The Briefing Room

General Category => Trump Legal Investigations => Topic started by: Free Vulcan on June 04, 2018, 10:28:11 am

Title: Trump lawyers reveal previously unknown evidence in Michael Flynn case
Post by: Free Vulcan on June 04, 2018, 10:28:11 am
A newly-leaked January 29 memo from President Trump's first legal team to special counsel Robert Mueller suggests the president believed fired national security adviser Michael Flynn was no longer under investigation when he famously asked FBI Director James Comey — by Comey's account — to let the Flynn case go. With a wealth of previously-unreleased information about the Flynn affair, the memo also supports the contention that the FBI did not believe Flynn lied to the agents who questioned him in the Trump-Russia probe.

The bureau interviewed Flynn on Jan. 24, 2017, about his transition conversations with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak. In March 2017, Comey told the House Intelligence Committee that the agents "saw nothing that indicated to them that [Flynn] knew he was lying to them." Comey said the same thing to the Senate Judiciary Committee at around the same time; chairman Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, wrote recently that Comey "led us to believe … that the Justice Department was unlikely to prosecute [Flynn] for false statements made in that interview."

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/trump-lawyers-reveal-previously-unknown-evidence-in-michael-flynn-case?platform=hootsuite (https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/trump-lawyers-reveal-previously-unknown-evidence-in-michael-flynn-case?platform=hootsuite)
Title: Re: Trump lawyers reveal previously unknown evidence in Michael Flynn case
Post by: edpc on June 04, 2018, 02:20:46 pm
Quote
A newly-leaked January 29 memo from President Trump's first legal team to special counsel Robert Mueller suggests the president believed fired national security adviser Michael Flynn was no longer under investigation when he famously asked FBI Director James Comey — by Comey's account — to let the Flynn case go.


If the president believed that at the time, why didn’t he say so?  Why leak this now, if you never asked Comey to ‘let it go’ in the first place?  After all, he tweeted last December that Comey lied about it.


President Trump issued a fresh denial Sunday that he asked then-FBI Director James B. Comey to halt an investigation into the conduct of his dismissed national security adviser Michael Flynn.

“I never asked Comey to stop investigating Flynn,” Trump said in a pre-dawn message on Twitter. “Just more Fake News covering another Comey lie!”


https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2017/12/03/in-pre-dawn-twitter-message-trump-issues-a-fresh-denial-about-intervening-in-flynn-investigation/?utm_term=.a525c98aaae6 (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2017/12/03/in-pre-dawn-twitter-message-trump-issues-a-fresh-denial-about-intervening-in-flynn-investigation/?utm_term=.a525c98aaae6)


The fact is, Trump has a terrible relationship with the truth and that’s the reason this investigation continues.
Title: Re: Trump lawyers reveal previously unknown evidence in Michael Flynn case
Post by: Free Vulcan on June 04, 2018, 02:25:14 pm

If the president believed that at the time, why didn’t he say so?  Why leak this now, if you never asked Comey to ‘let it go’ in the first place?  After all, he tweeted last December that Comey lied about it.


Conversely, why did Comey hint to the White House and state to Congress that Flynn wouldn't likely be prosecuted, but then release his memo trying to create the impression that Trump tried to interfere with an investigation that Comey himself seemed to indicate was already done and finished?
Title: Re: Trump lawyers reveal previously unknown evidence in Michael Flynn case
Post by: edpc on June 04, 2018, 02:31:43 pm
Conversely, why did Comey hint to the White House and state to Congress that Flynn wouldn't likely be prosecuted, but then release his memo trying to create the impression that Trump tried to interfere with an investigation that Comey himself seemed to indicate was already done and finished?


That portion may have been completed, but there were other aspects over which Flynn was being investigated.  There were other charges Mueller brought against him, but Flynn entered the guilty plea to the lesser charge under the deal.
Title: Re: Trump lawyers reveal previously unknown evidence in Michael Flynn case
Post by: Free Vulcan on June 04, 2018, 02:38:09 pm

That portion may have been completed, but there were other aspects over which Flynn was being investigated.  There were other charges Mueller brought against him, but Flynn entered the guilty plea to the lesser charge under the deal.

Mueller wasn't even appointed yet in Feb, so what was Flynn being investigated for, and if he was, why didn't Comey say so to the Senate committee in March?
Title: Re: Trump lawyers reveal previously unknown evidence in Michael Flynn case
Post by: edpc on June 04, 2018, 02:44:44 pm
Mueller wasn't even appointed yet in Feb, so what was Flynn being investigated for, and if he was, why didn't Comey say so to the Senate committee in March?


Those would be questions Comey would probably have to answer.  I doubt the Mueller team came up with the information on Flynn and his son so quickly on their own.  Likely, a previous file existed, much like the case with Manafort.  That information gave them a place to carry on.  Perhaps it was inactive, making the statement true in the technical sense.