GateHouse Media
May 1, 2020
On Dec. 2, 2017, President Donald Trump tweeted, “I had to
fire General (Michael T.) Flynn because he lied to the Vice President and the
FBI. He has pled guilty to those lies. It is a shame because his actions during
the transition were lawful. There was nothing to hide!”
Flynn served in the United States Army with distinction in
Afghanistan and Iraq. He was the Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency
for two years during the Obama Administration. He served as President Trumps’
first National Security Advisor. His tenure was the shortest in history,
lasting 24 days before resigning after it was revealed he misled the FBI and
Vice President Mike Pence about the nature and content of his communications
with the Russian Ambassador to the United States Sergey Kislyak.
In December 2017, Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI
about conversations with Kislyak in the Fall 2016 before Donald Trump was sworn
into office. Flynn was being prosecuted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller
pursuant to 18 U.S. Code 1001, a federal statute that “makes any materially
false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or representation,” in this case to
the FBI, unlawful.
Flynn’s case has been bogged down in federal court as his
new defense team alleges he was framed in a government conspiracy. Last month,
Flynn withdrew his guilty plea. According to USA TODAY Flynn’s lawyers accused
prosecutors of acting in “bad faith” during their investigation.
Flynn’s attorneys accused the government of forcing him to
admit to crimes he didn’t commit and hiding evidence that would’ve exonerated
him.
A federal judge rejected those claims. In January, Attorney
General William Barr directed the U.S. attorney for eastern Missouri, Jeffrey
B. Jensen, to assist federal prosecutors in the U.S. attorney’s office in
Washington D.C., who began handling Flynn’s case after Mueller’s office closed
in March 2019.
This week documents were released as part of Barr’s review
of Flynn’s case. The documents were turned over, under seal, last week to
Flynn’s lawyers. Flynn’s supporters, which again includes the president,
suggest the documents will exonerate Flynn.
In a sudden change of heart, President Trump retweeted a
post from his son Donald Trump Jr. calling for the imprisonment of FBI
officials involved in Flynn’s prosecution.
Before GOP’s start popping the champagne let’s take a look
at what the documents reveal. The documents relate to how top FBI officials
prepared for an interview with Flynn in January 2017.
The FBI was aware that Flynn had talked by phone with the
Russian Ambassador during the presidential transition.
Flynn asked Kislyak not to react to sanctions placed on
Russia by the Obama Administration in retaliation for Russia’s meddling in the
2016 election. Flynn’s conversation raised concerns about violating federal
law.
The newly released documents indicated that the FBI debated
their approach to interviewing Flynn and how to best elicit an admission of
wrongdoing.
One handwritten annotation by Bill Priestap, then the FBI’s
head of counterintelligence asked, “What’s our goal? Truth/Admission or to get
him to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired?”
Establishing a strategy in anticipation of an interview
hardly seems like wrongdoing. Priestap also noted, “If we’re seen as playing
games, WH (White House) will be furious. Protect our institution by not playing
games.” Clearly Priestap intended to remind agents to play it by the book.
Bradley P. Moss, a partner at the Washington, D.C. law
office of Mark S. Zaid, P.C., told The Law and Crime Network, “These tactics,
while maybe unseemly to the public, are largely consistent with the very type
of deceptive interrogation techniques law enforcement has been permitted to use
for at least 50 years.” Moss added, “This isn’t a legal bombshell that is
likely to save Flynn in court.”
Matthew T. Mangino is of counsel with Luxenberg, Garbett, Kelly & George
P.C. His book “The Executioner’s Toll, 2010” was released by McFarland
Publishing. You can reach him at www.mattmangino.com and
follow him on Twitter at @MatthewTMangino.
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