Ex-National Security Adviser Michael Flynn lingers in legal purgatory because Judge Emmet Sullivan refuses to toss the case against him and clear his name. Flynn, who pleaded guilty to bogus “lying to the FBI” charges that were politically motivated, has exposed an FBI run amok in their pursuit against him. Disgraced officials James Comey and Andrew McCabe were out to get Flynn at all costs. They had nothing on Flynn, nothing to warrant an interview for a counterintelligence probe or any federal investigation. You see, Flynn was doing his job by talking to the Russians as the incoming national security adviser, which these clowns thought they could fish and find some collusion evidence. There wasn’t any. When Flynn was interviewed, the agents said they felt he didn’t lie to them. There was no case, but the Trump-deranged DOJ pressed on, threatened him, and reportedly his family into pleading guilty to these bogus charges.
The DOJ filed the motion that clearly lays out an entrapment plot. It’s so damning that even liberal lawyer and law professor Jonathan Turley said that there could be grounds for a malicious prosecution lawsuit against the FBI. The prosecutor for the case resigned. The DOJ wants out. Everyone wants this case to go away; no one has opposed the motion to dismiss. And yet, Sully has decided to tap a retired judge, John Gleeson, to fight the DOJ motion and—get this—see if they can file perjury charges against Flynn for his coerced guilty plea. Is this the United States or North Korea? It’s absolute garbage—and you don’t need a law degree to see that.
Yet, the fallback for liberals desperate to keep the Trump-Russia collusion carcass from totally falling apart is the line, “but Flynn pleaded guilty. Why would an innocent man do that?” My eyes cannot roll any harder at the naivete at this, but here we are. Well, since liberals think government can do no wrong, let’s shred that silly talking point right now. They can and they have done so—many times, even before the Trump presidency. Second, for liberals who are supposedly criminal justice reform advocates, are they just ignorant or plain stupid regarding the shocking number of false guilty pleas that are floating around our justice system. It’s staggering, and the New York Sun’s editorial board aptly noted that Judge Sullivan was ignoring this aspect regarding the Flynn case:
The fact is that it’s by no means rare for persons to plead guilty to crimes they didn’t commit. Some are scared. Others confused. Some lack the intestinal fortitude or financial wherewithal to stand up against the warnings or threats from the prosecutors. What’s so unusual in the Flynn case is that the Democrats and liberals are siding against the poor schlepper caught in the prosecutorial vice.
It turns out that one serious liberal institution, the Innocence Project, maintains a whole Website devoted to persons who plead guilty to crimes they didn’t commit. It’s called GuiltyPleaProblem.com. The first click on it brings up a headline asking the question, “Why do innocent people plead guilty to crimes they didn’t commit?” The Website offers illuminating background to the problem.
Some 95% of felony convictions in America, the Website notes, are obtained through guilty pleas. Among persons known to be exonerated, it reports, a staggering 18% pleaded guilty to crimes they didn’t commit. It is a humbling statistic for those of us who cover the courts. The filing of a guilty plea by an innocent party occurs at a pace that leaves GuiltyPleaProblem.com saying: “there’s no telling how many are behind bars as a result.”
So where are the liberals now? Where’s the logic of Judge Sullivan getting up on his high horse over the idea that someone in his court might move to withdraw a guilty plea? The idea that General Flynn was uncomfortable with his own plea deal can’t be a surprise to the judge. It was already in the air when the judge erupted at the general at a now-infamous hearing in open court back in December 2018.
The publication added why isn’t the judge, after seeing the long history of prosecutorial misconduct and overreach at the DOJ, looking into the allegation that Flynn’s family was threatened with total destruction? That’s the real crime here. Instead, the myth-peddling continues because they hate Trump and most of all, they’re lawyers. They’re arrogant—and the prosecution, which Sullivan has indirectly joined with these puzzling moves to outsource the prosecution to the wingnut lefty fringe, never wants to admit they’re wrong.
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