8

Sorry not sorry. That’s what Michael Flynn’s lawyers’ memorandum last week amounted to and ever since it came out I’ve wondered-as noted in (Chapter A)-if Flynn was going to really regret this clear show of no remorse. 

After all, the reputation of Judge Emmet Sullivan is someone who’s willing to go out on a limb and be something out an outlier and also a judge that can be kind of tough. Indeed, the narrative you heard after this very questionable stance was that they did this in the hope of convincing the Judge that Flynn truly does deserve leniency. But it seemed like a very questionable strategy and-not to toot my own horn but someone has to-I had wondered if it’d actually backfire.

https://twitter.com/SLOScoggins/status/1072976104762167296

This was a week ago. Clearly what happened today was totally not to Flynn’s liking. 

Judge Emmet Sullivan of the US District Court for the District of Columbia said he was “not hiding my disgust, my disdain for your criminal offense.”

Disgust and disdain. 

If I did 10% of what she did I’d be in jail. 

“I want to be frank with you, this crime is very serious,” Sullivan said. “Not only did you lie to the FBI, you lied to senior officials in the incoming administration.”

“All along, you were an unregistered agent of a foreign country while serving as the national security adviser to the President of the United States,” Sullivan said. “That undermines everything this flag over here stands for. Arguably you sold your country out.”

It was clear that Flynn-Mr. Lock Her Up-and his legal team were totally blindsided by the turn of events:

A federal judge on Tuesday postponed the sentencing for Michael Flynn after he lambasted President Trump’s former national security adviser for trying to undermine his own country and said he could not guarantee he would spare Flynn from prison.

The stunning development means that Flynn will have to be sentenced at a later date, when he can possibly convince a judge more thoroughly of how his cooperation has benefited law enforcement.

Flynn’s attorneys asked for the delay after U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan accused Flynn of acting as “an unregistered agent of a foreign country, while serving as the national security adviser to the president of the United States” — an allegation he later walked back. Sullivan granted the request and asked for a status report in 90 days, though he said he was “not making any promises” that he would view the matter differently in three months.

After reviewing some of the allegations against Flynn, including that he worked to advance the interests of the Turkish government in the United States during the 2016 presidential campaign, the judge pointed to an American flag behind him in the courtroom and said heatedly, “Arguably, that undermines everything this flag over here stands for. Arguably you sold your country out.

“The court’s going to consider that,” the judge said. “I cannot assure you, if you proceed today, you will not receive a sentence of incarceration.”

Sullivan also asked a prosecutor with the special counsel’s office whether Flynn could be charged with “treason.”

Flynn, standing straight and flanked by attorneys on either side, looked shaken, his jaw clenched. Sullivan declared a recess to let Flynn consider whether he wanted to proceed and let the judge impose a punishment, or to delay and cooperate more with the special counsel in hopes of leniency.

The exchange marked a stunning turn in the case. Both prosecutors and defense attorneys had urged that Flynn face no prison time for his crime of lying to the FBI, noting that he was an early cooperator in special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election and had provided information useful to several other ongoing probes.

I love that Judge Sullivan mentions the t-word. The MSM seemed pretty stunned by this too but only because they define ‘treason’ far too narrowly.

I would disagree that you need to be in a literal armed war with another country to commit treason. There are all kinds of ways you can take significant action that benefits a hostile foreign power-you’re not formally at war with-while hurting America. What could treason be if not conspiring with a hostile foreign power to influence an American Presidential election? There are physical bombs against people and property but this was a frontal attack on our most precious American ideals-free and fair elections. What could be treason if not undermining our democracy itself?

The framers, of course, were not familiar with the notion of a ‘Cold’ rather than ‘Hot War’ nor were they aware of the idea of using the cyberworld to make war.

Many legal analysts on cable news seemed to feel Sullivan had done something untoward-because Flynn cooperated. Yes but that sorry not sorry thing by his lawyer last week really undermined the notion that he has remorse for his actions.

Clearly this was first and foremost on Judge Sullivan’s mind:

Sullivan began the hearing by questioning Flynn about that, and the former national security adviser conceded he was aware lying to the FBI was a crime when he did so and declined to withdraw his guilty plea to the offense — a mea culpa that could rankle supporters who have suggested he was duped by law enforcement into committing a crime.

Sullivan reminded Flynn he could get into “more trouble” if he were to lie in court, then asked, “Were you not aware that lying to FBI investigators was a crime?”

“I was aware,” Flynn said.

The judge asked if he wanted to postpone the sentencing, or reconsider his plea.

“I would like to proceed your honor,” Flynn said.

“Because you are guilty of this offense?” the judge responded.

“Yes, your honor,” Flynn said.

The judge similarly pressed Flynn’s attorneys, who confirmed Flynn stood by his plea. Robert Kelner, one of the lawyers, said the statements in their sentencing submission were the responsibility of Flynn’s legal team, not Flynn himself.

Which seems unlikely-in that this was such a bad move, you’d really rather believe it was Flynn’s idea than that of alleged legal experts. While cooperation is an important factor in sentencing so is the idea that the witness take responsibility and is remorseful for his/her actions. Flynn’s was a nod-nod-wink-wink: sorry but not really because I was entrapped, no one told me I shouldn’t lie to the FBI-no one told me that when I was DNI Director you see. 

Sorry not sorry.  The media for the most part spends far too much time worrying about what’s going on in Trump’s empty head. Today many-like Stephanie Ruhle and Halle Brooks were wondering why Trump totally insults Cohen as a ‘rat’ yet wished Flynn ‘luck’ in his hearing today.

I don’t think it’s any great mystery-or why it particularly matters. Because Flynn again kicked the Hornet’s Nest on the zombie theory that Michael Flynn didn’t lie he was ‘entrapped’ Trump is well disposed to him. It doesn’t hurt that unlike Cohen, very little of what Flynn told Mueller about Trump is public. So Trump sees Flynn as an ally-and this clearly was Flynn’s motivation-he had his lawyer write this in an attempt to get back in the good graces of Trump and his fellow co-conspirators.

However, while he succeeded as far as that went he also undercut his own case before Judge Sullivan as we now know he didn’t really mean it. So the Judge lowered the boom on Trump’s Howard Hunt.

My presumption is they wanted it both ways-and were arrogant enough to think they could have it both ways-it’s what Trump and his co-conspirators do: they are arrogant and usually they’re right, they do get it both ways. But this time, they badly miscalculated:

Lawyers for retired general Michael Flynn had every reason to celebrate. They managed to get their client—who had lobbied against U.S. interests while serving as a top Donald Trump campaign surrogate, and tried to undermine the Obama administration’s Russia policy while still a private citizen, and, as a sitting national security adviser, worked to conceal it all from the Justice Department—a recommendation of no jail time from the government. But they appeared to have made a last-minute miscalculation that put Flynn’s potential lenient sentence in doubt.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating a potential conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia, appeared to let Flynn off the hook for his crimes in exchange for his cooperation in the Russia probe and an investigation into illegal lobbying for the Turkish government that is being conducted out of the Eastern District of Virginia. Flynn is also cooperating in a third investigation, the nature of which remains unknown. Indeed, before Tuesday’s hearing, it had appeared all but certain that Flynn’s decision assist the government early and fully would spare him jail time.  But that leniency apparently wasn’t enough for Flynn’s lawyers.

And this hubris and greed was their fatal mistake. It’s a conjecture, but I feel that had they been smart and quit while they were very much ahead-having got a true sweetheart deal for Mueller-it would have been over and Flynn would be out today. Sullivan  would have accepted the government’s own recommendation of no prison time. But they had to get too smart by half, get cute, try to have it both ways as usual, as all Trump Deplorables always try to have it. And that was a-mistake. 

In a sentencing memo filed last week, Flynn’s lawyers Robert Kelner and Stephen Anthony indicated that the FBI agents who interviewed the former national security adviser in January 2017 about his conversations with the former Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak had entrapped him, lulled him into a false sense of security, and failed to insist that he have a lawyer present for the interview.

Judge Emmet Sullivan, however, who was set to issue Flynn’s sentence on Monday, was not sympathetic. “How is raising these points consistent with accepting responsibility?” he asked Flynn and his lawyers as they stood before him at the lectern on Tuesday. He then lambasted Flynn for lying to federal agents on White House grounds while serving as the president’s top national security adviser in January 2017, and for lying about his lobbying work for the Turkish government.  “Arguably, you sold out your country,” Sullivan said. He added that while he would take Flynn’s 33-year public service career and cooperation into account when sentencing him, he would not try to hide his “disdain” and “disgust” for Flynn’s crime, and asked the government at one point whether Flynn’s conduct rose to the level of treason.

Again, while the conventional wisdom-and perhaps the conventional legal wisdom is that ‘treason’ is nothing but assisting a foreign power that you are presently in actual armed conflict with-I think it should be understood much more broadly. There are other ways to sell your country out than literally harming them on the battlefield. How can rigging a Presidential election with the help of a hostile foreign power not be treason? I and others in the #Resistance aren’t the only who believe this-remember what former CIA Director John Brennan said about going down a treasonous path without knowing it

Brennan later demonstrated that this was not a rash statement on his path by speaking of how Trump’s treasonous summit with Putin in Helsinki in July, 2018 was nothing short of-well, treasonous.

Back to Natasha Bertrand:

“I don’t know what his lawyers were thinking,” said Nick Akerman, a former Assistant U.S. Attorney, former Assistant Special Watergate Prosecutor, and a partner at Dorsey and Whitney. As a defense lawyer, “you really ought to be in the position of complete contrition and saying, ‘Look, my client did something that was wrong, he made up for it, he’s cooperated,’” Akerman said. “To take the tack that somehow the government was at fault here is completely absurd.” There is  “no question whatsoever” that Flynn’s lawyers miscalculated, said former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti. “The judge rightly saw that there was no misconduct by the government and appropriately criticized Flynn’s apparent failure to accept responsibility for his criminal activity,” he added.

Mimi Rocah, a former federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York, agreed that Flynn’s lawyers had clearly made a “very misguided appeal” to Sullivan. But she noted that it may also have been a play for a pardon from President Trump. “Maybe on some level, this was an appeal to Trump and his base,” Rocah said. Mark Zaid, a national security attorney in Washington, D.C., said that if the defense’s strategy was to send a message to the president, only “time will tell” whether that strategy was sound. “But that’s more a long term political strategy, and I would imagine in the short term Flynn is far more interested in knowing whether or not he can avoid jail,” Zaid said.

But why do you need a pardon if you aren’t getting any jail time? It seems to me the big picture is this: no honor among Trump and his co-conspirators.

When you look at the various co-conspirators not one of them, no matter what motions they go through have the slightest remorse-they are all as Deplorable now as they were when working for Trump-and many of them never really stopped. Flynn has made it clear that despite what appears to be very intensive cooperation is still a Trumpster through and through when he offered his sorry not sorry memo. What’s amazing is that the metamorphosis of George Papadopoulos from contrite, remorseful cooperating witness back to Trumpster hack fomenting the kinds of slanderous conspiracy theories that now force Roger Stone to publicly admit that he told lies to slander a Chinese businessman-the only question begging how many others he similarly slandered-Michael Flynn’s similar metamorphosis happened right in front of our-and the Judge’s eyes. That was his big mistake, his miscalculation due to the endemic hubris and arrogance that is the defining feature of all the Trumpsters.

Indeed, Papadopoulos was at least smart enough to wait for his Trumpkin Alternative Facts until after he was out of the court room.

Unlike George Papadopoulos’s lawyers, who used his sentencing memo to argue that he was “ashamed and remorseful” of his actions, and laid out a sympathetic narrative for why “Young George” lied (Papadopoulos is 31), Flynn’s team showed little interest in repentance. Flynn’s lawyers simply said he “does not take issue” with the government’s description of his crime, and vaguely claimed that he “recognizes that his actions were wrong.”

But the defense then proceeded to lay out a series of “additional facts” that seemed chosen to suggest Flynn was railroaded. They mentioned that agents hadn’t warned Flynn it was a crime to lie to the FBI, and that the deputy FBI director suggested the questioning could be done more quickly if Flynn didn’t have a lawyer present.”

Of course, Papadopoulos’ hubris caught up with him too as Mueller went on to prescribe him prison time after all and now the Traitorous Coffee Boy is the subject of another FBI investigation.

Then there’s Trump’s Traitorous Campaign Manager who tried to cooperate while continuing to do a JDA with the Trump legal team. Trying to have it both ways like all Trump Deplorables do. Then Michael Cohen got three years in prison after it emerged that he had not cooperated as fulsomely as Don McGahn did when interviewed by Mueller.

The lesson is no honor among Trump’s co-conspirators, no honor among traitors.

Amen.

And I hope the Democrats were also taking notice regarding Judge Sullivan’s very tough-but totally accurate-words. The American people demand JUSTICE. 

These weasel words about, gee, a ‘third of the country loves ‘President Trump’ so if we want to win in 2020 we can’t be too mean to ‘the President’-besides being rather dubious in terms of political calculus-like when Gerald Ford pretended to pardon Nixon for the good of the nation even though the nation wanted Nixon to go to prison and fully pay for his crimes-this is unworthy of the moment. What the American people demand is not for the Democrats to do what POLITICAL EXPEDIENCY demands but what JUSTICE demands.

That’s what I think got to Judge Sullivan. Here were all these Trumpsters-Papadopoulos talking about running for Congress like he’s some sort of legitimate, honest citizen, Manafort playing games, now Flynn too, who had seemed the model cooperator, gives Trump and his co-conspirators a nod-nod-wink-wink.

So he took a moral stand. And when you look at it, it’s clear that if you’re a Trump co-conspirator you better check yourself. Look at what happened to Cohen last week and now to Flynn-who may get prison time after all, Maybe Papadopoulos hasn’t seen the last of the inside of a cell either.

But regarding the notion that ‘forget impeachment let’s just defeat him in 2020’-besides being incoherent as you can impeach Trump and defeat him-if McConnell lets him off the hook as is plausible-and if not then remember 1974 which was very good to Democrats-is morally irresponsible in that it tacitly legitimizes Trump’ s illegitimate ‘Presidency.’

My guess is the Dems will sense that doing the right thing is the best political strategy for 2020.

 

 

 

 

 

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