December 14, 2018
Ahead of former national security advisor Mike Flynn’s sentencing, for lying to federal agents, his attorneys submitted a Memorandum in Aid of Sentencing revealing new information, adding to the evidence of irregularities surrounding the handling of Flynn’s case.
At the request of U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan, who will be sentencing Flynn on Tuesday, the Special Counsel has released documents and reports regarding the FBI interview with Flynn that lead to his guilty plea.
According to the notes taken on January 24, 2017 by then Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, in the early afternoon of January 24, 2017 McCabe called Flynn asking him if he could send agents to the White House to speak to him about his Russia communications. Flynn explained that he had communicated with Russian officials in an attempt to build relations. Flynn also expressed awareness that his calls with prominent Russians would be monitored, and stated that McCabe and others were probably already aware of what he said during these phone discussions.
McCabe described how he urged Flynn to meet with the agents without a lawyer present. “I explained that I thought the quickest way to get this done was to have a conversation between {General Flynn} and the agents only. I further stated that if LTG Flynn wished to include anyone else in the meeting like the White House Counsel for instance, that I would need to involve the Department of justice. {General Flynn} stated that this would not be necessary and agreed to meet with the agents without any additional participants.”
At this point the Russia collusion counterintelligence probe was still secret, so Flynn had no understanding of the importance of this interview. Clearly, this was by design of the agents and those in charge at the FBI.
In alarming arrogance the former head of the FBI James Comey informed MSNBC’s Nicole Wallace during a recent interview that it was his decision to have FBI agents interview Flynn. Incredibly Comey admitted that he and his agents treated Flynn differently than they would have treated a member of another administration, stating that they didn’t follow the usual protocol. He added, “I wouldn’t have gotten away with it in a more organized administration”. He then explained what would normally happen, “If the FBI wanted to send agents into the White House itself to interview a senior official you would work through the White House counsel, there would be decisions and approvals and who would be there and I thought it’s easy enough, let’s just send a couple of guys over.”
Apparently Comey made a decision to take advantage of the nascent Trump administration and saw an opportunity to ensnare Flynn.
Interestingly, the newly released documents revealed that then acting Attorney General Sally Yates wasn’t notified ahead of time that Flynn would be interviewed. Subsequently, when she learned of it , according to McCabe’s notes “she was angry”.
Less than two hours after Flynn received the call from McCabe, FBI Deputy Assistant Peter Strzok, who has since been demoted when his bias against Trump was revealed with the discovery of his anti-Trump text exchanges, and another agent came to interview Flynn.
It was never conveyed to Flynn that he was under investigation. Nor did they warn him, as would be customary, that it was a crime to lie during an FBI interview. McCabe and other FBI officials decided against giving this warning to Flynn because they wanted Flynn to be “relaxed”. According to the 302 summary of the Flynn interview Strzok and the other agent noted that Flynn was “unguarded” and saw the FBI agents as “ allies”.
For reasons unknown, the 302 summary of Flynn’s interview is dated August 22nd, seven months after the interview. This is highly unusual. These summaries are always written contemporaneously, and then filed within days. Was there an original 302 filed in January? Text messages from January 2017 between Strzok and another agent with whom he was having an affair, Lisa Page, indicate that there was indeed a 302 summary of Flynn’s interview filed. Was it amended? If so, why?
Adding to the controversy surrounding the handling of the Flynn case McCabe and Comey each testified to Congress last year that both agents reported back that Flynn appeared to be telling the truth. The 302 summary confirms that Strzok, along with the other agent believed that Flynn wasn’t lying, “both had the impression at the time that Flynn was not lying or did not think he was lying.”
Some have speculated that Flynn plead guilty to lying because he could no longer afford to fight the charges; and to spare his son who was being threatened with legal action.
Summary
Flynn was given only hours notice before his interview with FBI agents. He was encouraged to not have a lawyer present. He was falsely led to believe that the agents were his “allies”. He was unaware that there was an ongoing counterintelligence investigation. He wasn’t warned that lying was a crime. Prior to the interview he expressed that he was aware that his phone call with Russian officials was monitored, negating a motive for lying. Most agree that Flynn’s discussions were lawful , calling into question why he was ever interviewed. And most incredibly, the two interviewing agents reported after the interview that they did not believe that Flynn was lying.
If there’s any justice Judge Sullivan will recognize the many inequities that occurred surrounding Flynn’s interview and subsequent guilty plea, and sentence Flynn to only community service, or even better dismiss the plea altogether.
