Newly filed court documents allege that FBI officials coerced Michael Flynn into forgoing a lawyer during the interview that would lead to a guilty plea on one count of making false statements.
Flynn, who was President Trump’s National Security Adviser at the time, and his lawyers argue that the FBI went well out of their way to create a perjury trap.
Worse, the filing alleges that FBI officials and other agents who interviewed Flynn failed to warn him of any consequences should he make a false statement during the interview. They wanted Flynn to be “relaxed” during the session.
According to statements contained in a so-called “302” witness interview report cited by the filing, McCabe and other FBI officials discussed that they “would not warn Flynn that it was a crime to lie during an FBI interview because they wanted Flynn to be relaxed, and they were concerned that giving the warnings might adversely affect the rapport.”
No, giving the warnings may have actually let Flynn know that his statements were part of an official review, and he could have consulted a lawyer to get his responses in order.
General Flynn’s sentencing memo filed tonight.
An account of what occurred when McCabe sent Strozk and another agent after Flynn: pic.twitter.com/uZUvEHYsYy
— Techno Fog (@Techno_Fog) December 12, 2018
Here’s why people are skeptical of the FBI’s motives
Flynn wasn’t told that he could have a lawyer present, and in fact, the FBI made it seem like they were just shooting the breeze with him.
“One of the agents reported that General Flynn was ‘unguarded’ during the interview and ‘clearly saw the FBI agents as allies,'” according to the report.
Of course, he probably didn’t think under any circumstances that agents would railroad a decorated military man.
Now contrast that with how Hillary Clinton’s interview was conducted regarding the investigation into her private email server. An interview which even former FBI Director James Comey claimed was “unusual.”
Strzok interviewed HRod with her *nine* lawyers in the room.
Strzok interviewed Flynn without the benefit of counsel and didn’t even tell him it was an interview. https://t.co/Xd2IWPNfUT
— Phil Kerpen (@kerpen) December 12, 2018
In that interview, Cheryl Mills and Heather Samuelson, who were both Clinton’s lawyers and aides, were allowed to sit in on the FBI’s questioning of the former secretary of state.
It was “certainly unusual in that you had two people who had been witnesses,” Comey admitted, “who were … the subject’s lawyers, who after we cleared as to them were allowed to attend the interview.”
Flynn, however, was given no lawyer.
Facts suggest Flynn didn’t even commit a crime
One of the biggest giveaways that the Special Counsel didn’t have much on Flynn is the fact that they recommended no prison time.
Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz said the heavily redacted sentencing memo suggests there was no criminal activity on the part of the former National Security Adviser.
“This is a perfect example of Flynn, I don’t think, really committed any crimes,” Dershowitz claimed. “But because they threatened not only prosecuting him but prosecuting his son, he flipped and he pleaded guilty and now apparently he is cooperating and that’s why the government is not seeking prison time for him.”
There’s a chance none of this would have happened had McCabe and the other FBI officials advised him of his right to have counsel present. They created a perjury trap with the intent of taking down the President of the United States.
