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When you plead the 5th it means your guilty. If I’d done 10% of what she did I’d be in jail. 

Flynn’s words have not exactly proven prophetic-quite the opposite. In March, 2017 he wanted-but didn’t get-immunity for testifying before Congress. By his own premise this proves his guilt…

Yesterday, it emerged that another Trump co-conspirator-Roger Stone has pled the 5th.

When Flynn declared he’d be in jail if he’d done 10% of what she did it was basically 180 degrees from the truth. She hadn’t done 10%-or even 1%-of what Flynn has done and yet he was the one leading  Lock her up! chants against her.

Yet he’s not going to jail.

Well he did 100 times more than she did and he’s not going to jail.

But the reason he’s not is-unlike Manafort-he’s cooperated with Mueller fulsomely-to use Don McGahn’s word.

Very true-just like the first G. Gordon Liddy and Howard E. Hunt. Liddy went to prison for Nixon 5 years while Hunt was at least able to lessen his sentence. I’ve argued in this book that Manafort is Liddy 2.0 while Flynn is Hunt 2.0-and indeed, Flynn did better than the original Hunt and Manafort may yet do worse than Liddy.

UPDATE: At this point Manafort has 7 and 1/2 years and counting-Liddy who was sentenced to 20 years got his sentence commuted by the liberal bogeyman himself, Jimmy Carter. Manafort quite possibly-hopefully-will get considerably more time, indeed, will hopefully never see the outside of prison again as a free man.

FN: Oh I’m sorry is that too harsh? I know it’s only treason shouldn’t we just forget it and ‘look forwards not backwards’ like with Nixon, Liddy to say nothing of the Reagan-Bush co-conspirators? What happened to liberal forgiveness? But that’s part of why we are in this mess today-liberals refusing to ever take a hard line on GOP treachery. That needs to stop.

Ok so Flynn cooperated and greatly benefitted the investigation. Mueller is clear that the timing was also very helpful. So what specifically did Flynn help regarding? There’s the frustrating part for those of us who waited all day for the sentencing memo. Most of that was redacted-the only things revealed were things we already knew-Flynn’ s lies to the FBI about speaking to Kisylak and his failure to register with FARA as a foreign agent. The juicy stuff was all redacted.

Early yesterday, young, but very connected journalist Scott Stedman had related some of the rumors floating around:

Of these 4 theories 1 has clearly been verified and the others have neither been confirmed or denied. Again many of us were chomping at the bit for information yesterday.

Yes and then during Chris Hayes last night it came out and it was like: we waited all day for this?! 

Still, it actually is good news if you look at the bigger picture:

Indeed, one big implication is that contrary to what Michael Isikoff recently reported, the Mueller investigation still has plenty of time to go.

Indeed, as I try to land the plane that is this barnburner of a book, one thing that’s bothered me is how relatively little I have on Flynn. There are a huge number of chapters on Cohen, Manafort, Bannon, and Stone but not all that much about Flynn. But that’s actually by design-Flynn clearly had the right strategy from day one.

As for Flynn he looked in pretty good shape until he shot himself in his own foot and claimed at sentencing that he didn’t know it was against the law to lie to the FBI-ie, he was ‘entrapped.’ Judge Sullivan warned him ‘I can’t promise you no prison time’ and Flynn has now been in limbo the last few months waiting for another chance for a get out of jail free card.

Meanwhile Roger Stone won’t shut up. 

Defying the advice of pretty much every defense lawyer in America, Roger Stone won’t stop talking.

“The longtime political adviser to President Donald Trump gives lengthy interviews about his role in the 2016 presidential election. He writes combative op-eds about Robert Mueller, who is investigating him. He invites reporters into his home for open-ended hangout sessions”

“It’s all part of a pre-emptive counterattack against the special counsel’s Russia investigation, which many legal experts believe is inexorably closing in on Stone.”

“And if you didn’t know better, you might think Stone is enjoying himself.”

He clearly is enjoying himself. He won’t enjoy prison. But as I argued in (Chapter C) for Stone there’s a fate worse than prison-his talents for Nixonian dirty tricks and dark arts going unrecognized.

But if your goal is to actually stay out of prison, well the results are pretty decisive. I mean, in all due modesty, I have a major scoop in this book on Stone’s and Corsi’s role in Comeygate. And how did I come by this knowledge? I read Stone’s own words in an Intercept interview and his own book on the 2016 election. Prima facie evidence.

Meanwhile, Giuliani seemed to have a meltdown last night.

This is because, the memo, while disappointing to we impatient ones, was actually terrible news for the Trump legal team–they are also in the dark

and it suggests it will be going on for sometime longer.

Michael Flynn’s lawyer had it right back in March 2017 — his client certainly has a story to tell.

“That special counsel Robert Mueller clearly agrees but is not ready to share the former national security adviser’s tale with the American people cannot be anything but bad news for President Donald Trump and those around him.

Mueller told a judge in a key filing Tuesday that Flynn, a retired general who was a key foreign policy aide during the Trump campaign, provided “substantial” help to his probe into Russia election interference in 2016.”

“That help was so significant and timely, Mueller said in heavily redacted documents, that Flynn should serve no jail time for lying to the FBI about his conversations with Russia’s envoy to the US and his business ties with Turkey.”

“It provided few definitive answers, but its line after line of blacked-out text offered eloquent testimony on the breadth of the Mueller investigation and appears to dispel expectations that he is nearly ready to wrap up. That’s because he withheld the most crucial details that would have blown open the case to protect ongoing and future inquiries and potential prosecutions.

“What I think here is Flynn provided information that is allowing Mueller to make a criminal case against someone,” Renato Mariotti, a former federal prosecutor, told CNN’s Don Lemon on Tuesday.”

“We don’t know who that is. We can speculate or not speculate. But there is certainly somebody out there who has a criminal case that could be coming,” he said.

Indeed, in the memo, Mueller stated that Flynn had been ‘fulsome’ in multiple investigations.

“The most interesting disclosure was that Flynn had helped with what appears to be at least one separate, unidentified criminal investigation that is distinct from the probe into Russian election interference and any links to Trump’s 2016 team.”

“All references to that avenue of inquiry were blacked out — an omission that is likely to spark fierce speculation about what he is referring to and who may be in his sights.”

“There was also an unmissable line in the Flynn sentencing memo that will be viewed as a sign that the special counsel is aiming at administration officials who are more senior, even, than a former national security adviser.”

“He wrote, while noting Flynn’s exemplary military service over a long career, that nevertheless “senior government leaders should be held to the highest standards.

That hint should certainly worry Trump and his top aides.

Indeed-after all, who is more senior than a former national security adviser?

Kushner was at the Trump Tower Russia meeting-though that tends to be thought of as Donald Jr’s meeting first and foremost as he agreed to it with Rob Goldstone. Manafort’s sentencing document could contain some real info on that collusion meeting as he was also present for it. Kushner also met with Kisylak after the election and proposed a back channel to Russia possibly inside the Russian embassy. 

But then there’s his BFF MBS-after all their both spoiled princes so they have so much in common. Mueller is investigating the relationship with MBS and if there was any quid pro quo in Trump’s supporting the QATAR blockade.

Indeed, while recommending no jail time for Flynn he is clear that Flynn’s offenses are serious-we don’t know that it’s only regarding FARA and lying about his conversation with Kisylak.

UPDATE: In retrospect the most important thing Flynn told Mueller may be Scott Stedman’s 2nd theory-as I argued in Chapter A, the email Smith sent to Michael Flynn-along with Bannon, Spicer, and Kellyann Conway-could be the biggest fish of them all-Conspiracy to Committ Computer Crimes. Smith’s email clearly stated the intent to do just that in paying the Russian hackers and reaching out to Wikileaks. If Smith actually did this-and there’s the WSJ article that Smith was in a hotel room paying hackers-and the email after Podesta’s emails were dumped referring to paying ‘happy students’-read as hackers. So if this is so and you can connect him to the Trump campaign-and his email of intent was addressed to highest echelon of the Trump campaign then that implicates the Trump campaign in the most serious crime of all-conspiring with the Russian hackers themselves.

UPDATE: I’m happy to see on this Abramson and I think alike on this.

Abramson’s full list: “Trump, Trump Jr. Kushner, Bannon, Prince, Stone (+others).”

As Abramson says, the Trump Deplorables will spin this as ‘evidence of no collusion’ as they know nothing about the law-they’ll just presume that Mueller said nothing new because there is nothing new-rather than he’s withholding it to protect ongoing investigations.

UPDATE: Regarding Bannon, Jerrold Nadler revealed last night that Bannon sent the Judiciary Committee  a couple thousand pages of documents. 

Back to CNN:

:There was no immediate reaction to Mueller’s filing by Trump or his legal team.”

“But it is likely that the President’s defenders will use the redacted documents to stick to their consistent line that the special counsel has still yet to offer any conclusive evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.”

“Yet given the vast quantity of redacted evidence in Mueller’s latest filing, it appears more likely that the special counsel will find — or already has identified — evidence to suggest such a conspiracy did take place.”

“The documents left unsaid who has the most to fear from Mueller.But there were few officials in the Trump campaign who were more influential or closer to the candidate and President-elect himself.”

After Tuesday’s developments, there is certain to be fresh speculation about the potential jeopardy of key figures including Trump, his son Donald Trump Jr. and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner.”

So CNN and Abramson echo each other. So yes Flynn certainly had a story to tell and right now we still don’t get to hear it but Friday will hopefully be a different story. 

“Tonight, Robert Mueller threw the book right past Michael Flynn, and hit Donald Trump instead. We don’t know what all is in those redacted portions of the sentencing memo, but it was enough for Mueller to give Flynn a free pass for his serious crimes. So just how much trouble is Trump in? Let’s ask former prosecutor and incoming House Intel Committee Chairman Adam Schiff.”

Adam Schiff, who chooses his words carefully, posted this response on Twitter tonight: “The recommendation of no jail time for Flynn, apart from its obvious irony for the man who led chants of ‘lock her up,’ reflects both the timeliness and significance of his help. That most of the details are redacted signals he has given far more than we or the President may know.”

“In other words, not only has Robert Mueller hit Donald Trump hard tonight, Trump doesn’t even have any way of knowing what just hit him. By leaving most of the memo redacted, Mueller has ensured that Trump’s flunkies like Matthew “Scam Toilet” Whitaker can’t find out what Mueller is sitting on, and thus can’t go running to Trump with it.”

“The real kicker is that Robert Mueller is set to file sentencing recommendations on Friday for his favorite cooperator Micheal Cohen, and his favorite punching bag, Paul Manafort. The expectation is that this time, Mueller will indeed include incriminating evidence against Donald Trump. By Friday, we expect Trump will be trying to hide under his desk.”

From your lips to God’s ears, Bill Palmer.

UPDATE: In fact Mueller did not reveal too much in the Manafort memo-the big reveal was a mistake by Manafort’s own attorney thanks to whom we now know that Manafort offered GRU operative Kilimnik 75 pages of detailed campaign polling data on August 2, 2016.

 

 

 

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