Michael Flynn News

[RoadKingLarry]

Not to mention they threatened to do the same thing to his son.

[WLJ]

    White privilege at work. https://t.co/KfqzcvwXiV

    — Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) May 7, 2020

https://twitchy.com/brettt-3136/2020/05/07/rep-ilhan-omar-calls-the-dojs-dropping-of-its-case-against-michael-flynn-white-privilege-at-work/

Well now you know 

[MechAg94]

I understand he has paid around three million dollars in legal bills, and owes around another four million. Which brings us back to why some people might plead guilty, even if they aren't, when faced with taxpayer funded lawyers who work with an infinite budget.

Is there any link that spells out just what the prosecutors do or demand that costs that much?  I can maybe guess, but that amounts to quite a bit of legal work. 

[Ben]

Is there any link that spells out just what the prosecutors do or demand that costs that much?  I can maybe guess, but that amounts to quite a bit of legal work. 

It was alluded to in a fox news article yesterday that I can't find right now. They mentioned those amounts as an aside to him having to sell his house to pay the bills.

[TommyGunn]

The left is going absolutely batshit insane about this...

It's pretty incredible to see them defend the FBI's actions like this.

It's even more telling that Obama-administration officials are also at odds with FBI's conduct in this case.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/intel-transcripts-obama-officials-no-empirical-evidence-trump-russia-collusion

The left is seeing every hope they had at undermining the Trump administration crumbling before them at the same time best hope for someone who could beat Trump is crashing and burning in his own sex scandal.

MSNBC's current "banner headline" is a quote from some schmuck who is saying that dropping the case goes contrary to the "rule of law."

No mention of FBI's actions being contrary to the rule of law... But they wouldn't mention that, because Orange Man BAD!

No one should be surprised.   The fact is The F. B. I. behaved EXACTLY as most lefties want it to -----just like the KGB, just like the Stasi,  just like the Gestapo.

It was NOT an accident.   

It was part of a real- life SEVEN DAYS IN MAY scenario.

[DittoHead]

No one should be surprised.   The fact is The F. B. I. behaved EXACTLY as most lefties want it to -----just like the KGB, just like the Stasi,  just like the Gestapo. usual.

It was NOT an accident.   

Flynn was targeted because he was Trump's guy, but the behavior of the FBI seems pretty standard. They make terrorists out of patsies and entrap people all the time. It's still mind boggling to me that Flynn didn't know better.

The former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency knew how the spy agencies worked. He knew where and how they kept secrets. He had enough scars from tangles with the intelligence bureaucracy that he knew how the game was played — how intelligence officials exploited information, or selectively withheld it.

[Ben]

Flynn was targeted because he was Trump's guy, but the behavior of the FBI seems pretty standard. They make terrorists out of patsies and entrap people all the time. It's still mind boggling to me that Flynn didn't know better.

I don't know the details of it, but it could be whatever they were threatening his son with meant that he went the direction he did despite knowing the game.

[MechAg94]

I think DittoHead is correct.  The note from that one FBI agent doing the interview shows it was standard procedure to set up people being interviewed to try to manufacture a lie.  There have been plenty of past cases where they charge people for lying to law enforcement after multiple interviews.  Now, with that Strozix guy in charge, I figure they made a special effort to go after Flynn as a way of supporting their case against Trump.


As a thread veer:  Is there any reason that law against lying to police shouldn't be removed?  It seems to me it doesn't serve any purpose other than strong arm tactics and persecution. 

[MechAg94]

I don't know the details of it, but it could be whatever they were threatening his son with meant that he went the direction he did despite knowing the game.

I figure some people don't realize quite how far things have gone until they are in the crosshairs of it themselves.  Sort of like not being concerned about crime or self defense until you are a victim.

[Hawkmoon]

As a thread veer:  Is there any reason that law against lying to police shouldn't be removed?  It seems to me it doesn't serve any purpose other than strong arm tactics and persecution. 

It probably wasn't intended to be a tool for persecution but, coupled with the fact that it's okay for the police to lie to us, it has certainly become one. How about we make it a crime for the police to lie to suspects in the course of an investigation?

[MechAg94]

It probably wasn't intended to be a tool for persecution but, coupled with the fact that it's okay for the police to lie to us, it has certainly become one. How about we make it a crime for the police to lie to suspects in the course of an investigation?

I guess they could also increase the standard such it has to be substantive lie willfully intended to hurt the investigation rather than just any proven untruth.  Make it hard to prove like slander.

[Perd Hapley]

I guess they could also increase the standard such it has to be substantive lie willfully intended to hurt the investigation rather than just any proven untruth.  Make it hard to prove like slander.

In other words, it would have to actually be a lie.

[MikeB]

I guess they could also increase the standard such it has to be substantive lie willfully intended to hurt the investigation rather than just any proven untruth.  Make it hard to prove like slander.

It is sort of that way now, or at least is supposed to be. That is one of the reasons the guy Barr asked to review the case recommended the DoJ drop the prosecution. The "lie" is supposed to be about a material fact, not just any old lie about anything. This is also why there was that dispute about the agents originally saying they didn't think Flynn lied, or at least not about a material fact, or didn't think he was lying. I think they have to prove you knew you were lying. As we all know though, our Justice system is really screwed up these days and the Fed.gov is good at running people out of money and forcing people to take a plea deal.

From Alan Dershowitz.

"Lying to the FBI is not a federal crime unless the lie is actually material to an investigation. Thus, if the FBI is investigating terrorism, and the subject falsely denies an extramarital affair, his lie would not be material."

https://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/495718-michael-flynn-case-places-both-fbi-integrity-and-civil-liberty-on-the-line

[TommyGunn]

Flynn was targeted because he was Trump's guy, but the behavior of the FBI seems pretty standard. They make terrorists out of patsies and entrap people all the time. It's still mind boggling to me that Flynn didn't know better.

Well,  I never said it wasn't standard ...  

I've heard others claim the F. B. I.  did this  but I guess this is the first time I've seen it so blatantly exposed as it is.  Lots of guilty people have claimed innocence  and/or they were framed.  I think most people are usually cynical of these  claims.

[Andiron]

Thread drift,  but Ned Beatty's character from Hopscotch says it all for me:

Now I know what the FBI stands for. "*expletive deleted*ing, Ball-busting Imbeciles!"

[Parker Dean]

I understand he has paid around three million dollars in legal bills, and owes around another four million. Which brings us back to why some people might plead guilty, even if they aren't, when faced with taxpayer funded lawyers who work with an infinite budget.

I also think it's time we started to look at giving the defense matching funds somehow.

[Ron]

I think it's time that some people be tried for treason.

[K Frame]

Now I know what the FBI stands for. "*expletive deleted*ing, Ball-busting Imbeciles!"


Heh... My last project, the one that defunded my position in April, was supporting FBI.

I did NOT like it one bit. Color me unsurprised at all of the crap that's coming out about FBI's activities in the Flynn case.

[MechAg94]

I also think it's time we started to look at giving the defense matching funds somehow.

That is why I was asking what the defense is actually spending all that money on.  I know legal defense can be costly, but millions of dollars is quite a bit more than I was expecting for a case where they had little or no proof of actual wrong doing.  How does the FBI force the defense lawyers to rack up that sort of bill?  Is there a judge who is assisting the FBI in this?


My concern with matching funds is you just giving license for lawyers to bill the govt.  So who do they work for?  

[sumpnz]

Having the govt pay for your defense when misconduct is showed as clearly as this case is fine.  Just because you win acquittal, or an appeal shouldn't necessarily trigger it. 

[Perd Hapley]

https://ricochet.com/723091/when-is-the-cleaning/

[MechAg94]

U.S. Officials Have Declassified List Of Obama Officials Who Were Involved In ‘Unmasking’ General Flynn
https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-u-s-officials-have-declassified-list-of-obama-officials-who-were-involved-in-unmasking-general-flynn/

A source with knowledge of the matter told The Daily Wire that the list has already been declassified and now it’s on Attorney General William Barr to release the list.

I thought the article would have the list, but it just says Barr was given the list and it is declassified. 

Fox News reported in 2017 that the disclosing of Flynn’s identity could be “a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison” because “rules state that if an American with Constitutional protections is collaterally caught in such surveillance, his or her identity must be protected.”

I won't hold my breath, but it looks like Barr is collecting a lot of potential criminal evidence.  We will see what he does with it.

[Perd Hapley]

U.S. Officials Have Declassified List Of Obama Officials Who Were Involved In ‘Unmasking’ General Flynn
https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-u-s-officials-have-declassified-list-of-obama-officials-who-were-involved-in-unmasking-general-flynn/
I thought the article would have the list, but it just says Barr was given the list and it is declassified. 
I won't hold my breath, but it looks like Barr is collecting a lot of potential criminal evidence.  We will see what he does with it.

He'll need another Trump term to pursue this stuff. I wonder if the administration should run campaign ads on that theme. Drain the Swamp 2.0

[grampster]

Fistful took the words right out of my mouth.

[DittoHead]

I see something along these lines in just about every article about this case:

No one has ever been convicted under the Logan Act because the Logan Act is pure bushwa. Everyone in politics knows this. Everyone who merely follows politics from the outside knows this. I know this, and I never spent a day in law school.

Is there a reason it hasn't been repealed? I'm sure it wasn't on anyone's mind before but it seems like a pretty obvious thing to do now.