Robert Mueller’s Corrupt Bargain – General Michael Flynn Ensnared in a Deep-state Flytrap

 

Washington, DC – Special Counsel Robert Mueller has secured a guilty plea from General Michael Flynn on a single count of lying to federal agents (18 U.S.C, Section 1001). That is the news on the surface, such as it is, but buries the real story in an avalanche of process. As stated in the Mueller indictment, Flynn “did willfully and knowingly make materially false, fictitious and fraudulent statements and representations” to the FBI regarding his interaction with then-Russian Envoy Sergey Kislyak.

The Mueller investigation did not release any information or interview transcripts of General Flynn’s lying or the questions asked, only that he did lie, so the public cannot discern whether actual lies were told or Flynn’s statements to the FBI are simply misunderstandings or inexactitude of language. Given that the main accusations – that Flynn, as a member of the Trump transition team had conversations with Russia’s ambassador Kislyak – were not illegal acts, and do, in fact, represent the very nature of activities required for a peaceful transfer of power between democratically elected administrations. Such conversations are particularly necessary when those administrations vehemently disagree politically.

Full text of Flynn indictment

There is a tradition in the United States, a set of unwritten rules, that enables the nation to maintain a united front to the outside world during the transition period. Many pundits and politicians hold that Flynn’s conversations with the Russian ambassador represented a breaking of that tradition, and undermined the Obama Administration efforts regarding Russia. The problem with that argument is that the transition period traditions are a two-way street, the outgoing administration is supposed to refrain from making policy that might hamstring the incoming administration. In this case, the Obama Administration leveled last-minute sanctions against Russia as “punishment” for that nation’s alleged involvement with meddling in the US Presidential election. In one last controversial act, the Obama Administration enacted the sanctions based on exceedingly sketchy evidence and the Russians were set to retaliate with sanctions of their own. Now, lo and behold! The new administration is essentially under investigation by the old administration. Some legal scholars and a few politicians make a persuasive argument that Obama’s actions put the nation in jeopardy over unsubstantiated claims and that Flynn’s conversations, that lead to the Russians backing down from escalating the crisis, was solid diplomacy that helped the US rather than hurting the nation. Such actions are what we expect from competent transition teams.

As it is, the Special Counsel operated by Robert Mueller is not, supposedly, a criminal investigation but a “counter-intelligence” one, that is likely a corrupt bargain that is unconstitutional. Consider what former Deputy Attorney General Andrew McCarthy writes for the National Review:

“The Justice Department did not, as the pertinent special-counsel regulations require, identify specific crimes it suspected had been committed by Trump-campaign officials. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein disclosed no factual predicate calling for a criminal investigation from which Trump’s Justice Department would be ethically required to recuse itself. Under the Mueller ‘collusion’ precedent, it is evidently now American practice to criminalize foreign-policy disputes under the pretext of conducting a counterintelligence investigation. Instead, Mueller’s investigation was rationalized by the need to conduct a counterintelligence inquiry into Russia’s “cyber-espionage” meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Though there was no probable cause to believe Trump-campaign officials had participated in Russia’s hacking (and remember: the FBI and Obama Justice Department had been investigating for months before the special counsel was appointed), Mueller was encouraged to focus on whether Trump-campaign officials somehow “coordinated” in Russia’s perfidy.”

McCarthy demonstrates the nature of the investigation was counter-intelligence from the outset. So, when did the FBI become an “intelligence” organization in the first place? The FBI Counter-Intelligence Division was organized in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks…by none other than former FBI Director Robert Mueller. It’s no wonder a counter-intelligence investigation can so easily, and unconstitutionally, morph into a criminal investigation, we now have a domestic spy agency in the form of the FBI, that can use spy craft to rope innocent players into the criminal sphere. Just as important, and frightening, is the acceptance by people in Washington of how this corrupt system criminalizes political differences. McCarthy continues:

“While all that plays out, though, behold the frightening thing Mueller’s investigation has become: a criminalization of politics. In the new order of things, policy differences are the grist for investigation and prosecution. There is no evidence that Flynn or any other Trump associate was involved in Russia’s election interference. Instead, after being elected on the promise of significant policy shifts from the Obama administration, President-elect Trump directed Flynn, his incoming national-security adviser, to make contact with foreign counterparts, including but not limited to officials from Russia. This is standard operating procedure when administrations change — that’s why they call it a transition.”

Clearly, neither Flynn nor the incoming Trump Administration did anything illegal – or even politically untenable – in contacting and conversing with the Russian ambassador regarding current affairs between the two nations. Their actions were standard operating procedure for an incoming new administration, and all transition teams have engaged in such legal, preferable-to-the-alternative activities since the founding of the Republic.

So, why would General Flynn “lie” to the FBI? Why would he plead guilty to lying and become a convicted felon, basically erasing 30 years of honorable service to his country as a soldier? This aspect of the case seems a mystery on the surface, but even a cursory examination reveals the truth, the FBI broke General Flynn through aggressive emotional, physical and financial pressure – the entire counter-intelligence/criminal apparatus of the United States turned against one of its citizens. They broke him every bit as thoroughly as the Viet Cong did John McCain as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. How do we know this? Consider an interview conducted by independent journalist Jason Goodman of CrowdSourceTheTruth of former FBI Agent Robyn Gritz, who went through her own experience with a similar process. The video is very long, but its content sheds light on a system that literally destroys innocent people with a process that does an end-around of constitutional protections.

This ongoing saga proves that too much power has coalesced inside the structures of the Federal government and is diametrically at odds with the ideas of freedom and liberty. Reform is sorely needed at all levels of government but particularly in the areas of criminal justice, intelligence gathering and application of constitutional protections.