Judge Finds ‘Disgust’ for Flynn
Terry H. Schwadron
Dec. 19, 2018
Lawyers for Michael T. Flynn, the former National Security Adviser, had argued before his sentencing for lying to the FBI that Flynn had been bamboozled by FBI agents and tricked into lying. It was an apparent plea for sympathy.
But it was taken as an opening that President Trump and sycophantic Fox News pundits picked up in an apparent belief that a judge might just use this bad FBI behavior to blow up the charges brought by Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III.
Instead, the opposite happened, a distinct possibility in this time when politics and law are colliding more and more, As a result, the credibility of the FBI along with other institutions is under attack, something that will reverberate long after the Trump presidency.
There was more than a little surprise yesterday as federal Judge Emmet G. Sullivan, apparently got steamed by the attempt, and used the start of the actual sentencing to excoriate former General Flynn’s behavior, making him own up to his guilty plea and threatening actual jail time before delaying the hearing and putting off sentencing to another day, allowing yet more time for cooperation with the special counsel.
Rather than focus on the amount of cooperation that Flynn has offered to the special counsel, the judge went right for the acts of lying, for protected and unreleased information about Flynn’s contacts with Russians and for Flynn’s work with Turkish government figures in an unrelated case about an effort to extradite a Turkish cleric whom the Turks believed had been part of a rebellion. Flynn was advising Trump when he and his company were working on behalf of the Turks, actions for which Flynn’s partners were prosecuted.
As The Washington Post told it,Judge Sullivan “made a point of making sure that Flynn stated and restated that he lied to the FBI, that he knew it was wrong to do so and that he accepted responsibility. Sullivan asked Flynn whether he knew that lying to the FBI was illegal, and Flynn said, “I was aware.” The judge gave Flynn several chances to withdraw his guilty plea, and Flynn opted to proceed.
“Then Sullivan went big.“Arguably you sold your country out,” he told Flynn, adding: “I’m not hiding my disgust, my disdain for this criminal offense.” He even invoked treason, asking the government whether they considered such a charge. (The government said it had not.) Sullivan suggested Flynn was working as a foreign agent while serving in the White House — a claim which he later backed off.”
Regardless of how one views the eventual sentence the judge remarks certainly made clear that his lawyers (and the White House) should not be arguing that he didn’t know that lying was problematic.
Of course, this Flynn hearing was another sign of tightening legal problems for the White House. The president had weighed in offering Flynn good luck, a decidedly different message than the previous day when Trump called his former fixer Michael Cohen a “rat” for cooperating with the special counsel.
Meanwhile, New York State forced the Trump Organization to shut down the Trump Foundation,determining that the charity was largely functioning as a slush-money account that Trump has used “for self-dealing and political gain.” Outgoing Atty. Gen. Barbara Underwood accused the foundation of “a shocking pattern of illegality” that was “willful and repeated” and included unlawfully coordinating with Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. Trump’s lawyers had agreed to shut the foundation, but not for government supervision.
What assets remain after penalties will be directed to charities that must be approved by the attorney general’s office, and the process will be subject to judicial supervision.
Nonprofit foundations are supposed to be devoted to charitable activities, but the attorney general’s office, following a two-year investigation, accused the Trump Foundation of being used to win political favor and even purchase a $10,000 portrait of Trump that was displayed at one of his golf clubs. The existence of the portrait was first reported by The Washington Post.
Trump was required to sign annual IRS filings in which he attested that the foundation did not engage in political activity. Wouldn’t you think that a sworn statement like tax returns could spawn yet another criminal investigation? In any event, this civil lawsuit accuses the foundation of virtually becoming an arm of the Trump campaign, with its campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, directing the foundation to make disbursements in Iowa only days before the state held its presidential nominating caucuses. Again, this could lead to more campaign finance violation allegations.
With Democrats taking the House majority, get ready for a lot more of this.
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