The General Flynn Guide for Dummies: Written by a Dummy
We've scoured the internet, the pod-sphere, the news shows, and more, in order to put together a bar napkin length guide for those interested in the exoneration of General Michael Flynn this past week and why this guy was even hauled into court in the first place. We aim to bring you the facts laid out in the simplest of terms and not to force any opinions down your throat. This story comes in the wake of Friday's news as the Justice Department filed a motion to dismiss with leave of court, pursuant to Rule 48(a) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure.
For us dum-dums, that simply means they filed for a dismissal of the charges against General Flynn, pending the Federal Judge's approval.
This mess began back in January of 2017 when General Flynn was National Security Advisor to President Trump and he was approached by the FBI about the potential meddling by Russia in the US election. At the time when Trump was transitioning into the White House, General Flynn had a conversation over the phone with Russian Ambassador, Sergey Kislyak, about the US and Russian relations.
General Flynn was believed to be connected with Russian interference in the election and was asked about telling the Russian Ambassador not to escalate tensions in retaliation of new sanctions placed on Russia. He was then questioned about this call by the Deputy Director of the FBI at the time, Andrew McCabe. McCabe called Flynn, essentially easing him into the meeting, all while not revealing the FBI's primary motive. They met in General Flynn's office and from there, this 3 year-long disaster unfurled. Now that the charges have been dropped, Trump took to Twitter to dub the initial investigation "the biggest political crime in American history."
Trump also put a creative name to the debated initial investigation, really making it serious stuff.
Last week, files uncovered by the DOJ revealed that FBI agents may have colluded to entrap General Flynn into lying about the call, which ultimately led to Flynn entering a guilty plea. The guilty plea came as a result of the investigation led by Robert Mueller, special counsel for the Federal Government, which attempted to prove that General Flynn did lie to FBI officials in the earlier interview regarding the phone call with the Russian Ambassador. The phone call transcript was given to then FBI Director James Comey, who mysteriously convinced himself that the call was in violation of the Logan Act.
The Logan Act is an incredibly outdated statute from the 1700s that forbids a citizen from negotiating with a foreign country. Because the call happened before President Trump took office, General Flynn was technically not a national security advisor at the time. This was practical at a time where Americans were afraid of the Red Coats and losing their tea or some shit to the Brits, and it was way easier to track a piece of mail that takes months to get to where it's going. The statute hasn't been used to prosecute someone since the 1850s and Republicans are now trying to have it repealed.
They moved on and ended up bringing charges against General Flynn for lying to the FBI, which he admitted to at the time and he was promised leniency for his full cooperation.
The investigation and final report, known now as the Mueller Report, revealed that FBI agents told Comey that they DID NOT think that General Flynn lied during his interview. The new evidence now furthers that point as it shows that agents discussed the "goal" for the interview with Flynn was how they could get him to lie and get fired. This new evidence was uncovered as a result of Attorney General Barr's recent appointment of a new special prosecutor and led to charges being dropped this past Friday.
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Because the DOJ brought the charges in the first place and were also the ones that uncovered the evidence that ultimately led to Flynn's exoneration, they felt obligated to be the ones to withdraw prosecution rather than allowing the Judge to let General Flynn withdraw his guilty plea, which some speculators think was very possible.
It certainly is looking like this could be a very big deal as the most recent evidence may uncover a corruption scheme stemming from the FBI and the Obama administration. United States Attorney John Durham has now taken over the Federal Government's investigation into how the phone call was leaked in the first place and his findings will be revealed in the latest "Report" named for another old white guy.
It's a whole mess to talk about who got involved and when, as it pertains to federal prosecutors and investigators, but if you're curious, Justthenews.com does a great job of laying out the entire DOJ timeline. Also, if you want an opinion blog, check out Chap's Blog on Michael Flynn today, it's truly riveting.
Ok… maybe it's a bit longer than bar napkin length, but now you've got something to impress the ladies at the bar. You're welcome.
We will continue to update this story on the show. Listen/watch new episodes of Hard Factor News Monday-Friday. Your daily dose of News Cocaine.
Check out today's full episode with this story and an interview with Kassy Dillon from The Lone Conservative below.
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