On pages 53-54, the report notes that in March 2017 \u201cDirector Comey testified to the Committee that \u2018the agents . . . discerned no physical indications of deception. They didn\u2019t see any change in posture, in tone, in inflection, in eye contact. They saw nothing that indicated to them that he knew he was lying to them.\u2019\u201d The quotes are from the committee transcript of Mr. Comey\u2019s remarks.<\/p>\n
\n
The report goes on to say that then Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe \u201cconfirmed the interviewing agent\u2019s initial impression and stated that the \u2018conundrum that we faced on their return from the interview is that although [the agents] didn\u2019t detect deception in the statements that he made in the interview . . . the statements were inconsistent with our understanding of the conversation that he had actually had with the ambassador.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Recall that the inconsistency concerned whether Mr. Flynn had discussed U.S. sanctions against Russia with the Russian ambassador to the U.S. Vice President Mike Pence had said publicly that Mr. Flynn had not discussed sanctions, and once it came to light that he had, Mr. Flynn resigned.<\/p>\n
But Mr. McCabe also nonetheless told the House Intelligence Committee that \u201c\u2018the two people who interviewed [Flynn] didn\u2019t think he was lying, [which] was not [a] great beginning of a false statement case.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
All of this relates to the mystery of why Mr. Flynn pleaded guilty to making false statements. It made little sense for him to lie since as a seasoned intelligence officer he would know the U.S. eavesdrops on the Russian ambassador. He also willingly sat for the FBI interview with no legal counsel, suggesting he felt no risk in doing so.<\/p>\n
Certainly the statements about the FBI agent\u2019s impression of Mr. Flynn would not have helped Mr. Mueller\u2019s case at trial had Mr. Flynn not pleaded guilty. The plea deal noted that Mr. Flynn\u2019s sentence would depend on his \u201cassistance in the investigation,\u201d and perhaps Mr. Flynn felt he lacked the money to defend himself in court. He also may have wanted to spare his son, whom Mr. Mueller was also targeting.<\/p>\n
In any case it is a dubious practice for a prosecutor to force a cooperating witness to plead guilty to a crime he didn\u2019t commit. Perhaps Mr. Flynn is supplying testimony behind the scenes that puts all of this in a better light, but the facts on the public record to date don\u2019t reflect well on Mr. Mueller\u2019s prosecutorial tactics toward Mr. Flynn.<\/p>\n
The House report also reflects poorly on Mr. Comey\u2019s credibility. Despite the transcript of his testimony, Mr. Comey at least three times on his book tour has denied telling Congress that the FBI agents did not think Mr. Flynn was lying. \u201cDid you tell lawmakers that FBI agents didn\u2019t believe former national security adviser Michael Flynn was lying intentionally to investigators?\u201d Fox News\u2019 Bret Baier asked Mr. Comey on April 26.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d Mr. Comey replied, adding that \u201cI didn\u2019t believe that and didn\u2019t say that.\u201d Asked a similar question by NBC\u2019s Chuck Todd, Mr. Comey responded, \u201cNot true. And I don\u2019t know what people heard me say, if they\u2019re reporting it accurately, what they heard me say, they misunderstood. But that\u2019s not accurate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perhaps Mr. Comey\u2019s memory is faulty, as happens with human beings, though then he might commiserate with Mr. Flynn. On the other hand, Mr. Comey has jailed many Americans for false statements to the FBI, with no accommodation for mistakes of memory.<\/p>\n
The latest House release also shows again the games that the Department of Justice and FBI are playing with redactions. The FBI has for weeks fought Intelligence Committee requests to declassify this portion of its report, though the only harm from public knowledge is to Mr. Comey\u2019s reputation and to the credibility of Mr. Mueller\u2019s prosecution.<\/p>\n
The FBI has a conflict of interest in overseeing redactions given that the behavior of its leaders and agents are in question. This is one more reason for President Trump to use his authority to declassify all of the Russia 2016 files.<\/p>\n
___
\nhttp:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/the-mystery-of-michael-flynns-guilty-plea-1525640861?shareToken=ste642063caf554722b8234c44596c9ffc&reflink=article_email_share<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Mystery of Michael Flynn\u2019s Guilty Plea<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-99028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=99028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99028\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=99028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=99028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=99028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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