December 14, 2018: Gen. Flynn's Lawyers Insist FBI Tricked Him into Lying - Even Though He Was Already Lying to VP Pence

 

12/14/18: With this president and with this miscreant crew, there’s always more legal news to be discussed. And Special Counsel Mueller has been making plenty. Last Thursday, lawyers for General Flynn filed court papers insisting that even though their client had pled guilty to one charge of lying to the F.B.I. he hadn’t really been lying. 

 

Trump tweets support for lying to the F.B.I. 

Flynn, his lawyers insisted, had been tricked into lying when F.B.I. agents interviewed him about contacts with Russians during the 2016 campaign. Flynn, they said, did not know it was a crime to lie to F.B.I. agents. 

Naturally, Trump’s radar ears picked up the news and he had to tweet support for lying, which was not, apparently, lying: 

They [prosecutors] gave General Flynn a great deal because they were embarrassed by the way he was treated - the FBI said he didn’t lie and they [Mueller’s team] overrode the FBI. They want to scare everybody into making up stories that are not true by catching them in the smallest of misstatements. Sad!...... 

 

On Friday Mueller’s team filed a blistering rebuttal. Prosecutors pointed out that Flynn lied to Vice President Pence and several White House officials about this matter – secret contacts with Russians – long before he talked to agents from the F.B.I. 

Flynn was heavily to that set of lies when he first met with federal agents. He couldn’t turn back and keep his position. They didn’t need to “trick” him into repeating those falsehoods. He had no choice – save honor. 

Flynn lied multiple times during multiple interviews (see: 12/6/18). Investigators pointed out that the general had covered up the fact he had received more than half a million dollars from the government of Turkey. They noted that he agreed to plead guilty to one felony because his son was implicated in the money-making scheme. They added that both father and son had failed to report such income, and that this was the best deal the father could expect, when he knew he might have been charged with a half-dozen serious crimes.

Gen. Flynn was tricked into moving his lips.