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Trump Russia Tag

In my post last night, I suggested that Judge Emmett Sullivan likely was in the process of deciding who to appoint to argue the government's (former) position as to whether DOJ would be permitted to drop the case, Judge in Michael Flynn case may allow ‘amicus’ briefs on whether to drop case – is there reason for freak out?

CNN host Brian Stelter lost his damn mind on Sunday's Reliable Sources because some people in the media had the nerve to report the news not related to the Wuhan coronavirus. They had the audacity to address the issue that the FBI might have set up former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. Stelter considered it an "obsession" because nothing can ever top the pandemic!

The Department of Justice, after concluding that the prosecution of Michael Flynn was the product of misconduct by FBI and DOJ officials, moved to drop the case against Flynn. But not so fast. Flynn pleaded guilty, a plea that the DOJ motion to drop the charges calls into question. A judge has discretion whether to allow a case to be dropped, but normally if the prosecution doesn't want to prosecute, a judge will not force a prosecution. But where a guilty plea has been entered and accepted by the court, and a motion to withdraw the plea rejected by the court, the court has a lot more power because the prosecution, in a sense, is over already. Only sentencing remains.

The Department of Justice dropped its case against former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn on Thursday due to new information. The DOJ also released documents in its motion. These documents showed President Barack Obama knew details from Flynn's wire-tapped calls, and then-Acting Attorney General Rod Rosenstein expanded the Russia-Trump collusion probe beyond its primary scope.

The House Intelligence Committee released documents related to its investigation of possible collusion between then-candidate Donald Trump's campaign and Russia. Chairman Adam Schiff always said he had ironclad evidence Trump's campaign had help from Russia. Except he did not. In fact, none of the top people in President Barack Obama's administration had any direct evidence of collusion.

UPDATE: Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell told Schiff the materials are ready for release. If Schiff does not do it then Grenell will release the materials:
Acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell has sent a letter to chairman Adam Schiff notifying him that transcripts of all 53 interviews, over 6,000 pages in all, have been cleared for public release. "All of the transcripts, with our required redactions, can be released to the public without any concerns of disclosing classified material," Grenell wrote to Schiff in a letter dated May 4.

Last week, the media worked itself into one of their seemingly daily hyper-drive sky-is-falling hissy fits over an intelligence briefing. During said briefing, Shelby Pierson falsely—or, to be more charitable, mistakenly—claimed that intelligence shows that Russian interference in the 2020 election is due to their preference for President Trump.

Judge Amy Berman Jackson sentenced Roger Stone to 40 months in prison, $20,000 fine, and two years of supervised release. A jury convicted him "on seven charges of obstruction, lying to Congress and witness tampering" last year.

General Michael Flynn is now accusing federal prosecutors of acting in “bad faith” during the Russia probe and is moving to withdraw his guilty plea. This is unfolding as he faces a term of six months in prison.