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| FBI discussed interviewing Michael Flynn 'to get him to lie' and 'get him fired,' handwritten notes show |
| 2020-04-30 |
| *BOOM* [Fox News] Explosive new internal FBI documents unsealed Wednesday show that top bureau officials discussed their motivations for interviewing then-national security adviser Michael Flynn in the White House in January 2017 -- and openly questioned if their "goal" was "to get him to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired." The handwritten notes -- written by the FBI's former head of counterintelligence Bill Priestap after a meeting with then-FBI Director James Comey and then-FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, Fox News is told -- further suggested that agents planned in the alternative to get Flynn "to admit to breaking the Logan Act." The Logan Act is an obscure statute that has never been used in a criminal prosecution; enacted in 1799, it was intended to prevent individuals from falsely claiming to represent the United States abroad in an era before telephones. "What is our goal?" one of the notes read. "Truth/Admission or to get him to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired?" "If we get him to admit to breaking the Logan Act, give facts to DOJ + have them decide," another note read. Constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley called the document's implications "chilling." The memo appears to weigh the pros and cons of pursuing those different paths. "I don't see how getting someone to admit their wrongdoing is going easy on him," one note reads. Flynn did not ultimately admit to wrongdoing in the interview. The document indicates that the White House was monitoring the situation: "If we're seen as playing games, WH will be furious." The bombshell materials strongly suggested the agents weren't truly concerned about Flynn's intercepted contacts with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, except as a pretext. Former President Obama personally had warned the Trump administration against hiring Flynn, and made clear he was "not a fan," according to multiple officials. Obama fired Flynn as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2014. The Justice Department turned over the documents just this week, even though a February 2018 standing order in the case required the government to turn over any exculpatory materials in its possession that pertained to Flynn. Fox News is told even more exculpatory documents are forthcoming, as Attorney General Bill Barr continues to oversee the DOJ's investigation into the handling of the Flynn case. Whoops! We couldn't access this Tweet. Flynn previously charged that top FBI officials, including McCabe, pressed him not to have the White House counsel present during the questioning with two agents that led to his guilty plea on a single charge of lying to federal authorities. Flynn was not ultimately charged with any Logan Act violation. One of Flynn's interviewing agents was Peter Strzok, who has since been fired from the bureau after his anti-Trump text messages came to light. Flynn has withdrawn his guilty plea and has been seeking exoneration, saying the FBI engaged in "egregious misconduct." Flynn, who has said more recently that he did not lie to the FBI, pleaded guilty in late 2017 as mounting legal fees pushed him to sell his home. Flynn has since obtained new counsel -- and his old attorneys, it emerged this week, then failed to turn over thousands of documents to his new lawyer, Sidney Powell. Powell has maintained that Flynn's old lawyers at Covington & Burling had conflicts of interest and were otherwise ineffective, including by not focusing on Strzok's evident bias. Strzok wasn't the only top FBI official who apparently bent the rules in targeting Flynn. Comey admitted in 2018 that the fateful Flynn interview at the White House didn't follow protocol, and came at his direction. He said it was not "something I probably wouldn't have done or maybe gotten away with in a more... organized administration." |
| Posted by:Frank G |
| #7 My business law teacher told me (circa 1977) that 95% of those arrested are "guilty of something". There's at least two ways to take that. |
| Posted by: Bobby 2020-04-30 15:33 |
| #6 #1 Is it just me, or does this entire business of "lying to FBI is a crime" is custom made for abuse? Not just you, g. Part of the grand US prosecutorial tradition of nailing people on "process" crimes unrelated to the original charge(s). In the US generally, s.t. like 95% of prosecutions end in a plea bargain. This "process crime" BS is surely a factor in attaining such an absurdly high rate of pleas. |
| Posted by: Lex 2020-04-30 14:13 |
| #5 When "Turnpike Phantom" spree killer John Wesley Wable's sentence was carried out, he was delivered by PA State Police to the front entrance of Rockview Penitentiary in Centre County, PA and taken directly to the electic chair. Something like that would be a start. |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2020-04-30 13:11 |
| #4 Comey needs to go to jail. An example needs to be set and that's as good a place to start as any. |
| Posted by: Abu Uluque 2020-04-30 13:04 |
| #3 I'm going to guess the rank n file agents in the field are nauseated, but they understand the Seat of Government crowd can ruin them on a moment's notice. |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2020-04-30 11:23 |
| #2 But will these "[e]Xplosive new... documents" amount to a hill of beans (aside from exonerating Lt Gen Flynn)? |
| Posted by: Clem 2020-04-30 05:40 |
| #1 Is it just me, or does this entire business of "lying to FBI is a crime" is custom made for abuse? |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2020-04-30 03:36 |