December 6, 2018
The Sentencing memo for Trump’s former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, was released Tuesday night by the Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is tasked with investigating possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign.
Last December Flynn plead guilty to lying to federal agents. Mueller has recommended minimal to no jail time citing Flynn’s “substantial” cooperation with “several ongoing investigations.”
The most troubling aspects of the Flynn debacle is:
- The fact that Flynn ever came under investigation.
- The disparate treatment of Flynn compared to the treatment of Clinton aides and other government officials also guilty of lying.
Shortly after Trump’s inauguration Flynn came under scrutiny as a result of speaking to his Russian counterpart, Sergey Kislyak, about Russian sanctions during the transition period. Almost all agree that it is perfectly legal for the incoming National Security Advisor to engage in such discussions with foreign diplomats.
The Logan Act
Even the Democrat former CIA director, and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said it was a “stretch” to say that Flynn’s contacts with Kislyak was a crime. However, Obama’s acting Attorney General Sally Yates, decided that it violated a 218 -year- old law that has never in its history been enforced, The Logan Act.
The Logan Act bars citizens from negotiating with foreign governments on the part of the United States. Never mind that Flynn wasn’t just any U.S. citizen, he was preparing to be the National Security Advisor for the soon to be President of the United States
Flynn’s conversation with Kislyak were monitored because Kislyak was under surveillance. As an American citizen, not under surveillance, Flynn’s name should have been “masked” never to be revealed. However, not only was Flynn’s identity uncovered , details of his conversation with Kislyak were revealed to the press. The unmasking of Flynn’s name and the leaking of classified information is a felony. To date, no one has ever been identified or held accountable for this crime. If not for this illegal act by a high-level Obama official, the subsequent cascade of life-altering events that Flynn and his family have experienced would have never occurred.
As a result of the illegal unmasking, and the resurrection of an obscure law, that no one has ever been successfully prosecuted under, Flynn became the subject of a criminal investigation as directed by Obama’s Acting Attorney General Sally Yates.
Unfortunately, when the federal agents requested an interview with Flynn he was unaware that he was the subject of a criminal investigation, and agreed to be questioned without an attorney. During the interview Flynn stated that he didn’t believe that sanctions were discussed during his conversation with Kislyak. Having access to the audiotape the interviewing agents knew everything that was discussed, including that sanctions did come up during the exchanges. Clearly, since they already knew the answers to their questions, the purpose of the interview wasn’t to obtain information. Was it to entrap Flynn? To this day its unclear why Flynn was ever interviewed. Its noteworthy to comment that Flynn conveyed no promise to Kislyak regarding removal of sanctions, or any other pro-Russia action.
Perplexingly, both James Comey, the former head of the FBI and Andrew McCabe his former Deputy FBI Director testified in front of Congress that the interviewing agents believed that Flynn was being truthful. They did not believe that he intentionally lied. Why did Mueller and his prosecutors aggressively pursue Flynn for a crime that the agents involved didn’t believe he committed?
Disparate Treatment
Flynn’s charge for lying is even more outrageous when compared to the treatment of others who have also been caught lying to federal agents and/or Congress:
Hillary Clinton’s aides, Huma Abedin, and Cheryl Mills lied to federal agents about not having knowledge of Clinton’s unsecured server while she was at the state department. Emails sent to and from both Abedin and Mills proves they indeed knew.
The Justice Department Inspector General concluded that Andrew McCabe lied to investigators and his boss James Comey four times, three under oath, about leaks to the media. He was subsequently fired, but never prosecuted.
Comey lied to Congress when he testified that he had not written his exoneration memo before interviewing Clinton. In actuality, he wrote the memo of exoneration before interviewing more than a dozen witnesses, including Clinton.
Both former Director of National intelligence, James Clapper, and former CIA Director John Brennan lied under oath to Congress on matters related to surveillance. Brennan also lied to Congress when he claimed that the Steele dossier was not relied upon at all by the intelligence community. It is now established fact that the dossier was was the main evidence presented to the FISA court to obtain a surveillance warrant on Trump aide Carter Page.
Glenn Simpson, the founder of Fusion GPS, the firm that produced the infamous Trump/Russia dossier, lied during his testimony to Congress when he claimed that after the 2016 presidential election his firm did not have a client funding the continuation of the investigation of Trump. Daniel Jones, a former staffer to Senator Dianne Feinstein, told the FBI last year that he hired Fusion GPS (with the backing of 7-10 wealthy donors) to continue the investigation into Trump’s possible ties to Russia.
Glenn Simpson also lied to Congress about his contact with DOJ official Bruce Ohr. In testimony to the House Permanent Select Committee Simpson claimed he did not have any contact with FBI or DOJ officials regarding the infamous Steele dossier until after the 2016 election. Ohr has testified that he met with Simpson in August 2016.
In October 2018, a senior FBI official lied to the Justice Department Inspector General about accepting free tickets to a sporting event from a journalist that covers the FBI and DOJ.
Not one of the aforementioned individuals incurred any criminal repercussions as a result of their various acts of mendacity.
Federal Agents Registration Act (FARA)
It was also noted by the Special Counsel that there were omissions in Flynn’s paperwork regarding his work on behalf of the Turkish government in lobbying registration paperwork. A rarely enforced law, that almost never results in criminal prosecution, The Federal Agents Registration Act (FARA) requires Americans that lobby on behalf of foreign powers in a political capacity to disclose this relationship. Flynn worked on a project for the republic of Turkey for a three month span between August 2016- November 2016.
Did Flynn Flip on Trump?
The Never- Trump media is salivating over the highly redacted addendum to this memo which summarizes Flynn’s cooperation. However, Flynn, and everyone to date that have been found guilty of crimes by the Special Counsel investigation, have been charged with either financial crimes that have occurred years earlier, or process crimes- a crime that occurred as a result of the investigation, not Russian collusion. If Flynn made a deal with Mueller that centered on working with Russia to sway the election, Flynn would not have been charged with just lying to investigators. Cooperation doesn’t impact the charge, it is only a mitigating factor with regard to sentencing.
Further Flynn’s son, Mike Flynn, Jr. tweeted out an uncaptioned photo, the day after the sentencing memo was made public, of his father and President Trump walking arm- in- arm. This appeared to be a subtle message to his followers that his dad did not “flip” on the president.
A light sentence to no jail time is warranted in Flynn’s case. Cooperation wasn’t necessary. Both Alex van der Zwaan (an attorney that briefly worked with Manafort) , and George Papadopolous (a low-level aid in the Trump campaign) were both charged with lying to the FBI and neither gave any information against Trump, and both received only weeks long sentences.
The sentencing memos detailing Michael Cohen’s cooperation with the Special Counsel, along with a document detailing the “crimes and lies” that led Mueller to cancel the cooperation agreement with Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, are scheduled to be released Friday. These documents should shed further light, depending on the redactions, on the status of the Mueller probe.
