The Flynn plea
Andrew C. McCarthy has this to say about the Flynn plea in the Mueller investigation:
…[W]hen a prosecutor has a cooperator who was an accomplice in a major criminal scheme, the cooperator is made to plead guilty to the scheme. This is critical because it proves the existence of the scheme. In his guilty-plea allocution (the part of a plea proceeding in which the defendant admits what he did that makes him guilty), the accomplice explains the scheme and the actions taken by himself and his co-conspirators to carry it out. This goes a long way toward proving the case against all of the subjects of the investigation.
That is not happening in Flynn’s situation. Instead, like Papadopoulos, he is being permitted to plead guilty to a mere process crime. A breaking report from ABC News indicates that Flynn is prepared to testify that Trump directed him to make contact with the Russians ”” initially to lay the groundwork for mutual efforts against ISIS in Syria. That, however, is exactly the sort of thing the incoming national-security adviser is supposed to do in a transition phase between administrations. If it were part of the basis for a “collusion” case arising out of Russia’s election meddling, then Flynn would not be pleading guilty to a process crime ”” he’d be pleading guilty to an espionage conspiracy…
Meanwhile, the only major case Mueller has brought, against former Trump-campaign chairman Paul Manafort and an associate, has nothing to do with the 2016 election. It is becoming increasingly palpable that, whatever “collusion” means, there was no actionable, conspiratorial complicity by the Trump campaign in the Kremlin’s machinations.
We’ll see. But McCarthy has been spot on so far in his analyses and prognostications.
Which is more than I can say for most pundits. Of course, McCarthy—former Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and prosecutor in the trial of the conspirators in the 1993 WTC bombing—also knows a lot more than most writers on the subject of how prosecutors think.
Scooter Libby all over again?
If Trump campaign gave Kremlin any promises in exchange for Putin using his cyber army to hack the DNC for Trump somewhere in the recorded conversation between Flynn and the ambassador would contain dialogues such as “Hey, you and your boss better fix this sanction or we will go the press with evidence of how you colluded with us, don’t forget the favorites we have done for your boss, we own Trump, don’t forever that” If there were any agreements between them, why hadn’t they been mentioned at all in this secret meeting that supposedly no one should know. both parties should be comfortable enough to spill their guts thinking no one should be recording the conversation indicated by the fact that Flynn had the audacity to lie to the FBI about what was discussed.
A joke.
Mueller’s got nothing.
Watched 2 minutes of Morning Joe on MSNBC today and they think Trump is demented and needs to be removed by “Article” 25. I laughed and laughed. They are NUTS.
It has been painful reading online commentary about this today. For some unfathomable reason, people seem to have the idea this is the procession of events here: (1) that Flynn is allowed to plea to the lying, and (2) then will, in the weeks that follow, tell Mueller and his investigators what he knows about conspiracies.
This is so ridiculous, I can’t believe people believe it happens this way. Everything, and I mean everything, Flynn can tell Mueller about any crime being investigated by the special counsel has already been told to Mueller and his team- everything. McCarthy is correct- if Flynn didn’t plead to being part of a conspiracy, it means there isn’t a conspiracy being investigated any longer.
I don’t doubt that they are targeting Kushner, but unless Kushner himself has lied about doing a legal thing, he is also in no danger.
It may well be that Mueller is planning to actually try to prosecute someone under the Logan Act, but if that is the case, Trump should fire him.
Loons.
http://news.grabien.com/story-morning-joe-ups-ante-calls-cabinet-led-coup-sociopath-trump
This whole process has been a farce and a travesty. Consider that Mr. Flynn’s career was essentially over once he was fired by President Trump. Then he was dragged through an investigation by Robert Mueller, where he incurred something like $1 million dollars in legal expenses. And for what? A single charge of lying to the FBI?
Now compare all that we know of how Manafort and Flynn were treated to how the Clinton e-mail server matter was handled by former Director Comey and others. This is just disgraceful.
And here we are, with Robert Mueller over 71 years old, and it’s been a year since the election, and coming up on a year since Mr. Trump was sworn in. And yet Mueller cannot wrap up this so-called investigation in a timely manner, or even bother to investigate other, more promising leads?
The real problem is that the political process is being poisoned by these people, either for their partisan interests, or else in the mistaken belief that they are doing the right thing. There will be lasting damage to some of the people of the United States, because they are being misled with the idea that there HAS to be something there, all because they still cannot accept the result of the 2016 election.
Geoffrey Britain Says:
December 1st, 2017 at 3:33 pm
Scooter Libby all over again?
* *
Exponentially.
Yankee Says:
December 1st, 2017 at 9:44 pm
This whole process has been a farce and a travesty. …
Now compare all that we know of how Manafort and Flynn were treated to how the Clinton e-mail server matter was handled by former Director Comey and others. This is just disgraceful.
* *
Exponentially.
Scooter Libby? Yep. When a special prosecutor/counsel gets going, staffers of the targets often get ground to dust in the process. It’s the modern equivalent of putting someone on the rack.
Is Flynn now going to delineate how the Trump campaign colluded with WikiLeaks, Fancy Bear, and Sergey Kislyak to ensure the defeat of Hillary? I’m not going to hold my breath on that one.
The most apparent collusion prior to the election was the DNC paying Fusion GPS for the Steele Russian dossier on Trump. Time to put Glenn Simpson, head of Fusion GPS, on the rack.
I see ABC finally got around to correcting the colossal “mistake” they made this morning about “candidate” Trump directing Flynn to contact the Russians. I pointed this problem out to them this morning and mentioned it on Althouse’s site. What a disgraceful news organization.
Sooner or later (probably later) the Republicans will come to realize that their fate is tied to Trump’s and that if they keep going after him for nothing then they will only destroy themselves.
In the same vein I completely agree with D.C. McAllister that all of this sexual morality stuff is just a play for power by the left. Read his column at:
https://pjmedia.com/trending/dont-be-fooled-the-left-doesnt-care-about-morals-it-cares-about-power/
Or is this just too too cynical for the season?
Irv: “In the same vein I completely agree with D.C. McAllister that all of this sexual morality stuff is just a play for power by the left.”
Just so. With the left, the issue is never the REAL issue. The issue is always the revolution.
According to the talking heads at MSNBC the president was warned about hiring Flynn by no less than Obama. They also point out that Flynn was an employee of Obama and that he is a Democrat. Trump should have listened.
And Trump should have believed Obama because he has Trump’s best interest at heart and has such a long record for honesty in government.
15 cynics here, and counting. I am one.
The termites (the progs within and without the bureaucracy, always linked) have munched on our Constitutional Federal structure so much that it is on the verge of collapse.