Judge says Michael Flynn agreed to provide 'substantial assistance for prosecution of another person

exGOPer said:
Legal analysis

If Mueller were prepared to settle the Flynn matter on the basis of single-count plea to a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1001, he was almost certainly prepared to charge a great deal more. Moreover, we can infer from the fact that Flynn accepted the plea deal that he and his counsel were concerned about the degree of jeopardy, both for Flynn and for his son, related to other charges. The deal, in other words, reflects the strength of Mueller’s hand against Flynn.

It reflects something else too: that Flynn is prepared to give Mueller substantial assistance in his investigation and that Mueller wants the assistance Flynn can provide. We are not going to speculate about what that assistance might be. But prosecutors do not give generous deals in major public integrity cases to big-fish defendants without good reason—and in normal circumstances, the national security adviser to the president is a very big fish for a prosecutor. The good reason in this case necessarily involves the testimony Flynn has proffered to the special counsel’s staff. The information in that proffer is not in any of the documents released Friday, and it may not even be related to the information in those documents. Prosecutors tend to trade up. That is, for Mueller to give Flynn a deal of this sort, the prosecutor must believe he is building a case against a bigger fish still.

There’s another peculiar nuance: Section 3 of the plea agreement leaves Flynn unprotected against certain future prosecutions. The section is titled “Additional Charges” and states in its entirety that “In consideration of your client’s guilty plea to the above offense, your client will not be further prosecuted criminally by this Office for the conduct set forth in the attached Statement of the Offense” (emphasis ours). The office, in other words, seems to be reserving the right to prosecute Flynn for conduct not set forth in that document, which is to say all of the other conduct on which he might be vulnerable. It is hard to know what to make of this language. It could mean nothing at all. It could mean that the threat of further prosecution is being held over Flynn’s head if he does not hold up his end of the bargain. It could mean that another plea agreement covering other matters is coming.


https://lawfareblog.com/flynn-plea-quick-and-dirty-analysis
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Total conjecture.
 
exGOPer said:
U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras said at Flynn’s plea hearing that the retired three-star Army general had agreed to provide "substantial assistance for prosecution of another person," suggesting that Flynn is helping the FBI target a higher-up in the White House.

According to court papers, Flynn repeatedly lied to FBI agents when they interviewed him at the White House on Jan. 24, four days after Trump was inaugurated, as part of the investigation into whether any of the president's aides had assisted Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.

Flynn’s cooperation means special counsel Robert S. Mueller III can focus on members of Trump’s inner circle, including the president’s son-in-law and senior advisor, Jared Kushner, who took part in meetings with or concerning Russian officials or intermediaries last year or during the transition.


Mueller has not charged anyone with helping Russian hacking or other election-related misdeeds. But his probe has produced felony charges against some of Trump's former top aides, casting an ever darker shadow over the White House and sending a clear warning to those still in the cross-hairs.

The single charge against Flynn, who agreed to cooperate with Mueller’s team, stands in sharp contrast to the harsh case filed against Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, and his deputy, who refused to cooperate. They were charged with a dozen counts of fraud, conspiracy and money laundering on Oct. 30.

Flynn was released Friday on his own recognizance. Manafort's lawyers this week asked a judge to approve a bail package that would allow him limited travel in exchange for pledging properties worth $11.6 million.

In a statement, Flynn cited his 33 years of service in the Army, including five years in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. "It has been extraordinarily painful" to endure "false accusations of 'treason' and other outrageous acts," he said. "Such false accusations are contrary to everything I have ever done and stood for."

"But I recognize that the actions I acknowledged in court today were wrong, and through my faith in God, I am working to set things right," he added. "My guilty plea and agreement to cooperate with the special counsel's office reflect a decision I made in the best interests of my family and of our country. I accept full responsibility for my actions."

Trump's lawyer, Ty Cobb, downplayed the significance of Flynn's promise of cooperation. Despite the judge's statement and prosecutor's filing, Cobb said, "Nothing about the guilty plea or the charge implicates anyone other than Mr. Flynn."

"The conclusion of this phase of the special counsel's work demonstrates again that the special counsel is moving with all deliberate speed and clears the way for a prompt and reasonable conclusion," he said in a statement released by the White House.

Cobb also downplayed Flynn’s importance, saying that he was “at the White House for 25 days during the Trump Administration and a former Obama administration official.”

Flynn was fired as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2014 for what the Obama administration said was mismanagement. He became one of Trump's closest aides during the campaign and the transition, both as a surrogate and as a policy advisor.

After the election, Trump named him national security advisor, one of the most senior positions in the White House. But Flynn was forced to resign weeks later when the media disclosed he had misled Vice President Mike Pence and other officials about his contacts with the Russian ambassador, Sergey Kislyak.

The charge filed Friday focused chiefly on those contacts. According to court papers, Kislyak contacted Flynn on Dec. 28 after President Obama had announced he was imposing sanctions on Russia in response to its meddling in the U.S. election.

The next day, the filing says, Flynn "called a senior official" on Trump's transition team, who was with other aides at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, to seek guidance. They discussed the potential impact of the sanctions on Trump's foreign policy goals.

After the call, Flynn called Kislyak and "requested that Russia not escalate the situation." Flynn then spoke again with the senior official in the transition team "to report on the substance of his call… including their discussion of the U.S. sanctions."

Russian President Vladimir Putin indicated the next day that Russia would not retaliate for the U.S. sanctions, and Kislyak called Flynn to share the news, and he informed the transition team.

But in his Jan. 24 interview with the FBI, Flynn "falsely stated" that he did not ask Kislyak about the sanctions, and did not remember the follow-up conversations, the charging document states.

Flynn also pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his conversations with Kislyak about a United Nations resolution passed last December criticizing Israeli settlements on the West Bank.

The Obama administration was planning to abstain from the vote on the resolution, a relatively rare move by the U.S., which normally vetoes U.N. resolutions critical of Israel.

Court documents indicate Flynn was the point man for an effort by the Trump transition team to block the resolution, apparently at the urging of Israel.

On Dec. 22 , Flynn was directed by a "very senior member of the Presidential Transition Team" to contact officials from Russia and other foreign governments "to influence those governments to delay the vote or defeat the resolution," according to a prosecution document.

The very senior transition official is not identified in the document. But Trump issued a statement Dec. 22 that called for the resolution to be vetoed.

"This puts Israel in a very poor negotiating position and is extremely unfair to all Israelis," he said.

Flynn called Kislyak the same day and asked Russia, which holds a veto in the U.N. Security Council, to oppose the settlement resolution. Kislyak called back the next day and said Russia would not vote no, the prosecution document says.

A version of the resolution passed later that day after the U.S. abstained.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said that Flynn's contacts with the Russians before Trump took office could be a violation of the Logan Act, a 1799 law prohibiting private citizens from negotiating with foreign governments.

Flynn's guilty plea is "a stunning revelation and could be a violation of the Logan Act," Feinstein said in a statement. "This is just one more proof point that these investigations must be allowed to continue without interference."


http://beta.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-flynn-plea-20171201-story.html
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Playing 4D chess against a legal defense team barely proficient in tic tac toe.
 
Wallet said:
Total conjecture.
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So rest of the Flynn crimes were ignored because?

Flynn, according to his charging document, falsely stated that:

• he “did not ask the Government of Russia’s Ambassador to the United States … to refrain from escalating the situation in response to sanctions that the United States had imposed against Russia that same day.” (He did ask him.)
• he “did not recall the Russian ambassador subsequently telling him that Russia had chosen to moderate its response to those sanctions as a result of his request.” (He did recall.)
• a week earlier he didn’t ask Kislyak “to delay the vote on or defeat a pending United Nations Security Council resolution,” or otherwise never learned from the ubiquitous ambassador what “Russia’s response to his request” was. (He did ask him and he did learn about Russia’s response.)


Because these are all lies, this means Flynn did do all those things and deceived investigators about them. That’s several lies, but Mueller only chose to charge him once. And this wasn’t part of an indictment, but rather a criminal information — which means Flynn, through his lawyers, is waiving his right to being prosecuted through the grand jury process. And yes, he’s expected to plead guilty and face a sentence of some sort, depending on his level of cooperation.

Like the George Papadopoulos case, Mueller’s office later on Friday made available Flynn’s plea agreement and a document laying out in greater detail how exactly Flynn lied to the FBI. In the latter, Flynn is described has having discussions with a “senior official,” “senior members,” and a “very senior member” of the Trump transition about his discussions with Russia. Bloomberg is reporting that the official in questions was Jared Kushner. If that’s the case, he has reason to be very worried.

But haven’t we learned for months that Mueller and his skilled team of prosecutors have been presenting a wealth of Russia-related evidence to a grand jury in Washington? What about Flynn’s failure to register as a foreign agent of Turkey, from which he received handsome payments? Or the reported plot to whisk away Fethullah Gulen, the Turkish cleric living a quiet life in Pennsylvania, to the tune of several million dollars? Shouldn’t he get pinned for conspiracy and other greater sins, some of which may have been committed while he was already privy to the nation’s biggest secrets?

Make no mistake: Mueller already has dirt on all of this, and likely much more that the public may never learn. That he’s choosing to charge Flynn for only one count of lying to the Feds is proof that not only has he flipped his target, but that the target is also cooperating with an investigation that’s after an even bigger fish — despite insistence by the biggest fish of them all that this is all a witch hunt. But Mueller is only getting started. And the fact that he charged Flynn for misdeeds that occurred before the special counsel was even appointed is proof of his genius — that is, he’s showing the president’s apologists that he’s not some political hack on a fishing expedition for made-up charges concocted after he was assigned to the case. The best, or worst, is yet to come for the Trump administration.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligence...ws-mueller-is-still-only-getting-started.html
 
exGOPer said:
So rest of the Flynn crimes were ignored because?

Flynn, according to his charging document, falsely stated that:

• he “did not ask the Government of Russia’s Ambassador to the United States … to refrain from escalating the situation in response to sanctions that the United States had imposed against Russia that same day.” (He did ask him.)
• he “did not recall the Russian ambassador subsequently telling him that Russia had chosen to moderate its response to those sanctions as a result of his request.” (He did recall.)
• a week earlier he didn’t ask Kislyak “to delay the vote on or defeat a pending United Nations Security Council resolution,” or otherwise never learned from the ubiquitous ambassador what “Russia’s response to his request” was. (He did ask him and he did learn about Russia’s response.)


Because these are all lies, this means Flynn did do all those things and deceived investigators about them. That’s several lies, but Mueller only chose to charge him once. And this wasn’t part of an indictment, but rather a criminal information — which means Flynn, through his lawyers, is waiving his right to being prosecuted through the grand jury process. And yes, he’s expected to plead guilty and face a sentence of some sort, depending on his level of cooperation.

Like the George Papadopoulos case, Mueller’s office later on Friday made available Flynn’s plea agreement and a document laying out in greater detail how exactly Flynn lied to the FBI. In the latter, Flynn is described has having discussions with a “senior official,” “senior members,” and a “very senior member” of the Trump transition about his discussions with Russia. Bloomberg is reporting that the official in questions was Jared Kushner. If that’s the case, he has reason to be very worried.

But haven’t we learned for months that Mueller and his skilled team of prosecutors have been presenting a wealth of Russia-related evidence to a grand jury in Washington? What about Flynn’s failure to register as a foreign agent of Turkey, from which he received handsome payments? Or the reported plot to whisk away Fethullah Gulen, the Turkish cleric living a quiet life in Pennsylvania, to the tune of several million dollars? Shouldn’t he get pinned for conspiracy and other greater sins, some of which may have been committed while he was already privy to the nation’s biggest secrets?

Make no mistake: Mueller already has dirt on all of this, and likely much more that the public may never learn. That he’s choosing to charge Flynn for only one count of lying to the Feds is proof that not only has he flipped his target, but that the target is also cooperating with an investigation that’s after an even bigger fish — despite insistence by the biggest fish of them all that this is all a witch hunt. But Mueller is only getting started. And the fact that he charged Flynn for misdeeds that occurred before the special counsel was even appointed is proof of his genius — that is, he’s showing the president’s apologists that he’s not some political hack on a fishing expedition for made-up charges concocted after he was assigned to the case. The best, or worst, is yet to come for the Trump administration.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligence...ws-mueller-is-still-only-getting-started.html
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just curious...do you always get your info from sources on your side of the political fence ? I love when everyone agrees with me !
 
sss12 said:
just curious...do you always get your info from sources on your side of the political fence ?
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I try to get my information from sources who have a track record of being reliable and who fess up when they are wrong.
 
exGOPer said:
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said that Flynn's contacts with the Russians before Trump took office could be a violation of the Logan Act, a 1799 law prohibiting private citizens from negotiating with foreign governments.

Flynn's guilty plea is "a stunning revelation and could be a violation of the Logan Act," Feinstein said in a statement. "This is just one more proof point that these investigations must be allowed to continue without interference."


http://beta.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-flynn-plea-20171201-story.html
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This demonstrates yours and Feinstein's ignorance. There is zero violation of the Logan Act. It is perfectly lawful for incoming administrations to meet and discuss policies of government. In fact, if they didn't they would be derelict.
 
Buy1Sell2 said:
This demonstrates yours and Feinstein's ignorance. There is zero violation of the Logan Act. It is perfectly lawful for incoming administrations to meet and discuss policies of government. In fact, if they didn't they would be derelict.
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If it is perfectly lawful and above the board, why did Flynn lie about it?

Give me a simple answer.
 
Max E. said:
Well atleast ABC was willing to admit they effed it up, im still waiting on CNN, the NYT, NBC, Washington Post, and every other lefty outlet to admit it...... i wont hold my breath.
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What did they get wrong exactly? Be specific.

Also, did you employ the same standard with the Uranium One story that has gone completely cold again after the BS flare up?
 
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