It's the right call, but also a tad bittersweet. Michael Flynn has been in legal purgatory after Judge Emmet Sullivan refused to toss the case after virtually everyone said that it should. The original prosecutor resigned. The Department of Justice had a lengthy memo detailing a long history of prosecutorial misconduct that warranted the criminal case to be dropped. There were no parties who wanted to continue with this case, but Sullivan played the long game. It appears that he was hoping to delay until Election Day in the hopes of a Biden win would lead to a Democratic DOJ pulling the motion to dismiss. Well, that plan is done. President Trump has issued a full pardon to he beleaguered and battered former national security adviser who did nothing wrong other than work for Donald J. Trump (via Politico):
It is my Great Honor to announce that General Michael T. Flynn has been granted a Full Pardon. Congratulations to @GenFlynn and his wonderful family, I know you will now have a truly fantastic Thanksgiving!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 25, 2020
Outgoing President Donald Trump pardoned his former national security adviser Michael Flynn on Wednesday for lying to FBI agents investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election.
[…]
Trump had long been expected to pardon Flynn, pummeling prosecutors and the FBI for their handling of the case, part of a concerted attack on the investigations against him. Trump has falsely accused the FBI and Justice Department of mounting a “coup” against him in the years after his election.
BREAKING: Trump pardons Michael Flynn, former national security advisor who admitted lying to FBIhttps://t.co/BIRNevbpzv
— CNBC Now (@CNBCnow) November 25, 2020
But he ‘lied to the FBI,’ right? Meh. Even the agents who interviewed Flynn felt he wasn’t lying. In fact, the bureau was wrapping up its investigation until the special prosecutor’s office put the screws to him, rehashing the shoddy Logan Act nonsense that led to him being put in the crosshairs of the Obama administration. Remember, Flynn, got ensnared in this mess because he made some phone calls, legit, run-of-the-mill phone calls, with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Threatened with financial ruin, Flynn, who was not represented by the crack team of lawyers now headed by Sidney Powell, plead guilty to these politically motivated charges. Powell was excellent in this case, unearthing scores of shady behavior by the Justice Department, including a DOJ memo that all but exonerated Flynn of being a Russian agent six days after his interview with the FBI in January of 2017. Ex-FBI Director James Comey and Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, both of whom were fired in disgrace, were out to get Flynn no matter what.
We don’t know who buried that exculpatory DOJ memo, some people have alleged current FBI head Chris Wray. And there were issues with the 302 report as well, whose compilation deviated from FBI department policy.
And then, this legal circus with Judge Sullivan who exported the prosecution, allowing the most unhinged anti-Trump legal minds to file amicus briefs. Yeah, talk about sending an invite for mob rule antics. Sullivan also tapped an ex-federal judge, John Gleeson, to fight the DOJ motion. Gleeson’s past opinions pretty much laid out in black and white that the government has pretty much universal authority to bring forward and drop cases, as noted in his United States v. HSBC Bank USA decision back in 2013. Gleeson now works for the law firm representing resister-in-chief Sally Yates.
The Flynn case was a fiasco. It was resurrected by the Mueller probe who acted on the previous shoddy claims regarding the Logan Act. Why? It was known to be false. Frankly, and Wall Street Journal columnist Kimberley Strassel noted this as well, there should be a special probe into that investigation, as it seems it was probably set up to give a polish job the FBI’s disastrous counterintelligence probe into Russian collusion. They took the country for a second ride down this road to attack the Trump presidency and ruin people’s lives in the process, innocent people’s lives. Flynn did nothing wrong, which makes this pardon a bit bittersweet. The anti-Trump Left just ran out the clock here.
