Flynn is officially off the hook. Appeals court ruled to dismiss case. Would love to read their justification. I assume it has to do with the power of the DOJ to be the decider of who gets prosecuted, and I would assume that it's pointed out that the DOJ (even under a future administration) could bring charges again for other crimes. So I wouldn't sleep too well if I was Flynn honestly. He would have been better off if Trump would have had the balls to just pardon him. It's then on record that X,Y, and Z crimes are legally pardoned.
My understanding is that there were SEVERAL charges that the Mueller team did not charge Flynn with in order to get him to be cooperating witness on the larger investigation. I would be very curious to know what happens to that evidence of criminal behavior in the justice system. The big question is did the AG Barr and Trump actually leave Flynn a Sitting Duck in February if a new DOJ steps in with a pile of evidence they just cannot ignore? Everyone around Trump in his career both in the businesses world, in entertainment, and in politics ALWAYS end up worse off when they jump on a grenade for Trump's behalf. If Trump loses, ALOT of people are going to jail because of the crimes committed strictly to protect Trump.
rao's history is as a defense attorney for trump. From David Frum's article on the Trump v. Mazars and Trump v. Deutsche Bank court cases... https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/03/mazars-lawsuit/607540/ Essentiall, the Court system is being groomed to have one and only one focus... protecting donald trump.
This is what Barr is thinking.... He knows that it is very hard to criminally implicate someone in the government. It isn't much different than trying to convict a mafia boss before the RICO statute. He can regularly skirt the line of criminality and claim it is judicial opinion.
All of the above but there is also an ideological element in the case of Barr. He strongly believes in an extremely strong executive branch that at the end of the day should do anything that the President wants. Couple that with his political leanings and that is his justification. The problem is setting precedent is extremely dangerous. It is the reason I was so critical of both GWB and BO on surveillance and some executive decisions. Right now Trump supporters have no problem with the abuses because they benefit their President. However, how will they feel when a democrat President decides to exercise precedent and do what Trump and his AG have done. How will they feel if a Democrat President does so with a Democrat House and Senate? Ultimately what Barr and Trump have done is bad for everyone.
So the peter strozk notes that were released to flynns team Monday by the DoJ are now out. Apparently Obama was heavily involved in going after flynn as was Biden. Comey also thought the call was legit, and the prosecuters held this from flynns team....
How did Obama attempt a near coup? Trump won and Flynn plead and is guilty. I'm not seeing it...but we can at least agree on the latter.
But there would have to be some type of evidence that Obama attempted a near-coup. There is none. Trump was warned about Flynn, and didn't heed it or understand it. These notes don't show anything wrong at all and are only partial and often without context. Biden was wise and correct to bring up the Logan act. He appears to have keen mind despite the gaffes and hype being put out by political opponents. These released notes don't really shed any new light or show anything particularly damning.
I'm gonna chalk this one up to another 'conspiracy theory' that the republicans got right.....again. Filed along with the FISA abuses, spying on a campaign, politically motivated impeachment, Russia collusion hoax. The list just piles up. Next up according to the 'conspiracy stories' floating around the conservative twittersphere: Biden & Kerry on tape with the Ukrainians, shaking them down Charges against Comey & McCabe Hillary's emails (yes....again) DNC's participation in the violent protests There's plenty more but I'll stop there and wait to see if the pattern of the things the left call conspiracy theories turn out to be true. I'm just putting these out there and they can easily be found by following any conservative twitter feed. I'm not saying these things are true.....I'm waiting to see if they come true. Probably belongs in the conspiracy theories thread but this thread looks to be dead after today's court ruling.
Sometimes I wonder if people understand what "corruption" means. We shake down Iran with sanctions because our foreign policy dictates that they did something wrong. It's only corrupt if the shakedown was for something that was diametrically opposed to US interests for the benefit of self gain. Trump freezing military aid to a country fighting a major adversary of ours invading their sovereignty for reasons to get dirt on a political opponent for personal gain reasons is corrupt. I've been through this before. If Trump was a smart fascist he would be able to list corruption scandals in Ukraine OUTSIDE of anything involving his direct political rivals if he wanted to create a perception to the public hat he sincerely cared so much about corruption in Ukraine to the point of freezing aid that already has been approved meaning that the checks for corruption were already passed. Kerry and Biden were "shaking down" a prosecutor who was deemed corrupt by the IMF AND ACTING SENATE REPUBLICANS at the time. It was US policy, not personal gifting policy.
