First, the Department of Justice, overseen by Attorney General William Barr,
filed documents today to drop its case against Trump's former National
Security Advisor Michael Flynn. This reverses years of work on the Flynn
case, and has shocked experienced prosecutors, who say it reveals that Barr
is now simply working for Trump. The filing was signed by Timothy Shea
alone, Barr's hand-picked US Attorney for the District of Columbia. No
career prosecutors signed on.
Flynn was a lobbyist for the Turkish government and had spent time at a
state dinner with Russian President Vladimir Putin when the FBI opened a
case on him on August 16, 2016, out of concern he might be working with
Russia even as he was campaigning for Trump (with his famous "Lock Her Up"
chants). On November 10, after Trump was elected, President Barack Obama
warned Trump not to hire Flynn for a national security post, but on November
18, Trump named Flynn his National Security Advisor. On December 29, the
same day the Obama administration announced retaliatory measures for Russian
interference in the 2016 election, Flynn caught the attention of the FBI by
making five phone calls to the Russian ambassador, Sergey Kislyak. FBI
officials and Obama officials thought the conversations sounded like he and
Moscow had made a secret deal.
The FBI interviewed Flynn on January 24; he lied about those calls, saying
they did not talk about lifting Russian sanctions after Trump was elected.
After the interview, acting attorney Sally Yates made an urgent visit to
White House Counsel Don M that the topic never came up." He resigned on
February 13. (
Sounds like what Nixon did with the Vietnamese and other nominees have done.
I think Reagan made sure that Iran didn't release the hostages until after
he'd won the election.
Miriam
