Michael Flynn to plead guilty to making false statements
According to Stars & Stripes, Michael Flynn, the former national security advisor to President Trump is scheduled to make an appearance at a hearing in DC in a few minutes to plead guilty to making false statements to FBI investigators in regards to his contact with the Russian government;
A plea hearing is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. EST. The Justice Department announced Friday that the hearing will take place before U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras at a D.C. federal courthouse. Flynn is accused of “willfully and knowingly” making false statements to the FBI while serving in the Trump administration. Court documents released Friday show Flynn has been charged with a single count of making false statements.
Prosecutors with the office of Special Counsel Robert Mueller say Flynn falsely stated to the FBI that he had not discussed sanctions with the then-Russian ambassador to the United States.
Category: Who knows
Martha Stewart unavailable for comment.
This witch hunt is still going on?
Hey, they got him on…something. Maybe Mueller will count coup and hang it up.
It seems he may have been charged with just this as a slap on the wrist due to his cooperation with Mueller’s team.
The govt should count coup and HANG MUELLER UP! imho The phony lying, socialist bastard! He has all the evidence even a blind man would need to go after the clintons, but the a.h. keeps going after trump….to hell with mueller!!
I heard Flynn was nothing but a coffee boy? lol
But the serial sex-abuse folks are still just dunky-hory in the eyes of certain folks.
Yeah, intentionally making a false statement is wrong. I don’t know the circumstances, but if I were dinged for every unintentional false statement I ever made in ignorance or confusion, I’d be pretty beat up. For those I knew to be false I was pretty well beat up too, by my folks.
Ignorance or confusion isn’t a defense for a 3 star.
HooRah
Exactly. When the story broke about General Petraus and him screwing his mistress/biographer, I overheard a couple of officers discussing it- going as far as defending his actions because (as they put it) “…some folks are loose with the rules the further away they get from the flagpole “. My response to them was “Fuck that. Petraus WAS the flagpole. He knew better “.
CONCUR
Sorry, but no cigar no matter how many stars you are wearing on your shoulders
He was NOT ignorant in doing it, he was willful
During the time I served, I tangled with an 0-6
who thought HE was above the law regarding
the handling of classified. I was an ensign at the time and he thought I would buckle. I did not.
The TS pub was missing a page.
First his aid (who had checked it out after we page checked together) pressured me. Then my boss. the comm officer called me in and read me the riot act asking me if I knew who he was….finally the CO of the ComSta told me how embarrassing it was.
Seriously?
I refused all pressure.
It burned me up that THEY thought I would fold.
I have no idea what happened later. Not my problem.
The law is the law no matter who……
A) Lying to a federal official is a felony.
B) Special prosecutors gotta prosecute. They need to get someone to demonstrate that their commission wasn’t worthless. Someone has already mentioned Martha Stewart, who wasn’t convicted of securities fraud. Then we have “Scooter” Libby, who wasn’t convicted of “outing” Valerie Plame, and now we have Flynn convicted of lying to the Feds.
Heck, Bill Clinton’s impeachment came from his perjury, and the perjury derived from questions about his sex life asked during the Whitewater investigation. I have no tolerance for liars, but what a man’s sex life have to do with a dodgy real estate deal?
Even the Watergate special investigator didn’t result Nixon’s conviction.
I still haven’t sorted out if he actually did anything at all, or if he was blindsided into doing something.
He only went to Russia a few time without filing the paper work, maybe a spy?
He lied during the course of a federal investigation. He should know better. Even if it wasn’t trying to cover something up, that’s the obvious implication. I’m sure he presided over many NJP cases in his years of service and I doubt he’d take kindly to being lied to.
Lying is not the same as making a false statement.
If I believe my wife is home, and say so, when she is really out grocery shopping, I have made a false statement but I have not lied, for there is no knowledge that what I said was false.
What we may have before us is a case where a man made false statements without full knowledge that they were false, who also has been hounded by a malicious prosecutor (or set of same) to the point where it is financially and emotionally easier to plea to a false statement charge than to continue fighting the malicious prosecutor.
The prosecutor has unlimited (practically speaking) funds and resources, the citizen has limited resources. At some point the financial burden endangers ones’ financial future to the degree that even if ultimately found innocent, the citizen is financially devastated without remedy for the financial burden imposed by the prosecutor.
While I agree in principal, and think that this special prosecutor is wildly uncalled for and most likely a witch hunt, here’s what he’s been accused of violating and may have already pled guilty to.
18 USC Section 1001.
(whoever) knowingly and willfully–
(1) falsifies, conceals, or covers up by any trick, scheme, or device a material fact;
(2) makes any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or representation; or
(3) makes or uses any false writing or document knowing the same to contain any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or entry;
This would not be a lie of omission or a false statement made without proper knowledge (as in your example about your wife).
I imagine he was advised by the agents administering the interview/interrogation, and if not would have been by his attorneys, that lying is a crime.
I am slightly ashamed to admit that, in my head, Robert Mueller gets an only slightly abbreviated version of the Wall O’ Insults about twice a week.
At least once a day, I seem to be able to find a non-poser who deserves it. The Wall is a multi-functional tool!
I’m glad it’s helpful
😀 😀
Chip, I still haven’t been able to read the entire wall. Everytime I start, I get laughing so hard I lose my place. 🙂
During these types of investigations it always seems like the primary objective is to come out of it with charges of some sort…but always short of what the investigation was created for in the first place.
It’s always someone stepping on their dick for making a false statement or lying that catches a charge.
Have to justify their existence I guess.
Obviously “special prosecutors” and other investigators have to come away with some kind of charge, otherwise it looks like they’re wasting time and money. So they pore over every statement with a magnifying glass until they find something that can be construed as a “false statement” and zap them for that, since they usually can’t get them for any actual crime.
What surprises me is the fact that people are still willing to wade into this kind of minefield at all.
Seems to me the most logical result of all this focus on “finding the false statement” is that eventually anybody who is the subject of an investigation is simply going to lawyer up and refuse to answer questions. After all, why risk putting themselves into legal jeopardy by making a statement that might later be construed as false?
Better to simply STFU. As defense attorneys like to say, there are a lot of people who have talked themselves INTO prison but damn few who have ever talked their way out. 😉
There are some excellent videos on youtube explaining the 5th Amendment, and why a citizen should never hesitate to invoke it.
Here’s the first part of “In Praise of the 5th Amendment” for brevity’s sake.The remaining 3 parts can be viewed at one’s leisure.
Video
“…why a citizen should never hesitate to invoke it.”
This.
Let’s not forget about Scooter Libby. He was a victim of a special prosecutor witch hunt, as well. Fitzgerald pursued him even though he knew from the outset that Libby had not outed Valerie Plame; he knew who did, Richard Armitage, from the outset of his investigation. Moreover, disclosing Plame’s employment by the CIA was not a crime, as she was not a covert agent serving overseas within the past 7 years.
“Since when is lying to the FBI a crime?” – Hillary Clinton.
“What does it matter now?” – Hillary CLinton
Heh
The correct quote is: “At this point, what difference does it make?”
“I’m feeling faint!”
-Hillary Clinton
“*COUGH*, *COUGH*, *COUGH*,… – Hillary Clinton
“I tripped and fell up the steps”—HRC
Word has it that Flynn’s “bargain” includes his agreement to implicate or otherwise impugn/malign Trump as having been involved in some conspiracy with some Russians.
Flynn was fired for lying to the VP, and pled guilty to lying to FBI. He’ll make a great witness!
Doubt it.
If that was the case Flynn wouldn’t have been charged with lying to the FBI, but of some real crime. Not that lying to the FBI is not a crime, but it is definitively not what Maester Muller is hunting for.
No, it is what they are using to force him to say what they want him to say in their bullshit Trumphunt. The head of the FBI and Mueller are both Obama buttsuckers. They aint interested in facts other than the ones they manufacture.
All I need to know that I don’t like Mueller is to see how hard Chris Cuomo defends him.
How are they Obama’s buttsuckers when your boy Trump put them in office?
That and dropping all charges against his kid. Flynn worked for Obama then Trump hired him and then promptly fired him less than a month later for lying to VP Pence on exactly this I think.
ABC tried to bombshell this into the news and caused the Stock Market to crash. Original story was another “un-named single source” that Flynn was directed during CANDIDATE Trumps campaign to contact the Russki’s. Corrected story was that he was asked, as part of a team, to contact The Russian Ambassador along with other Foreign Ambassador’s for not only help in Syria but an impending vote in The UN against Israel to make clear the incoming Administrations Policy on this. This was for President Elect Trump and is quite common for incoming administrations to do, that is, ask for votes to be delayed until they take office, contact other countries etc. Nothing to see here.
ABC and Brian Ross should be kicked out of the WH Press Pool for this and what we have is a glaring example of why Trump was elected and no-one believes anything out of the MSM anymore
I just hope when all the dust has settled, the White House has one guy left standing….
Hopefully its Mattis
Pretty sure after WWIII only things alive will be cockroaches, Twinkies, and Mattis.
And that’s ONLY if Mattis decides to let the cockroaches live.
This is good news. Let’s see if the dominoes keep falling….
Looky! A comment from “shit-n-run” Joe, king of progtard brevity.
So speaks the Queen
Joey, is that your sockpuppet? Got a new handle?
That’s all he can say while he’s out blowing winos behind bus stops.
Come on, API. Winos have standards, they wouldn’t go anywhere near Joey.
Wonder if he’ll get as much time as Bergdahl?
All he had to do was shut the fuck up.
It’s almost never the crime that gets you. It’s the cover up. Martha Stewart wasn’t convicted for insider trading. She was convicted for lying to investigators and obstruction of justice. Bill Clinton was impeached not for having an affair but for lying about it under oath. When will people learn?
Didn’t Barry assure outgoing Russian President Medvedev that after the election in ’12 he would have more flexibility?
(of course he had no idea he was speaking into a hot mic)
Panties in a wad seem selective in Washington
Barry also sent retired Ambassador William Miller(who had previous duties in Iran, and presumably still had friends there) to Tehran, to re-assure the mullahs that they would like his pro-Iranian policies if he was elected. That actually happened prior to the 2008 election. So, if Flynn talking to the Russians post-election is supposedly a violation of the Logan Act or whatever, would not that also be a violation? Is Mueller investigating the Obama Regime?
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2015/03/how-barack-obama-undercut-bush-administrations-nuclear-negotiations-with-iran.php
I’ve seen hysterical comments on The Logan Act, too. In it’s over 200yr existence only 2 people have been indicted for violating it and no-one has ever stood trial. SCOTUS itself expressed doubts about it’s Constitutionality in it’s violation of free speech which is why no-one has ever tried to use it and it won’t be used now.
Bunch of nothing burger fake news to distract from legit issues such as rule of law being non existent in California.
The American government, whether it be one side or the other, has a duty to be transparent, honest and above reproach. A three-star general should not be provided a pass when questioned by any government agency. PERIOD. He knew when he misled the VP that the other side was looking for a reason to reach out and take anyone in the present administration down. At that level, it is not about blaming Hillary or any other gook out there, it is about doing the right thing for the people that placed the new administration in office. No excuses. He made the plea because he was protecting his out of control power hungry son, not the American people. Now, he will say and do any dance the special prosecutor tells him because he is caught like a rat in a trap. You know he is gonna implicate POTUS. How are we to know if the information he provides is creditable? Screw Flynn.
My question is how anything this guy says will stand up in a court considering his credibility is shot and he is a known liar. Unless he has tapes of Trump ordering him to sell out to the Russians during the campaign, that has now been shot down and corrected by ABC and Ross, then this is a nothing burger.
He’s now a convicted Felon and admitted his lies, he should be dealt with just like anyone else in regards to sentencing, but he wont.
With all that has taken place since Inauguration, I would still vote Trump because there is no way I would’ve voted Clinton, however I think Trump is as crooked as they come, a liar, a cheat, the definition of narcissist and unfit for President of the United States. I defended him for over a year, I cannot anymore and he should be impeached.
That is my humble opinion and I own it.
O one should be surprised or indignant. We knew Flynn was lying about his discussions several months ago. It is utterly inexcusable, and he deserves everything he gets because of it.
This is exactly what Meuller was appointed to investigate ((by the Trump administration, by the way). From the appointment letter: “any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump, ” as well as “any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation.”. Read the whole thing here, it’s one page:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/05/17/us/politics/document-Robert-Mueller-Special-Counsel-Russia.html
The fact is that the Russians did interfere with the election. We know they hacked the emails, and we know they manipulated social media. It doesn’t really matter if they did it for or against one candidate or another- their only goal was to discredit our system and tarnish the ideals of democracy in the world.
Did the Trump campaign collude? Collusion isn’t a crime per se- but they certainly talked to a lot of Russians. Trump certainly said and did some needlessly stupid things that made the situation worse. Flynn may have violated the Logan Act at the behest of a senior campaign official.
I know, it’s an old law, and no one has ever been prosecuted- Fox News was just making fun of it saying it was over 200 years old. Of course, so is the Constitution, and it is still on the books.
I think we will find that the incompetents that Trump hired in the early days did a lot of stupid things but did not commit any crimes. Kushner, Trump jr, Miller, and Bannon are/were in no way qualified for their jobs. Jr and Kush are simply inept, and Bannon and Miller are master manipulators.
The administration needs to get its act together. Someone needs to sit Trumpmdown and give him a Civics 101 lesson and disable his twitter account.
What pisses me off about this fuck face (Flynn) is that he brought complete disgrace to veterans everywhere. To lead a chant about locking someone up when he was doing far worse. I don’t feel sorry for his ass.By his own admission, he let a young, inexperienced, pock faced kid 30+ years his junior Lead Him into a world of deceit and treason for dollars and cents. I hope he has the decency of never ever wearing the uniform again. Fuck Flynn, the traitorous bastard.