Flynn pleads guilty to lying to the FBI

[Mountain Man]

"Fox News has been told by a former senior intelligence officer with knowledge of Trump transition activities that then-President-Elect Trump directed Flynn during that period to contact the Russians -- while also directing him and his team to contact 12 other countries."

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017...sia-probe.html

[Mountain Man]

Possible nothing-burger?

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(National Review) ... as I explained in connection with George Papadopoulos (who also pled guilty in Mueller’s investigation for lying to the FBI), when a prosecutor has a cooperator who was an accomplice in a major criminal scheme, the cooperator is made to plead guilty to the scheme. This is critical because it proves the existence of the scheme. In his guilty-plea allocution (the part of a plea proceeding in which the defendant admits what he did that makes him guilty), the accomplice explains the scheme and the actions taken by himself and his co-conspirators to carry it out. This goes a long way toward proving the case against all of the subjects of the investigation.

That is not happening in Flynn’s situation. Instead, like Papadopoulos, he is being permitted to plead guilty to a mere process crime. A breaking report from ABC News indicates that Flynn is prepared to testify that Trump directed him to make contact with the Russians — initially to lay the groundwork for mutual efforts against ISIS in Syria. That, however, is exactly the sort of thing the incoming national-security adviser is supposed to do in a transition phase between administrations. If it were part of the basis for a “collusion” case arising out of Russia’s election meddling, then Flynn would not be pleading guilty to a process crime — he’d be pleading guilty to an espionage conspiracy.

Understand: If Flynn’s conversations with the Russian ambassador had evinced the existence of a quid pro quo collusion arrangement — that the Trump administration would ease or eliminate sanctions on Russia as a payback for Russia’s cyber-espionage against the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic party — it would have been completely appropriate, even urgently necessary, for the Obama Justice Department to investigate Flynn. But if that had happened, Mueller would not be permitting Flynn to settle the case with a single count of lying to FBI agents. Instead, we would be looking at a major conspiracy indictment, and Flynn would be made to plead to far more serious offenses if he wanted a deal — cooperation in exchange for sentencing leniency.

To the contrary, for all the furor, we have a small-potatoes plea...

http://www.nationalreview.com/articl...-investigation

[Sparko]

"Fox News has been told by a former senior intelligence officer with knowledge of Trump transition activities that then-President-Elect Trump directed Flynn during that period to contact the Russians -- while also directing him and his team to contact 12 other countries."

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017...sia-probe.html

That would be AFTER Trump won the election so how does that show that anyone did anything wrong to influence the election?

I think the trouble Flint is in is just because he lied. Not what he actually did. If he had told the truth then this would have never been a problem.

[One Bad Pig]

Your denial of how deadly serious this is getting for the WH is just delicious beyond words.

I hope the president does have to resign just to see you flip out.

I'm going to guess you haven't been paying attention. I would much prefer President Pence to President Trump. As long as Trump manages to hold on for another year and a half-ish so Pence can serve two full terms, I'm good.

[Jedidiah]

. . . so Pence can serve two full terms, I'm good.

I wish.

[Darth Executor]

pence is only good because he's a yes man, without Trump he'd turn into another establishment noodle and bring America closer to the likely inevitable civil war.

[seer]

pence is only good because he's a yes man, without Trump he'd turn into another establishment noodle and bring America closer to the likely inevitable civil war.

Sheesh Darth, it would take Vlad the Impaler to make you happy...

[Sea of red]

I wish.

Keep wishing on the stars.

It's all ya' got.

[Darth Executor]

Sheesh Darth, it would take Vlad the Impaler to make you happy...

Trump makes me happy and he's still far from my ideal leader. I think you guys just have very, very low expectations.

[One Bad Pig]

Keep wishing on the stars.

It's all ya' got.

CEPG0BtWoAAlovd.jpg

[Terraceth]

I'm skeptical that's all there is; if it was something as innocuous as that, why lie to the FBI multiple times?

You can say the same thing about Bill Clinton, though. He decided to repeatedly lie and commit outright perjury over something that would be, at worst, a bit embarrassing to get out in the public.

[rogue06]

Special counsels usually go after people full throttle for obstruction of justice and perjury. Watergate, Iran-Contra, Plame, Whitewater, they all got people for the cover-up of the misdeeds and crimes, not the crimes themselves. Mueller seems to be following the path, which is not good news for Sessions, Kushner, Page, Don Jr and Trump himself.

I know some of you don't want to believe it, but this is the beginning of the end for the Trump WH.

With the Plame affair Patrick Fitzgerald knew full well that there was no White House "leak" that outed Valerie Plame as a CIA operative so he set up a perjury trap to catch somebody doing something -- anything -- in order to justify all the time and money wasted. Investor's Business Daily nailed it when they wrote "From top to bottom, this has been one of the most disgraceful abuses of prosecutorial power in this country's history... The Plame case proves [Fitzgerald] can bend the truth with the proficiency of the slickest of pols."

[Sea of red]

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[One Bad Pig]

You seem to have confused me with a Trump supporter. Go sit in the corner with JimL.

[Sea of red]

With the Plame affair Patrick Fitzgerald knew full well that there was no White House "leak" that outed Valerie Plame as a CIA operative so he set up a perjury trap to catch somebody doing something -- anything -- in order to justify all the time and money wasted. Investor's Business Daily nailed it when they wrote "From top to bottom, this has been one of the most disgraceful abuses of prosecutorial power in this country's history... The Plame case proves [Fitzgerald] can bend the truth with the proficiency of the slickest of pols."

Kinda like how conservatives unleashed Starr to look into Whitewater, and after he found nothing after four years he started looking at semen stains on dresses? Spare me.