The ordeal of K. T. McFarland
It takes strength to hang tough through an experience like this:
Longtime Republican politico K.T. McFarland said in a radio interview Wednesday that Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team pressured her for “20, 30, 40 hours of hell” to either cop a plea or implicate other Trump associates in crimes, even though she didn’t think she or they did anything wrong.
McFarland, who served a four-month stint under Trump’s short-lived national security adviser Michael Flynn, was ensnared in Mueller’s dragnet after leaving the administration in May 2017…
“When the Mueller people came knocking at my door, they started quizzing me on stuff that I didn’t have access to and didn’t remember 100 percent accurately, and it allowed them to say, ‘well you must be lying then,’” McFarland told WMAL hosts Vince Coglianese and Mary Walter.
Walter asked McFarland why she wasn’t in the same position as Flynn, who ended up pleading guilty to a crime he didn’t commit (after Mueller threatened to bring criminal charges against his son). She replied: “because I didn’t break.”…
McFarland…said she’d had “a really hard time of it” and almost broke herself.
“At one point, I turned to my lawyer and said, ‘just tell me what they want me to say and I’ll say it!’” she recalled.
McFarland told the hosts that she just wanted the ordeal—which cost her hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees—to be over with.
“My husband, God bless him, said ‘you can’t do that. Even if we go bankrupt,” she continued. So McFarland decided to stand her ground…
“This tool, which we had given the intelligence community—which is a good thing for them to have if they’re tracking down mass murderers and terrorists—they were using it for political purposes to go after political enemies,” McFarland lamented.
Please read the whole thing. It’s not long.
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So if you run into an employee of the DoJ, even socially, what do you do? FBI agents are okay with a history of Waco, Ruby Ridge, Richard Jewell, Ted Stevens. Do you even want to be in the same room as those clowns?
Smart woman, and it’s an outrage that she had to spend a whole lot of money to defend herself against this kind of shameless badgering.
Here’s hoping Grenell and his new deputy can punish these people.
he is a former chief aide to Nunes on the House intel committee.
Patel joined the National Security Council’s International Organizations and Alliances directorate last February and was promoted to the senior counterterrorism role at the NSC mid-summer 2019. According to recent reporting Patel is now joining Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell as a Senior Advisor and Catherine Herridge is reporting the objective is to ‘clean house‘.
Another example of the attack of Trump, the FBI wanted to send a message to everyone who worked with Trump that if they were picked out of the team it would cost them. It is about time for some counter suits to recover lawyer money spent in defense with this whole lashed up, political mis-use of the legal system.
well, if Herr Müller were not using his stormtroopers to persecute and harass innocent people to induce them into perjuring themselves against Trump, Herr Müller might be forcing Namibians into the desert to die of dehydration or gassing people or shooting people in ditches.of course Manju would approve.
I’m on fora with partisan Democrats. Not one has a complaint about this sort of thing. The dumb ones fancy all attacks on Republicans are justified. The ones one ratchet north of that fancy this machine will never be turned against anyone whose welfare they care about. And that may be true. It may be that you cannot reform the FBI, merely dissolve it.
compelling speech is ok..
The court rejected the professor’s religious objections, saying the reasonable-person standard would not consider using preferred pronouns as unreasonable and that the anti-discrimination policy is “neutral” and therefore not specifically affecting any religious group or belief. Most shockingly, the court upheld the university’s position that it could not accommodate the professor due to his religious objection, as it would then be required to make similar accommodations for racist or sexist views as well.
One can only hope that those who were her investigators / prosecutors are jailed, given life sentences and placed in solitary confinement with one hour of exercise in the prison yard per YEAR.
Though, if it were up to me, I would have them placed in front of a firing squad.
History shows that when enough people finally realize that the government is the enemy, revolutions follow.
The Deep State is real. It is evil and it is personal.
It is mostly Democrats, but there are GOPe people in it.
The only solution is that Durham must indict and convict all of the people involved in the Russia hoax and coup attempt. Coup plotters in the future must know they will be caught and punished. This is the biggest scandal in US political history.
And I will beat my drum again. Comey, McCabe and the rest of them must be indicted for obstruction of justice of the point shaving kind with the Hillary email investigation. The FBI didn’t do a standard investigation on Hillary. The basketball analogy is they were missing free throws on purpose and making silly fouls. Comey knows all about the college point shaving cases as he played basketball in high school.
Old Texan:
Her civil lawsuit would be for violation of her constitutional rights under section 1983. Carter Page has a much better case than KT.
That’s why I think criminal cases need to be filed to send a message to the Deep State. Jail is a big deterrent. In a 1983 case, the taxpayers pay the damages.
Far too many people are blissfully ignorant of the fact that investigators and prosecutors at all levels aren’t truth seekers so much as they’re scalp-hunters. Then add to that the way in which far-too-entrenched justice officials, investigators and D.C. bureaucrats view anyone who wishes to upend the status quo and realign longstanding corridors of power. You get just the kind of coup that has been perpetrated against the current president, the Constitution, and the rule of law.
Folks need to take a good long look at the vendetta against Howard Root and Vascular Solutions, Inc. by the so-called “good guys”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6M3P8sT4IFg
It’s terrible, but on many levels I’m not getting it.
(1) You don’t have to talk to these people. When they come knocking, just shut your mouth and don’t say a word. If they subpoena you to the grand jury, claim your 5th Amendment rights on every question, including your name.
(2) You have a smart phone. Turn it on and record everything they say. You have a First Amendment right to do that.
(3)KT, you should have that recording. Please disseminate it.
If you follow these simple rules, there is no reason you should be traumatized. Also, while I would recommend hiring a lawyer, it should not cost hundreds of thousands if you follow these rules.
The only solution is that Durham must indict and convict all of the people involved in the Russia hoax and coup attempt. Coup plotters in the future must know they will be caught and punished. This is the biggest scandal in US political history.
At this point, I’ll believe it when it happens. Not holding my breath.
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I’m hoping for something something to happen at the policy level. One is for the Department of Justice and the FBI to be broken into about six pieces. Another is to reform the recruitment and disciplinary standards of the federal civil service in general. A third is to scarify the federal penal code. A fourth is to strip judges and prosecutors of most of the discretion and immunity they have now. Not holding my breath.
Does anyone have an informed opinion on what Francis Menton said above.
It seems reasonable to me.
I would like to think I would have done it just from watching movies.
Flynn walked into a trap, but not her.
I have such an opinion.
The FBI and similar groups does not wander random neighborhoods and knock on doors just to pass the time. When they show up on your doorstep they have something in mind and it is not your well being. If you feel the need to give your name (although they already know it, and that of your spouse, children, parents and neighbors), give it truthfully. If they ask further questions simply ask for a business card so that your lawyer can contact them to arrange a meeting. (You may not really have a lawyer at that moment, but you should have one within the hour.)
Answer no questions. Saying “I don’ know” or “I don’t know that person” could be just what they want to make you a liar. They do not record the interviews, by the way; they do a summary report of the interview, so your statement becomes what the agent heard and recorded. It is not a square game.
Another Mike:
McFarland had a lawyer or lawyers.
Swamp things must start to be charged, tried and sentenced for things to change.
Everything else is pat-a-cake.
Good link, OlderandWheezier. A truly frightening tale, as have all the revelations about those swept up in the Russia collusion gambit have been.
Back in 1866 Gideon J. Tucker wrote: “No man’s life, liberty, or property are safe while the Legislature is in session.” Today that can include the phrase,” or while the DOJ continues to be driven by the garnering of scalps and collection of fines.”
Francis Menton’s advice may work for a while, but my impression is that, if they want you to “compose” (Allan Dershowitz’s word), they will bring incredible pressure on you. You’d better have good legal advice and a willingness to sacrifice all your property and your reputation.
That our DOJ has reached this point makes me really angry. I hope Bill Barr can begin the job of reforming it. And I hope Howard Root is successful in spreading the word. A lot needs to be done.
Neo: Yes, she did. My comment was in response to Ed B remarking on the post by Francis. It was for the benefit of anyone who might be the recipient of a surprise visit.
That’s why I think criminal cases need to be filed to send a message to the Deep State.
It would be helpful if McFarland’s home, where this apparently occurred, is not in DC. It’s very hard to convict Democrats and Deep Staters in DC. Though maybe Maryland or Northern Virginia wouldn’t be much better.
Never, ever, talk with the agents of the state (federal, state, local). Keep your mouth shut. They can never be trusted to be fair or respectful to the 4th, 5th, 8th amendment’s. Cling to the 9th and 10th. When you forget powers not trusted to DC but claimed by DC are the chains of servitude you become a slave. Better to die free than be a slave.
II have interviewed people as a Customs officer and pressed charges.
Answer, but in writing, to questions given in writing. If nothing else it slows the process down, but it also means you don’t say something stupid.
State what you know to be true, but never guess. If you don’t remember, then say that.
Saying nothing makes you look guilty, and they’ll keep coming after you.
I might add, all our interviews were video recorded. To not record in this age is outrageous.
Ok. Should you find yourself talking to a DoN type socially… Ostentatiously turn the “record” function on your phone.
If we had a robust defense–and implementation throughout the populace–of the 2nd Amendment, we wouldn’t need to give our “intelligence” agencies these sort of powers.
Yet Republicans still want to ramp up the reach and power of the security state. Because otherwise the terrorwrists will have won.
Conservative movement and alleged former deep state veteran here. If you all don’t realize that the deep state is a bureaucracy that grinds along for its own purposes, primarily for the accrual of power and influence and to advance pet projects, and to keep getting its belly tickled by Congressional appropriators and the media, then you probably shouldn’t be opining about it. You’re only beefing about the symptoms.
Liberals aren’t the problem, the amassing of immense amounts of power in D.C. agencies is. Liberals are just one particularly virulent expression of that illness; conservative statists are another, and security panics are the nausea / low grade fever / coughing symptom of that malady that everybody in politics catches.
And yeah, it’s good advice always to have a lawyer handy when dealing with the feds. As pointed out upstream, they usually have a reason (good or bad, but sufficient to get the legal gears turning) to show up and bother you. It’s not smart to give them an opportunity to hang a purely procedural crime on you (obstruction, perjury) when you haven’t committed any underlying substantive offense.
The 11th amendment. The Judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any suit in law or Equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by Citizens of another State, or by Citizens or Subjects of any Foreign State.
You can’t sue an FBI agency for intentional misconduct. Why do you think that worthless evil piece of trash, Peter Strzok, was sitting there in front of Congress with a shit eating grin on his face?
It’s called SOVEREIGN IMMUNITY peasants. Or you could call it impunity, license, the rights of Kings, whatev.
Just don’t mistake it for land of the free; home of the brave.
The 11th Amendment does not apply to suits against the federal government. Sovereign immunity can be claimed by governments, but it is not a constitutional principle.
Liberals aren’t the problem,
Buzz off.