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<\/a>In this Dec. 18, 2018, file photo, President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, arrives at federal court in Washington. Flynn is due back in court for the first time in weeks as his lawyers mount an aggressive attack on the special counsel\u2019s Russia investigation. (AP Photo\/Carolyn Kaster, File)<\/p><\/div>\n
By Rowan Scarborough – The Washington Times<\/p>\n
The\u00a0FBI<\/a>\u00a0under James B. Comey \u201cunilaterally\u201d made the decision to interview retired\u00a0Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn<\/a>, excluding input from the Justice Department, ignoring the White House counsel and leading\u00a0Flynn<\/a>\u00a0to believe agents were arriving as friends to discuss terrorism, his lawyer says.<\/p>\n Mr. Comey<\/a>, after being fired by President\u00a0Trump<\/a>, later bragged in public that he sent\u00a0Peter Strzok<\/a>\u00a0and another agent to the White House on Jan. 24, 2017, knowing he could capitalize on a chaotic place.<\/p>\n Sidney Powell<\/a>,\u00a0Flynn<\/a>\u2019s attorney, told District Judge Emmet Sullivan in a new court filing that\u00a0FBI<\/a> higher-ups strategized the day before for what she called an \u201cambush.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhen the Director of the FBI<\/a>, and a group of his close associates, plot to set up an innocent man and create a crime \u2014 while taking affirmative steps to ensnare him by refusing to follow procedures designed to prevent such inadvertent missteps \u2014 this amounts to conduct so shocking to the conscience and so inimical to our system of justice that it requires the dismissal of the charges for outrageous government conduct,\u201d\u00a0Ms. Powell<\/a>\u00a0wrote.<\/p>\n Then-Deputy\u00a0FBI<\/a>\u00a0Director Andrew McCabe, who would later be fired for allegedly lying about an unrelated leaked news story, telephoned\u00a0Flynn<\/a>\u00a0the day before to arrange a no-lawyer interview.<\/p>\n Mr. Strzok<\/a>\u00a0found\u00a0Flynn<\/a>\u00a0\u201crelaxed and jocular\u201d and \u201cunguarded.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis and\u00a0Strzok<\/a>\u2019s admissions make clear that Comey and McCabe were executing their own agenda \u2014 not investigating a crime,\u201d\u00a0Ms. Powell<\/a>\u00a0said.<\/p>\n Flynn<\/a>\u00a0pleaded guilty in December 2017 to lying to the agents when he said he didn\u2019t discuss Obama-imposed sanctions with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak when they spoke during the transition. In fact, a transcript in the agents\u2019 possession showed he did.<\/p>\n He became a cooperating witness in the Russian election interference probe by special counsel Robert Mueller.\u00a0Flynn<\/a> had no information on any conspiracy, which Mr. Mueller said in March he didn\u2019t find.<\/p>\n Ms. Powell<\/a>\u00a0is accusing the Mueller team of withholding favorable evidence, called \u201cBrady,\u201d as ordered by the judge.\u00a0Flynn<\/a>\u00a0did not know until the day after he pleaded guilty the degree to which\u00a0Mr. Strzok<\/a>\u00a0despised President\u00a0Trump<\/a>\u00a0as expressed in text messages.<\/p>\n Ms. Powell<\/a>\u2019s latest brief is a response to a reply from Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Brandon L. Van Grack. He called\u00a0Ms. Powell<\/a>\u2019s previous assertions \u201cconspiracy theories.\u201d He said that all of her requested documents either didn\u2019t exist or were immaterial.<\/p>\n After leaving the White House that day,\u00a0Mr. Strzok<\/a>\u00a0texted\u00a0FBI<\/a>\u00a0counsel Lisa Page, then his lover.<\/p>\n Mr. Strzok<\/a>\u00a0texted Page: \u201cDescribe the feeling, nervousness, excitement knowing we had just heard him denying it all. Knowing we\u2019d have to pivot into asking. Puzzle round and round about it. Talk about the funny details. Remember what I said that made Andy [McCabe] laugh and ask if he really said that.\u201d<\/p>\n Ms. Powell<\/a>\u00a0wrote, \u201cIn this case, high-ranking\u00a0FBI<\/a>\u00a0officials orchestrated an ambush-interview of the new president\u2019s National Security Advisor, not for the purpose of discovering any evidence of criminal activity \u2014 they already had tapes of all the relevant conversations about which they questioned\u00a0Mr. Flynn<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 but for the purpose of trapping him into making statements they could allege as false.<\/p>\n Ms. Powell<\/a>\u00a0said that the\u00a0FBI<\/a>\u2019s report on the Flynn interview, called a 302, was changed to make him look guilty.\u00a0Mr. Flynn<\/a>\u00a0had said he was not sure he spoke to Mr. Kislyak about a United Nations vote. The\u00a0FBI<\/a>, after news of the conversation leaked to The Washington Post, changed the 302 to \u201cFlynn<\/a>\u00a0stated he did not.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis is deceptive manipulation,\u201d\u00a0Ms. Powell<\/a>\u00a0said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe government continues to hide evidence of the original 302, other exculpatory texts, and other forms of information completely,\u201d\u00a0Ms. Powell<\/a>\u00a0said.<\/p>\n On May 9, 2017, the day after\u00a0Mr. Comey<\/a>\u00a0was fired,\u00a0Mr. Strzok<\/a>\u00a0texted: \u201cWe need to open the case we\u2019ve been waiting on now while Andy is acting.\u201d<\/p>\n The next day, he opened an obstruction of justice case against\u00a0Mr. Trump<\/a>, as well as a counterintelligence probe to see if he was a Russian agent.<\/p>\n In the background, as the\u00a0FBI<\/a>\u00a0tried to nail\u00a0Flynn<\/a>, was the Democratic Party-financed dossier circulated in the bureau by Hillary Clinton operatives. It alleged falsely that\u00a0Trump<\/a>\u00a0aides were in an extensive conspiracy with Moscow.<\/p>\n Ms. Powell<\/a>\u00a0accused prosecutor Van Grack, a veteran of the Mueller team, of providing false information when he said only one 302 version existed.<\/p>\n She said, \u201cThe evidence the defense requests, if produced, would defeat the factual basis for the plea. The original 302 is crucial to this as are the original notes. The government elides the truth that the\u00a0FBI<\/a>\u00a0has it and any other drafts prior to February 10, 2017.\u201d<\/p>\n