dChan - Q Origins Project Archive

DOJ Gives Flynn More Documents ‘Exonerating’ Him of ‘Knowing False Statement,’ His Lawyer Says

July 7, 2020

Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, former adviser to President Donald Trump, has obtained several documents from the Justice Department (DOJ) that further prove his innocence, said his lawyer, former federal prosecutor Sidney Powell.

The documents include the handwritten notes of former Deputy Assistant Attorney General Tashina Gauhar from a Jan. 25, 2017, meeting, former FBI Deputy Assistant Director Peter Strzok’s notes from that same meeting, an internal DOJ document dated Jan. 30, 2017, and then-Acting Attorney General Dana Boente’s handwritten notes, dated March 30, 2017, according to a notice (pdf) filed by the DOJ with the federal court in the District of Columbia on July 7.

The documents, not released publicly due to the court’s protective order, were discovered by U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Jensen, who was tasked in January by Attorney General William Barr to review the Flynn case.

“The new production by Mr. Jensen includes 14 pages of notes and portions of a draft DOJ document—further exonerating General Flynn not only on the point of materiality but also of any intent to deceive or knowing false statement,” Powell told The Epoch Times via email.

“It corroborates some information we already had—but from new sources—and it reveals some new information that has been withheld for three years.”

Flynn, former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency under the Obama administration and former national security adviser to Trump, pleaded guilty in December 2017 to lying to the FBI in an interview almost a year prior.

In January, he moved to withdraw his plea. In May, the DOJ moved to dismiss the case after the Jensen review uncovered documents suggesting the FBI questioned Flynn to elicit false statements from him, which isn’t a proper investigative purpose.

District Judge Emmet Sullivan, who is presiding over the case, took the unusual step of holding back his approval of the motion to dismiss, and even appointed an amicus curiae (friend of court) to argue against the dismissal.

Backed by the DOJ, Flynn asked the District of Columbia Appeals Court for an extraordinary intervention (writ of mandamus), arguing that Sullivan doesn’t have the authority to delay or question the DOJ’s motion in these circumstances.

A three-judge panel on the appeals court ordered Sullivan to accept the dismissal on June 24, but Sullivan has yet to comply. Appeals court decisions take three weeks to go into effect, giving Sullivan time to ask the whole court (12 judges) to review the decision. A majority of the judges would have to agree.

In the meantime, the Jensen review continues and as long as the case is open, Flynn is still slated to the findings.

“The longer Judge Sullivan takes to dismiss the case, the more stuff they owe me,” Powell said, during an interview with The Epoch Times’ Jan Jekielek. “There’s still a long list of things that I know are there.”

The DOJ’s most recent court filing says that “additional documents may be forthcoming.“

Flynn was originally targeted by the FBI in August 2016 for alleged ties to Russia. After four months, the FBI moved to close the case, saying it found no derogatory information on Flynn.

Strzok intervened in January 2017 to keep the case open at the behest of the FBI leadership, contemporaneous text messages show.

His notes from that time indicate that then-President Barack Obama told the FBI that “the right people” should be on the Flynn case, while then-Vice President Joe Biden brought up the idea of a Logan Act violation.

The Logan Act is an obscure 18th-century law prohibiting private citizens from conducting diplomacy with foreign nations without White House approval. Nobody has ever been successfully prosecuted under the statute and its constitutionality has been questioned, given the emphasis on First Amendment rights in the past decades.

According to the DOJ’s motion to dismiss, the FBI kept the case open using the justification that Flynn violated the Logan Act in his calls with Sergey Kislyak, the Russian Ambassador to the United States at the time.

Flynn asked the ambassador in December 2016 for Russia to only respond reciprocally to Obama’s expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats less than a month before leaving office.

After Strzok and Supervisory Special Agent Joe Pientka interviewed Flynn on Jan. 24, 2017, Strzok said in a report from the interview that Flynn denied he made such a request to Kislyak.

Powell has said Flynn didn’t lie and, at most, didn’t remember.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/doj-gives-flynn-more-documents-exonerating-him-of-knowing-false-statement-his-lawyer-says_3415892.html