- The 302 was provided to Judge Sullivan yesterday after a special request.
- The 302 was dated three weeks after the interview, rather than within the five days required.
- The 302 is labeled as a "draft" which Mueller states is a mistake (claims it's the final copy - but mismarked).
To refresh our collective memories
- Flynn stated that he was tasked to contact many countries (including Russia) regarding an upcoming UN vote. This was part of an "exercise" to see how quickly the incoming administration could get their international ducks in a row.
- In the conversation with Russian Ambassador Kislyak, it was the Russian Ambassador (not Flynn) who brought up the sanctions.
- According to the transcripts, Flynn offered Kislyak no promises one way or the other regarding the new sanctions (imposed by the lame duck Obama administration). Flynn did however (much to the chagrin of Obama, the DOJ, and the FBI) made a statement to Kislyak asking them not to escalate the situation with retaliatory measures. This appears to be the criminal act being formally investigated (seriously).
So what does the 302 in question actually cover?
- Of the four specific false statement charges, it appears from the 302 that Flynn openly admits to having conversations about at least two of the subjects. While he recalls the conversations in general, he states he did not recall certain specific statements that were apparently in the transcripts.
- Regarding the specific charges regarding the sanctions and whether or not Flynn encouraged the Ambassador to not engage in retaliatory measures. When asked about whether that came up, Flynn offered that he did not remember having a conversation where there was any mention of "tit for tat" or a long drawn out conversations where he asked the Ambassador "don't do something".
- That being said, Flynn also offered that it was possible that talks regarding sanctions (expulsions) "may have come up" but that he did not recall specifically.
On one hand, it seems hard to believe that Flynn would not have remembered specific conversations with Kislyak, while on the other hand if Flynn had multiple conversation with multiple Ambassadors from multiple foreign countries over a short period of time, one could understand if someone does not remember each detail about each discussion.
"I don't recall" seems like a generally fairly safe manner to answer these questions about subjects that you may or may not have 20/20 hindsight recollection of.
"I don't recall" seems like a generally fairly safe manner to answer these questions about subjects that you may or may not have 20/20 hindsight recollection of.
Lastly, if the concept of a witness demanding that he or she "doesn't recall" something is akin to committing a false statement... then how many years would James Comey be facing today after his sworn conversation with Congress? Nobody seriously believes that Comey lost every memory he has from his time as FBI Director.
But hypocrisy is the bedrock of liberalism...
and apparently now our law enforcement as well.
9 comments:
here's an attorney/blogger who unpacks the 302 line for line and word for word asking some compelling questions:
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1074834232202199041.html
h/t: powerline
That's a good point made by Techno Fog...
The entire concept of a false statement or perjury charge would be that the false statement or lie must be "material" to the investigation.
The FBI apparently went in under the guise that they were investigating possible violations of the Logan act because Flynn had made a request to Russia to not engage in any retaliatory actions in response to Obama's sanctions.
There is nothing in the 302 that suggests that Strzok or anyone involved believed that Flynn was part of some Russian conspiracy to Interfere in the election. So how could these statements be impactful on Mueller's investigation?
It would seem that the most material issue here is that Mueller could use this indictment to get Flynn to "cooperate" with his investigation. Flynn's cooperation apparently only garnered some more charges of lobbying without proper registration (this time in Turkey rather than Ukraine) to a couple of people who has nothing to do with Russia or the 2016 election.
Dershowitz made a similar point.
If the FBI already knew the answers to the questions that they were asking Flynn... then by nature, neither the questions or the answers could possibly be "relevant" to the investigation.
The questions (by nature) were irrelevant because asking them provided the FBI with no new information. The questions were unnecessary, therefor legally irrelevant and not legally material.
but remember, the scope of rosenstein's original order to mueller was so vague and wide open he technically had the right to investigate anything, even the most irrelevant and unrelated to the phony russia claim -
https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/967231/download
in hindsight this was probably intentional. they knew deep down the russia claim was complete bullshit. so they gave themselves an avenue to nail trump on anything they could find.
i smelled a rat as soon as wp started waving this around like it was the magna fucking carta.
If the FBI already knew the answers to the questions that they were asking Flynn... then by nature, neither the questions or the answers could possibly be "relevant" to the investigation.
The questions (by nature) were irrelevant because asking them provided the FBI with no new information. The questions were unnecessary, therefor legally irrelevant and not legally material.
agreed, but here's the rub...
the relevance to russia of the questions asked of flynn was never the point. the key was catching flynn in a lie.
any lie.
and they had him by the balls before they ever sat down because the only record of the interview was the 302 written up by the corrupt FBI participants in the investigation.
heads i win, tails you lose.
and this is exactly why trump should refuse any sit-down with mueller. trump could sit in stone cold silence throughout the interview, and mueller will craft a hundred page 302 accusing him of everything including the kidnapping of the lindbergh baby.
I think the major problem (in my mind) is how the FBI ordering agents to talk to Flynn about violating the "Logan act" - turns into something relative to the Mueller investigation regarding Russian influence of the 2016 election.
Not that I expect that the Judge in this case will question that. Relevance seems to have an unusually low legal threshold in perjury cases. Almost as if any old made up excuse by law enforcement will do.
It just seems like if the Agents had actual particular questions about something that they wanted answered truthfully, that they would have shared with Flynn what they knew, and what they were looking for.
"According to the transcripts you and Kislyak discussed this. Based on that discussion we would like to ask you A, B, and C."
That seems like a reasonable matter to garner relative information.
i completely agree. but like i said earlier, this was all about springing the perjury trap, and had nothing to do with russia, except with regards to the topic of kislyak, and how interactions with him could be twisted into "lies."
privately i have to believe that all involved on team mueller admit that the russian collusion story was bullshit from start to finish, and only to be used as cover to depose trump.
it even defies logic in a practical sense. if i'm putin i have no interest in trying to deal with trump, as unpredictable as he can be, when my other choice is to have the chance to manipulate an idiot who couldn't even pull off a russian re-set photo op without fucking it up.
putin -
"hmmmm, let's see... trump vs. clinton. unpredictable billionaire businessman with an ego the size of saturn... or corrupt, mildly retarded, tipsy old hag who already sold me a shit ton of uranium."
yeah, russia, russia, russia was always bullshit. anyone with an IQ higher than room temp could see it.
Arizona governor taps Martha McSally to fill Senate seat once held by McCain
Arizona governor taps Martha McSally to fill Senate seat once held by McCain
and the mccain's are NOT happy about it. like they own the fucking seat or something.
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