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Of Course There Is Such a Thing as a ‘Perjury Trap’
National Review ^ | August 11, 2018 | Andrew C. McCarthy

Posted on 08/11/2018 9:07:02 AM PDT by yoe

Studies will someday be done on the deleterious effect Donald Trump has had on the brains of people who loathe him. It drives them to say things that are as palpably foolish as some of the president’s own doozies. This week’s winner: There is no such thing as a “perjury trap.”

(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: perjurytrap
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1 posted on 08/11/2018 9:07:02 AM PDT by yoe
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To: yoe
To take the most obvious possibility, Flynn could have had an innocent failure of recollection. It happens to all of us; it would happen to you if you tried to describe this this column to someone without having a copy of it in hand.

If Trump says "uh" the first time then says "um" the second, they'll proclaim "Trump changes his testimony"

2 posted on 08/11/2018 9:09:48 AM PDT by P.O.E. (Pray for America)
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To: yoe

Martha Stewart was a classic example of a Perjury Trap, they couldn’t tie her to insider trading or any of the financial crimes they were going after her, but they got her for answering “no” to a question to the investigators when asked if she had received a phone a call from a certain investment broker. The thing is, the broker had left a voice mail, so she may very well have answered truthfully having never listened to the message. But she did “receive” a phone call and the fact she said “no” was enough to charge and convict her on that alone.


3 posted on 08/11/2018 9:19:41 AM PDT by apillar
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To: P.O.E.

4 posted on 08/11/2018 9:20:01 AM PDT by Liz ( Our side has 8 trillion bullets; the other side doesn't know which bathroom to use.)
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To: yoe

Just say hell NO !


5 posted on 08/11/2018 9:23:31 AM PDT by A strike (Academia is almost as racist as Madison Avenue.)
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To: yoe

Everything you need to know on the subject:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-7o9xYp7eE

Even when you are innocent and tell the complete truth, anything can happen.


6 posted on 08/11/2018 9:24:41 AM PDT by cuban leaf (The US will not survive the obama presidency. The world may not either.)
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To: P.O.E.

7 posted on 08/11/2018 9:25:23 AM PDT by Liz ( Our side has 8 trillion bullets; the other side doesn't know which bathroom to use.)
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To: apillar
That wasn't exactly a "perjury trap" as I would define it. It sounds like an idiotic prosecution more than anything else.

I don't totally agree with McCarthy on this. I do agree that there is such a thing as a "perjury trap," but this term has been defined so broadly that it covers things that really aren't relevant. In the case of Stewart, she was obligated to testify truthfully because she was being questioned about a potential crime. That's not a trap. Neither was it a "perjury trap" when Bill Clinton sat his ass down in front of a grand jury back in the 1990s and lied his ass off.

To me, a "perjury trap" is when a prosecutor or investigating body interrogates a witness in a matter where there isn't even an underlying crime to investigate. That is what makes the whole Mueller-Russia debacle nothing more than a perjury trap for most of the people involved. The evidence of this is that almost every indictment of U.S. citizens by his team involves allegations of lying to the FBI about matters that aren't even criminal in nature.

8 posted on 08/11/2018 9:29:01 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("The Russians escaped while we weren't watching them ... like Russians will.")
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To: yoe

Dershowitz is clear that if Trump is interviewed, he’ll walk in to a “perjury trap”.


9 posted on 08/11/2018 9:30:20 AM PDT by MayflowerMadam (Have an A-1 day.)
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To: yoe

A country in which the perjury trap exists and is allowed to continue is a country in which the government is a fascist dictatorship.


10 posted on 08/11/2018 9:31:04 AM PDT by I want the USA back (If free speech is taken away, dumb and silent we are led, like sheep to the slaughter: G Washington)
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To: yoe
And what did they [the FBI] ask him about? Conversations of which they had recordings. Why on earth would it be necessary to interrogate someone -- let alone a top government national-security official -- regarding the details of conversations about which the FBI already knew the details?

I agree that Flynn was railroaded, but McCarthy completely overlooks an obvious point here (which is surprising because he himself is a former prosecutor).

The FBI had the recordings he describes, but since they were obtained through a FISA counterintelligence warrant they would not be admissible in court for a criminal prosecution. This is why the FBI had to obtain independent evidence of what they already knew from the recording.

I suspect this is why Flynn's sentencing has been delayed at least three times. If the only evidence of his "lying to the FBI" is a recording obtained through a FISA warrant, then that's one thing. But since we're now learning that the FISA warrants to conduct surveillance against people connected to the Trump campaign were obtained illicitly (and maybe fraudulently), then the underlying evidence against Flynn is tainted and he has all the legal standing he needs to vacate his plea deal. I'm sure Mueller knows this, too -- which is why Flynn hasn't been sentenced.

11 posted on 08/11/2018 9:38:25 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("The Russians escaped while we weren't watching them ... like Russians will.")
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To: I want the USA back
A perjury trap only "exists" in this country to the extent that the target of such a trap allows it to exist.

We have this thing called the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that allows people to refuse to testify in any of the proceedings described here in this article.

Martha Stewart wouldn't have spent two second in prison if she had simply kept her mouth shut.

12 posted on 08/11/2018 9:41:01 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("The Russians escaped while we weren't watching them ... like Russians will.")
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To: I want the USA back

A country in which the perjury trap exists and is allowed to continue is a country in which the government is a fascist dictatorship.


It used to be that lying, when not under oath, was generally not a crime.


13 posted on 08/11/2018 9:45:19 AM PDT by marktwain (President Trump and his supporters are the Resistance. His opponents are the Reactionaries.)
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To: Alberta's Child

Why can’t Flynn see the evidence that implicates him? That includes all unredacted FISA documents and communications.


14 posted on 08/11/2018 9:51:13 AM PDT by dhs12345
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To: apillar

I have been on the receiving end of a very small version of what Martha Stewart went through. When you are accused of something you are at first feeling shock as to what people are saying about you. You naturally pause trying to figure out what the hell is happening. Do you say something or do you stay quiet? You know that you are going to look guilty no matter what you do or say. But that pause caused by the shock of what is being said about you is what does people in. It makes you appear as if you have something to hide and that you are indeed guilty. All Martha could do was call a lawyer.


15 posted on 08/11/2018 9:56:54 AM PDT by Slyfox (Not my circus, not my monkeys)
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To: Liz

Liz.....not to correct you, but her felonies ARE Documented.....she’s an UNINDICTED felon.


16 posted on 08/11/2018 9:58:23 AM PDT by Ann Archy (Abortion....... The HUMAN Sacrifice to the god of Convenience.)
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To: Liz

That’s about the size of it.


17 posted on 08/11/2018 10:07:17 AM PDT by P.O.E. (Pray for America)
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To: I want the USA back

“A country in which the perjury trap exists and is allowed to continue is a country in which the government is a fascist dictatorship.”

Indeed it is.


18 posted on 08/11/2018 10:09:13 AM PDT by Bonemaker (invictus maneo)
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To: dhs12345
I think that's exactly what is unfolding right now. Not only does Flynn have a right to see it; Mueller has an obligation to turn it over to him.

Do you think it's just a coincidence that Flynn just took a job with a D.C.-based consulting firm last month? That doesn't sound like an arrangement where anyone thinks there's a chance in hell he's going to face any harsh penalties at all, does it?

19 posted on 08/11/2018 10:13:18 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("The Russians escaped while we weren't watching them ... like Russians will.")
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To: Alberta's Child

I would like to see more people in the DOJ lose their jobs.

Maybe even be prosecuted for their actions to deprive civil rights under color of law.


20 posted on 08/11/2018 10:17:52 AM PDT by marktwain (President Trump and his supporters are the Resistance. His opponents are the Reactionaries.)
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