Secondly, given Flynn’s outspoken views on the Muslim/Islamic threat, it’s ludicrous to imagine he’d assist Erdogan in any substantial way. Erdogan’s paranoid accusations against Gulen led to the Turks offering Flynn money to use his connections to uncovering any intel the US might have implicating Gulen. Flynn probably knew it would be a futile effort but taking Erdogan’s money through his “cutout” was no doubt appealing.

Mueller’s rumored threat of prosecuting Flynn’s son is likely based on a threat to charge Flynn’s son with FARA violations. Mueller knows that Flynn knows that regardless of how bogus the charges, legal bills would financially destroy Flynn’s son…

What an utter POS is Herr Mueller. He doesn’t care how many innocent lives he destroys, justifying it with the end sought; stopping Trump.

It is painfully obvious that if the federal authorities get you in their sights you will be punished one way or another. It is also obvious that it doesn’t take any illegal action on an individual’s part to attract their notice. As with Flynn, working on the wrong side of the political divide is justification.

It will be interesting to see if Sullivan is sanctioned somehow for his tirade which, sadly, was based on his own ignorance of salient facts. Judges are accountable to someone, aren’t they?

Plus there have been seven prosecutions since 1938 until now. Three convictions. In 80 years.

Fair enough but, if all the FARA violations were prosecuted, half of DC would be in court. I see no sign that Mueller is after the Podesta brothers, for example.

“Remember, those phone calls didn’t involve any Russians. They were solely between the American members of the Trump transition team. Presumably, they were under surveillance because of the FISA warrant obtained on Carter Page, which enabled the FBI to perform surveillance of the Trump team because of the “two-hop” rule – even though Page had nothing at all to do with the Trump transition.

Flynn had no obligation, and not even any reason, to speak to the FBI agents as if they must know he had spoken to the transition team seniors at particular times. He had no reason to think that consciousness of having done so would be a token of bona fides that they might be looking for. As far as Flynn knew, he was only answering questions about what he remembered regarding conversations with Russians, particularly Kislyak.

Moreover, as a senior team member himself, Flynn would think specifically in terms of not discussing the deliberations of seniors on the team. As far as he knew, the FBI interview was friendly, and was about counterintelligence questions – which meant it was not about deliberations within the Trump team. There was nothing the slightest bit unresponsive about Flynn’s omitting discussion of what Mike Pence or any other senior team official said to him, or vice versa.

Nothing in the 302 indicates that he was asked if he spoke to the senior members of the transition team, or if he got instructions from them, or on what dates such communications occurred.

If he had been asked that – well, I can’t answer for Flynn, but I would certainly have smelled a rat, if I were in his position. My going-in assumption would be that such communications were privileged, and I would want to consult with the president’s counsel before giving answers about it. In fact, I assume the FBI agents were well aware that would be the obvious reaction.

So what stands out to me like a throbbing sore thumb here is a set of passages in Mueller’s charging document: paragraphs 3.c, 3.e, and 3.h; and paragraph 4.b.

Those paragraphs, with their specificity, make it clear that the FBI had the Trump transition team under surveillance.

..
Others made the point on Monday that there’s nothing actionable to be made of anything Flynn said he couldn’t remember. With no underlying crime, it couldn’t be obstruction of justice for Flynn to have had flawed recollections, or even to have lied by omission. And Mueller alleges no underlying crime.

…

But the real “money” point exposed from Monday’s work is that Mueller couldn’t have made his entrapment case if he hadn’t known everything that was said to and by Flynn in communications with the Trump team. To make his case against Flynn, Mueller had to assemble a structured timeline that depended on the Trump team itself being under surveillance by the FBI.

And Mueller had what he needed for that.”

However, his comment about not taking a false plea is more interesting. Now, this doesn’t appear to be a true Alford plea- Flynn appears to have asserted his innocence based on entrapment (a good argument can be made that is exactly what happened).

However, from the hearing today, I think Sullivan is trouble by more than just this issue- he is questioning Flynn taking this particular plea in order to skate on the FARA violations- a completely separate issue. Typically, in such an investigation, Flynn would have had to plead to one of the FARA charges, and then been given leniency for cooperation, and such a pleading would result in some prison time based on the sentencing guidelines. However, Flynn isn’t pleading to FARA violations, isn’t being indicted and tried on such violations, and will be a witness against the other individuals his cooperation has already caused to be indicted. I think this is what set the judge off today- he is being asked to accept a dodgy plea to lying to the FBI rather than accept a more proper plea on the FARA violations which are what Mueller has held over Flynn’s head all this time. The questioning about whether or not Flynn has immunity on the FARA charges goes directly to this issue.

In short, I don’t think Sullivan wants to accept the plea deal Flynn was offered, and kicked the can down the road for 3 months. He doesn’t think the plea deal serves justice properly- the plea isn’t correctly linked to the more serious legal problems Flynn is in, and it provides a sentence recommendation that doesn’t correctly link to the things Flynn is accused of in regards to FARA.

There were comments that Sullivan has it in for Flynn, but I don’t see that at this hearing. If he really had it in for Flynn, he would have accepted the plea and sent Flynn to prison for a year. He didn’t do that.

Flynn had a business which he began after retiring in 2014.
“Mr. Flynn opened the Flynn Intel Group in October 2014, two months after he was forced out as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency.”……………….”In the interview in October, Mr. Flynn offered only a vague description of the firm. He said he had clients in Japan and the Middle East and that he worked on cyber training, aviation operations and energy business.” ………. “Mr. Flynn, a retired Army lieutenant general, registered as a lobbyist last year but did not file papers with the Justice Department registering as a foreign agent, providing a fuller understanding of his role, until Tuesday. While he did not work directly for the Turkish government, the firm that hired him, Inovo, is owned by a Turkish-American businessman with links to leaders in Ankara and asked him to work on an issue important to the government.”
Read the whole thing here: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/10/us/politics/michael-flynn-turkey.html

Flynn was trying to make some money from his military experience. His firm was hired by Inovo to investigate Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish cleric who lives in Pennsylvania and was blamed by Erdogan for helping instigate a failed coup. That all happened before he was appointed to the Trump administration. He didn’t register as a foreign lobbyist because Inovo did not officially represent the Turkish government. But he later registered just to be legal. Something not unusual or unheard of in D.C.

His son was his chief of staff at Flynn Intel. So, he was put under Mueller’s microscope. “……, it could also be that Mueller’s focus on Flynn Jr. is an attempt to coerce his father’s cooperation in the investigation, legal experts have said. This possibility may be especially significant given that Flynn declined a new request on Tuesday to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee.”
Read it all here: https://www.businessinsider.com/michael-flynn-jr-subject-trump-russia-investigation-2017-9

I looked these up to refresh my memory of what had gone down from December -January of 2016/17 and beyond.

That Mueller is controlling Flynn through threats to his son seems quite plausible. The man is ruined financially and is trying to limit the damage going forward.

It seems, after the dust has settled a bit, that the judge is either very, very confused…or he’s setting Mueller up for a bruising.

(Truth to tell, however, the first is on the bizarre end of the spectrum—given all the publicity that has been generated by this travesty of a case—and the latter tends towards the fantasy/wishful-thinking end…)

To be continued, no doubt….

A good man and dedicated patriot… destroyed by traitors.

That’s why Flynn is ‘laying down.’

The legal fees required on his part are crazy high, already.

Flynn is not FINANCIALLY in a position to go to trial… not really.