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Mueller memo says Michael Flynn has provided 'substantial assistance,' recommends lenient sentence

  

Category:  Op/Ed

Via:  vic-eldred  •  6 years ago  •  45 comments

Mueller memo says Michael Flynn has provided 'substantial assistance,' recommends lenient sentence
“Are there two sets of rules?” Trusty said. “It’s a fair question that someone in the FBI or Justice Department ought to answer at some point.”

S E E D E D   C O N T E N T




Special Counsel Robert Mueller filed a memorandum Tuesday recommending a lenient sentence -- with the possibility of no prison time -- for convicted former national security adviser Michael Flynn, and stating that Flynn has offered "substantial" help to investigators about "several ongoing investigations."

The bombshell release comes as additional sentencing memorandums are expected within days in the cases of former Trump attorney Michael Cohen and ex-campaign chairman Paul Manafort, amid multiple reports and indications that the long-running Mueller probe into ties between President Trump's team and Russia is winding down.

“Given the defendant’s substantial assistance and other considerations set forth below, a sentence at the low end of the guideline range, including a sentence that does not impose a term of incarceration – is appropriate and warranted," the memo states.

Flynn sat for 19 interviews with the Special Counsel's office and other Department of Justice attorneys, according to the sentencing memorandum and a heavily redacted supplemental filing attached to the end of the primary memorandum.

Responding to the documents' release, Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani told Fox News that Mueller was "spitting on the sidewalk, with major repercussions for many.”

He added that there was nothing in the sentencing memo to suggest collusion between the Trump team and Russia, and denounced the Mueller team as “overzealous media inspired prosecutors" and "sick puppies.”

The new documents do not provide specifics about what exactly Mueller has learned from Flynn, but they indicate he provided "documents and communications" about his time working with the Trump administration during the presidential transition period.

Mueller's addendum to the memorandum states that Flynn has "assisted with several ongoing investigations," including the Russia probe and an apparently separate "criminal investigation."

"Additionally, the defendant's decision to plead guilty and cooperate likely affected the decisions of related firsthand witnesses to be forthcoming with the [Special Counsel] and cooperate," prosecutors added.

Further information about the criminal investigation, including the subject of that probe, is redacted. The document also suggests Flynn helped with a third ongoing investigation, but details on that probe are redacted in their entirety. It was not clear if Mueller is handling those investigations.

"The defendant provided firsthand information about the content and context of interactions between the transition team and Russian government officials," the addendum reads. "For example, after the election, the defendant communicated with the Russian ambassador to the United States as a representative of the transition team on two sensitive matters: a United Nations Security Council vote on a resolution calling for Israel to cease settlement activities in Palestinian territory and the Obama Administration’s imposition of sanctions and other measures on Russia for interfering in the 2016 election."

It continues: "Several senior members of the transition team publicly repeated false information conveyed to them by the defendant about communications between him and the Russian ambassador regarding the sanctions."

The memo goes on to praise Flynn's military career and his decision to "accept[] responsibility in a timely fashion."

"[D]efendant’s military and public service are exemplary," the memo stated. "He served in the military for over 33 years, including five years of combat duty, led the Defense Intelligence Agency, and retired as a 3-star Lieutenant General."

Although Flynn's "early cooperation was particularly valuable because he was one of the few people with long-term and firsthand insight regarding events and issues under investigation," Mueller's team made clear they thought he should have known better.

"[S]enior government leaders should be held to the highest standards," the filing concludes.

Yahoo News  reported  Monday that Mueller has indicated his sweeping probe is now simply "tying up loose ends" as it nears its conclusion.

Flynn pleaded guilty in December 2017 to making false statements to the FBI with regard to his communications with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. In late 2016, the two allegedly spoke about the U.S. sanctions imposed on Russia.
Flynn was fired from the White House on Feb. 13, 2017, after he misled Trump administration officials, including Vice President Pence, on his communications.

Flynn also admitted to making false statements about his work as an unregistered foreign agent to benefit the Turkish government. Flynn was under investigation by the Justice Department for that work when he became national security adviser.

But the special counsel’s team has delayed Flynn’s sentencing date for over a year, repeatedly saying that “due to the status” of the investigation, “the parties do not believe that this matter is ready to be scheduled for a sentencing hearing at this time.”

Questions also have been raised about the Flynn plea itself, considering a congressional Republican report earlier this year claimed fired FBI boss James Comey once testified that FBI agents did not think Flynn intentionally lied.

As part of Flynn’s plea deal, he agreed to cooperate with Mueller’s office on “any and all matters” deemed relevant. The plea deal said Flynn’s cooperation may include answering questions, taking government-administered polygraph examinations, providing sworn statements and participating in “covert law enforcement activities.”

Mueller’s team has entered plea agreements with several Trump associates, including former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who the special counsel now alleges breached their plea deal by lying to investigators. Manafort was convicted on multiple counts of financial fraud over the summer in connection with work he completed in Ukraine as a political consultant.

Mueller’s team also entered a deal last week with former longtime Trump personal attorney Michael Cohen, after he pleaded guilty to making false statements to Congress regarding his description of the Trump Organization’s plans to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. Cohen told the Senate Intelligence Committee that discussions about the project with Russia ended in January 2016, prior to the Iowa caucuses, the first contest in the presidential primaries.

Cohen admitted in court last week that discussions about the Moscow Project did not end until June 2016, well after the presidential race got underway.

The Mueller-Cohen deal also involves cooperation with federal prosecutors. A sentencing memorandum is expected to be filed in Cohen's case on Friday.




Other than Flynn and Cohen, Mueller’s team charged former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser George Papadopoulos with making false statements to the FBI. He is currently serving a 14-day prison sentence.

Former senior Justice Department official James Trusty told Fox News that the guilty pleas related to making false statements “do[] not suggest a particularly successful investigation.”

“It’s heavy on false statements charges, and that doesn’t suggest that it’s moving in the right direction for the prosecution,” Trusty said. “It doesn’t suggest to me that they’re making a lot of headway on the substance of their investigation which is Russian collusion.”

He added: “As an ex-prosecutor, false statements are a very distant second place.”

But according to memos penned by Comey, President Trump tried to protect Flynn by asking Comey to let the investigation into his false statements go. Trump has denied asking Comey to drop the investigation, but that conversation between the fired FBI director and the president is reportedly one under scrutiny by the special counsel’s office as he investigates whether Trump attempted to obstruct the Russia investigation.

But Trusty said that during the FBI’s investigation of Hillary Clinton’s private email server, investigators and Comey “swore off even pursuing false statements charges,” quoting a recent Justice Department inspector general report.

“Are there two sets of rules?” Trusty said. “It’s a fair question that someone in the FBI or Justice Department ought to answer at some point.”




Fox News' John Roberts, Brooke Singman, and The Associated Press contributed to this report. 








Article is LOCKED by author/seeder
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Vic Eldred
Professor Principal
1  seeder  Vic Eldred    6 years ago

Another empty "bombshell".  A heavily redacted brief document asking that Flynn get the minimum sentence and giving no indication of what he testified to. This is what over two years of investigating has come down to. A fraudulent investigation of American citizens that never could connect the President to conspiracy with Russia. A false narrative created by the Clinton campaign and advanced to the level of an attempted "coup d'etat" by the Obama administration & the deep state. Let me also add the liberal msm, which discarded any pretense of impartiality.

 
 
 
Snuffy
Professor Participates
1.1  Snuffy  replied to  Vic Eldred @1    6 years ago

well,  I fully imagine that there are some on this site who will disagree with your statements.  From what I have read on these latest documents (which I will admit is not a lot at this point), I would tend to agree.  However let me just point out that there's really no meat in the documents either that I've seen yet. I've been waiting these past two years, I can wait for the final documents to come out of the investigation. I'm concerned however that the final documents will not be released to the public or will be so heavily redacted that they never fully answer questions and we continue this back and forth spat without resolution.

 
 
 
Vic Eldred
Professor Principal
1.1.1  seeder  Vic Eldred  replied to  Snuffy @1.1    6 years ago

If you are waiting for evidence of conspiracy with the Russian's, you may be waiting forever

 
 
 
Snuffy
Professor Participates
1.1.2  Snuffy  replied to  Vic Eldred @1.1.1    6 years ago

I don't think there was. But what I was saying is that I don't have much faith that the final documents will be fully released to the public and just won't really answer any questions and this back & forth will just continue. 

 
 
 
Vic Eldred
Professor Principal
1.1.3  seeder  Vic Eldred  replied to  Snuffy @1.1.2    6 years ago

Agreed. There has to be some meat there for the left and some reason for that investigation going on all this time without evidence of the President's involvement in a conspiracy. Serious damage has been done to the Trump Presidency.

 
 
 
321steve - realistically thinkin or Duu
Sophomore Guide
2  321steve - realistically thinkin or Duu     6 years ago

 

Donald Trump sworn in as the 45th President of the United States on   January 20, 2017 .

Dec. 1, 2017, 11:50 AM…..

  • Michael Flynn has acknowledged that a senior Trump transition official directed him to contact Russian officials last December.
  • Flynn, then the incoming national security adviser, called transition officials at Mar-a-Lago on December 29 shortly before speaking with Russia's ambassador to the US at the time, Sergey Kislyak, federal prosecutors say.
  • Flynn pleaded guilty on Friday to making false statements about the nature of his conversations with Kislyak.

 Federal prosecutors said in court on Friday that the former national security adviser Michael Flynn called senior transition officials at President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate on December 29.

Trump was also at Mar-a-Lago on December 29, raising questions about whether he was involved in telling the Russians to hold off on retaliating, on the promise that the sanctions would be reviewed once Trump took office.

The purpose of the call, the prosecutors say, was to discuss what Flynn would say to Russia's ambassador to the US at the time, Sergey Kislyak, about sanctions imposed by President Barack Obama on Russia that day.

 

The   Logan   Act   has   remained   almost   unchanged   and   unused   since   its   passage.   The   act   is   short   andreads   as   follows:

Any   citizen   of   the   United   States,   wherever   he   may   be,   who,   without   authority   of   the   UnitedStates,   directly   or   indirectly   commences   or   carries   on   any   correspondence   or   intercoursewith   any   foreign   government   or   any   officer   or   agent   thereof,   with   intent   to   influence   themeasures   or   conduct   of   any   foreign   government   or   of   any   officer   or   agent   thereof,   in   relation to   any   disputes   or   controversies   with   the   United   States,   or   to   defeat   the   measures   of   theUnited   States,   shall   be   fined   under   this   title   or   imprisoned   not   more   than   three   years,   or both.

This   section   shall   not   abridge   the   right   of   a   citizen   to   apply,   himself   or   his   agent,   to   anyforeign   government   or   the   agents   thereof   for   redress   of   any   injury   which   he   may   havesustained   from   such   government   or   any   of   its   agents   or   subjects.

 

…………………………………………………

All Flynn's idea... sarc Done deal… Curtain closes….

Next

512

 
 
 
Nowhere Man
Junior Guide
3  Nowhere Man    6 years ago

Still waitin' for proof.....

 
 
 
devangelical
Professor Principal
4  devangelical    6 years ago

A recommendation of no jail time by the Special Counsel for a retired 3 star general that was compromised by the russians and provided substantial assistance in the investigation. Combine that with the assistance of trump's attorney Cohen that has sought no sentencing deal from the Special Counsel for his cooperation. Let those 2 factors sink in.

 
 
 
A. Macarthur
Professor Guide
5  A. Macarthur    6 years ago

It appears that Trumpians think the black lines in the Mueller report are nothing but ...

... black lines.

Whistle past the graveyard boys ... 

 
 
 
Sparty On
Professor Principal
5.1  Sparty On  replied to  A. Macarthur @5    6 years ago

The truly obtuse thing here is an apparent assumption by some that all those redactions are righteous in nature.

Who's whistling past the graveyard now boys?

 
 
 
A. Macarthur
Professor Guide
5.1.1  A. Macarthur  replied to  Sparty On @5.1    6 years ago

You are! The Pee Wee Herman rebuttal aside, clearly you have no understanding of the significance of the redactions ... the contents of which are intentionally hidden from the investigation’s targets and potential information sources.

I love the whining about the protracted length of the investigation and the naive conclusion that it’s an indication of “no evidence” obtained.

It’s the lying by bums like Manafort that slow things down ... and now ... the lies are biting the liars in the ass!

 
 
 
Sparty On
Professor Principal
5.1.2  Sparty On  replied to  A. Macarthur @5.1.1    6 years ago
You are!

Lol keep telling yourself that.   Expectations that all redactions made by bureaucrats, are done so with unbiased righteous intent, is the epitome of obtuse.

Nothing could be further from the truth.   Especially in the current environment.

It’s the lying by bums like Manafort that slow things down ... and now ... the lies are biting the liars in the ass!

True, they should have just done the Obama Administration shuffle and just pled the fifth.

 
 
 
devangelical
Professor Principal
5.1.3  devangelical  replied to  Sparty On @5.1.2    6 years ago
True, they should have just done the Obama Administration shuffle and just pled the fifth.

... like Roger Stone said he'd be doing?

 
 
 
Tessylo
Professor Principal
5.1.5  Tessylo  replied to  devangelical @5.1.3    6 years ago

 
 
 
Sparty On
Professor Principal
5.1.6  Sparty On  replied to  devangelical @5.1.3    6 years ago

Yep, following the fine example set by many that came before him.

 
 
 
A. Macarthur
Professor Guide
6  A. Macarthur    6 years ago

$25 for the American Cancer Society says Trump will be impeached, Indicted, or resign before the 2020 election.

Who’s in?

 
 
 
A. Macarthur
Professor Guide
7  A. Macarthur    6 years ago

And look what I posted ONE YEAR AGO!

If it weren't for a pack of REPUBLICAN PIMPS FOR DONAL TRUMP (like Deven Nunes, Gowdy, et al), you'd have had your proof a while back. 

There's a reason why people lie and obstruct justice … it's certainly NOT TO CONCEAL FACTS THAT WOULD SHOW THEIR INNOCENCE … it is, in legal circles, called …

Consciousness of Guilt (Law and Legal Definition)

Evidentiary rules allow a prosecutor to introduce testimony that tends to show that the defendants actions prove he knew he was guilty (at least of something). This is sometimes referred to as “consciousness of guilt”. For example, such evidence may include actions the defendant took to “cover up” his alleged crime.  

_________________________________________

Who's in? The American Cancer Society can use the money!

 
 
 
A. Macarthur
Professor Guide
8  A. Macarthur    6 years ago

And also A YEAR AGO … let me take the Trump folks down "Memory Lane … I WROTE …

 
 
 
devangelical
Professor Principal
9  devangelical    6 years ago

Surprising that we haven't seen any tweets about this Flynn memo from the russian puppet in the oval office yet. surely his alt-AG matt whitaker has shown agent orange the unredacted memo and explained the contents to trumpski by now. my theories are that either somebody in the west wing snatched his phone or he got the word his entire legal defense team threatened to resign if the fucking POS/POTUS responded.

 
 
 
Vic Eldred
Professor Principal
10  seeder  Vic Eldred    6 years ago

Without objection I will close this discussion now. 

 
 

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