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Schrodinger's Materiality: Bill Barr's DOJ Has an Active Filing Arguing Flynn's Lies Were Material
The Mike Flynn case is the rare opportunity where the kind of Both-Sides journalism the Beltway press loves to practice has merit. On one side, there's Bill Barr's DOJ, which has a currently active argument that Mike Flynn's lies were material to a legitimate investigation. On the other side, there's Bill Barr's DOJ, which has a different argument that because there was no legitimate investigation at the time, Mike Flynn's lies were not material.
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Three Days in December 2016: Sanctions, Nukes, Syria, and Russia
Between three days in December 2016, some intelligence report or reports involving Mike Flynn seems to have flowed through very senior government officials, first to Treasury, then to NATO, and then to CIA.
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As Richard Burr Rushes to Release Volume Five of SSCI's Russian Investigation, the FBI Closes In
Richard Burr is pushing to get the final volume of the Senate Intelligence Committee investigation into Russia's tampering in 2016 declassified before the August recess. That may explain why the totally justified investigation into Burr's potential insider trading is happening so aggressively and publicly.
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Billy Barr Put a Firearms Prosecutor in Charge of Reviewing a Counterintelligence Investigation
The career prosecutor Bill Barr brought in from St. Louis to review the Mike Flynn prosecution is an expert on felons brandishing guns, not on counterintelligence investigations.
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Judge Sullivan to Judge Gleeson: Pick Flynn's Perjury
I warned Sidney Powell not to get too cute with Judge Sullivan. I noted that her efforts to get her client out of his guilty plea involved him making materially conflicting sworn statements. Too late.
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Of over 40 Potential Unmaskings of Mike Flynn During the Transition, Just One Led to Criminal Charges
Ric Grenell has sent credulous reporters into a tizzy with a list of unmaskings of Mike Flynn that show of over 40 potential unmaskings, just one led to a criminal investigation.
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The Legal Posture of the Flynn Case: Emmet Sullivan Has Up to Six Pending Decisions, Not One
Many, perhaps most, people who've commented in the last week have noted that Emmet Sullivan has the prerogative whether to accept DOJ's motion or not. It's true he has that authority. But he actually has up to six different decisions pending, including fully briefed sentencing memoranda and multiple conflicting sworn statements from Flynn.
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Sidney Powell Argues that Judge Sullivan Can't Appoint an Amicus at Same Time as Applauding the Time He Did Far More
Yesterday, Sidney Powell was publicly applauding Judge Sullivan's authority to appoint outsiders to review a prosecution gone haywire even as she was submitting a filing telling him he couldn't. She deleted that post -- but she can't delete the prior claims she made in Sullivan's docket.
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Emmet Sullivan Tells Potential Amici Not to Bug Him Yet
It's unclear precisely why Emmet Sullivan just wrote a long order telling potential amici seeking to weigh in on the Flynn prosecution to hold off. But the order does make clear that he's not just going to dismiss this prosecution.
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The Public Record Claims that Flynn Had No Permission from Trump to Undermine US Policy in Calling Kislyak
Ric Grenell is trying -- and the press is credulously complying -- to politicize an obvious unmasking of Mike Flynn's identity. The record shows the unmasking obviously complies with FISA standard, and Flynn's own actions exacerbated the need.
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Mike Flynn Collaborator Barbara Ledeen's Past Role in Producing "New" Evidence
DOJ claims it has "new" information to justify the flip-flop it made from a November filing arguing the investigation into Flynn was legitimate, and not a perjury trap. In the past, that has meant that Flynn collaborator Barbara Ledeen just wanted something on Fox News.
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DC Bar No. 472845 Argued Flynn's Prosecution Was Legitimate before DC Bar No. 472845 Argued It Wasn't
Last November, D.C. Bar No. 472845 submitted a filing arguing that FBI agents were engaged in a legitimate and significant investigation when they interviewed Mike Flynn on January 24, 2017. Last week, D.C. Bar No. 472845 submitted a filing that contradicts the earlier one in every way.
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Bill Barr Did Not Provide the Most Important Exhibit to His Mike Flynn Dismissal Motion: The Call Transcripts
As currently submitted, the government has made claims about the call transcripts between Mike Flynn and Sergey Kislyak without providing evidence. Indeed, the record currently provides evidence that rebuts those claims. Emmet Sullivan would be totally within his authority to demand those call transcripts.
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Deficit Hawks Screeching In The Background
Financial support for people and businesses crushed by the Covid-19 lockdowns won't cause inflation.
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Bill Barr Not Only Overrode Emmet Sullivan's Brady Ruling, He Explicitly Pre-Empted Sullivan's Covington Review
In moving to withdraw the Mike Flynn prosecution on Thursday, Billy Barr effectively overrode Emmet Sullivan's authority twice.
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All COVID-19 is Local, BBQ edition
BBQ: In KC, it's how we recognize the Apocalypse, and it's also a beacon of hope.
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The Fabulous Emptywheel Music Blog: Little Richard
Little Richard was everything. If it wasn't Chuck Berry, it was Richard Wayne Penniman. The definition of rock and roll.
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The Logan Act Is Just the Cherry on Mike Flynn's Foreign Agent Sundae
Bill Barr is misrepresenting the record to defend intervening in Mike Flynn's prosecution. But the way he's doing so makes it clear that Flynn did what he did on orders from Trump.
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Damning New Details from Mary McCord and Sally Yates
Among the things revealed in documents released yesterday is that Flynn didn't just discuss sanctions with Sergey Kislyak, he purportedly raised them. Which is one reason people who read the transcripts of his calls with Sergey Kislyak don't believe he forgot those conversations.
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Judge Sullivan Has Already Rejected Most of Timothy Shea's DOJ Flynn Pardon
In this post, I laid out how Acting DC US Attorney Timothy Shea claimed DOJ had "newly" acquired a bunch of information which led it to decide to ask Judge Emmet Sullivan to dismiss Mike Flynn's prosecution.
Except none of the information…