Was former National Security Advisor Lt. General Michael Flynn framed? Getting harder to argue he wasnt.
Skepticism has long surrounded Flynns decision to take a plea deal on December 1 2017. The former United States Army Lieutenant General was accused of lying about whether hed had a conversation with the former Russian ambassador in December 2016 related to limiting the Russians response to Obamas sanctions for election meddling.
But as more evidence comes out it is becoming increasingly clear that Flynn was pressured into taking the plea and wasnt guilty of any crime including lying to the FBI. In fact its the investigators prosecutors and their bosses who may soon have a date with Lady Justice.
Former DOJ prosecutor Sidney Powell is Flynns new attorney and she is wading deep into the Swamp to get to the bottom of it. She filed a motion to compel Brady (exculpatory) material from the prosecution. She requested 40 types of information. Her request is that lengthy because there is so much Brady material the prosecution withheld from Flynn. The prosecution has since responded and Powell has filed a reply to their response.
Catch-22 With Brady Exculpatory Evidence
Powell notes that the prosecution refused to provide Flynn with the Brady material before he accepted the plea deal because he was not a defendant until he was formally charged. But then they claimed they didnt need to provide him with the material after he had accepted the plea deal since the guilty plea erased the obligation. It was a catch-22 that defeats the purpose of the Brady requirement. Powell charges FBI lawyer Lisa Page with altering the FD-302 write-up of Flynns interview. Peter Strzok an FBI agent at the time and Pages extramarital lover drafted an FD-302. He texted Page about making some changes to the write-up. Page had not been involved in the interview. The change in wording moved Flynn from a target to a subject.
Changing the words regarding someone under investigation can have a profound influence on the outcome.
This FD-302 originally said Flynn could not remember if he had spoken to Russians about their voting at the UN. It was revised to say Flynn said he did not talk to the Russians about that. This contradicted what Vice President Pence had just said on TV that Flynn had not discussed sanctions with Russians. He was forced to resign.
Changing the words regarding a person under investigation can have a profound influence on the outcome. Strzok changed former FBI Director James Comeys drafting of gross negligence" in regards to Hillary Clintons use of a private email server to extreme carelessness." This took her out of the criminal statute regarding mishandling of classified information and allowed her to avoid prosecution.
Original Document Missing
James Gagliano who worked in the FBI for 25 years says that investigators tweaked the accounting to ensure that Flynn was charged with Title 18 USC § 1001 which includes false statements. He says no U.S. Attorneys Office ever charged anyone with that unless they wanted to threaten it and employ it as leverage. It gets worse. The FD-302 were talking about is not the first 302 drafted. Thats nowhere to be found. Prosecutors actually are trying to tell the judge that any changes to any earlier versions were largely grammatical and stylistic." Unbelievably prosecutors just admitted that the notes that formed the 302 theyd long said were written by Peter Strzok were actually written by the other agent. And vice versa. Powell is demanding the government turn over every single document connected with the Flynn interview. In fact she wants the redaction history audit trail and metadata."Comey Admits He Did Not Follow Protocol
The prosecutors arent the only ones who were playing games. Former FBI Director James Comey admitted in an interview last year that he made the decision to send two FBI agents to interview Flynn. He says he deliberately did not follow the protocol for dealing with a White House official that was followed under the Obama and Bush administrations. The meeting was set directly with Flynn instead of going through White House counsel. Comey bragged it was something I probably wouldnt have done or maybe gotten away with in a more … organized administration." But Comey thought let just send a couple of guys over." Take a shot. Take aim at a decorated American general. Understand that by this time Flynn had already been cleared of what was supposed to be the reason for the FBI investigation: possible Trump-Russia collusion during the 2016 election. On January 30 2017 the DOJ and FBI had drafted an internal memo exonerating Flynn. It said he wasnt acting as an agent of Russia and there was no Logan violation. This memo was never disclosed to Flynn. Still Comey and his team went after Flynn. Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe (who incidentally has a personal grudge against Flynn) discouraged the general from bringing an attorney to the interview. Flynn was never warned by the FBI agents that any false statements he made could constitute evidence of a crime. They planned not to show him a transcript of his calls to refresh his memory. Yet the FBI had already read the transcripts of his phone calls and the agents knew there was no criminal intent or any crime in his conversations" Powell writes.Ambush-Interview
Powell refers to Flynns meeting with agents as an ambush-interview" obtained under false pretenses. She writes In this case high-ranking FBI officials orchestrated an ambush-interview of the new presidents National Security Advisor not for the purpose of discovering any evidence of criminal activity they already had tapes of all the relevant conversations about which they questioned Mr. Flynn but for the purpose of trapping him into making statements they could allege as false." Still and this is no small thing the two agents came away believing Flynn was being truthful. No sign of deception. And still prosecutors charged full steam ahead.
The prosecution team also threatened to indict his son give Flynn the Manafort" treatment and pile on charges that would put him in prison the rest of his life.
Powell writes in her brief that in order to force Flynn to agree to a plea deal the government threatened to indict him the next day. The prosecution team also threatened to indict his son give Flynn the Manafort" treatment and pile on charges that would put him in prison the rest of his life. Flynn was never told about the corrupt texts between Strzok and Page. Not coincidentally that story broke the day after Flynn agreed to the plea deal.
Text Messages Still Not All Released
The government did not produce a single text message between the two lovers (among the 50000) until nine months after it had been handed egregious examples. The prosecution only produced the texts after they had been exposed publicly by others. According to Powell there are still more texts that would be exculpatory to Flynn; they still have not been released. Help us champion truth freedom limited government and human dignity. Support The Stream Shortly after Flynn accepted the guilty plea Judge Contreras who had accepted the plea was recused from the case. No official reason was given but the Strzok-Page texts revealed that he was a friend of Strzok. He was also one of the FISA judges who approved the FISA Warrants against Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.Serious Corruption
Powell is requesting to dismiss the case against Flynn. Notably however she is requesting exculpatory evidence first in order to get to the bottom of this criminal conspiracy against Flynn. It is serious corruption to change Flynns interview from saying that he didnt remember talking to the Russians to saying that he did not which would be a lie. The 50000 texts between Stzrok and Page are there. What is the government trying to hide by not disclosing them? We already have enough evidence at this point to implicate the pair. What about the rest of the Brady material the government has been holding tight? Or the targeting of Flynn in the first place? (Both in this case and in efforts by a U.S. government operative to smear Flynn as having been compromised by a Russian honeypot.) The actions of FBI leadership and prosecutors to persecute Flynn amount to egregious government conduct" says Powell. Its a crime what was done to Lt. General Flynn. Follow Rachel on Twitter at Rach_IC. Follow The Stream at streamdotorg. Send tips to [email protected].