Posted on 12/02/2017 7:43:04 AM PST by libstripper
There’s less to the news than meets the eye.
Former Trump-administration national-security adviser Michael Flynn is expected to plead guilty today to lying to the FBI regarding his conversations with Russia’s ambassador to the United States.
Flynn, who is reportedly cooperating with the investigation of special counsel Robert Mueller, is pleading guilty in federal district court in Washington, D.C., to a one-count criminal information (which is filed by a prosecutor in cases when a defendant waives his right to be indicted by a grand jury).
(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...
Dont know much about the law.
Wouldn’t he not be charged as part of a deal to squeal?
Like I said, I have no idea, just thought that.
This is not necessarily good news. According to Judge Napolitano, the government put the thumb screws to witnesses by threatening them with multiple serious charges and long prison sentences. They tell them they will let them off easy if they agree to testify against their real target(s). It should be illegal, but it happens all the time. You see it when state attorneys general go after business executives in order to make a name for themselves. Flynn may spew lies about Trump and others in order to spare himself a long prison sentence.
Flynn may have had access to this information or even discussed it. For example: Trump telling him to engage with the Russians. I believe that would happen because Russians are not some small nothing country but a significant player in the world. We definitely should be “engaged” and be talking with them. Duh!
Yes. It is a very bad situation where prosecutors have this much power, and no one can hold them accountable for fraud, lies, and abuse.
I don’t see how that could be. If this went to court, the defense would call Flynn and ask him if he was charged with the “Collusion Conspiracy” charge. He would have to say “No.”
At that point, the prosecution case begins to completely unravel. Why?
If you arrest a guy for 1 crime, but tell him they will let him of easy if he implicates others in another crime for which he was not charged at all, how is the jury supposed to believe him?
General Flynn is a patriot with a long history of service to his country and there is absolutely no justification for demeaning his integrity by suggesting he will not do otherwise. Just relax and the facts will become known in time.
I don’t think it starts with formal charges but with verbal threats. “You know what we could charge you with? You could spend 30 years in a federal prison. On the other hand, if you are willing to tell us something about Mr. X, we could reduce the charges against you.”
Perhaps, but the threat of spending the rest of one’s life in a federal prison might make him re-think what he “knows”.
Read the article again. It explains very well what is going on here. If there was a crime, if there was collusion, if there was a quid pro quo, there would be no way that Muller would permit Flynn to allocute (admit, confess) to a simple false statement charge. That there is no admission to any kind of crime that there is no admission to any kind of quid pro quo means that there was no crime and there was no quid pro quo. It’s just as simple as that.
I disagree. If Flynn lies in order to sex up a story about Trump whom we all know is the real Target of this operation, and that lie becomes apparent, particularly after a prosecution of trump, then Flynn becomes guilty of another crime, a far more serious one because that will be perjury under oath which is arguably more formal then a mere accidental misstatement made in a pre-trial interview. I am not always the biggest fan of Andrew McCarthy but I believe his article here is absolutely dead on the money.
McCarthy ping
If he spewed lies to the FBI, and got caught, what's to say he won't spew lies to Mueller. And, get caught again, lying?
Flynn copped a plea to keep Jr out of jail
I certainly hope you are right. I don’t trust anyone in DC, and they will stop at nothing to destroy Trump.
I hope you are right. I just have a bad feeling about all this that the fix is in. We will find out who is really in charge of this country.
ABC essentially retracted this entire story: Flynn was asked to contact the Russians AFTER he was elected - he was President-elect.
Its not clear to me if there would have been a crime had he contacted them prior to the election, but . . .
I have trouble with the idea that lying to the FBI is a crime.
There's yer trouble.
If he thought he may have done something illegal, he should have consulted his lawyer, who could have told about various options he might pursue, like not talking to the FBI. It is doubtful the lawyer would have told him to just lie to the FBI (even if the lawyer didn't know or suspect the FBI already had wiretapped Flynn's phone calls with the Russkies).
Exactly.
I’ve been thinking and reading about this development and a Fox News interview of Alan Dershowitz put a good legal angle on the matter today.
“Alan Dershowitz on Mihael Flynn’s guilty plea”
Gen. Flynn might have put them onto some other trail along the way but he is seriously damaged goods as a credible witness at this point after being fired for lying and then admitting guilt to a criminal charge of lying to a federal agent. A good defense attorney will establish that with that trail of false statements he can not be trusted.
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