Tag: Michael Flynn

Commentary: A Corrupt Establishment Demands a Loyalty Oath

Minnesota Sun Staff

A memo must have gone out. Because in several prominent newspapers, the same propaganda appeared at nearly the same time.

The Washington Post said, “Top Republicans, led by Trump, refuse to commit to accept 2024 election results.” The New York Times similarly intoned, “Leading Republicans have refused to say flatly that they will accept the outcome of the presidential election if Donald Trump loses.” Rolling Stone chastised a former presidential candidate: “Tim Scott Embraces Trump’s Election Denialism, Won’t Commit to Accept Results.”

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With New Evidence, Congress Unmasks a Multi-Year Government Plot to Protect Biden, Sully Trump

Just the News

When the Justice Department discovered from journalists a storage locker containing evidence against ex-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, a search was executed immediately.

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Michael Flynn Sues Government over ‘Wrongful and Malicious’ Prosecution

Just the News

Retired Lieutenant General Michael Flynn on Friday filed a suit against the federal government seeking damages over what he called Washington’s “wrongful and malicious” prosecution of him.

“As a direct and proximate result of Defendant’s actions, General Flynn suffered harm,” his attorneys wrote in a filing with the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida. “He was falsely branded as a traitor to his country, lost at least tens of millions of dollars of business opportunities and future lifetime earning potential, was maliciously prosecuted and spent substantial monies in his own defense.”

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Commentary: Five Trump-Russia ‘Collusion’ Corrections We Need from the Media Now

Minnesota Sun Staff

Five years after the Hillary Clinton campaign-funded collection of Trump-Russia conspiracy theories known as the Steele dossier was published by BuzzFeed, news outlets that amplified its false allegations have suffered major losses of credibility. The recent indictment of the dossier’s main source, Igor Danchenko, for allegedly lying to the FBI, has catalyzed a new reckoning.

In response to what the news site Axios has called “one of the most egregious journalistic errors in modern history,” the Washington Post has re-edited at least a dozen stories related to Steele. For two of those, the Post removed entire sections, changed headlines, and added lengthy editor’s notes.

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Investigation: Biden Security Adviser Jake Sullivan Tied to Alleged 2016 Clinton Scheme to Co-Opt the CIA and FBI to Tar Trump

RealClearWire

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan figures prominently in a grand jury investigation run by Special Counsel John Durham into an alleged 2016 Hillary Clinton campaign scheme to use both the FBI and CIA to tar Donald Trump as a colluder with Russia, according to people familiar with the criminal probe, which they say has broadened into a conspiracy case.

Sullivan is facing scrutiny, sources say, over potentially false statements he made about his involvement in the effort, which continued after the election and into 2017. As a senior foreign policy adviser to Clinton, Sullivan spearheaded what was known inside her campaign as a “confidential project” to link Trump to the Kremlin through dubious email-server records provided to the agencies, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

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Once-Secret FBI Informant Reports Reveal Wider-Ranging Operation to Spy on Trump Campaign

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Once-secret reports show the FBI effort to spy on the Trump campaign was far wider than previously disclosed, as agents directed an undercover informant to make secret recordings, pressed for intelligence on numerous GOP figures, and sought to find “anyone in the Trump campaign” with ties to Russia who could acquire dirt “damaging to Hillary Clinton.”

The now-declassified operational handling reports for FBI confidential human source Stefan Halper — codenamed “Mitch” — provide an unprecedented window both into the tactics used by the bureau to probe the Trump campaign and the wide dragnet that was cast to target numerous high-level officials inside the GOP campaign just weeks before Americans chose their next president in the November 2016 election.

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Judge Dismisses Case Against Michael Flynn, But Refuses to Say He’s Innocent

Minnesota Sun Staff

A federal judge dismissed a criminal case against Michael Flynn on Tuesday, weeks after President Donald Trump pardoned his former national security adviser on charges stemming from the special counsel’s investigation.

The ruling from Judge Emmet Sullivan formally ends Flynn’s three-year legal saga, which began with a plea deal the retired Army general entered on Dec. 1, 2017 in the special counsel’s probe of foreign interference in the 2016 presidential election.

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Joe Biden’s Transition Officials Received Intelligence on Michael Flynn Before Donald Trump Took Office

Minnesota Sun Staff

At least five former government officials who are either on President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team or reportedly in contention for a position in his cabinet were involved to varying degrees in handling intelligence related to former national security adviser Michael Flynn, a Daily Caller News Foundation review has found.

Two potential cabinet picks — Sarah Bloom Raskin and Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall — and a Biden transition team official — Stephanie L. O’Sullivan — submitted so-called unmasking requests for intelligence about Flynn weeks before the start of the Trump administration, according to a document declassified earlier this year.

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Federal Agency Secretly Offered FBI Documents on Trump Officials, Senate Report Says

Minnesota Sun Staff

The federal agency that stores records for presidential transition teams volunteered to provide documents to the FBI regarding the Trump presidential transition team in early 2017, in possible violation of an agreement with the Trump campaign to destroy the records, according to a Senate report released on Friday.

The report from Republicans on the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee says that officials at the General Services Administration (GSA) contacted the FBI on Feb. 15, 2017 to inquire whether they should preserve documents related to Michael Flynn.

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Mike Flynn Seeks to Remove Judge Overseeing Case, Alleging Bias

Minnesota Sun Staff

In a dramatic escalation of a long-running feud, lawyers for former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn on Wednesday filed a motion to disqualify U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan from considering the request to dismiss their client’s case, arguing the jurist has demonstrated “contempt and disdain for the defense.”

The filing by attorneys Sidney Powell and Jesse Binnall came after the defense and judge clashed several times at a hearing last week. It also follows Flynn, retire Army lieutenant general, having tried to get an appeals court to issue a writ of mandamus forcing Sullivan to immediately dismiss the case.

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FBI Source’s Claim About Michael Flynn Was Inaccurate, Special Agent Said

Minnesota Sun Staff

The FBI’s lead agent on its investigation of Michael Flynn told prosecutors that a confidential source’s allegation about an incident involving the former national security adviser in 2014 was likely false, according to a government document.

Special Agent William Barnett said in an interview with a federal prosecutor on Sept. 17 that the Crossfire Hurricane team obtained the information about Flynn from a confidential human source (CHS) who provided information regarding Carter Page.

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FBI Agent Who Led Flynn Probe Said Mueller’s Team had a ‘Get Trump’ Attitude

Minnesota Sun Staff

An FBI special agent who worked on Crossfire Hurricane told prosecutors last week that he saw little reason to investigate Michael Flynn and that he believed that members of the special counsel’s team prosecuted the former national security adviser in order to “get Trump,” according to a memo released late Thursday.

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Appeals Court Won’t Order Flynn Dismissal, Returns Case to Lower Court

The Associated Press

A federal appeals court in Washington declined Monday to order the dismissal of the Michael Flynn prosecution, permitting a judge to scrutinize the Justice Department’s request to dismiss its case against President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser.

The decision keeps the case at least temporarily alive and rebuffs efforts by both Flynn’s lawyers and the Justice Department to force the prosecution to be dropped without any further inquiry from the judge, who has for months declined to dismiss it. The ruling represents the latest development in a criminal case that has taken unusual twists and turns over the last year and prompted a separation of powers tussle involving a veteran federal judge and the Trump administration.

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Attorney General Barr Tells House Judiciary Committee There Is a Separate Investigation Into Unmaskings

Jason M. Reynolds

U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH-04) asked Attorney General William Barr about “unmaskings” in a House Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday.

The committee grilled Barr on a number of other topics as well, including police reform.

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Government Memo Shows FBI Did Not Think Michael Flynn Intentionally Lied

Minnesota Sun Staff

The Justice Department this week provided Michael Flynn’s lawyers with a long-rumored government memo which shows that FBI officials did not believe that the former national security adviser intentionally lied in a White House interview at the center of his legal battle.

The memo, dated Jan. 30, 2017, and published Friday, also said that FBI investigators did not believe that Flynn was working as an agent of Russia.

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Commentary: Obama-Biden Knew the FBI Was Investigating Flynn and Trump in January 2017 for Russia Conspiracy Theory and Didn’t Stop It

Minnesota Sun Staff

A newly released hand-written note by former FBI agent Peter Strzok from early Jan. 2017 confirms knowledge and direction of the investigation of former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn by former President Barack Obama and former Vice President Joe Biden.

The note was submitted as evidence by Flynn’s lawyers Jesse Binnall and Sidney Powell on June 24 just as the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a rare writ of mandamus ordering Judge Emmet Sullivan to dismiss the case against Flynn.

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Citing Recent DOJ Decision, Former Flynn Associates Seek Reprieve in Turkish Lobbying Case

Minnesota Sun Staff

Two former associates of Michael Flynn have seized on the Justice Department’s motion to drop charges against the retired general to call for relief from charges that they illegally lobbied for the Turkish government.

Bijan Rafiekian, a former Flynn business partner, and Ekim Alptekin, a former Flynn client, claim to be collateral damage in the government’s investigation of Flynn, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in December 2017.

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Judge Sullivan Defends Delay, Says Justice Department Reversal in Flynn Case ‘Unusual’

The Associated Press

A federal judge on Monday defended his decision not to quickly approve the Justice Department’s request to dismiss its own criminal case against former Trump administration national security adviser Michael Flynn, saying that the department’s reversal was unusual and he wanted to consider the request carefully before ruling on it.

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Top FBI Lawyer Who Authorized Carter Page Surveillance Forced to Resign

Minnesota Sun Staff

The FBI lawyer who signed a surveillance order against former Trump aide Carter Page that the Justice Department has deemed invalid submitted his resignation on Friday, the FBI said.

Dana Boente, the FBI general counsel, has recently come under scrutiny over his role in the various investigations against former Trump advisers, including Michael Flynn and Carter Page.

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Newly Released Transcripts of Flynn/Kislyak Phone Calls Show Nothing Nefarious

Minnesota Sun Staff

Director of National Intelligence (DNI) John Ratcliffe on Friday sent declassified transcripts of former national security advisor Michael Flynn’s phone calls with then-Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak to Congress.

The calls, which took place during the presidential transition period from Dec. 22, 2016 through January of 2017, show that Flynn was concerned about an escalation of hostilities between the two countries after the United States expelled 35 Russian diplomats. The two also discussed Middle East policy at length and working together to defeat a common enemy: radical Islamists. There was nothing discussed in the phone calls, according to the summary, that would have given Obama-era government snoops reason to believe Flynn was treacherously “colluding” or “conspiring” with Russia.

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FBI Offered to Pay Christopher Steele ‘Significantly’ to Dig up Dirt on Michael Flynn

Minnesota Sun Staff

An FBI offer to pay former British spy Christopher Steele to collect intelligence on Michael Flynn in the weeks before the 2016 election has been one of the more overlooked revelations in a Justice Department inspector general’s report released in December.

The reference to the FBI proposal, which was made in an Oct. 3, 2016, meeting in an unidentified European city, has received virtually no press attention. But it might have new significance following the recent release of government documents that show that Steele peddled an unfounded rumor that Flynn had an extramarital affair with a Russian woman in the United Kingdom.

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Comey Said He Had ‘No Indication’ Flynn Colluded with Russia According to Declassified ‘By the Book’ Email

Minnesota Sun Staff

A newly declassified document confirms that the Obama administration was spying on Lt. General Michael Flynn even though the FBI had “no indication” that President Trump’s short-lived national security advisor had been colluding with Russia.

According to the document, disgraced former FBI director James Comey told then-President Obama that he had “no indication thus far that Flynn has passed classified information to Kislyak.”

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UNMASKED: Biden, Comey, Brennan, Plus 16 More Obama Insiders Requested the Identity of Michael Flynn

Minnesota Sun Staff

Former Vice President Joe Biden and the directors of the three main U.S. intelligence agencies submitted so-called “unmasking” requests for information about Michael Flynn contained in highly classified intelligence reports, according to documents released Wednesday.

The documents show that an unmasking request was made in Biden’s name on Jan. 12, 2017. Similar requests were made under the names of James Comey, John Brennan and James Clapper, the former directors of the FBI, CIA and Office of the Director of National Intelligence, respectively.

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Biden Denies Knowing Anything About Flynn Investigation Before Admitting He ‘Was Aware’

Minnesota Sun Staff

Presumptive Democrat Presidential nominee Joe Biden denied knowing anything about the investigation into Michael Flynn until he was reminded that he was in the room at the White House with other top Obama officials on the day the matter was discussed.

Biden’s memory was jogged by ABC’s George Stephanopoulos during an interview on “Good Morning America,” Tuesday.

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Commentary: Time for Trump and Barr to Declassify Everything the Obama White House Knew About Michael Flynn

Minnesota Sun Staff

The Justice Department has dismissed all charges against former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, after spying on his Dec. 22, 2016 conversation he had with Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak, leaking it to the Washington Post on Jan. 12, 2017, sending the FBI to ask about it on Jan. 24, 2017—all resulting in Flynn’s firing, prosecution and guilty plea, that he has since motioned to withdraw.

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Judge in Michael Flynn Case Isn’t Tossing Charges Just Yet

Minnesota Sun Staff

The federal judge handling the case against Michael Flynn signaled Tuesday he is not yet ready to grant the Justice Department’s request to throw out charges against the former national security adviser.

Emmet G. Sullivan, a district judge in Washington, D.C., said that he will allow for the submission of amicus curiae briefs, in which individuals and organizations who did not take part in the case can argue for or against the Justice Department’s request to withdraw charges against Flynn.

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DOJ Drops Case Against Michael Flynn

Zachery Schmidt

The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a motion on Thursday to dismiss its case against Michael Flynn.

“The United States of America hereby moves to dismiss with prejudice the criminal information filed against Michael T. Flynn pursuant to Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 48(a), the motion reads. “The Government has determined, pursuant to the Principles of Federal Prosecution and based on extensive review and careful consideration of the circumstances, that continued prosecution of this case would not serve the interests of justice.”

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Commentary: If Michael Flynn Can’t Withdraw His Guilty Plea, Then President Trump Should Pardon Him

Minnesota Sun Staff

New documents appear to show that the FBI was intent on setting up former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn in a perjury trap to help keep the Justice Department’s then-ongoing investigation into President Donald Trump going in Jan. 2017 on false allegations he was a bought and paid for Russian agent that themselves were bought and paid for by the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton campaign.

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Report: Durham Using Latest Flynn Files to Build a ‘Serious Case’ Against Corrupt FBI Officials

Minnesota Sun Staff

U.S. Attorney for Connecticut John Durham has reviewed the damning, recently released FBI files on Gen. Michael Flynn, and is using them to build a “serious case,” Fox News reported Friday. According to a Fox source, the new information “could be sufficient” to bring charges against corrupt FBI officials.

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‘Appalling’ FBI Documents Show Flynn Was Targeted with Perjury Trap

Admin

U.S. District Court Judge Emmet G. Sullivan on Wednesday unsealed eleven pages of FBI emails and handwritten notes that provide further evidence that retired general Michael Flynn was set up for a perjury trap by the senior members of the Bureau.

The new documents are “even more appalling than the Friday production,” said Flynn’s lead  attorney Sidney Powell.

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President Trump ‘Strongly Considering’ Full Pardon for Former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn

Minnesota Sun Staff

President Donald Trump said Sunday that he is “strongly considering” a pardon for Michael Flynn, the former national security adviser who pleaded guilty in the special counsel’s probe to lying to the FBI.

Trump cited an unspecified report that the FBI and Justice Department “lost” records related to Flynn, a retired Army general.

“How convenient,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “I am strongly considering a Full Pardon!”

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Commentary: Will We Have a Justice Department or a ‘Just Us’ Department?

Minnesota Sun Staff

The news Friday that the Department of Justice had decided not to charge former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe got me thinking once again about the legend chiseled into the façade of the Supreme Court: “Equal Justice Under Law.”

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Michael Flynn Attorney Demands Charges Be Dismissed ‘For Outrageous Government Misconduct’

Minnesota Sun Staff

Former national security advisor Michael Flynn’s attorney said in a court filing Thursday that the case against her client should be dismissed “for outrageous government misconduct” and that the court should “issue an order to show cause why the prosecutors should not be held in contempt.”

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FBI Investigated Michael Flynn Over Russia Ties Earlier Than Previously Known

Minnesota Sun Staff

by Chuck Ross   The FBI was investigating Michael Flynn’s possible relationship with the Russian government much earlier than previously known, the special counsel’s report revealed. Flynn, who served as President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, was also under investigation for four separate sets of allegations, says the report, which…

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Commentary: Eighteen Real Attacks on the ‘Rule of Law’

Minnesota Sun Staff

by Adam Mill   Donald Trump, we are told over and over and over again, threatens the “rule of law.” To pick a piece at random, I note that Joel Mathis of The Week recently wrote, “When we talk about Trump and the rule of law, mostly we talk about how he’s flouting and evading the constraint of laws he…

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Commentary: The Neverending, Mysterious Saga of Michael Flynn

Minnesota Sun Staff

by Victor Davis Hanson   Certainly, no one should defend a top-ranking federal employee’s lying to federal investigators or to his superiors in the Trump Administration, if that is what former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn did, as evidenced by his own confession. Note if Flynn lied to President Trump…

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Michael Flynn Sentencing Delayed

Minnesota Sun Staff

A U.S. judge in Washington on Tuesday sternly rebuked President Donald Trump’s first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, for lying to investigators about his contacts with Russia in the weeks before Trump assumed power in early 2017, but delayed his sentencing. “I can’t hide my disgust, my disdain,” U.S. District…

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