Well, the attempted railroading of Lieutenant General Michael Flynn has collapsed and the Department of Justice has moved to dismiss the case. From a legal point of view the whole sordid tale has been a vicious misuse of the criminal prosecution process in order to wage war against the Trump administration. Former Federal Prosecutor Andrew McCarthy gives us the overview:
The FBI was poised to close its case against Flynn. He was not charged until 10 months later. By then Mueller had taken over the case, along with the cabal of activist Democratic lawyers he had recruited to conduct the investigation. Flynn has long maintained that they pressured him to plead guilty by threatening that if he did not do so, they would indict his son for failing to register as a foreign agent in connection with business done by Flynn’s private intelligence firm — even though such “FARA” prosecutions were nearly as infrequent as Logan Act indictments before Mueller came along.
The case was troubling enough that Attorney General Bill Barr appointed US Attorney Jeff Jensen of St. Louis to review it. This has recently resulted in eye-popping disclosures: Indications that there was an agreement not to prosecute Flynn’s son (which was not disclosed to the court); the withholding of exculpatory evidence, including the FBI’s perjury trap deliberations; and evidence that the bureau improperly edited its report summarizing its ambush interview of Flynn.
With Flynn’s tireless new attorney, Sidney Powell, pressing for more discovery and pleading with the judge to throw the case out based on outrageous government misconduct, the ball was in the Justice Department’s court. On Thursday, DOJ did the right thing, dropping the case.
General Flynn can never be made whole for the financial and emotional ruin wrought on him and his family over the last three years. But the prosecution’s decision to admit its case was baseless is better for Flynn than a pardon would have been. It is justice — too long delayed, but in the end not denied.
Go here to read more. Go here for more detail. To sum up, the pretext of the initial FBI interview of General Flynn was a possible violation of the Logan Act, a laughable pretext as the Logan Act, which bars Americans not in government from attempting to engage in diplomacy with foreign figures, is almost certainly unconstitutional, and a successful prosecution under the Act has never been brought since it was passed in 1799, and since the FBI already had, shockingly, recorded, Flynn’s two phone call with the then Russian ambassador. Since Flynn was a member of the incoming Trump administration, that made a Logan Act prosecution even doubly laughable. Instead of giving Flynn an opportunity to refresh his recollection of the interview by viewing the transcripts of the calls, the agents asked him questions about the calls, hoping to lead him into a perjury trap. The initial report back by the agents doubted that Flynn had lied but that his recollection had merely been faulty. From this molehill the entire mountain of the Flynn prosecution proceeded with both the Mueller team and the FBI attempting to have Flynn lie and cop to collusion with Russia. For this Flynn was bankrupted, Flynn only agreeing to plead guilty to a lesser charge when the Mueller team, acting like gangsters, threatened to go after Flynn’s son. Flynn’s original legal team was either incompetent or was in bed with the Mueller gang. Flynn finally wised up and hired a fighter, Sidney Powell. If I were ever in trouble with the Feds I would go right to this lady who is the best Federal criminal defense attorney in the country. She began a vigorous defense of Flynn which upset the apple cart for the Mueller team. The other element in the eventual exoneration of Michael Flynn was the appointment of Attorney General Barr by Trump, placing Trump finally in control of the Department of Justice. Barr’s appointment of US Attorney Jeff Jensen to review this persecution prosecution uncovered tons of damning documents about it and the underlying FBI investigation, which led to the DOJ moving to dismiss this bad farce. Much more detail is available about all this at the twitter site Undercover Huber. Go here to access it.
It is atrocities like the Flynn prosecution that have made me a firm supporter of Donald Trump, who initially repulsed me in so many, many ways back in 2016. It is Trump who has ripped the curtain down and revealed the corruption and politicization that has eaten through once respected institutions like the FBI and the Department of Justice. It has not been a pleasant education for me, but it has been a necessary one. Assuming that he gets a second term, Trump has to continue cleaning out the Augean stables, and I hope Trump is able to appoint General Flynn to be the new Director of the FBI to help with the brooms.
Mr. McClarey, I’m unfamiliar with the law in a case like this— would Lt. General Flynn be able to sue the men who did this to him, to at least recover his legal expenses?
It’s outrageous that an innocent man would have his name dragged through the mud, his career ruined, and be made bankrupt like this; when Comey has made millions flogging his self-serving book after what he’s done.
Perhaps it’s unrealistic to hope for that much justice in this vale of tears, but I would very much like to see Comey and his goons pay a price for their actions.
Mr. McClarey, I’m unfamiliar with the law in a case like this— would Lt. General Flynn be able to sue the men who did this to him, to at least recover his legal expenses?
Yes, on several grounds. The depositions would be an unending hoot.
A good fifth circuit case on suing the government for malicious prosecution:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/wlf/2016/03/02/fifth-circuit-allows-maliciously-prosecuted-company-to-sue-us-government-for-damages/#9dd729710b12
It would be richly ironic if some of the men and women who sought to bankrupt and jail General Flynn end up themselves bankrupt and jailed. This type of evil behavior by government officials will not cease unless there is a heavy price to pay if and when they are caught.
Candidate Donald Trump was a threat to the Republic? So said every self-respecting Washington insider in both parties. Well, well, well. God truly does write straight with crooked lines. I never used to believe how corrupt things really were until Donald J. Trump came along to disturb the shibboleths of the ruling class. Talk about murder hornets. May God continue to bless President Trump and this once, and still great, nation!
42 U.S. Code Section 1983 provides for a direct claim against any person who knowingly deprives another of a well-established civil right.
Trump needs a third term, if only to get the first term the criminal conspiracy popularly known as Russiagate sought to deny him.
I would dearly love to see Flynn take Comey et al. to court over what they conspired to do to him.
It’s wonderful that it’s within his rights to do so, if he chooses.
What’s especially delicious is that if Flynn does take those tools to court, it will be keeping the story in the news as the election draws near.
There is nothing Donald J. Trump has said or done in his private life or business career that approaches the sleaze, stench and corruption of Official Washington.
The last day I lived there was June 30, 1994. I moved out the next day and Ifelt like I needed to take a three hour long shower.
Only With Trump as President could these events take place. We have had rotten Administrations but that of Obama is the worst in history. He was and is a dolt, a puppet whose strings were pulled and too dumb to know it, who had a gift of reading Axelrod’s speeches and nothing else. His Cabinet was worse than the old Commission of NYC crime families. Chicago at it’s worst.