Your Guide To The Obama Administration’s Hit On Michael Flynn

By Margot Cleveland May, 4, 2020

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…New Lawyer Discovers a Rat’s Nest

Since Powell took the reins of Flynn’s legal defense nearly a year ago, she has been busy reviewing the voluminous file Flynn’s former lawyers kept. In a court filing a little more than a week ago, Powell revealed she had discovered strong evidence supporting Flynn’s claim that federal prosecutors had threatened to target his son.

“We have a lawyers’ unofficial understanding that they are unlikely to charge Junior in light of the Cooperation Agreement,” one email read, referring to Flynn’s son, also named Michael Flynn. A second email proved even more damning, as Flynn’s lawyer suggested prosecutors were attempting to keep the Michael Flynn Jr. part of the deal secret to avoid having to reveal it to other defendants against whom Flynn senior might testify. (Disclosing such impeachment testimony is constitutionally mandated by the Giglio decision.)

“The government took pains not to give a promise to [defendant Flynn] regarding Michael Jr., so as to limit how much of a ‘benefit’ it would have to disclose as part of its Giglio disclosures to any defendant against whom MTF may one day testify,” Flynn’s attorney wrote in the email Powell attached to a supplemental filing in Flynn’s case.

This evidence confirms Flynn’s claim that he was coerced into the plea agreement. (It also provides an independent basis for a plea withdrawal, although outright dismissal is a more appropriate remedy to respond to the outrageous prosecutorial misconduct.) That coercion explains why Flynn would have pleaded guilty to lying when he did not knowingly misrepresent his conversation with the Russian ambassador to the FBI agents….

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…What exactly the original 302 said before the edits is important to know. Had FBI Agent Pientka spoken of his belief that Flynn had not knowingly lied in the interview? What exactly did Pientka report Flynn had told him and Strzok about his conversations with the Russian ambassador?

We already know from Powell’s other filings that the FBI made edits to other versions of the 302s, changing the content and context of Flynn’s statements and making it appear that Flynn had lied when he had not. We now know that even more substantial edits were made earlier to the original 302. This obvious Brady material should have been turned over to Flynn’s defense team long ago.

Hopefully, U.S. Attorney Jeff Jensen will uncover the original 302 in his continued probe into the Flynn case. The public, though, will have to wait some time to learn any more details, as late last week Judge Sullivan entered an order directing Powell not to file any additional supplements on Flynn’s behalf “until the government completes its final production from the review of the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri.” Sullivan further ordered Jensen to file a notice on the public docket once it has provided Flynn the government’s final production.

There is no telling how long that will take, but in the interim, Powell should consider asking Judge Sullivan to vacate the protective order that prevents her from discussing or publishing the documents Jensen handed over. Flynn, who has been on trial in the court of public opinion for more than three years, deserves that much.

https://thefederalist.com/2020/05/04/your-guide-to-the-obama-administrations-hit-on-michael-flynn/