Category Archives: Attorney General
Judge Sullivan Won’t Drop Case Against Flynn
The prosecution moved to drop charges against Michael Flynn. But Judge Emmet Sullivan said no. He can’t make the feds prosecute a case they don’t want to, so he’s rounding up a mob led by Judge John Gleeson to do the job.
It’s hard to figure because Judge Sullivan has been tough on prosecutorial overreach in the past. He threw out the conviction of Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens for just that reason. (Obama AG Eric Holder recommended the move.)
He asked at sentencing why Flynn wasn’t charged with treason. Flynn worked for the Turkish government.
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.
Weaponizing the Justice Department
President Trump is weaponizing the Justice Department. At least that’s what former insiders told Rachel Maddow.
And they thought Trump was a Russian asset. So the FBI used a phony dossier to get FISA court approval to spy on the 2016 Trump campaign. But when Special Counsel Mueller investigated Russian Collusion for 2 1/2 yers he came up empty handed.
Weaponizing Wing Man
So now AG Barr is investigating the investigators. And President Obama’s “wing man” Eric Holder calls that “unprecedented” behavior.
Trump Tweet Trips Barr
President Trump is driving his best Attorney General, who never recused himself, around the bend. So much so that A.G. Barr told ABC News that Trump is making it impossible to do his job.
Trump Tweet
Here’s why. When federal prosecutors recommended a 7-9 year sentence for the president’s odd associate, Roger Stone, Trump was moved to tweet:
“This is a horrible and very unfair situation. The real crimes were on the other side, and nothing happens to them. Cannot allow this miscarriage of justice!”
As it turns out, the Trump tweet may have been right. Barr’s Justice Department wasn’t going to allow “this miscarriage of justice.” They had already decided to ask the judge for a more lenient sentence.
But now it looked like Barr was just following Trump’s orders. So the original 4 prosecutors got mad, quit and hell broke loose.
