Category Archives: Attorney General
FBI Goal Questioning Michael Flynn
What was the FBI’s goal when it questioned Michael Flynn? Was it to get the truth or to get him to lie? That’s what Counter Intelligence head Bill Priestap asked in a memo:
“What is our goal? Truth and admission or to get him to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired?” This may have expressed an honest question over the motivation behind this targeting of Flynn, a decision for which Comey later publicly took credit when he had told an audience that he decided he could “get away” with sending “a couple guys over” to the White House to set up Flynn and make the case.
Jonathan Turley, George Washington University Law Professor – The Hill
Update: Justice Department drops the case against Flynn.
Plenty of FBI Abuse to go Around In IG Report
Eli Lake at Bloomberg thinks the FBI is lucky, in a weird sort of way. That’s because the IG report shows the FBI abuse wasn’t just aimed at the Trump Campaign. The IG also found 39 other defective FISA applications.
In the twisted politics of the Trump Era, some of bureau’s defenders might actually view this report as good news: It shows that the investigation of the Trump campaign was not necessarily politically motivated. The bureau made the same kinds of mistakes with suspects who were not connected to the Trump campaign.
House Judiciary Committee One, Barr None
The House Judiciary Committee voted to hold Attorney General Barr in contempt of Congress. Chairman Jerry Nadler demands that Barr turn over a complete unreacted copy of the Mueller report on collusion with Russia. But Nadler knows Barr can’t do that because the report contains grand jury testimony. And that’s illegal. Barr has made a minimally redacted version available to certain members of Congress. But so far no Democrats have bothered to take a look.