Corruption from 2016

For John, BLUF:  This whole collection of items from the 2016 Election should have gone away several years ago, but it hasn't.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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FBI official on Mueller team said Flynn prosecution had 'get Trump' attitude, collusion probe was 'not there'

Here is the sub-headline:

FBI official William Barnett was assigned to lead the bureau's original investigation into Michael Flynn

From Fox News, by Reporter Brooke Singman, 25 September 2020.

Here is the lede plus three:

An FBI official who served on Robert Mueller’s team said he believed the special counsel’s prosecution of former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn was part of an attitude to “get Trump,” and that he did not wish to pursue a Trump-Russia collusion investigation as it was “not there" and considered it to be a "dead end."

FBI agent William J. Barnett made the comments during an interview on Sept. 17 at the Justice Department, before Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri Jeffrey Jensen, who was tapped by Attorney General Bill Barr to review the case against Flynn. Jensen has joined U.S. Attorney John Durham’s team in his review of the origins of the Trump-Russia probe. Those comments have surfaced in new government documents.

Fox News reviewed Barnett’s FBI 302, which was filed by the U.S. government early Friday as part of the Flynn case.

Barnett, during his interview, detailed his work at the FBI, and his assignment to the bureau’s original cases against Flynn and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. Barnett said the Flynn investigation was assigned the code name “Crossfire Razor,” which was part of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation — the bureau’s code name for the original Trump-Russia probe.

In another thread someone wrote:

Oh, quit going on about acceptance of the 2016 result. Every has yielded to the result; the Dems just don’t like it. What do you care? He’s been doing everything a president is constitutionally able to do and more.

Here is my response:

I think it is the time lapse problem here.  If everyone had agreed after the Inauguration it would have been OK with me.  But, things continued after the Inauguration.  DOJ Career people seemed to just carry on.  Jim Comey was unable to walk away.  I wonder about the role of Sally Yates, or DNC Apparatchiks.  There were FBI guys who took out extra liability insurance.

Lawyer and Author Sidney Powell just got a “302” that indicates that even after the election they kept after the “Trump Team” in a less than professional way.  FBI Agent William Barnett talked of “Lack of integrity on the part of the Bob Mueller Team.”  Where is Inspector Lewis Erskine (Efrem Zimbalist, Jr) when you need him?

So, yes, I would like it to all go away.  I especially don’t want to see it reach into the Oval Office. That would blight the process for a long time.  But, the story keeps dripping out, drop by drop.  And, because the Judiciary wouldn’t let LTG Michael Flynn walk away they just keep it going.

In early this year we had an Impeachment on flimsy grounds, so Ms Pelosi hadn’t yet given up in the first part of this year.  Then Judge Emett Sullivan, a hero to me for his handling of the Ted Stevens case, stopped DOJ from dropping chargers against LTG Flynn.  I was very disappointed.

Now we are in the political silly season again and we are back to Trump being illegitimate.  Sure, he is President and gets to sign legislation and appoint Ambassadors, but the Dems have become cranky again.  Everything is off the table.  (Or is it Nothing is off the table?)  Please tell me Rep Gerry Nadler is not running again.

But, in closing, one wonders, in the back of the mind, if Judge Emmet Sullivan has keep the Michael Flynn thing going because he wants to smoke out these sub-rosa activities that tainted the “peaceful transfer of power”. Maybe he is a hero this time also.

Hat tip to News Reader Elizabeth MacDowell.

Regards  —  Cliff

Let Us Hope

For John, BLUF:  First with Judge Emmet Sullivan and then with Defense Lawyer Sidney Powell there was this hope that justice would be done.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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AP Exclusive:  Justice Dept dropping Flynn’s criminal case

From The Seattle Times, by Reporters Michael Balsamo and Eric Tucker, 7 May 2020.

Here is the lede plus one:

The Justice Department on Thursday said it is dropping the criminal case against President Donald Trump’s first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, abandoning a prosecution that became a rallying cry for the president and his supporters in attacking the FBI’s Trump-Russia investigation.

The move is a stunning reversal for one of the signature cases brought by special counsel Robert Mueller.  It comes even though prosecutors for the past three years have maintained that Flynn lied to the FBI in a January 2017 interview about his conversations with the Russian ambassador.

It appears it was time for the Justice Department to cut losses.  I am guessing we were at the point where careers were going to be broken.

Regards  —  Cliff

Michael Flynn in the Dock

For John, BLUF:  Looking for an historical analogy, I go back to the Dreyfus Affair.  The lying and coverup by the bureaucracy to protect the bureaucracy.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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"Dismiss this matter as they should."

Sidney Powell on Lou Dobbs Fox Business Show now.

The revelations about the FBI, and DOJ, in their quest to disqualify National Security Advisor nominee Michael Flynn are astounding.  In the words of Broadcaster Lou Dobbs, "stunning".

Today continues a telephone interview between Broadcaster Lou Dobbs and Attorney Sidney Powell from yesterday.

My personal opinion is that this is about concern that as National Security Advisor Michael Flynn would have reorganized the Intelligence Community.  That would have destroyed empires within the Bureaucracy.

And perhaps have revealed malfeasance.

Lawyer Sidney Powell is the new Émile Zola, but with a better sword.

Regards  —  Cliff