Posted on 05/22/2017 8:02:16 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
It seems that the Senate Intelligence Committee couldn’t cut a deal with Michael Flynn after all. The Associated Press reports this morning that the former national security adviser will refuse to provide any testimony, and will invoke the Fifth Amendment instead:
BREAKING: AP Source: Michael Flynn to decline Senate Intel committee subpoena, invoke 5th Amendment later today.
— The Associated Press (@AP) May 22, 2017
Last week, the AP ended up with some egg on its face when it relied on Senate Intel chair Richard Burr’s contention that Flynn had decided to “defy” a subpoena. It turned out that Flynn’s attorneys had not actually responded to the subpoena at the time, forcing everyone into a retreat from the story. As I noted at the time, Flynn had demanded immunity at the end of March in exchange for this testimony, a demand which Trump endorsed at the time. Burr rejected the offer almost immediately, with sources telling NBC that such a request was “wildly preliminary” at that stage.
It appears now that those positions became set in stone, with neither side budging. Flynn’s not going to do an Oliver North impression, mostly because it won’t work and Flynn has too much exposure on other issues. At the same time, Flynn’s not going to open himself up to a contempt charge, as Burr suggested last week. The obvious legal strategy is also a common one — taking the Fifth Amendment and telling the Senate committee to pound sand.
Whether one cheers or castigates Flynn for this will depend in large part on one’s perspective. Conservatives reamed Lois Lerner for doing the same thing in the IRS scandal … including Sean Spicer at the time:
why do u take the 5th if you have done nothing wrong and have nothing to hide? #IRS
— Sean Spicer (@seanspicer) May 22, 2013
Ahem. In that case, though, the Inspector General at Treasury had acknowledged a larger offense at the IRS, whereas no one actually has found a crime (yet) in the allegations of Russian interference in the election. The only demonstrable legal risk here (so far) is to Flynn himself on allegations that he failed to properly register as a foreign agent and to disclose money he took from state-run RT for a speech in Moscow. In fact, this suggests that Flynn doesn’t have anything to trade to escape punishment for those allegations — and that there’s not much point in cooperating as a result. That may well be why the Senate Intelligence Committee refused to arrange an immunity deal for Flynn, because they have nothing to gain from it either.
Basically, Flynn will avoid testifying and a charge of contempt by exercising his constitutional rights. Whether that’s the right call, or the safe call, will not be fully known until the end of this investigation. The next hurdle for Flynn will almost certainly be Robert Mueller’s special-counsel probe, and that’s when we’ll know whether Flynn and his attorneys really are horse trading, or whether there’s anything at all to trade.
Update: Another prominent figure noted another prominent exercise of the use of the Fifth Amendment in a scandal probe last year (via Jeryl Bier):
@HillaryClinton IT specialist takes 5th over 100 times. #Trump2016 #fieldoffight #AmericaFirst https://t.co/5U4R8FQ8JN
— General Flynn (@GenFlynn) June 23, 2016
It’s all a matter of perspective, eh?
Lerner, as a (then) current employee of the IRS, made a self-serving statement (testified), after which she invoked her 5th amendment right to not testify.
Why is it that people cannot remember the actual facts of the case, which make things more damning for the leftards that do these things?
I know that it is his constitutional right. Doesn’t mean I like it. He did something wrong by not registering as an agent.
Honesty is apparently no longer considered an important value
If all was above board I’d agree but they are out for blood.
That may be true, but the Senate is not the venue to convict the man. By taking the fifth in such a venue, he keeps himself from getting Scooter Libby’d.
Flynn brought a world of hurt on himself and damaged the president by not being upfront about his contacts with Russians.
If those contacts were innocent there was no reason for him to obfuscate and lie to the President and Vice President.
If they were not innocent he should have declined the President’s nomination as the National Security Adviser.
By not being upfront he gave some validity to the democrats claim that there were secret contacts between Trump staff members and Russians.
In reality, he’s mostly in trouble because he didn’t support removing Assad or the new cold war with Russia.
They needed to get a McMaster type in his spot.
“If those contacts were innocent there was no reason for him to obfuscate and lie to the President and Vice President.”
That’s a Pence camp fiction. Flynn said he did not discuss removing sanctions with Lavrov. They claim he did so when the Russian asked about it, and he replied that would need to be discussed in the future.
Saying “we can talk about that some other time” isn’t discussing it.
But the neocon wing really needed him out of that way, Obama fought hard to stop him. that’s all this is.
Flynn is pretty far down the food chain, now that Trump has fired him. In return for a plea to filling out a form incorrectly, and some slap on the wrist penalty, he should be offered immunity. Then, he couldn’t take a plea.
But, people demand drama. Not securing our borders. Not eradicating terrorism. Not repealing and replacing Obamacare. Not reforming our tax code. Not draining the swamp.
Good decision.
Seth Rich.
I wouldn’t testify to these morons either.
If you think I committed a crime, then prove it, otherwise f*** you.
Good!
Lessons learned from the liberals.
He is just being setup by the democrats to hurt Trump.
Good that he does not walk into the trap.
Your talking about those who are above/outside the law.
I think the administration may have brought some of this on itself as well by ignoring the fact that he was under investigation at the time of his appointment.
A fact that according to the reports out now they knew about at the time.
The optics on this are just bad.
I wonder how holder’s contempt of Congress thingy is going
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