Posted on 02/10/2020 3:02:13 PM PST by Jack Black
A federal judge on Monday indefinitely postponed the sentencing date for President Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn on charges of lying to the FBI in the Russia investigation.
The move by Judge Emmet Sullivan comes a day after federal prosecutors filed a rare Sunday motion to delay a number of approaching deadlines that would ultimately make Flynn’s Feb. 27 sentencing unlikely. The delay also comes weeks after Flynn withdrew his guilty plea.
In their filing, prosecutors argued that Flynn’s former attorneys should testify after he claimed to have received ineffective assistance from them. Flynn had previously hired the premier D.C. law firm, Covington & Burling. Federal lawyers also asked the judge to order that Flynn has his attorney-client privileges in his communications with Covington & Burling waived.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Well, that’s the problem with the way our justice system works. Prosecutors don’t get big promotions for finding truth, the make their careers on successful prosecutions. It’s not necessarily a DOJ problem, it’s a problem with people in the prosecution role that only care about winning. They won’t stop just because it’s a bad case. They need to lose in court.
And the evidence that Manafort broke a lot of laws comes from where? The FBI? The same FBI that lied to railroad Flynn and everyone else they’ve notched in their belts in this whole sordid mess?
What is the difference between ‘indefinitely delaying sentencing” and throwing out the case?
CASE #1: “Your company reported $X million in income in its financial records but it only reported $Y — a fraction of $X — on its tax returns.”
DEFENSE: “We sent $X worth of invoices to our clients but didn’t actually earn all that money. After negotiating discounts with our clients we only earned $Y.”
CASE #2: “If that’s true, then you’re guilty of mortgage fraud because you reported $X in income to the banks that extended loans on your properties, even though you knew you only earned $Y. So which is it — are you guilty of tax evasion or mortgage fraud? Because it MUST be one or the other!”
There are so many new motions that have been introduced, but both sides, starting with Flynn's motion to withdraw his guilty plea, that it doesn't make sense to pretend that sentencing is just around the corner.
All these motions have to be decided first, all of them take time for both sides to file briefs, then have a hearing on that issue, then time for the Judge to make his decisions and publish it.
Already there are dates set for some of them going into March.
So, that's all. The case is still moving forward, it's just no longer close to conclusion, as it was before Powell came on to replace Flynn's original lawyers.
The whole investigation was an illegal sham. Anyone who went to jail from the investigation went because of “fruit from the poisonous tree.” All of them ought to be released from jail.
I followed the trial pretty closely. Manafort was spending millions of dollars out of foreign bank accounts he never declared. He was using checks with weird 3rd party names -- drawn on these foreign banks -- to pay for clearly personal things, like his gardener and his clothes.
It's my opinion that he earned money overseas, kept it overseas, and never paid any taxes on it - which is illegal. Not the worst crime in the world, but he knew what he was doing, and that it was gonna be bad if he got caught, but did it anyways.
Given everything he's been through a coummution at this point would be fair. If Trump pardon's him it sort of implies he did nothing wrong.
But, in my opinion he did do something wrong.
So this is not as good as I thought. Bummer but thank you for explaining this to me.
Department of Justice? Becoming more of a contradiction in terms. Like military intelligence.
It baffles me that Trump hasn’t done
this.
What a difference an impeachment acquittal makes.
I am not sure, but I believe Mueller's prosecutors used the Carter Page FISA warrant to legitimize use of the phone recording by the prosecution. At least this is the story they told Flynn used to help pressure him to plead guilty.
General Flynn's argument is that without the Page FISA warrant, Mueller has no way to confirm whether Flynn told the truth or not.
Agree or disagree? Just my theory.
I am not sure what you mean by that.
Do you mean no evidence was obtained because of information obtained from a FISA warrant, or do you mean no FISA warrant was issued for General Flynn?
If you mean the first, it would be difficult to know, wouldn't it?
Powell and Flynn don’t just want the charge dropped; they want the government to admit it violated Flynn’s constitutional rights. Once that happens, and it will, Flynn will get all his moneys back; plus double to triple that for the civil rights violations. He could possibly get 10 times that amount.
I want the records of communications between the prosecutors and Flynn’s former lawyers. His former lawyers sold him down the river.
“Well tha’s interesting isn’t it!”
Actually, it’s pretty standard in the courts when one of the parties seeks an extension of time to respond to activity that’s fairly new, i.e., Genl Flynn withdrawing his guilty plea and claiming he wasn’t well represented (by one of the top law firms in Washington DC). The extensions are normally granted instantly, and that puts off everything that follows.
In Flynn’s case, there was an added complication in that some of those conversations took place on his personal cell phone while he was on vacation in the Dominican Republic. That itself seems reckless and irresponsible on its face, since cell phone calls in a Third World dump like that would almost certainly be among the least secure methods of communication anywhere on the planet.
Thanks, I obviously confused the two cases.
I understand. The phone conversation was legally recorded by the NSA. However, it is my strong belief that this recording cannot be used in a U.S. court against a U.S. citizen.
The phone conversations between Kislyak and Flynn that were recorded while Flynn was in Dominican Republic would be usable, and certainly complicate the situation.
What You Need to Know About the NSA's Surveillance Programs
The article contains a lot of good information and is well worth the read.
The article contains this gem: "However, if the intercepted information is “reasonably believed to contain evidence of a crime” then the NSA is allowed to turn it over to federal law enforcement."
The phone conversations between Kislyak and Flynn did not contain any evidence of a crime...period, full stop. They only confirmed that what Flynn stated to the FBI agents was different than what was on the recordings. Essentially the recordings were used to set a perjury trap.
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