I have not commented about the dropping of charges against former National Security Advisor Gen. Michael Flynn or about President Obama’s remarks about it and I plan to keep it that way. I honestly don’t know what to believe. Partisans of all stripes have strong opinions. I don’t know whether the Obama Administration, posssibly at the direction of President Obama himself, railroaded Gen. Flynn or whether AG Barr is engaging in a gross miscarriage of justice and I honestly don’t see how I can arrive at a conclusion other than on an a priori basis.
Agreed. I will say that in general our former senior officers have been cashing in on their military experience beyond what I think is ethical for quite a while. That said, I have no idea if it applies to Flynn.
Steve
Certainly a major irritant during those eight years for me. First Obama went to Germany and acquired rock star status, then came Deity, with portrait on front and back of every magazine , the light forming a halo around his head.
When his terms were over, he bought his home in Washington, establishing the base of the resistance.
Yes, I think a lot of his appointees retained loyalty to him, and the Russian investigation began as soon as the election was final.
But there are other investigations ongoing, we’ll see.
Are there more things still to drop — in particular Obama or Biden’s involvement in investigating the Trump campaign in 2016?
There are those Trump tweets that Obama was tapping him (via Manafort) when the evidence it occurred was only revealed several months after. A lucky guess; good speculation; or an “informed†pushback?
Seriously? The smoking gun documents on the FBI set up of Flynn. Surely you are not questioning those. The infamous Oval Office meeting that launched it – documented. And Susan Rice’s bizarre same day email to self: “Obama told us to follow the book.” (Well. Who the hell does that ?? – guilty people. Dear Diary – just so you know, I didn’t murder Dad for the inheritance……) John Solomon and Sara Carter had this nailed long ago on source; now we have the documents.
Sometimes these are IQ or rank partisanship tests. I expect this from steve, not you.
Show me the man and I’ll show you the crime.
We don’t yet know how sincere all of this is. Is it sincere or a brush-back pitch? I’ll believe it’s all sincere when indictments start coming down. Otherwise, just a warning.
The implications of this are so ugly that I imagine it’s hard for any lifelong Democratic voter to believe it. I would hope though that those with integrity (among whom I’d definitely count Dave) will read the supporting evidence thoroughly enough to make the conclusion.
The current Democratic Party hierarchy is so corrupt and has so much assistance from bureaucratic appointees and the MSM that they should not be permitted to remain in power. This makes it much easier for those of us on the right to hold our noses and vote for Trump’s re-election.
I agree with that but it’s not limited to the Democrats. Our politics is thoroughly corrupted.
The corruption is true of both parties but the cooperation of media and unelected government officials is much greater for Democrats.
I don’t know whether the Obama Administration, posssibly at the direction of President Obama himself, railroaded Gen. Flynn or whether AG Barr is engaging in a gross miscarriage of justice
This is the part that is hard to swallow. Comey is on tape bragging about how he sent agents to interview Flynn without following the normal channels through DOJ. How could that be seen in any other light than railroading him? And that’s not even taking into account all the other irregularities like 302s going missing and being rewritten, the fact that the decision had already been made to close the case against him and the agents joked about how fortuitous it was that they had forgotten to officially close it out, and the cherry on top of using the Logan act as a pretense…which is BS is all cases but even more so against an incoming nat sec official during a transition.
You were honest enough to admit the irregularities in the investigation of HRC, why stop now?
I think the idea for this stuff is to constantly have someone or something under investigation. It keeps the base fired up and donations rolling in. Secondarily there is the fishing expedition aspect. While investigating some BS stuff maybe you find something else. How many of those investigations result in charges? Almost none. Wont worry about them until they do. History suggests this will be just like all of the others.
Steve
‘While investigating some BS stuff maybe you find something else. How many of those investigations result in charges? Almost none. Wont worry about them until they do. History suggests this will be just like all of the others.’
Not to pick on you, Steve, you just happened to be the last commentator when I logged into the site, but you know very well that if there are any indictments of the accused conspirators the MSM will go completely metal-to-the-pedal batshit crazy claiming it’s all about OMB getting revenge on devoted public servants who have only always been 1000% completely dedicated to life, liberty, and the American Way and were only trying to keep Mr. H x 100 from turning American into one giant concentration camp full of his enemies. Too many of the pundits are down that rabbit hole so far that they have no choice now but to try and win to salve their consciences and reputations (and jobs), regardless of the truth or the consequences. It’s a terrible situation where one cannot have a conversation with someone of differing political persuasion without Godwin’s rule immediately being invoked and ending it. My whole damned family including my beloved wife of many years thinks the POTUS is evil incarnate. And IMO we were brought to this by hysterical-acting pundits because it made money for their organizations and themselves. What’s even worse is many of them now believe their own bilge and are now building dystopian fantasies of their imminent demise if Trump is reelected.
As for the pundit talking point ‘Flynn pled guilty’ he plead guilty at the advise of his then legal representation, who had fouled up (perhaps deliberately) his FARA application which allowed him to be charged with a FARA violation, had bankrupted him with legal charges forcing him to sell his house and other belongings, and were corresponding and conspiring behind his back with Von Gracken and the other prosecutors on how to get a guilty plea from him (by having Mueller & Co threaten to charge his son with FARA violations (BTW, the case against Flynn Jr.’s ‘accomplice’ involving that fiasco was thrown out of court with prejudice by the presiding judge) among other things. Flynn had to be taken out because he knew where too many of the bodies were buried AND was planning to do a complete audit of the Intelligence Community. Including the contractor abuse of the NSA surveillance system.
I haven’t researched this myself to a huge extent – and let’s face it, in this day and age it’s simply necessary to do that in order to get all the required evidence. The a priori problem applies to sources as well.
But my initial take is that no one really comes out of this looking good. Flynn is not some kind of hero martyr, the FBI wasn’t going solely “by the book” even when one considers that “entrapment” is part-and-parcel of law enforcement, the previous administration’s actions seem designed to enable the FBI’s actions while providing plausible deniability, and the current administration sets an exceedingly low bar when it comes to corrupt and questionable practices.
As far as I’m concerned, no one should be taking sides in this and there is nothing good or meritorious about anything or most anyone in this affair that I can discern. What it should do is spark a political and governmental reform movement, but all it will end up doing is helping cement partisan self-righteousness.
“My whole damned family including my beloved wife of many years thinks the POTUS is evil incarnate.”
My whole family thinks Trump walks on water. They actually believe that Trump has never told a lie. In his whole life, never. (Except my wife. She is a good Christian and makes me a better person. Not the kind of good Christian that wants to kill gay people or make their kids wear chastity belts, but the kind who prays, regularly goes to church and devotes a lot of her time, effort and finances to helping others.)
Steve
As far as I’m concerned, no one should be taking sides in this and there is nothing good or meritorious about anything or most anyone in this affair that I can discern.
Well this is a reasonable statement, but doesn’t it give you pause to think that what people in the Obama administration did sinks to the level of the corruption you probably previously attributed to Trump…
While Mueller was unable to really uncover anything that approached that level of seriousness after nearly two years of exhaustive investigation?
I’m not suggesting that Trump and his allies are actually virtuous, but rather that his opponents have wielded the kind of power (and abused it) in a manner that Trump will never be able to.
I challenge anyone who hasn’t come to this conclusion to look more closely at the evidence and see if I’m wrong.
The investigation bankrupted Flynn. He lost his home and his reputation. He plead guilty under duress to save his son. Anyone here really want to answer the call and serve in the next administration in any position?
The now declassified notes and documents plainly show Flynn was set up. In fact the events leading up to his indictment represents the web an innocent person can have thrown over them, by legal maneuvering, with few chances of escape. To me, it’s scary how a lie can be seeded so easily, grow, bankrupt and destroy someone’s life.
Also, this is not even a close call, if you have followed and availed yourself of recent evidence flowing out of hands that have kept them secret and far away from public eyes, until now.
Furthermore, I don’t think the likability or dislikability should effect the guilt or innocence of a person. There first has to be a real crime committed in which to charge a person with, followed by full disclosure of all the evidence. None of this was present in the Flynn prosecution. Also, Obama claimed Flynn committed perjury, when it was violation of the Logan Act (some assert is unconstitutional), that the FBI was pinning on Flynn.
So, many inconsistencies….
“Well this is a reasonable statement, but doesn’t it give you pause to think that what people in the Obama administration did sinks to the level of the corruption you probably previously attributed to Trump…”
I think what some officials in the Obama administration (meaning political appointees) appear to have done was definitely corrupt – particularly unmasking in intel reports – intel being an area I have a lot of personal experience in.
Whether that and other things sink to the “same level” is a subjective judgment that I’ve found it is usually deployed as an effort to keep a binary, usually partisan score and minimize, excuse or justify the bad behavior of others. To me, keeping score is ultimately irrelevant, especially when framed in a limited way as a comparison of two sides.
My view is that bad behavior should be condemned. I’m not interested in how that affects the “score” or whose ox gets gored. I’m not interested in arguments that openly or slyly suggest that the Trump administration’s many corrupt practices are somehow less corrupt because of the corruption in previous administrations.
And, as I see it, there are few to no “good guys” here. And I’m certainly willing to change my view based on evidence. Just as one example, I initially thought back in late 2016 and early 2017 that Comey did his best – or at least made reasonable decisions – in a very difficult political situation. Information that’s come out since then paints a much different picture.
The bottom line is that we, IMO, should not accept any of these grossly corrupt practices. But the reality is that most of us are partisans and we look the other way when our own side does something bad and point to the other side. That is a practice I try hard not to engage in as I think it will lead this country down a dark and dangerous path.
Following on Andy’s comments, with which I am in substantial agreement, you’ve got to keep in mind that the real scandal is not that there is so much corruption and malfeasance but that so much corruption and malfeasance is tolerated and legal. The way you tell the difference between partisan coup counting and sincerity is what gets indicted and convicted. For example, that James Clapper has not been indicted for his multiple perjuries is a scandal and an outrage.
I would add something I haven’t pointed out frequently enough. Trump erred in not firing all of the political appointees, particularly those in the Department of Justice and the State Department, on the day he was sworn in. Much stems from that omission. I don’t know why he didn’t do it. Was he naive? I find that hard to believe. Over-confident? Probably. Knew he couldn’t fill all of the empty billets? Possibly. IMO it was a rookie mistake.
“The investigation bankrupted Flynn. He lost his home and his reputation. He plead guilty under duress to save his son.”
No one forced him to lie, particularly to the Vice President. Flynn is/was an intel guy which is my former profession. Our code of ethics is that we don’t lie to policymakers and that’s exactly what Flynn did. An intel analyst’s most important asset is credibility and lying or bullshitting is the quickest way to lose it.
For the record, I don’t think that lying to the FBI should be a crime. As an intel guy, Flynn should not be lying at all, but it’s pretty dumb to know that lying to the FBI is a crime and do it anyway, much less lie to the VP.
It sucks that his family has been hurt in all of this and he hasn’t been treated fairly, but he is not an innocent victim in this.
And, having been personally subjected to it, I don’t like how law enforcement often seeks to entrap people, but that’s just one way they do their job and happens at all levels of law enforcement. Flynn isn’t exceptional in that regard.
“For example, that James Clapper has not been indicted for his multiple perjuries is a scandal and an outrage.”
Agree completely.
Trump made a comment that was illuminates his mindset on why he did not fire all “leftovers†on Jan 20, 2017.
“I learned a lot from Richard Nixon. Don’t fire people,” Trump said during a phone interview with “Fox & Friends.
“I learned a lot. I study history,” he continued. “And the firing of everybody – I should’ve in one way, but I’m glad I didn’t, because look at the way it turned out. They’re all a bunch of crooks and they got caught.”
“Of course there was one difference, one big difference,” Trump went on. “Number one, he may have been guilty. And number two, he had tapes all over the place. I wasn’t guilty. I did nothing wrong, and there are no tapes. But I wish there were tapes in my case.”
I am skeptical those are the correct lessons from Nixon; but Trump believes using the Presidential power to fire is politically and legally risky.
My own thinking was firing everyone on Jan 20, 2017 was too late; Republicans in Congress would have wilted from the backlash and Trump removed from office. Trump needed to have put in writing on Nov 8th or Sept 1st his intention to fire all “leftovers†— including ones who normally stay like Comey, etc etc.
“Republicans in Congress would have wilted from the backlash ”
Firing everyone is the norm. I don’t ever remember backlash over it.
Trump barely survived firing Yates for insubordination. Firing Comey got him the Mueller investigation.
The Republican Congressional Caucus was cool to Trump in 2017. There was never-Trumpers McCain / Flake. Paul Ryan did not endorse Trump during the campaign.