House panel subpoenas Flynn, Gates

The Hill ^ | June 13, 2019 | MORGAN CHALFANT

[maggief]

The House Intelligence Committee has issued subpoenas for documents and testimony from former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former Trump campaign aide Richard Gates.

"As part of our oversight work, the House Intelligence Committee is continuing to examine the deep counterintelligence concerns raised in Special Counsel Mueller's report, and that requires speaking directly with the fact witnesses," the committee's chairman, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), said in a statement on Thursday.

Schiff noted that both Flynn and Gates cooperated extensively with special counsel Robert Mueller as part of his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, but said that they have so far “refused to cooperate fully with Congress.”

In a Wednesday letter, Schiff demanded that Flynn, who worked on President Trump's campaign and briefly in the administration, provide “documents and other materials” by June 26 and appear before the committee for sworn testimony on July 10.

The committee is also ordering Gates to turn over documents and other materials by June 26 and to provide sworn testimony on July 10, according to a separate letter issued to him.

Schiff wrote in the letter to Gates, Trump’s former deputy campaign manager, that the panel has “no choice but to compel the production of the specified documents and your testimony” pursuant to a subpoena because he has thus far declined to cooperate voluntarily with the committees requests.

The nature of the documents the committee is seeking from both witnesses remains unclear.

It is also unclear whether their testimony would be public or behind closed doors, though Schiff said Thursday that the “American people, and the Congress, deserve to hear directly from these two critical witnesses.”

Lawyers for Flynn and Gates did not immediately return requests for comment.

The Intelligence panel has launched a sprawling probe into Trump’s links to Russia and other foreign powers, exploring his financial dealings and the possibility the president or members of his inner circle are subject to foreign compromise.

Most of the committee’s work has taken place behind closed doors, but the panel on Wednesday held its first open hearing on the counterintelligence implications of contacts between Trump’s campaign and Moscow as detailed in Mueller’s exhaustive report. The new subpoenas mark the first confirmation that the committee has reached out to Flynn and Gates for their cooperation in the sprawling probe.

While Mueller said his investigation found insufficient evidence to charge members of the Trump campaign with conspiring with Russia to interfere in the election, Democrats argued the report presents troubling contacts that could raise counterintelligence concerns and impact U.S. national security.

Trump and his Republican allies, meanwhile, have lambasted Schiff and other Democrats who have launched investigations into the president and his administration, accusing them of attempting to damage him politically ahead of a reelection year.

Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with the Russian ambassador in December 2017, agreeing to cooperate in the special counsel’s investigation.

Mueller said last year that Flynn provided “substantial assistance” in the investigation and he was due to be sentenced last December. However, Flynn decided to delay his sentencing until his cooperation with the government is fully complete after the federal judge overseeing his case excoriating him in court and suggested he could receive jail time.

Schiff in Wednesday's letter to Flynn wrote that cooperating with Congress could help him out at sentencing.

“While this Committee recognizes that your cooperation agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice only requires you to testify for the Department, your cooperation with the Committee’s investigation nonetheless provides an opportunity to demonstrate to the Court that you have met the ‘high standard’ of cooperation that you represented to the Court that you set for yourself,” Schiff wrote.

Flynn is expected to testify against his former business partner Bijan Kian, who has been charged with illegally lobbying on behalf of the Turkish government, next month.

The latest developments also come as Flynn has ousted his legal team and brought on attorney and Mueller critic Sidney Powell, signaling a potentially more aggressive approach as he awaits sentencing.

Gates pleaded guilty to making false statements and a conspiracy charge and agreed to cooperate with Mueller in February 2018. He testified against Paul Manafort, his ex-business partner and Trump’s onetime campaign chairman, at a trial in Virginia last summer. Gates is still cooperating with the government and has yet to be sentenced; a recent court filing suggested he may be a trial witnesses against former Obama White House counsel Gregory Craig and longtime Trump friend Roger Stone.

[Flick Lives]

F’ you Schiff. Your going to be shown to have been part of the coup.

[Innovative]

I hope they follow Hillary’s example : “I don’t recall”.

[maggief]

https://twitter.com/sidneypowell1/status/1052191099551281152

Sidney Powell Retweeted

Techno Fog
@Techno_Fog
24h24 hours ago

Just spoke with Flynn’s new lawyer @SidneyPowell1 . She’s honored to represent him, and made clear that his cooperation will continue pursuant to his plea agreement.

[Note: a status report on the case will be filed by Friday, June 14.]

[Tucker39]

Happy to know Flynn now has a real attorney who cares about HIM.

[databoss]

Powell is going to slice them up, the judge and the deep state hacks.

[Yo-Yo]

F’ you Schiff. Your going to be shown to have been part of the coup.

No, I'd accept the subpoena and go to the hearings. Then my response to every question would be to invoke my 5th amendment rights.

[G Larry]

Flynn's response should be,

NO!

"I will not let your fishing expedition interfere with my defense in my ongoing legal battles."

[Ancesthntr]

If I was Flynn, I would show up and plead the 5th Amendment...at the end of a statement that discussed perjury traps and the utterly amoral scumbags that set them up.

[DoughtyOne]

Thanks so much for your support to this point... I personally apprecaite it...
FReepers, it's far beyond time to wrap up this FReep-a-thon.  Lets do it today.  Please chip in.

President Donald J. Trump and the Free Republic of the United States of America
President Donald J. Trump's address to the United Nations on 09/19/2017.

Ramirez political cartoon:  Google LARGE VERSION 06/12/2019: LINK  LINK to regular sized versions of his political cartoons (archive).
Garrison political cartoon:  Socialism the Millennial Flytrap LARGE VERSION 06/2019: LINK  LINK (scroll down) to regular sized versions of his political cartoons (archive).

FReepers, 97.514% of the Second Quarter FReep-a-thon goal has been met.  Click above and pencil in your donation now.  Please folks, lets end this FReepathon.  Thank you!
...this is a general all-purpose message, and should not be seen as targeting any individual I am responding to...

Just $428.00 dollars to 98.00%

[Valpal1]

However, Flynn decided to delay his sentencing until his cooperation with the government is fully complete after the federal judge overseeing his case excoriating him in court and suggested he could receive jail time.

This is a biased and completely twisted misrepresentation of the truth. It is the prosecutors who have delayed sentencing repeatedly and the judges criticisms came at the beginning of the process and have zero to do with the prosecutorial delays.

Lying liars who lie is why nobody respects or trusts media anymore.

[shanover]

This sh*t will NEVER end until they get the result they want. I hate these a-holes in Congress and the GOP that does NOTHING to support the REPUBLICAN President. It’s sickening.