Michael Flynn, the FBI and the far right's latest nutbar conspiracy theory

[DonViejo]

Paranoids and bloviators on the right have a new fantasy: Flynn will be cleared — and somehow so will Donald Trump!

HEATHER DIGBY PARTON
DECEMBER 17, 2018 2:15PM (UTC)

I doubt that Robert Mueller and his staff spend much time worrying about what the right-wing fever swamp thinks about the job they are doing. But if they did pay attention to what the Trump fanatics say about them, they would likely be surprised to learn that they are currently being excoriated for giving Michael Flynn what amounts to a "get out of jail free" card. It's not because these Trump supporters think Flynn deserves to pay a higher price for lying to the feds or betraying the national trust. They think that Mueller's office should have withdrawn all charges and apologized to Flynn for ever indicting him the first place.

Some of these folks laboring under the misapprehension that Flynn's only crime was lying when it's perfectly obvious that the reason he was only charged with that crime is that he was implicated in something much more serious, and had the goods on others with whom he was involved. (You'd think they might have gotten a clue from the massive redactions in the government's sentencing memorandum.) Apparently, they are not aware of how any of this works.

Mueller's prosecutors asked the judge to give Flynn no prison time because they reported he had provided them "substantial" assistance and because his "early cooperation was particularly valuable." They reported that Flynn had participated in 19 interviews and provided documents and communications related to three separate investigations -- two of which nobody had known anything about until this sentencing memo was submitted to the court. It was extremely generous to Flynn, citing his military record and testifying to his devotion to public service.

Proving once again that no good deed goes unpunished, when Flynn's defense lawyers submitted their sentencing memo they decided to imply that their client hadn't been adequately informed that lying to the FBI could be a crime. So the right wing went crazy, building up all kinds of conspiracy theories about how the former head of Intelligence for the Pentagon, who was briefly national security adviser to the president, had been duped by the corrupt Hillary lovers at the FBI. They've been wringing their hands and rending their garments for the last week about "perjury traps" and "witch hunts," portraying Flynn as a naive rube who couldn't possibly have known that lying to the FBI about Russia -- at a time when everyone in the country knew there was a counter-intelligence investigation into Russian interference in the election -- might not be a smart move.

The Wall Street Journal led the way with a fatuous op-ed called “The Flynn Entrapment,” which claimed that Flynn was a tragic figure who couldn't possibly have lied to the FBI because he was a "highly decorated officer" and that the whole thing "reeks of entrapment." They propose that Flynn may have simply "misremembered," implying that he was so intimidated by the G-men that he just stumbled and then pleaded guilty to crimes he didn't commit. They don't address all the further cooperation in the criminal cases cited by the Mueller team, but others on Fox News and elsewhere seem convinced that Flynn was somehow coerced into lying about all of it out of fear for his life and that of his family

more
https://www.salon.com/2018/12/17/michael-flynn-the-fbi-and-the-far-rights-latest-nutbar-conspiracy-theory/

[FakeNoose]

1. If it's entrapment, why did Flynn plead guilty?

Not only is Michael Flynn guilty as hell, but he's also giving up Pence and maybe Individual-1 too. He's not going to be cleared, he's been convicted. And there was certainly no entrapment. Flynn had better get some jail time out of this or I'll be pissed.

[akraven]

2. Keep on truckin' Mr. Mueller!

Wow. What's next?