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The dozen belated disclosures that turned the tide in Michael Flynn’s case | Just The News
- Case Closure Memo. Weeks before the FBI sought to interview Flynn, the lead FBI agent who had investigated the retired general for five months wrote a memo to close the investigation on Jan. 4, 2017, concluding he had found "no derogatory" evidence that Flynn committed a crime or posed a national security threat. FBI management then ordered the closure to be rescinded and pivoted toward trying lure Flynn into an interview.
- Agent’s ‘Get Trump’ Confession. In an extraordinary interview with prosecutors this fall, the FBI agent who led the Flynn case, William Barnett, admitted there was never evidence of wrongdoing by the retired general or Russian collusion by Trump, but the probe was kept open by Special Counsel Robert Mueller because his team was obsessed with punishing the president. "With respect to Flynn’s [phone call] with the Russian ambassador in December 2016 BARNETT did not believe Flynn was being directed by TRUMP. BARNETT did not believe FLYNN had any additional information to provide SCO. Barnett believed the prosecution of Flynn by SCO was used as a means to 'get TRUMP,’” the interview stated.
- Not a Russian agent. A Justice Department memo exonerated Flynn of Russia collusion on Jan. 30, 2017, nearly a year before he pled guilty. "The FBI did not believe Flynn was acting as an agent of Russia," the DOJ memo states.
- ‘Playing Games.’ The rush to interview Flynn in the absence of any evidence of wrongdoing created significant concerns for Assistant FBI Director for Counterintelligence William Priestap, who poignantly questioned whether the bureau was “playing games” with the interview strategy. "What is our goal?,” Priestap wrote in his handwritten notes that suddenly turned up as evidence in spring 2020. “Truth/Admission or to get him to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired?"
- Infamous Obama White House meeting. Ordinarily, the White House steers clear of any involvement in FBI criminal investigations. But notes and records that turned up earlier this year show the FBI briefed President Obama and Vice Preident Joe Biden on Jan. 5, 2017 on the state of the Flynn case. The president gave an instruction for the FBI to put its best people on continuing the probe while Biden suggested considering using the Logan Act to prosecute Flynn, the memos suggest.
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