As far as liberal set-ups go, it certainly followed the formula: a phone call, the Russians, a high-ranking government official's son, lying prosecutors, even some of the same politically-motivated FBI agents. But the case against General Michael Flynn had another familiar storyline in the Left's war against Donald Trump -- a lack of evidence. Based on the bombshell evidence today -- a damning picture of FBI corruption, coercion, and entrapment -- it seems General Flynn's only real crime was ending up in an administration the Democrats wanted to destroy.
He was on the job for less than a month. The three-star Army general had only been working as President Trump's national security advisor for a few weeks when news broke of his resignation. Later, we learned that he'd pled guilty to misleading the FBI about a call he had with a Russian ambassador. But even then, folks said, it didn't add up. A lot of people -- former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy the loudest among them -- cried foul. Why would Flynn lie to the FBI about a call he knew they were listening to? And if there was "no evidence of wrongdoing" in that conversation (as even the Washington Post reported), why was he subject to an investigation in the first place?
"Flynn is not a foreign agent," McCarthy insisted at the time. "There was no need to 'grill' him over the contents of a conversation of which the FBI and Justice Department already had a recording. And the FBI has no business probing the veracity of public statements made by presidential administrations for political purposes -- something it certainly resisted doing during the Obama administration. It is easy to see why Democrats would want to portray Flynn's contact with the Russian ambassador as worthy of an FBI investigation. But why did the FBI and the Justice Department investigate Flynn -- and why did 'officials' make sure the press found out about it?"
Now, more than three years later -- after Flynn lost his job, his house, and his reputation -- we know exactly why. As part of his court battle to have his guilty plea withdrawn, the general's legal team has explosive new evidence showing that the FBI was intentionally trying to frame the general for perjury. In a shocking series of handwritten notes from his FBI interview, written after a meeting with top FBI officials James Comey and Andrew McCabe, agents planned to set Flynn up. "What is our goal?" one of the notes read. "Truth/Admission or to get him to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired?" "If we're seen as playing games, the [White House]," another writes, "will be furious." Of course, it will come as no surprise that one of the agents in on this set-up was none other than Trump-hating Peter Strzok, who got his tips on how to handle the interview from Lisa Page.
"I did not lie to them," Flynn has insisted since his January suit to clear his name. So why plead guilty? Because, it turns out, dirty prosecutors from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's staff threatened him that if he didn't, they would charge his son with a felony for a paperwork oversight at DOJ. When Flynn finally agreed, they kept the deal a secret -- which, as McCarthy points out, is illegal. "Under federal law, all understandings that are relevant to a guilty plea must be disclosed to the judge." If it had been, he points out, "it would have illustrated the hardball that Mueller and his band of activist Democratic prosecutors were playing in an effort to nail President Trump."
But ethics, as Flynn's attorney, Sidney Powell, is finding out, isn't exactly a hallmark of the FBI. She's uncovered piles of evidence of misconduct -- including missing or "edited" reports about Flynn and the details of his interview (which offered fewer protections than an actual criminal proceeding). But then, this is an agency that's used subversive tactics to undermine Donald Trump and the democratic process since before he was even elected. They've abused their authority for years, openly (and secretly) plotting against this administration, ignoring a "Mount Olympus of evidence" against the last one, and now, using KGB-type tactics to ensnare an American hero. Who can even be surprised? The only thing that should shock America is that there continues to be no justice or accountability for how this agency operates -- which, to this point, includes subverting its own leaders from inside the walls of government!
This didn't start when Donald Trump arrived on the scene. The last four years of political prejudice has been staggering, to be sure, but any trust Americans had in the nation's top law enforcement agency was misplaced long before that. Our country deserves better. General Flynn and President Trump deserve better. But the FBI's treatment here is business as usual. And that, some argue, is the scandal. It must stop.
