Mike Flynn Story

    
                                                 By Florida Bill  

                                              Hopefully, the Covid-19 crisis will play out and come to an end, and when that happens, there are other controversies crying for resolution.  One of them involves Michael Flynn, a three-star army general who has been dealt a bad hand by the same forces that pushed the nonsensical Russian "collusion" investigation of President Trump.
                               In December of 2017, Gen. Flynn, who had been appointed National Security Adviser, by President Trump, was accused of lying to two FBI agents concerning the precise contents of a telephone conversation he had with the Russian Ambassador, a year earlier, on December 16, 2016. The criminal charge was at the very least, clumsy and unfair, in that the FBI agents had a full transcript of the call, and knew precisely what had been discussed between the new NSA chief  and Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, and nothing in the call involved secret or confidential matters.
                               The agents did not tell Flynn that they had a transcript of the conversation.  Instead, they finagled him into hedging on answers, and then advised the media that the "Russian" probe was bearing fruit, and that General Flynn had perjured himself. The accusation against the retired three-star army officer, suggested "Russian" involvement, and the biased and Trump-hating media, screamed loudly that this was  proof of "collusion" committed by an ally of President Trump. 
                                Flynn was charged with "perjury" and told that prosecutors would seek five or more years of prison time. But here it is 2020, and the charge still hangs over his head with the court declining  to sentence him even though he had actually entered a guilty plea to the indictment.  
                                In the latest development of this strange and manufactured wrongdoing,  Gen. Flynn has petitioned the court to withdraw his plea on grounds that the government acted improperly, withheld exculpatory evidence and otherwise committed outrageous crimes in "a plot to convict an innocent man." As part of the picture, and obviously weighing heavily on the mind of the district judge, was testimony by former FBI Director James Comey before a congressional committee that the general had not been dishonest in his answers to the FBI agents.     
                               What about the conversation that Gen. Flynn had  with the Russian ambassador?  Reportedly, much of it included chit chat with the Russian diplomat who extended his congratulations to Flynn on his new position. There were references to sanctions placed upon Russia by the Obama administration and apparently the Russian official wanted to know the possibility of relaxing those sanctions, with Flynn suggesting that they would be dealt with later by the Trump administrations.   

                          Because Flynn's official tenure as NSA adviser did not commence until the new President's swearing in in January, discussions of sanctions were supposedly off- limits at that time to Gen. Flynn as the new appointee of President-elect Trump.                                      Gen. Flynn spent 33 years in the army serving in both domestic and combat zones, and was the recipient of medals and honors.  Under President Obama he had served as the country's Defense Intelligence chief. After leaving that office, he became an adviser to then candidate Donald Trump, and as such, drew the enmity of a biased media which was pushing for the election of Hillary Clinton and spouting the tenets of the Democratic National Committee.  
                         Reportedly, the prosecutors pushing the story of Flynn's dishonesty, also drew the guilty plea from the general after threatening him with a future prosecution of his son for unauthorized dealings with a foreign country without registering his business in accord with USA law. 
                         Some legal scholars are arguing that the charges against General Flynn should be thrown out as they have no standing in law.  Former Harvard Criminal law Professor Alan Dershowitz has said that even if Gen. Flynn told a lie in connection with this meaningless conversation, there was no crime.  
                          "The lie has to be material to the investigation," asserts Dershowitz, "and if the FBI already knew the answer to the question and only asked him the question in order to give him an opportunity to lie, his answer, even if false,was not material to the investigation." Other attorneys have suggested that the FBI conduct smacks of "entrapment," and that the agents ought to be sanctioned for their misbehavior. 
                            On Feb. 27, District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan continued the Flynn case indefinitely.  
                            

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