May 17, 2019: If It Sounds like Witness Tampering...That's Because It Is

 

5/17/19: New court filings related to the case against General Michael Flynn do further damage to President Trump’s claim that he has been totally exonerated by the Mueller Report. 

New documents reveal that Flynn, 

informed the government [investigators] of multiple instances, both before and after his guilty plea, where either he or his attorneys received communications from persons connected to the Administration or Congress [emphasis added, unless otherwise noted] that could have affected both his willingness to cooperate and the completeness of that cooperation.

Trump points at the guy he plans to pardon.

 

____________________ 

“If there’s information that implicates the President.” 

John Dowd, the president’s lawyer

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Flynn provided a voicemail recording – and that recording was included in the Mueller Report – from John Dowd, a defense lawyer for President Trump. The recording was made on November 22, 2017, just hours after Flynn made it clear he planned to start cooperating with Mueller’s team. 

As with the emails to Don Jr., promising Russian help (see: 5/9/19), try to pick out the subtle hints in what Dowd says: 

I understand your situation, but let me see if I can’t state it in starker terms. … It wouldn’t surprise me if you’ve gone on to make a deal with ... the government. … If … there’s information that implicates the president, then we’ve got a national security issue, … so, you know, … we need some kind of heads up. Um, just for the sake of protecting all our interests if we can. … Remember what we’ve always said about the President and his feelings toward Flynn, and that still remains.…

 

(As the Washington Post explains, “These ellipses and this punctuation are taken directly from the report.”)

 

The next day, Flynn’s lawyer calls Dowd back. The Mueller Report explains: 

According to Flynn’s attorneys, the President’s personal counsel was indignant and vocal in his disagreement [that Flynn was making the right decision to cooperate]. The President’s personal counsel said that he interpreted what they said to him as a reflection of Flynn’s hostility towards the President and that he planned to inform his client of that interpretation. Flynn’s attorneys understood that statement to be an attempt to make them reconsider their position because the President’s personal counsel believed that Flynn would be disturbed to know that such a message would be conveyed to the President.

 

That’s not “Fake News,” either, no matter how many times President Trump wants to say it is. 

It’s reporting.

 

BLOGGER’S NOTE: For additional witness tampering, see Sean Hannity’s texts with Paul Manafort, 6/22/19. 

For John Dowd’s final take on his client, the President of the United States, see: 9/9/10.