Feds Back Off General Flynn...
Feds Back Off Jailing Michael Flynn After Stunning New Evidence That Gov't 'Lied' and 'Framed' Him
The government lied, "framed," hid favorable evidence, and showed "contempt for the law at every turn" in their treatment of Michael Flynn, the retired three-star Army general and former Trump White House national security adviser.
Those charges were contained in a new filing in the government's case against Flynn. And his attorney, Sidney Powell, was just getting started.
In the 27-page-filing, an add-on to her previous motions, Powell demanded charges be dropped against Flynn based on previously withheld exculpatory documents by the government and the IG report on FISA abuse.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump gives a thumbs-up as he speaks with retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn during a town hall, Sept. 6, 2016, in Virginia Beach, Va. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
The net result was that federal prosecutors publicly considered, for the first time, that Flynn would get no jail time and instead be put on probation for his previous guilty plea in what we now know was the beginning of the FBI's "Crossfire Hurricane" operation against the Trump White House.
Powell asserted that Flynn was innocent, claiming the "IG Report is replete with exculpatory information that, had it been know to Mr. Flynn, he never would have pled guilty."
The filing included a statement by the retired – and now financially ruined – Army general to that effect. As Fox News reported:
"In truth, I never lied," Flynn wrote in a new supplemental motion to withdraw his guilty plea filed Wednesday. "My guilty plea has rankled me throughout this process, and while I allowed myself to succumb to the threats from the government to save my family, I believe I was grossly misled about what really happened."
Powell's allegations of Flynn being "grossly misled" by his own attorneys were just the beginning. Powell averred that Flynn's first set of lawyers had a "conflict of interest" and worked against Flynn's interests by having him plead guilty to a charge of lying to FBI, a charge that itself was trumped up by Peter Strzok and another FBI investigator. That second investigator, identified by Powell as Agent Joe Pientka, it turns out, was in charge of the Crossfire Hurricane op against Trump. Powell claims they later lied and said their visit to the Trump White House was a defensive briefing and not a probe. Former FBI chief James Comey publicly laughed at the Flynn meeting saying he'd sent his investigators over there on purpose at the chaotic transition time in order to take advantage of them. Video of his scoffing appears to have been scrubbed from YouTube.
Powell accused Pientka of lying on FISA warrants and withholding information favorable to Flynn from official government documents.
The filing on Flynn's behalf was possible in part due to the Inspector General's report on FISA abuse. Powell claimed that the IG report is "replete with information that is exculpatory to Mr. Flynn and damning of the conduct the FBI used against him. Flynn is one of the four original targeted by Crossfire Hurricane and unmasked by previous administration because of 'his puported ties to Russia.'" Furthermore, the FBI got access to Flynn's information because of the Carter Page FISA warrant, at least two of which we now know were illegally obtained.
Powell believes that the original "302" report on the Flynn meeting, in which FBI agents believed that Flynn was telling the truth, have been lost or worse.
Powell called for all charges to be dropped against Flynn citing "government misconduct dishonestly wielded to destroy the National Security Advisor to President Trump as part of their larger anti-Trump scheme." She called the case against Flynn a "mockery" of due process:
The government's suppression of evidence, drove a three-star-military veteran of multiple conflicts to plead to a crime he did not believe he committed. It now raises the foremost intelligence officer of this generation, a combat veteran and war hero, will spend time behind bars. This is not only manifestly unjust, it makes a mockery of Brady [exonerating evidence] and due process.
She believes that the DOJ's Durham investigation into the underpinnings of the spying operation against the Trump campaign and presidency will uncover more information showing that Flynn is innocent.
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