How Michael Flynn was set up by the FBI
Here’s how lawfare works when the FBI wants to get you:
Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, who arranged the bureau’s interview with then-national security adviser Michael Flynn at the White House on Jan. 24, 2017 — the interview that ultimately led to Flynn’s guilty plea on one count of making false statements — suggested Flynn not have a lawyer present at the session, according to newly-filed court documents. In addition, FBI officials, along with the two agents who interviewed Flynn, decided specifically not to warn him that there would be penalties for making false statements because the agents wanted to ensure that Flynn was “relaxed” during the session.
The new information, drawn from McCabe’s account of events plus the FBI agents’ writeup of the interview — the so-called 302 report — is contained in a sentencing memo filed Tuesday by Flynn’s defense team…
In one striking detail, footnotes in the Flynn memo say the 302 report cited was dated Aug. 22, 2017 — nearly seven months after the Flynn interview. It is not clear why the report would be written so long after the interview itself.
The stench of FBI misconduct is pretty strong.
By the way, in case you don’t know what I meant by the word “lawfare” in that first sentence, here’s the definition:
Lawfare is a form of war consisting of the use of the legal system against an enemy, such as by damaging or delegitimizing them, tying up their time or winning a public relations victory.
There are many forms the war against Donald Trump has been taking, but lawfare is a very big part of it. The objectives are many: incarceration at some future date, and/or removal from office, and/or disgrace, and/or loss of support from Republicans, and/or electoral loss for Trump and/or Republicans in general, and/or sowing fear in the hearts of anyone who might be tempted to work for the Trump administration.
Any weapon in the legal arsenal is favored and approved, but the following have been especially in evidence lately: interviews leading to the charge of what’s called “process” crimes (such as lying to the FBI, a crime caused by the investigation itself even though no underlying crime has occurred to justify the investigation); and charging Trump officials and/or associates with crimes that are ordinarily either not considered crimes or not charged as such (see this).
The primary goal is not to convict the likes of Flynn or even the far less sympathetic figures of Cohen or Manafort. They are merely collateral damage along the way. The real aim is to get them to turn on Trump and offer red-meat information (even false information) that will help to impeach or otherwise harm him politically.
I’ve been writing about this sort of thing a great deal lately, and it’s not just because of Trump. It’s because this sort of lawfare against political opponents harms us all, both actually and potentially. It’s one of the main ways a country goes down the tubes. “The ends don’t justify the means” is a saying that’s often been violated, and that violation seems to me to be happening more and more and more in this country as time goes on, and is being justified by an increasing number of people.
[ADDENDUM: See also this article for further information on the dates of the FBI’s 302 reports on the Flynn interview.]
Nothing new about this. See the Harvey Silverglate book. As Eugene Volokh has pointed out, all those thousands of federal felonies constitute a de facto bill of attainder.
http://www.harveysilverglate.com/books/
And they wonder why so many Trump supporters are angry.
In this, and the post before it, it is not just that they hate Trump’s populism – though they do – nor his politics, which are less radical than advertised. They are responding to the threat to their power, accumulated over the years. If McCain, or Romney, or either of the Bushes had threatened the Administrative State’s power, they would have received the same treatment. This is pure tribalism and defense of territory.
I would add to your definition of “law fare” the purpose of bankrupting the target who is trying to defend himself or herself. We saw this before Trump with the group “True the Vote”
The True the Vote settlement is the first of 2018. In October 2017, the Justice Department entered settlements with other Tea Party organizations to pay the claims of each of the groups in the case, more than 400 in all.
Those grass roots formed groups were subjected to audits plus invasive inspections by federal agencies like OSHA.
Another aspect of this is the monetary cost to the victim of this lawfare.
This is a way to punish and bankrupt your opponents.
You charge them with something, and they have to hire a lawyer to defend themselves, likely travel over and over again to D.C. or wherever to be interrogated, make several appearances in court, and perhaps even before a Congressional committee or two.
Legal bills mount–Roger Stone has estimated his bill to date as being well over $100,000 dollars, and other targets have talked of a $25,000 dollar legal bill for each such appearance.
It has also been reported that Gen. Flynn had to sell his house to pay his legal bills, and was possibly facing bankruptcy due to his indictment.
You don’t even have to get to the point where you have to prove your case in a trial, just charging the victim is the punishment. The prosecutor can even drop the case before trial but, the damage has already been done.
Even if you are proved innocent, and sue those who brought what was obviously malicious prosecution against you, it is very rare for any victim to be successful in such a suit, especially since those who prosecuted you were government officials, who have a great deal of legal immunity.
Mike K– You beat me to it.
Unfortunately, If I remember correctly, the government’s IRS “settlement” was a measly $ 3.5 million dollars, to be split among the 400 plaintiffs and their lawyers.
So, the aim of the IRS leftist ideologues was accomplished adn they got of Scot free (sneering Lois Lerner off to a well-funded government retirement, likewise sneering IRS Commissioner Koskinen unscathed), and U.S. taxpayers–not those responsible–get to pay the victims who–after their lawyers take their cut–each probably gets a buck forty nine as their “settlement.”
What a great victory that was!
I am watching the next few days to see if Judge Sullivan throws the whole Flynn case out, plea and all. He was the judge in the Ted Stevens case who threw out the verdict (too late, of course) and sanctioned the prosecutors. I wonder if he might do the same here.
Judge Emmet G. Sullivan, speaking in a slow and deliberate manner that failed to conceal his anger, said that in 25 years on the bench, he had “never seen mishandling and misconduct like what I have seen” by the Justice Department prosecutors who tried the Stevens case.
Judge Sullivan’s lacerating 14-minute speech, focusing on disclosures that prosecutors had improperly withheld evidence in the case, virtually guaranteed reverberations beyond the morning’s dismissal of the verdict that helped end Mr. Stevens’s Senate career.
The judge, who was named to the Federal District Court here by President Bill Clinton, delivered a broad warning about what he said was a “troubling tendency” he had observed among prosecutors to stretch the boundaries of ethics restrictions and conceal evidence to win cases. He named Henry F. Schuelke 3rd, a prominent Washington lawyer, to investigate six career Justice Department prosecutors, including the chief and deputy chief of the Public Integrity Section, an elite unit charged with dealing with official corruption, to see if they should face criminal charges.
They didn’t, of course.
One of the puzzling aspects of our immediate future is that it will take many, many indictments to begin the process of restoring our rule of law. Is that an impossible undertaking — a contradiction in terms? Filing criminal charges against what will overwhelmingly be members of one political party in order to make justice apply evenly. I just cannot see how we let the Clintons, Podestas, Wasserman-Shultz, Google and other clear lawbreakers slide beyond a legal reckoning and still adhere to the rule of law. Well, we can’t, can we. We have to trust our system that the evidence and the charges make clear why this had to be done. Two generations back, Hillary’s violations of the Espionage Act would have put her in jail, if not on Death Row with the Rosenbergs. Who lost their lives due to the Rosenbergs? Hillary’s innocent victims were many.
I recall that when Gov. Blago got caught trying to sell Obama’s senate seat, the prosecutors flooded the media with their most damning evidence. Some former DOJ or fed. prosecutor types complained that the Blago prosecutors were violating rules and in effect practicing lawfare. Well …, at the time it did have the virtue of “seeming” transparency. We all knew what it was about.
Recently, there has been some effort to get Blago paroled, I guess because of the lawfare smear campaign. But he did put the senate seat up for sale, for approx. $1M. The fee was a sinecure salary, not a campaign contrib.
_____
There are two surprising things about the Trump related cases and to some extent the Blago case. One is how blatantly partisan the prosecution is in the current cases, and how flimsy the charges are.
Another is how stupid these Trump guys (and Blago) were. Don’t they teach this in “How to Succeed at Crime 101” in law school? Always, always maintain distance from and deniability of the crime. Hillary’s funding of the Steele dossier was laundered through two or four sets of hands.
The main crime that broke Cohen was the bank fraud charge. He took out a home equity line of credit (HELOC) from a bank to pay off one or two ladies, and claimed on the forms that the purpose of the loan was a home remodel. The penalties for that fraud read like something from a kidnapping or attempted murder charge.
The possible details of this are kind of mind boggling. Many banks don’t even require a stated purpose for a HELOC. Why didn’t Cohen go to one of those? Didn’t a high powered Trump lawyer like Cohen have a few $100K’s laying around? The amount of the loan was the exact amount of the payoff, I think. And he didn’t do any remodeling?
FBI agents interview Flynn (extensively?) and don’t bother to tell him that he’s subject to perjury laws. Flynn never heard of an FBI process crime? This is a guy that was reviled by Obama’s people but was largely neutered by those above him. Then he joins the Trump team and potentially has real power. It didn’t occur to him that he had to be extremely careful?
Said before; I would not give the FBI, or any other Justice entity, the time of day. Your watch may not agree with their “official” time pieces.
Mike K and Snow on Pine high light one of the nastier weapons in current vogue. No need for a conviction because the threat of financial ruin can be used as an effective weapon to get a guilty plea.
Between our Justice System and our electoral system it is becoming difficult to differentiate between the U.S. and some of the more egregious third world regimes.
Anyone who isn’t angry is either part of the problem, or simply not paying attention.
We have a perfectly awful political class. And, of course, idiot street-level Democrats poured cash into McCabe’s GoFundMe account.
“The main crime that broke Cohen was the bank fraud charge. He took out a home equity line of credit (HELOC) from a bank to pay off one or two ladies, and claimed on the forms that the purpose of the loan was a home remodel.”
And don’t forget, Bernie Sanders’ wife was investigated for committing fraud in connection with loans associated with that school that she worked for (Burlington College). The facts in that case seemed prima facie fraudulent, but of course, she was recently let off the hook. https://dailycaller.com/2018/09/11/bernie-sanders-wife-corruption-case/
We’ve entered the age where if you are liberal, socialist, or progressive, you can pretty much get by with whatever as long as you don’t piss off the wrong people.
It’s almost enough to make me want to join the Twitter crowd calling for Flynn to be pardoned and made Chief of Staff. 🙂
I WOULD join the crowd if only Flynn hadn’t been playing footsie with the Erdogan regime in Turkey, a separate matter but disreputable.
Between our Justice System and our electoral system it is becoming difficult to differentiate between the U.S. and some of the more egregious third world regimes.
I am not a fan of the present “Jailbreak bill” in Congress but the abuse of prosecution in this country is epidemic. Plea bargaining is the rule, not the exception.
I’m reading this morning about the legal malpractice of the university from which I have two degrees.
I also read Conrad Blacks’s book, about his own mistreatment by US courts,
In 2005, Black was accused of a total of 17 charges of criminal corporate misconduct in the United States, and prosecutors sought life imprisonment and fines and restitution totalling $140 million. After six years, all the charges were either abandoned, rejected by jurors, or in the case of four convictions, vacated unanimously by the United States Supreme Court. On the original convictions, he was sentenced to imprisonment for 78 months and restitution of $6.1 million. After 29 months in federal prison, he was released on bail, but the appellate panel whose findings had been vacated by the high court restored two counts when the case was remanded back to it. On June 24, 2011, Black was resentenced to a further seven and a half months in prison, which he is serving at time of publication, and 90 per cent of his fine was restored to him. Conrad Black has never ceased to assert his innocence.
The prosecutor was, of course, Patrick Fitzgerald of Scooter Libby fame.
The Obama administration sanctioned Russia over hacking the election by ejecting 37 diplomats from the U.S. on 12/29/2106.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/russian-hack-latest-diplomats-president-obama-white-house-donald-trump-presidential-election-a7501356.html
They knew this would probably generate calls by the Russian ambassador, Kislyak, to Trump administration officials. They were right. Kislyak called Flynn, who was on vacation in Dominica. The call (or calls) was(were) intercepted by NSA. Someone in the Obama administration, probably Samantha Power, had the U.S. citizen’s name (Flynn) unmasked. It was considered to be an intelligence coup. They had a transcript that could be used as a perjury trap by the FBI. Which was what was done.
This fact implicates the Obama administration in efforts to undermine the incoming administration. An unprecedented (as far as I know) action by an outgoing administration. People involved should, at the very least, be charged with misuse of intelligence assets against an American citizen. We should all be outraged.
J.J.
Dan Bongino pointed to the likely Obama set up of Flynn on his podcast a few days ago. Bongino has be covering this extensively, with citations to sources and articles, and hat tips as applicable. It’s a free download from Soundcloud daily (M-F) ~ 9:300 PST.
Dan Bongino pointed to the likely Obama set up of Flynn on his podcast a few days ago.
I’m reading his book.
One of the puzzling aspects of our immediate future is that it will take many, many AR 15s to begin the process of restoring our rule of law.
Fixed that one for you. Fortunately, there are 60 million and a million more are sold every year.
Mike K:
Haven’t bought the book yet. I’ll have to check the city library, although it is a pretty progressive institution, imagine that, so I’m not holding my breath that it would be on the shelves.
One of my mother’s favorite sayings was a quote from Marmion, by Sir Walter Scott:
“Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.”
See this article from The Federalist, describing irreconcilable chronology and contradictory sworn statements:
http://thefederalist.com/2018/12/13/federal-judge-overseeing-michael-flynns-sentencing-just-dropped-major-bombshell/
Comey just showed us the way to address all dealings with law enforcement from this point forward…lawyer up & say “I can’t remember” as long as they keep asking questions.
If you ever answer a question…truthfully or not. You’re dead.
Presume every encounter is a set-up.
…heh, John G., exactly!
Further, a lawyer friend, a former boss (I was a corp./securities paralegal), has agreed to be on my speed dial. He’s corporate, but depending on the type of trouble I was in, he’d contact an appropriate defender for me. I fully anticipate never having to call him, but as they say, one should plan for the worst & hope for the best.
Never answer any questions without a trusted lawyer present. This applies to minor or major issues. Never assume your innocence is a shield. Any system is corrupt simply because a large number of humans are potentially corruptable and the more power they have the greater the appeal of corruption. Comey personified this simple truth.
Every man for himself, government against all, unless you are a member of the ‘special’ class.
Color me cynical, but given what has already gone on in this tragicomedy–e-mails missing, documents missing/supposedly “lost,” convenient computer glitches wiping out potentially incriminating, key information, high level government investigators mysteriously turning away from investigating obvious potential wrongdoing, massive, very obvious conflicts of interest just completely ignored, computers and hard drives missing, alternate electronic methods of communication used to bypass government supplied equipment, witnesses refusing to show up or to testify, the FBI/DOJ totally ignoring the usual rules and protocols, Comey’s 245 “I don’t knows” and “I don’t remembers,” everyone involved pretending that all of the unusual and extraordinary things they have done–breaking rules, protocols, and procedures, breaking the law and precedent–are perfectly ordinary and legitimate actions, and not even worth commenting about, etc., etc.
Given this behavior, this brazenness, why would anyone think that the Special Prosecutor will actually comply–and comply honestly and fully–with the Judge’s order, or that whatever evidence/paperwork the judge is given will be the real thing, will be legit, complete, and not some pasted together, full of deletions, made up piece of crap; backdated, revised 302 number 10.
Alternatively, Muller and his crew could just–in your face–refuse to turn over anything. If they did so, would there be any real consequences, in the sense of anyone on their side going to, say, jail?
From all the evidence that we have seen over the last few years, I fear that Washington has long since “passed over to the Dark Side.”
“The Ends Justify The Means”
This is utterly true. The REAL problem is, you don’t just get to consider the ends that interest you, you need to deal with ALL the ends, especially and not just solely your desires.
For this, the destruction of legitimate legal processes, the lack of trust that it inflicts on the system by the public, the potential that it be used by your enemies are a significantly bad end, and greatly outweigh any temporary benefit to be obtained for bringing down your political opposition.
Never assume your innocence is a shield. Any system is corrupt simply because a large number of humans are potentially corruptable and the more power they have the greater the appeal of corruption.
By this we have gone from a high trust society to a low trust society in only 50 years. I mark the end with the elevation of Lyndon Johnson to the presidency. The day Kennedy was shot, Life Magazine had an editorial meeting to discuss a special issue they were to publish the next Monday on Lyndon Johnson’s corruption. When the editors heard about the assassination, they cancelled the issue.
It’s in Caro’s biography of Johnson.
Mike K–In a post here sometime ago, I referenced the difference social scientists saw in the success of high trust vs. low trust societies, and how the U.S. used to be a high trust–high social cohesion society vs. the rest of the world–certainly vs. the old Europe that, in the last two centuries, many of our ancestors fled for the U.S.
How, thanks to the deliberately divisive, combative ideology, and Balkanizing policies of the Left–dividing us up into, and setting each racial, economic, social, ethnic, and sexual group at war against all the others–the U.S. was on the way to becoming just another low trust, low social cohesion and, eventually, low success society.
Now, the recently, all too clearly revealed hijacking and weaponization of the legal system for leftist political ends is going to massively accelerate this trend towards turmoil, suspicion, alienation, distrust, and the loss of social cohesion.
I assume that Muller and his crew have complete control over the documents in this case, and can alter or destroy them at will, as today’s news reports they have already destroyed several key month’s worth of the calls on the cell phones of Strzok and Page by resetting the cells back to their original factory settings.
This evening’s news is that the Mueller team reportedly turned in a heavily redacted 302 that was written 7 months after the interview of Gen. Flynn, not the original 302 that the Judge requested, which was apparently created shortly after the interview (an FBI procedures manual I have seen quoted in the last day or two says that 302s have to be created no later than 5 days after the date an interview takes place).
Will the judge stand for this and, if he won’t, what can he actually do to force Mueller to turn over the original document –if it hasn’t already been destroyed?
Jail time, a slap on the wrist, voiding Gen. Flynn’s guilty plea and dismissing the case? Growling, but nothing else?
None of these Deep State actors has ever suffered even an instant of real punishment for their actions. Is that about to change?
Stay tuned.
P.S.–Perhaps I am giving them way too much credit, but it is possible that the NSA has a complete copy of all the messages that were on Strzok and Page’s cell phones that were supposedly “reset to zero.”
If that is the case, and the NSA does have a copy, it is now a matter of, if the President will demand a copy, and if the NSA will comply.
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