lives as the genuine, deserving Americans they are. This madness has got to end.

A Judge, a General, and a Rabbi Walk Into a Barr

By Jim George

| May 16, 2020

12 COMMENTS

Sounds like a scene straight out of the cantina scene in Star Wars, doesn’t it? Or, maybe, right out of Lucifer’s own precincts, and I can well imagine that some of the principals in all of these intertwined dramas are feeling that’s where they are right about now, especially the fine, dedicated, honorable Lt. General of the Army, Michael Flynn. His only “crime,” a word I use advisedly and only wish others had done so back in the early days of 2017, was to support the candidacy and serve the Presidency of Donald J. Trump. The other attendees at this little gathering are quite well known, although one may need a little more introduction as our social gets underway.

General Flynn’s saga, and it is truly that, in the tradition of the great tragedies of ancient times, is so well known it needs little or no fleshing out here, except to capture the highlights of recent “daffy” developments in his case from an excellent article by Andrew McCarthy. It should be noted that the adjective is from a tweet by the author describing the Judge’s “unusual” ruling, to use the most extreme, if that is the proper usage, euphemism one can use about Judge Sullivan’s refusal to simply grant the Motion to Dismiss of the Department of Justice and, instead, to open it up for the filing of briefs by probably every loony, far-left-wing group in the country, thereby inviting a spectacle resembling anything but Justice.

McCarthy’s piece, entitled “The Politicized Order Inviting Amicus Briefs against the Flynn Case’s Dismissal”, surveys the wreckage left in the wake of the travesty of justice created by the “cantankerous jurist,” Judge Emmet Sullivan, and the very sound reasons it is so “legally dubious.” I would have used a much stronger descriptive phrase, something along the lines of “outrageous,” but that points up the very reason I always try to read everything McCarthy writes in this field. He is not only clearly the writer today with the most actual, courtroom experience in Federal Criminal Law but he is also a very careful and cautious analyst, at times far readier to give the benefit of the doubt to such cretins as James Comey — in the earlier days, to be sure — than I would have been. Thus, when he writes observations like the following, it is well worth one’s studied attention as he does not throw conclusions like these around loosely:

Late Tuesday, federal district judge Emmet Sullivan issued a bizarre order, inviting third-party groups with no legal interests in the case to file amicus briefs addressing the Justice Department’s motion to dismiss the false-statements charge against Michael Flynn, President Trump’s former national-security adviser.
The cantankerous jurist is stoking opposition to the dismissal. He knows the law calls for him to accede to attorney general Bill Barr’s decision. But Barr can’t stop Sullivan from turning the dismissal into anti-Trump group therapy — and who knows, maybe the grieving Legal Left will figure out some way for the judge to convict Flynn despite DOJ’s retreat.

…Lest we forget, the primary function of the federal judiciary is to protect the accused from overbearing government action, not to agitate for the prosecution of Americans. Even if he’s convinced Flynn is as guilty as the day is long, one might expect Judge Sullivan to be disturbed by the FBI’s perjury trap, by its editing of and misrepresentations about the “302 report” of Flynn’s interview. By the prosecution’s withholding of exculpatory evidence and concealment from the court of its threat to prosecute Flynn’s son. By the derelictions of Flynn’s original counsel, who took the case notwithstanding a deep conflict-of-interest, and who appear to have counseled Flynn to plead guilty without ever reviewing rudimentary discovery — we know they never inspected the 302 (which is mind-boggling in a false-statements case); did they ever demand that Mueller’s prosecutors produce the recording of the Flynn–Kislyak “sanctions” conversation that is the heart of the case?

Those are the kinds of questions a responsible judge would be posing, not, “How do I sentence this guy if DOJ won’t prosecute?” Regardless of what the DNC and CNN have to say on the matter, Flynn is supposed to be presumed innocent as far as Judge Sullivan is concerned.

After a discussion of Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 48, whose purpose is described as one “to protect defendants–exactly the opposite of what Sullivan is doing,” McCarthy concluded with a reminder about one of the most shocking and disgusting scenes to ever take place in an American courtroom, and I say that as one who has lived through more of those than I care to recount here, the day this totally out-of-control Federal Judge accused a three-star General of the United States Army of possibly being a traitor, conduct which should have merited his removal from the case the moment it happened:

Alas, in the Flynn case, we are dealing with a judge who prefers bloviation to preparation.

“I’m not hiding my disgust, my disdain, for this criminal offense,” he railed in his first appearance in the case. “This criminal offense” was actually a relatively low-level process crime: a false-statements charge against a career military officer, brought even though the FBI did not think Flynn made intentional misstatements, the bureau was not obstructed in any way, and the prosecutors originally recommended no jail time. Sullivan, however, was not up to speed, but could not contain himself: He inveighed that Flynn, a decorated U.S. combat commander, had sold out his country and committed treason, a death-penalty offense.

Judge Sullivan’s order inviting amicus briefs is a travesty. Sad to say, it is not a surprise.

One must bear in mind that these comments were written before Judge Sullivan’s next astonishing Order:

ORDER APPOINTING AMICUS CURIAE

Upon consideration of the entire record in this case, it is hereby ORDERED that the Court exercises its inherent authority to appoint The Honorable John Gleeson (Ret.) as amicus curiae to present arguments in opposition to the government’s Motion to Dismiss, ECF No. 198, see, e.g., United States v. Fokker Servs. B.V., 818 F.3d 733, 740 (D.C. Cir. 2016); Jin v. Ministry of State Sec., 557 F. Supp. 2d 131, 136 (D.D.C. 2008); it is further ORDERED that amicus curiae shall address whether the Court should issue an Order to Show Cause why Mr. Flynn should not be held in criminal contempt for perjury pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 401, Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 42, the Court’s inherent authority, and any other applicable statutes, rules, or controlling law.

It is necessary to take this order apart, piece by piece, as it is so absolutely, manifestly, legally wrong and without foundation in so many ways. Several good dissections of this “unbelievable order” are found in “The Constitution Requires Judge Emmet Sullivan’s Lawless Amicus Order Against Michael Flynn Be Overturned” by Prof. Margot Cleveland and “Judge Sullivan Disregards Two Controlling Precedents By Appointing Amicus In Flynn Case” by Mark Chenoweth, legal analyst for Forbes magazine.

Prof. Cleveland begins by noting that one of the two cases Judge Sullivan cited in support of his action is, in actuality, the very case which will probably get him reversed, as it stands for the exact opposite proposition. Her discussion of that case, the Fokker case, by the Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, is quite detailed, but the following are the major points showing no District Court within the jurisdiction of that Court of Appeal — not even Judge Sullivan –can simply ignore it.

… What was surprising—no, unbelievable—is what Judge Sullivan did on Wednesday: He entered an order “appoint[ing] The Honorable John Gleeson (Ret.) as amicus curiae to present arguments in opposition to the government’s Motion to Dismiss.”

This order was jaw-dropping for two reasons. First, the U.S. Constitution makes clear that the judiciary has no business second-guessing prosecutorial decisions. In fact, the very case Judge Sullivan cited for the proposition that he had the inherent authority to appoint an amicus curiae—United States v. Fokker—made clear Sullivan’s order was lawless.

***

Fokker then concluded: “So understood, the ‘leave of court’ authority gives no power to a district court to deny a prosecutor’s Rule 48(a) motion to dismiss charges based on a disagreement with the prosecution’s exercise of charging authority. For instance, a court cannot deny leave of court because of a view that the defendant should stand trial notwithstanding the prosecution’s desire to dismiss the charges, or a view that any remaining charges fail adequately to redress the gravity of the defendant’s alleged conduct. The authority to make such determinations remains with the Executive.”

This Is Mandatory Precedent
The Fokker decision was a 2016 decision from the D.C. Circuit Court and, as such, establishes “mandatory precedent,” i.e., precedent that must be followed, by all D.C. district court judges—including Judge Sullivan. Thus, Judge Sullivan’s directive that Judge Gleeson, as amicus curiae, should “present arguments in opposition to the government’s Motion to Dismiss,” cannot stand: It conflicts with controlling circuit court precedent, and more significantly with the U.S. Constitution.

The Forbes piece also discusses the Fokker case but details the very important decision of the US Supreme Court only a week ago in which the Court held 9-0 the very procedure used by Judge Sullivan was an abuse of discretion and caused the Court, through Justice Ginsburg, to chastise that “the Ninth Circuit’s radical transformation of the case goes well beyond the pale.” Very unusually strong admonition, to put it mildly! That case is U.S. v. Sineneng-Smith, and, based on a reading of the Forbes analysis, seems to clearly dictate that Judge Sullivan’s order was, indeed, to put it most charitably, lawless in the truest sense of that word.

Here is the core of Chenoweth’s analysis of how clearly that case applies to the Sullivan Order:

Justice Ginsburg’s decision castigated the Ninth Circuit’s conduct as “depart[ing] so drastically from the principle of party presentation as to constitute an abuse of discretion” and “remand[ed] the case for an adjudication of the appeal attuned to the case shaped by the parties rather than the case designed by the appeals panel.” J. Ginsburg faulted the panel’s “redirection” and “takeover” of the appeal and chastised that “the Ninth Circuit’s radical transformation of this case goes well beyond the pale.”

Judge Sullivan’s actions this week raise serious doubt whether he paid attention to this recent, unanimous decision. Let’s rehearse. First, the Ninth Circuit solicited specific amici. So too, J. Sullivan has now appointed former prosecutor and judge John Gleeson to oppose DOJ’s effort to drop the case and essentially represent DOJ’s former view of the case. And he has opened the door to a flood of amicus curiae briefs from special-interest groups hostile to Flynn. Second, the Ninth Circuit suggested particular arguments for amici to make. Likewise, J. Sullivan has instructed Mr. Gleason to explore a possible perjury charge. Last, the Sineneng-Smith panel decided the case on an issue not presented by the parties. J. Sullivan has not issued a ruling yet, but if he does anything other than accept dismissal of the charges, he will duplicate the Ninth Circuit’s violation of the party presentation principle. Hence, he is coming perilously close to completing the very trifecta that drew the Supreme Court’s wrath against the Ninth Circuit.

There are so many articles out in the past few days discussing this disgusting turn of events one can only briefly survey them and refer the reader via links for further review. For example, the excellent opinion columnist at the Wall Street Journal, Daniel Henninger, refers to the entire case as “The Michael Flynn Debauchery” and no less an authority than Prof. Dershowitz makes clear his belief that Judge Sullivan “had no right to do” what he is attempting in these recent orders. Another recent discussion, also by Prof. Cleveland, carries the title “Michael Flynn Judge is destroying a man’s reputation: His own,” with which I fully agree. She comments on the sad spectacle of seeing “politics and pride” drive a formerly highly respected Judge to these extremes:

With this later order, Sullivan has destroyed any possible semblance of impartiality — and his reputation. A federal court has no authority over prosecutorial decisions, including whether to prosecute or whether to dismiss. Gleeson already declared Wednesday in a Washington Post op-ed that the Barr DOJ’s handling of dismissing the charges against Flynn was politically motivated.

No, what was politically motivated was Sullivan’s response. Barr had already assigned the case to an outside U.S. attorney for an independent review, and that review uncovered that the federal prosecutors handling the prosecution had withheld material exculpatory evidence — in direct violation of Sullivan’s order.

Other evidence discovered by Powell showed that, as Flynn had claimed, the prosecutors threatened to target his son if Flynn didn’t plead guilty. Additional documents also suggest that rather than inform the court of that side agreement, the federal prosecutors kept it secret so that they did not need to disclose the understanding to other defendants, as is constitutionally required.

The Sullivan who presided over the Stevens case would care about this prosecutorial misconduct. But politics and pride have destroyed that man. The long-respected jurist is now a shriveled shadow of the defender of liberty and the rights of the accused. In trying to destroy Flynn, Sullivan has instead destroyed himself.

A further sampling of these strange orders can be found here (very lengthy treatment of applicable case law), here, here and here.

At this point, one might with good reason ask: Where does the Rabbi fit in this “gathering?”

He is not only a Rabbi but a very widely known and most capable lawyer named Dov Fisher, who writes for the Spectator.org. His most recent writing gives voice to what so many of us are thinking and feeling about the double standards of “equal” justice we see all around us, with the Flynn case being a painfully vivid example. His piece carries the title “A Time To Hate” and it bears careful reading for those concerned about what appears to be a dangerous breakdown in the American Rule of Law.

Fischer takes his theme from Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 — it is a lengthy, serious article and should be read and studied closely, in my opinion. It runs the gamut of all the things the left has served up to us which seem, at times, to e just downright hateful– things we hate. As an aside, I was taught from the earliest days that it was against every tenet of Christianity to “hate” anyone or anything. I feel that lifetime lesson is one reason this thoughtful scholar’s comments struck such a resonant nerve with me and why I wanted to share it in the context of Gen. Flynn’s nightmare of persecution. After reviewing his enduring the Obama years, feeling that as much as he disliked everything about Barack Hussein Obama and those around him, he won fair and square (reasonable minds could sure differ on that one, but that’s for another day) and according to the Constitution he loved and revered, he noted:

As a rabbi of 40 years and a person who believes that most people have the potential for goodness, and who tries to find the good even in people who disappoint until they absolutely close off the possibility of goodness being discovered within them, I now have learned to hate.

***

There is a time to hate.

I have come deeply to hate. I hate that Donald Trump never was given a chance to be president of the United States for even one day’s honeymoon. I hate that, long before he won the presidency — fair and square — corrupt crooks and criminals in the United States Department of Justice, its Federal Bureau of Investigation, were actively plotting to take him down. I hate that there are so few outlets in the media that give voice to condemn the criminality and corruption that broke every accepted societal norm by which we play the game. I hate that Obama was in on it, yet continues to pontificate on what is just and on what threatens freedom.

I hate that they all keep getting away with it. Every single one of them gets away with it. There is absolutely no price to be paid on the left for perjury, for conspiracy to overturn a legitimate election, for treason.

***

Lt. Gen. Flynn never deserved what was done to him. He was targeted for destruction by criminals and crooks in the FBI. They set out to destroy him. The FBI is not allowed to bother law-abiding people like you and me, to set us up, and to induce us to commit a crime. They are permitted to pursue criminal investigations only when they have a predicate before them. In the case of Flynn, they had in their possession a complete recording and transcript of his phone call with Sergey Kislyak. Yet they interviewed him and asked him to tell them what was said during the call. The Bureau of Investigation was not investigating; they already knew the answer. Rather, they were setting him up to speak a falsehood, to commit the crime of lying to the FBI, an act whose criminal dimensions he did not appreciate as a layman. They dissuaded him from having an attorney at the interview so he would slip into the trap. A competent attorney would have protected him. Frankly, a competent attorney would have killed the interview in the first place or would have wrangled terms that would have negated its purpose, much as Hillary did.

***

There is something so evil in a society that tolerates a dual standard of justice, dual standards of everything. On the one hand, we political conservatives harbor profoundly deep feelings, but we do not destroy people’s lives based on abstract politics. Yes, we oppose them and expose them, and we hope that contemporary society and history judge them for the evil they represent. But we do not destroy them in their lives. They get away with everything. Hillary Clinton spoliated 33,000 emails amid a federal probe, a federal crime that always ends up with prison time — but not for her. It is a federal crime to lie under oath to Congress. Comey, Clapper, Brennan — how have they all avoided prison time? Strzok, Page, the whole bunch of them? Adam Schiff. The outliers on the Mueller team. Not one single slime among them in the swamp has been brought to justice.

These animals destroyed the life of Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn. They drove him into such financial ruin that he had to sell his home to pay his legal bills

After taking a very close and studied look at what these “animals,” as Rabbi Fischer described them, have done to a real American hero who served his country in uniform for 33 years, several of which were in combat zones, and his family, I now state, with no reticence whatsoever, that I deeply hate what they have done to this fine man and to the Nation which he has so obviously loved all his life.

People go to bars, and here one should note parenthetically, in the good old days when we could go to bars and restaurants without fear of antagonizing the Microbe Patrol, for all sorts of reasons— for good times with friends, for dark times to drown our sorrows, and a whole range of reasons in between. I prefer to think that we who have to believe there is still vibrant life left in the American system of justice, go to this particular Barr for hope — hope that he will continue to be true to his word and restore the Rule of Law in America. That he and his colleagues, Mr. Durham and Mr. Jensen, will continue to root out and bring to justice “animals” like the Rogues’ Gallery in the past leadership of the FBI and the Justice Department and the CIA and so many other parts of the Chicago pols machine Obama brought with him to Washington.

The Rabbi closed his litany with these words: “There is a time to love and a time to hate. This is a time to hate.”

Maybe, just maybe, we finally have some reason to believe that there is also:

A time to hope.

AP: Justice Dept Dropping Flynn’s Criminal Case

By Jim George

| May 7, 2020

55 COMMENTS

This news, just breaking in the last few minutes, is one of the best pieces of news I have ever received in this long old life of mine!

Here is the article from the AP for your review; I looked for the “Filings” they refer to on the docket of the case, but did not see them; I will attempt to get them when they are available and link to them in a comment.

Glory! Hallelujah!

God Bless Gen. Flynn and his family and God Bless America, whose justice system has proven it still works, albeit way too slowly for this great American hero who served his country and its military for 33 years.

Will History Judge the Lockdown the Great Blunder of American History?

By Jim George

| April 23, 2020

114 COMMENTS

This is not easy to write and I know it will advance an opinion that does not find favor in all quarters of the center-right we represent here on Ricochet, but I am more and more convinced that the path we are now on, even considering the perhaps far-too-late course corrections announced in the past few days, may go down in history as the greatest single error of judgment in our history.

I started coming to this conviction some time ago, as shown by my post of a little over two weeks ago, entitled “This Is Tearing My Heart Out!”: Rush’s Lament- and Mine”, in which I reviewed studies and analyses decrying the fact that the decisions of the President and his task force were being made almost wholly on the basis of scientific data, with little consideration being given to the horrendous impact this is having on the economy and the workers who make it — or, dare I put it more accurately, made it — the greatest economy the world has ever seen.

In the intervening weeks, more and more voices have been heard, not only with regard to the purely economic impact of this “insane overreaction,” as phrased by Roger Kimball in several pieces over the last few weeks, but also scientific and medical experts taking directly opposing views from those of the task force team and questioning the very basis of their findings which led us to this point (of no return?). Several of those studies are reviewed and linked in Kimball’s piece entitled “A Deadly If Dutiful Deference”, and include the now well-known “Santa Clara Study” and an opinion piece written by several medical doctors titled “Moving the Goal Posts-Four Reasons It Is Safe to Reopen America.”

Kimball notes the medical doctors’ main opinions and concludes with an observation, with which I agree 100%, of what we have done to ourselves, based on consistently erroneous models and forecasts:

We have often been presented with a false dichotomy between saving the economy and saving lives. This is a false dichotomy because, as Geach points out, “the state of our economy is not just a monetary risk, it is a health risk.” For one thing, “when people lose their jobs, they typically lose their health insurance.” He notes that there were more than 10,000 “economic suicides” as a result of the 2008 recession. There is also a spike in cancer deaths, drug abuse, domestic violence, and other pathologies.

The most awesome toll of this new coronavirus is not the number of lives it has claimed—tragic though the loss of every life is—but rather the stupendous damage we have done to ourselves. The American public has been dutiful to the point of self-harm in heeding the injunctions of the people who manage their lives and livelihoods. I suspect that that deference is evaporating. I regard that as a good thing, for it means that neither the instinct for self-preservation nor the taste for liberty has been entirely bred out of the body politic.

Similar concerns have been expressed in discussions by the eminent scholar Victor Davis Hanson in which he notes the steady erosion of civil liberties by the actions of little tyrants, referred to as “mewling Mussolinis” by Kurt Schlichter, such as the disgusting Governor of Michigan forbidding the sale of garden supplies and seeds (there must be a reason in there somewhere) and the frighteningly arrogant ignorance of the Governor of New Jersey who proclaimed that taking the Bill of Rights into consideration in his policy determinations was “above his pay grade.” These can be found here and here.

However, a piece from one of the finest and most incisive minds of our day, in my more and more humble opinion, Heather MacDonald, has possibly put these concerns in the boldest relief as illustrated clearly by the title itself: “The Deadly Costs of Extended Shutdown Orders.” I cannot recommend it highly enough and it should be read in its entirety, but here follows a few of the highlights. She poses a few questions which should be publicly addressed by Governors extending their orders into May and even beyond:

More than a dozen governors extended their economic shutdown orders recently into May and beyond. Those officials should have publicly addressed the following questions first:

How many coronavirus deaths do you expect to avert by the shut-down extension?

What will your state’s economy look like after another month of enforced stasis?

How many workers will have lost their jobs?

How many businesses will have closed for good?

How many of your state’s young residents, seeking employment for the first time, will be unable to find it?

Instead, the announcements of the prolonged shutdown were representative of government decision-making during the coronavirus crisis: opaque, lacking in criteria for measuring success and failure, and bereft of any attempt to measure the benefits of mitigating one particular health problem against the costs—including other health problems.

After a painstaking analysis of the numbers in New York State, as opposed to the New York City area, which graphically illustrated how unfair the “one size fits all” approach of Governor Cuomo is to the rest of the State, she concludes:

The focus on saving “just one life” from the coronavirus, as Cuomo put it in March, to the exclusion of all other considerations likely will prove a catastrophic failure of policymaking. The devastation to individuals’ ability to flourish or even survive may soon become irreversible. Every scientific model used to justify these economic death sentences has been discredited. But even if those models were proven reliable, government decision-making must turn toward opening up. Officials must be made to justify, through a transparent analysis of costs and benefits, all further mandates to prevent people from working. Otherwise, there may be nothing recognizable as our economy to return to, with a resulting cost in human life and well-being that will match anything the coronavirus could inflict.

I end with the sadly requisite disclaimer that I bow to no one in my admiration for the President and Vice President in their roles in this crisis and my respect for the scientific experts upon whom they have placed almost total reliance in establishing the policy which got us to this place, with an emphasis on a respect for their specific roles as scientists, not policymakers or politicians answerable (theoretically, at least) to the voters who should ultimately decide the wisdom vel non of their actions.

My dissent has to do with my right under the Bill of Rights to say this has gone on far too long, and it needs to end now.

Respectfully submitted, Jim.

The President’s Phenomenal Press Conference on Coronavirus

By Jim George

| March 13, 2020

14 COMMENTS

I write this moments after watching the President’s press conference announcing not only a National Emergency due to the coronavirus outbreak and much more far-reaching, in my view, the creation of a Public-Private coalition in order to fight this extremely serious epidemic.

I am writing this now as I am most interested in seeing just how far the Democrat-Media complex will go to try to twist what I just saw with my own eyes into the sadly inevitable next moment when the “walls are closing in” on the President and “he just lost any hope of re-election” in November.

I also write it at this moment immediately after the conclusion of both the press conference and the questions from the press corps to record my, and My Lady’s, impression that it was, in the true sense of the word, a phenomenally successful session in which much-needed positive messages were sent to the American people, not only by the President and Vice President, but by the very impressive Government agency officers such as Dr. Fauci and Ms. Birx but also by the CEOs of major corporations enlisted to help in this critically important effort.

I also use the word phenomenal in another sense, as we both kept remarking at the dramatic improvement in the stock market as the press conference unfolded– sure enough, it turned out to be the largest single-day increase in the stock market in history. We saw, from the time we started watching the press conference to the time it ended, an increase of about 6-7 points in the amount of increase in the numbers. Truly, pardon the repetition, phenomenal!

I am sure we will immediately be hearing from the various Anti-Never-Never-Never Trump outlets why what I just saw with my own eyes was an unmitigated disaster for our President. I, like many of you, I am sure, know that’s coming, like the night follows day, and do not care.

I would, however, be most interested in what you saw and what you thought of it– positive, negative or in between?

God Bless America!

‘We Couldn’t Say That.’

By Jim George

| March 9, 2020

True story. My Lady and I were fortunate enough to be able to take a wonderful cruise recently and, among so many other memorable experiences, had the opportunity to meet some very nice and most interesting people from around the country (and the world, actually).

One such encounter was a most cordial couple from a well-known City by the Bay, currently, and tragically, easily identifiable simply by describing the condition of its Third World streets and homeless encampments, which were horrible a month or two ago, but which now present a medieval threat of widespread disease rapidly spreading through those sordid “communities”.

The gentleman noted my American flag lapel pin and observed that I was a patriot for wearing it and I explained that I wear one on every jacket, blazer, etc., I own. Somehow, the subject got around to the election, and they asked if we were Trump supporters. I responded, loud and clear, that indeed we were fervent, dedicated, committed Trump supporters, and proceeded to show him my Trump 2020 socks! I also noted, with regret, that I had forgotten to pack my red and white MAGA hat! We had a further discussion about the importance we attached to this election and how dangerous we considered all of the possible Democrat candidates to be to the future of the Republic — this was before the DNC waved its “magic wand” over the entire slate and, in effect, made Old Uncle Handsy the eventual candidate.

It was about at this point in the conversation that the lady looked at her husband and said, quite plainly “we couldn’t say that.” As the conversation progressed, they made it clear that, in their home area, comments like I had just made simply could never be said out loud. Period.

It is one thing to read, as I am sure we all do, stacks of articles about the stifling of free speech in so many places around the country– it is yet another to have it brought home so vividly and graphically as it was during that conversation.

Something very sick is afoot in our beloved Nation when our citizens simply accept, as a given rule of everyday life, that certain areas of speech are not permissible.

Have you had a similar conversation?

“We couldn’t say that.”

New Online Course on US History from Hillsdale

By Jim George

| February 13, 2020

7 COMMENTS

As I know many of our colleagues are devotees of that premier institution of higher education Hillsdale College, and in the probably unlikely event that those of us who love that College and everything it stands for may not already know this, I would like to share the good news that it is now offering a new course, based on Wilfred McKay’s new text, on the actual, not the product of Marxists like Howard Zinn, history of America.

Here is the course description:

The Great American Story: A Land of Hope
This course explores the history of America as a land of hope founded on high principles. In presenting the great triumphs and achievements of our nation’s past, as well as the shortcomings and failures, it offers a broad and unbiased study of the kind essential to the cultivation of intelligent patriotism.

It is described as a “free” online course, but one is prompted to make a contribution before logging into the course. If the content is anything even approaching the quality of the trailer, it would be, as an old friend was fond of saying, “cheap at twice the price!”

Enjoy! Jim

Thank You for Your Service, Gen. Flynn

By Jim George

| February 1, 2020

Here, in a few words–his own, from the sworn affidavit he filed with his Motion to Withdraw Guilty Plea on Wednesday — is a sketch of the outstanding man the gang of hoodlums of the Weissmann investigation tried to utterly destroy for three horrible years:

I served over thirty-three years in the United States Army. Five of those years I spent deployed in active combat in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere around the world in support of United States foreign policy objectives. (Para. 2, Declaration)

To have devoted my life to my country, only to be accused of crimes, slandered in the media with false and outrageous claims, and have my family threatened was an unimaginable nightmare-one that those have not walked in these shoes will find difficult to comprehend. (Para. 26, Declaration)

My own strong views about the lawlessness of these monsters visited upon the General and his family, as well as my deep and abiding admiration for him, and my conviction of his innocence, were made known in my previous posts, The Kafkaesque Persecution of Gen. Flynn and USA v. Flynn: Agonies Even Kafka Could Not Have Imagined.

There have been recent, and most significant developments in this disgraceful persecution, in filings of Motions which give rise to a real hope that the Court might finally see in vivid detail the many ways in which the duplicity and unethical conduct of the attorneys — on both sides– came together to create “a perfect storm” of treachery and betrayal. And, how all this led to the near-total destruction of the General, his family, the loss of his home (which had to be sold to help pay the $3 million in fees his former lawyers charged him for the privilege of helping to destroy his life), the savaging of his sterling reputation by a bloodthirsty media and, as we shall see later, even by the Court itself.

This is the way we say “thank you” to a man who achieved one of the highest military ranks (actually, second only to a four-star rank) while serving and fighting in combat zones for the nation he loves.

In order to explore the bizarre and frightening chain of events which led this great American to this point and, most importantly, to try to understand the significance of the filings of a few days ago, it is helpful to refer not only to persuasive brief filed on his behalf by his most talented new lawyer, Ms. Powell, but to also review several articles of the last couple of days, analyzing these events. These include the one I will focus on, “What’s Inside The Latest Court Filings in Michael Flynn’s Case,” by Margot Cleveland in The Federalist; a piece by Sara Carter titled “Flynn’s Defense Files Motion Saying His Former Legal Team Betrayed Him“; and two pieces by Fox News, “Michael Flynn takes on ‘egregious’ FBI misconduct, little-known FBI agent in guilty plea withdrawal,” and “DOJ relents, says it would accept probation for Michael Flynn as he moves to withdraw guilty plea.”

A review of these articles will give one a fairly good, brief insight into what these recent filings mean. However, to me at least, the true heart of the matter is the one written by the general himself, as it reveals like no pile of papers, no matter how skillfully written, the true, deep, lasting wounds which can result when lawyers are allowed to run amok as they did in this case.

The basic facts are fairly well known and are summarized in my previous posts and in one of the Fox News pieces. It states:

“I did not lie to them.”

With those words in a declaration and supplemental motion filed Wednesday, former national security adviser Michael Flynn formally asked a federal judge for permission to withdraw his guilty plea for making false statements to two FBI agents in the White House back on Jan. 24, 2017.

In a sweeping argument that took aim at the bureau’s “outrageous” conduct, Flynn’s legal team highlighted a slew of information that has come to light since Flynn’s plea — including that no precise record of Flynn’s statements to the agents exists and that the original handwritten FD-302 witness report from the interview is “missing,” with subsequent versions later “edited” in some undisclosed manner by anti-Trump FBI officials.

Moreover, Flynn’s team maintained he had no reason to lie about his communications with the Russian ambassador concerning how the country should respond to sanctions imposed by the Obama administration, or a then-pending vote on Israel in the United Nations. After all, Flynn said, he knew federal officials “routinely monitor, record, and transcribe” conversations like the ones he had with Russian diplomats.

Flynn’s argument found support in a Jan. 23, 2017, article in The Washington Post. Citing FBI sources, the Post’s article — published the day before Flynn’s interview with the FBI agents — directly stated that the bureau had listened in on his calls with the Russian ambassador and cleared him of criminal wrongdoing.

The Federalist article brings into sharp focus the recent filings and their (I apologize for using this tattered, beaten old word) explosive allegations against the prosecutors, the DOJ, the FBI, and Gen. Flynn’s former lawyers:

Yesterday, Michael Flynn’s legal team, led by powerhouse attorney Sidney Powell, filed a “Supplemental Motion to Withdraw Plea of Guilty” on behalf of the retired lieutenant general. Between the motion and the accompanying exhibits, which together exceeded 200 pages, Powell exposed several more troubling details about the prosecution of Flynn, involving both the special counsel team and Flynn’s previous attorneys.

Flynn had pled guilty on December 1, 2017, to one count of making a false statement to FBI agents Peter Strzok and Joe Pientka when the duo questioned Flynn on January 24, 2017 about telephone conversations he had with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak. At the time Flynn entered his plea, he was represented by Robert Kelner and Stephen Anthony of the well-respected Washington firm of Covington and Burling, LLP.

Kelner and Anthony continued to represent Flynn until he fired them in June 2019 and replaced them with Powell. Powell sought a delay in Flynn’s sentencing, which had already been postponed from December 2018. She then sought to compel the federal prosecutors to produce previously withheld evidence, including a copy of the transcript and audio of the January 24, 2017, telephone call.

In mid-December 2019, presiding Judge Emmet Sullivan denied Powell’s motion to compel and set Flynn’s sentencing for January 28, 2020. Sullivan also directed the government to submit an updated sentencing memorandum, which it did. In its updated sentencing memorandum, the prosecutor backtracked on its previous position that Flynn had provided substantial assistance to the government and then government attorneys withdrew a previously filed motion for a reduction in sentence.

She then got to one of the major issues, ineffective assistance of counsel, and here we start seeing publicly for the first time the, to put it mildly, (alleged) less-than-honorable conduct of Gen. Flynn’s previous lawyers and how it led him into the house of horrors he finds himself in. That factor was:

…..whether Flynn’s plea was somehow tainted. It was, Powell posited, because of the ineffective assistance of counsel Flynn received both at his December 2017 plea hearing and again when Sullivan quizzed him about his guilt at the December 2018 sentencing hearing.

After setting out the governing legal standard for ineffective assistance of counsel—that “counsel’s advice was not ‘within the range of competence demanded of attorneys in criminal cases,’ and that as a result he was prejudiced, i.e. ‘there is a reasonable probability that, but for counsel’s errors, he would not have pleaded guilty and would have insisted on going to trial’”—Powell dedicates the remaining 30-plus pages of her brief to proving Flynn’s Covington lawyers provided ineffective assistance to Flynn.

To summarize this argument, she argues that the previous lawyers, the heretofore vaunted firm of Covington and Burling, had a conflict of interest in that they were involved with prior legal work for Gen. Flynn involving FARA (Foreign Agent Registration Act) about which serious questions had been raised, that they did not fully inform the General of the gravity of that conflict, which carried the potential of their own criminal liability, that, despite urging by the prosecutors to do so, they never adequately informed their client so they could proceed with his informed consent. One of the most jarring revelations was the fact that the Special Counsel’s office also threatened the former attorneys with prosecution:

“There’s one more issue I want to bring up,” Van Grack said. “Because Covington prepared the FARA registration, that would make you [Kelner] a fact witness.” “If we were to get to that point, we would litigate it very aggressively.” Kelner retorted, “We saw what you guys did with [Paul] Manafort, and we’ll definitely raise it with our client.”

At that point, any ethical lawyer would have immediately advised the client to seek independent counsel, as they now had a powerful self-interest in continuing their “go along to get along” approach with the Special Counsel’s office, which either did have, or had the appearance of having, a definite impact on the way they represented Gen. Flynn.

Before proceeding with a recitation of more seemingly egregious actions by previous counsel, I must note a careful caveat that these are allegations, subject to being tested by examination of counsel and, hopefully, the Court. They are, nonetheless, dramatic charges which, if proven, should put some licenses to practice law at risk. The following is one such accusation:

Flynn also asserts that his attorneys did not inform him that the special counsel had just disclosed that “the agents said Mr. Flynn had a ‘sure demeanor,’ and ‘did not give any indicators of deception’ and that the agents ‘had the impression at the time that Mr. Flynn was not lying or did not think he was lying.’”

Here, Powell also stressed that before Flynn signed the plea, he “specifically instructed Anthony and Kelner to call [the Special Counsel] immediately and ask if the agents believed that he lied. However, when Kelner and Anthony returned to the room where Mr. Flynn was about to sign the plea agreement, they did not inform the Flynns that Van Grack said, ‘both agents said ‘they saw no indication of deception,’ he had ‘a sure demeanor,’ and they ‘did not believe he was lying or he did not believe he was lying.’” Instead, according to Flynn, they said “the agents stood by their statement.”

In that connection, it should also be recalled that the person we now know as The Paragon of Virtue, a/k/a Saint James, the fired, disgraced and hopefully soon to be indicted James Comey, made an amazing public statement strongly indicating the whole interview was a deliberate, deceitful trap:

The Flynn filing also slammed former FBI Director James Comey’s “bragging and laughing on national television about his own cleverness and violations of FBI/DOJ rules in dispatching agents to the White House to interview the President’s National Security Advisor.” (In 2018, Comey admitted on-air that sending agents to the White House was “something I probably wouldn’t have done or maybe gotten away with in a more … organized administration.”)

However, in the final analysis, as a (recovering!) lawyer of more decades’ experience than I care to reveal, and as one who, perhaps naively, still believes in the Rule of Law, the most disgusting, repulsive, sleazy, chilling, frightening and clearly unethical conduct was the fact that Gen. Flynn was threatened with horrific consequences if he did not plead guilty:

Flynn’s plea and his decision to stand by that plea when appearing before Judge Sullivan in December 2018, was also the result of “undisclosed promises and threats,” Powell argued. “The government leveraged the threat of charges against Mr. Flynn’s son to induce that agreement,” Powell maintained, adding, “yet the government’s decision not to charge his son was not reduced to writing as part of the plea agreement; it was a secret, side deal between counsel.”

It was “that ‘understanding,’” however, that “was one of two necessary preconditions for Mr. Flynn to enter into the plea agreement,” Powell stressed. But “the government and Mr. Flynn’s prior counsel chose not to disclose that agreement to this court,” Powell concluded.

As noted above, and not to detract in any way from the brilliance of Ms. Powell’s briefing, to understand the heart and soul of this case, one must read and carefully consider Gen. Flynn’s sworn affidavit. The story of repeated deceptions and betrayals –and lies!– told by the Declaration is, in the truest sense of the words, tragically heart-wrenching. To pick a few examples found in the document, he makes it clear that he was a “fish out of water in a terrifying and completely foreign situation” and that the Judge’s comments at the December 18, 2018 hearing “stunned me. The entire experience was surreal, and that day was one of the worst days in my life.” This from a man who has served in several active combat zones!

In that regard, it should be recalled that the Court, Judge Sullivan, did, at the December 2018 hearing, make statements so degrading and insulting about Gen. Flynn that he had to backtrack on one of the more inflammatory charges in the course of the hearing. He also suggested that perhaps Gen. Flynn should be charged with treason — yes, he said this about a veteran of 33 years of service in the United States Army–and also suggested that “Arguably, you sold your country out.”

What lessons do we take from this nightmare, all to different from the “things that go bump in the night” variety as this one is happening, right now, to an American family which, until Andrew Weissmann and his dangerous posse of tyrants descended upon them like locusts, was the very picture of the kind of American family everyone would admire.

As much as it pains me to say it, never, never, never trust anyone with FBI or many, not all, with the Department of Justice.
Never, never, never sit down and talk to prosecutors for three entire days as his former attorneys had Gen. Flynn do — they are called “prosecutors” for a reason as it is their job to put you in prison, not to become your friend.
Be ever vigilant in your choice of counsel in the event of this kind of legal jeopardy–there are many sources of sound information upon which to base an informed decision in the public domain.
If you are urged, against every instinct in your mind and body, to agree to something you know is not right, get out that minute and hire another lawyer. Once a lawyer has lost the client’s trust, as obviously happened in this case, it is, quite simply, over.

I hope and pray that this travesty of “Justice” comes to an end soon and that Gen. and Mrs. Flynn will be able to rebuild what had been a classic American family story. We have contributed to his legal defense fund and plan to so again; if anyone has an interest in getting in touch with the group handling this fund, just let me know.

May God Bless Gen. Flynn and his family, may God Bless America and may we, as the Nation they have so deeply loved and served for so many years, finally be able to say — with meaning — Thank You For Your Service, Gen. Flynn.

USA v. Flynn: Agonies Even Kafka Could Not Have Imagined

By Jim George

| December 17, 2019

37 COMMENTS

I will try my best to be very professional and civil and courteous and respectful in reporting this news about General Flynn’s case, but it will not be easy. I note that as a member of the Bar, I have a continuing ethical duty of respect to all Courts. I will also note that, especially in recent years considering the truly inexplicable decisions of some “Obama Judges” (Yes, Virginia, there are such things, and they have wreaked much damage since the President took office) it has been more and more difficult to maintain that respect for some members of the Judiciary who are clearly out of control.

I am similarly constrained in reporting the Monday news that Judge Sullivan has denied what appeared to be Sidney Powell’s 99-percent certain-to-be-successful motion to compel the sleazy, contemptible, ruthless, and diabolical government prosecutors to do their duty and to produce much material they’ve obviously hidden from General Flynn — material he clearly should have had before he pled guilty while represented by lawyers who, at the very least arguably, had serious conflict of interest problems.

Here is the entry of the order on the docket which, I must note, is all I have knowledge of personally at this time, as I have not read the 99-page order which accompanied it (I hope to do so shortly and will render a fuller report after that study is completed.):

ORDER as to MICHAEL T. FLYNN denying 109 Defendant’s Motion to Compel Production of Brady Material and for Order to Show Cause; 111 Defendant’s Motion to Compel and for Order to Show Cause; 112 Defendant’s Sealed Motion to Compel the Production of Brady Material and for an Order to Show Cause; 113 Defendant’s Sealed Motion for an Order to Show Cause; 124 Defendant’s Motion to Compel Production of Newly Discovered Brady Evidence. Signed by Judge Emmet G. Sullivan on 12/16/2019. (lcegs3) (Entered: 12/16/2019)

If my views are not fairly clear from the words above, I have made my views known, loud and clear, both here — The Kafkaesque Persecution of Gen. Flynn — and elsewhere. It would have been hard to understand this ruling before the recent IG report of Mr. Horowitz; after the grotesqueries and downright illegal conduct revealed there, it is — trying to be professional here — quite simply incomprehensible.

If, after studying the Court’s opinion, I am persuaded I am being a bit hasty in this judgment, I will be the first to admit it, and will do so in a follow-up piece right here. However, I will say this at this point in time late on the 16th of December 2019, after seeing what our government has done to a man who served his country in uniform for over 30 years, some of them in combat, and who rose to the rank of Lt. General, and also seeing how the leaders of one of our established political parties have delivered year after year after year of now-thoroughly discredited abuse in an attempt to destroy the President, I and 63 million other Americans voted for, I am beginning to have the kind of thoughts I never thought I would have about the future of our beloved Nation.

I must wonder just how much more our institutions, designed by the greatest gathering of geniuses in history who are undoubtedly spinning in their graves at the conduct we are seeing on all sides, can withstand.

God bless America, and a special prayer that He will give General Flynn and his family the strength to survive this terrible, ongoing nightmare his own country has brought down on him.

Ode to Jeaux by a Tiger Fan

By Jim George

| December 9, 2019

10 COMMENTS

Basking in the gleaux of Jeaux,

After years of seasons seaux and seaux.

Finally made Bama the line to teaux

And to Heisman he will soon geaux!

All Tigers praise Coach Eaux!

And the greatest Tiger ever– Mr. Burreaux from Ohieaux!

Geaux Tigers!

The Flynn Persecution: “You Can’t Make This Stuff Up” Update

By Jim George

| November 8, 2019

Every time you think things cannot possibly get any nuttier in The Swamp, something like this comes up and you slowly and painfully realize there is just no bottom to the depths to which the creatures inhabiting that very dark place will go to get their prey, similar to the instincts of the dwellers of the real swamps of my home state, the alligator and the water moccasin. Here is a tweet from the amazing and doggedly aggressive Sidney Powell, Esq. Gen. Flynn’s new lawyer (Thank God!) remarking on an astonishing report by the prosecution of a “little” “mix-up” in identifying the authors of the reports of his infamous interview on which the entire prosecution was based:

#VanGrack just advised by letter that he got the authors of the raw notes backwards!! Since March 2018 when first disclosed! All the more reason to require originals of everything without redactions, handwriting samples, all 302s, audit trail, metadata-entire file!

Here is the letter from the US Attorney in charge of the ~~prosecution~~ persecution:

As Techno Fog puts it:

New letter to the Court from DOJ on the Flynn case.

They misidentified the FBI agents’ notes. 🤦‍♂️

Strzok’s notes are really Pientka’s notes, and Pientka’s notes are really Strzok’s notes.

OK! Got that?

As Scott Johnson puts it on PowerLine: “The mix-up may or may not be significant, but you have got to be kidding me.”

I can sum up my feelings quite simply: What in the world happened to what was the most highly respected law enforcement organization in the world up until the very recent past? The corruption is so vast and so deep it defies description.

Pathetic.

The Kafkaesque Persecution of Gen. Flynn

By Jim George