Criminal law, Politics

Then There Were Three: Flynn Filing Refers To Three Investigations By Special Counsel

The long-awaited filing from Special counsel Robert Mueller on the sentencing of Michael Flynn did not go into detail on what precisely Flynn has given Mueller beyond acknowledging his “substantial assistance.”  It did include however a surprising disclosure that Flynn was not only helping Mueller on the investigation of the Trump campaign’s ties to the Russian government but also two other redacted investigations. That has led to considerable unease in some quarters as to what those two additional investigation might be.The recommendation for no jail time is not surprising.  Some of us have been critical of Mueller’s criminal charge of the false statement because the original investigators reportedly did not believe that Flynn intentionally lied.  When Mueller came in, they used the false statement to threaten him as well as his son. Having said that, Flynn was involved in a host of dubious transactions and used his son as a key aide in the dealing — exposing not just himself but his family to such pressure

The recommendation also sends a message to other witnesses that their fortunes will change depending on their cooperation. For Paul Manafort, Mueller is working on guaranteeing that he dies in prison after he was viewed as violating his cooperation agreement.  George Papadopoulos also faced Mueller’s anger though a court declined Mueller’s request for a higher sentencing.

For Flynn, he could walk without jail time after being cooperative.  The message is deafening.

There are two main areas of cooperation with the second unexplained with what appears two subsidiary inquiries.  Flynn was involved in an alleged interest of Turkey in the effective kidnapping and delivery of Erdoğan critic Fethullah Gülen to Turkey for presumed torture and execution. At a meeting at the 21 Club in New York, Flynn was reportedly offered $15 million to arrange for Gülen to be taken on a private plane to a Turkish prison island. Flynn was also allegedly involved in a virtual propaganda film meant to discredit Gülen. The timing of these meetings is important because some communications occurred in December, when Flynn was assuming the role of acting national security adviser.

107 thoughts on “Then There Were Three: Flynn Filing Refers To Three Investigations By Special Counsel”

  2. Okay, so Flynn is a bad guy. What about those responsible for the deaths in Benghazi? How about the Lynch/Clinton meeting on the tarmac? Or walking guns to Mexico? What about the email server? Oh wait, those weren’t Trump.

    1. No, Thomas, it’s never about Trump. Trump supporters always change the subject. They always respond with, “What about–

      This phenomenon is actually being called ‘WhatAboutism’. In WhatAboutism, the truth (about Trump) must wait until 20 other things have been addressed. But no one, of course, has time to address those 20 other things. And that’s the whole idea.

      1. “WhatAboutism” is a standard, knee-jerk response to those who desire for some level of consistency in applying and enforcing the law.

    2. Haha. Please more BENGHAZI hearings!!! What, no “Uranium One” hoodoo?

      this is to “who cares about federal crimes, hannity has spoken!” tommie

      1. Every time I think that MarkyTroll can’t get any dumber or repetitive or tiresome, he keeps topping himself.
        This is about “If Adam Clymer is a major leaguer, I’m an All-Star in that category as MarkyTroll”.

  4. JHK a beautiful genius mind and prognosticator poetically renders truth

    http://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/the-ghost-of-christmas-present/

    “How exactly will this change the basic equation of China sending its industrial output to WalMart in exchange for American IOUs, while the trade deficit mounts ever-higher and the last holdouts of the US middle class sink into debt, addiction, and hopelessness? It won’t, of course, because Americans have to find another reason to get up in the morning besides reporting to the national demolition derby. I don’t know about you, but it doesn’t warm my heart to hear about x-hundred thousand “housing starts” every month, knowing that it represents the destruction of x-thousand acres of meadow, field, and forest, and that what’s being laid down on the landscape out there is soul-crushing infrastructure with no future.

    It’s not hard to see why US life expectancy is going down, driven by the two new leading causes of death: opiate drugs and suicide — the former often in the service of the latter. The citizens of this land have exchanged just about everything that makes life worth living for the paltry rewards of “bargain shopping” and happy motoring. But the worst sacrifice is the loss of any sense of community, of face-to-face human transactions with people you know, people who have duties and obligations to one another that can be successfully enacted and fulfilled. Instead, you get to do all your business with robots, even including the robots fronting for companies that seek to ruin you. “Your call is important to us,” says the telephone robot at the hospital billing office dunning you to fork over $7,000 for the three stitches Little Skippy got when his best friend flew the drone into his forehead. “Please hold for the next available representative.” Who wouldn’t want to shoot themselves?

    Interestingly, it’s the people of France who are going apeshit at this moment in history and not the much more beaten-down Americans. For all the deformities of the EU, France still maintains a general quality-of-life so far above what is found in the US these days that we look like some left-behind evolutionary dead end here in this wilderness of strip-malls and muffler shops. They live in towns and cities that are designed to bring people together in public. They support small business in spite of the diktats of Brussels. They maintain an interest in doing things well for its own sake. The French are rioting these days not simply over the cost of diesel fuel but because they’ve had enough impingements on their traditional ways of life and seek to arrest the losses.

    Americans, by contrast, seem to passively accept their new status as world-class losers. You can deprive them of whatever is meaningful, whatever makes life worth living, and sell them depressing simulacra to replace those things, and they never notice. Even the revolts ongoing in this land only seek to make relations between us worse, for instance the new super-Puritanism that wants to criminalize the most elementary mating ceremonies, like asking for date, or even paying attention to someone of the opposite sex. This is what the Democratic Party, formerly the party of the working people, has dedicated itself to all year. That’s your “Resistance.” They’ve managed to ruin one of the few consolations for being on this planet.

    Maybe you’all have had enough of that foolishness. Maybe when Christmas is over something will turn in that old proverbial widening gyre, and the anarchy loosened by that turn will not be “mere.””

    1. Kurtz, I read that article. Where does it say the DOJ undermined Trump? You think the DOJ triggered that sell-off on Wall Street…??

      1. I say they undermined trump. they did not need to go arrest that lady or pressure the Canadians to in the middle of a delicate pause in the trade dispute.

        I am for fair trade but its a negotiation. the team needs to be behind the chief in such things. not undermining him

        the sell off, complicated factors, who knows

        1. I’m not sure your article mentions it, but that Chinese woman was arrested for violating trade sanctions imposed on Iran. Sanctions that I believe Obama relaxed but Trump reimposed.

          1. allegedly. and she is a very high executive in the PRC. it ups the ante needlessly at a delicate time. the DOJ should be subordinate to the chief executive’s strategic negotiations in the national interests. one arrest does not end a problem but it can end a national advantage.

            I suspect the DOJ is adrift, compared to previous presidential regimes, and not just because of the Meuller witch-hunt’s bad example. Trump is not a seasoned politician habituated to dealing with arrogant bureaucrats, rather a business tycoon who may not yet have realized that bureaucrats are not employees. they pursue their own agendas, essentially.

            the ongoing overuse of sanctions is another topic in itself

            2. I think the DOJ should be investigated by an independent prosecutor like IG David Horowitz. Give him $30 million, a limitless staff and subpoena power. He’ll get to the bottom of the corruption and clean out that barnyard known as 950 Pennsylvania Avenue. NW.

  6. In Late Night Session of Lame Duck Legislature..

    WISCONSIN REPUBLICANS HURRIEDLY PASS BILLS

    TO LIMIT POWERS OF NEW DEMOCRATIC GOVERNOR AND A.G.

    The Wisconsin Capitol was quiet Wednesday after Republican lawmakers, in an all-night push made mostly behind closed doors, passed legislation diminishing the powers of incoming Gov. Tony Evers and Attorney General Josh Kaul and curtailing the timeline for early voting.

    The bills must be signed by outgoing Gov. Scott Walker before becoming law, but as of Wednesday afternoon his spokeswoman had not responded to requests for whether and when he might sign the bills. Walker was in Washington on Wednesday attending the funeral of former President George H.W. Bush.

    A Senate amendment to the bill was made public shortly before 5 a.m. Wednesday, and senators passed it at about 6 a.m. A layperson’s explanation of what the bills now do and how much they might cost from the state’s nonpartisan legislative agencies was not available Wednesday afternoon.

    The vote was 17-16, with Sen. Rob Cowles, R-Green Bay, the lone GOP “no” vote and all Democrats opposed.

    The Assembly signed off on the scaled back measure by a 56-27 vote roughly two hours later, with one Republican, Rep. Todd Novak, R-Dodgeville, joining all Democrats in opposition. Twelve of the votes were paired, meaning six Republicans and six Democrats didn’t vote to account for planned absences.

    Evers said in a Wednesday afternoon news conference that he plans to personally communicate with Walker about the bills.

    Asked if he’d have any recourse if the bills become law, Evers said “everything’s on the table, from litigation to other actions.”

    The last-minute change to the bill scaled back a controversial provision restricting the attorney general. It would have allowed a legislative panel to name outside special counsel to effectively replace the attorney general defending the state if a law is challenged.

    Under the amended bill, legislative leaders still could choose to obtain special counsel to intervene in a case on its behalf if a statute is challenged in court. But the outside attorney would not act in place of the attorney general, as in the original proposal.

    Edited from: “Republican Lawmakers Approve Amended LameDuck Bill After Capitol All-Nighter”

    From today’s WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL

    1. Michigan Republicans are also busy trying to limit powers of new Democratic governor and A.G. A similar push was made in North Caroline two years ago.

      Republicans believe their priorities should over-ride elections. Like Democrats can’t be trusted to take power. In fact, one Wisconsin state senator was actually quoted as saying, “We’re concerned they have a liberal agenda”.

      That liberal agenda is pulling Wisconsin out of a class action suit challenging Obamacare. The incoming governor and A.G. ran on pledges to do just that. But Republicans believe that Wisconsin voters erred in their choices.

    3. Another example that the modern republican party has no interest in democracy. They do not want it or do they respect it.

  9. After reading today’s comments from the usual willfully blind crew, maybe it would be a good time to remember the ole saying, if you are digging a hole so deep that you can not get out, stop digging.

    1. FF Sierra….
      I was not aware of the “Babylon Bee”; thanks for the link, and for the fact that your link introduced me to another essential source of news.
      I primarily use The Onion and Weekly World News ( “The world’s only reliable news) to stay informed.😉😀
      The Babylon Bee will be a good addition to my other sources of news. It’s very well-written, and another great alternative to the fake news of the MSM.

      1. Tom, the Babylon Bee is hilarious satire. I subscribe to their daily newsletter, and I have no idea how they come up with all those stories! Such talent!

  11. “George Papadopoulos also faced Mueller’s anger though a court declined Mueller’s request for a higher sentencing.”

    JT does it again. Mueller recommended 0-6 months, leaving it up to the judge whether to go toward 0 or toward 6 months. I believe the 0 – 6 months is the required range with Mueller adding no further recommendation. It becomes more obvious that JT has a bias against Mueller.

    As to Flynn being charged only with lying to the FBI, He said he did with his guilty plea. Would you prefer that he be charged with all the other criminal things that he did for which he wasn’t charged in return for his cooperation.

  12. I am sooo sick of all this stupid Mueller crap. If he isn’t going to go after the overt collusion between HRC, DNC, Steele, etc., then he is nothing but Performance Art for the DC crowd. The equivalent of a Stalinist Show Trial Prosecutor.

    Whatever, Flynn deserves an Irish Poem!

    Out, Like Flynn???
    An Irish Poem by Squeeky Fromm

    There once was a general named Flynn,
    Who didn’t have to go to the pen!
    Mueller’s a sham!
    Who indicted a ham
    Sandwich, for viewers of Cable News N!

    Squeeky Fromm
    Girl Reporter

    2. I know one that’s much better:

      The Whos down in Whoville liked people a lot,
      But the Grinch in the White House most certainly did not.
      He didn’t arrive there by the will of most Whos,
      But stole the election that he really did lose.
      Vowed to “rule from the middle,” then installed his regime.
      (Did this really happen, or is it just a bad dream?)
       
      He didn’t listen to voters, just his friends he was pleasin’
      Now, please don’t ask why, who knows what’s the reason.
      It could be his heart wasn’t working just right.
      It could be, perhaps, that he wasn’t too bright.
      But I think that the most likely reason of all,
      Is that both brain and heart were two sizes too small.
       
      In times of great turmoil, this was bad news,
      To have a government that ignores its Whos.
      But the Whos shrugged their shoulders, went on with their work,
      Their duties as citizens so casually did shirk.
      They shopped at the mall and watched their T.V.
      They drove a gas guzzling big S.U.V.,
      Oblivious to what was going on in D.C.,
      Ignoring the threats to democracy.
       
      They read the same papers that ran the same leads,
      Reporting what only served corporate needs.
      (For the policies affecting the lives of all nations
      Were made by the giant U.S. Corporations.)
      Big business grew fatter, fed by its own greed,
      And by people who shopped for the things they didn’t need.
       
      But amidst all the apathy came signs of unrest,
      The Whos came to see we were fouling our nest.
      And the people who cared for the ideals of this nation
      Began to discuss and exchange information:
      The things they couldn’t read, in the corporate-owned news,
      Of FTAA meetings and CIA coups,
      Of drilling for oil and restricting rights.
      They published some books, created websites,
      Began to write letters, and use their e-mail
      (Though Homeland Security might send them to jail!)
       
      What began as a whisper soon grew to a roar,
      These things going on they could no longer ignore.
      They started to rise up and reach out to all
      Let their voices be heard, they rose to the call,
      To vote, to petition, to gather, dissent,
      To question the policies of the “President.”
       
      As greed gained in power and power knew no shame
      The Whos came together, sang “Not in our name!”
      One by one from their sleep and their slumber they woke
      The old and the young, all kinds of folk,
      Stop stockpiling weapons and aiming for war!
      Stop feeding the rich, start feeding the poor!
      Stop storming the deserts to fuel SUV’s!
      Stop telling us lies on the mainstream T.V.’s!
       
      Stop treating our children as a market to sack!
      Stop feeding them Barney, Barbie, and Big Mac!
      Stop trying to addict them to lifelong consuming,
      In a time when severe global warming is looming!
      Stop cavorting with dictators who have attacked!
      Start dealing with ours that are strung out on crack!
       
      A mighty sound started to rise and to grow,
      “The old way of thinking simply must go!”
      No American dream that cares only for wealth
      Ignoring the need for community health.
       
      The rivers and forests are demanding their pay,
      If we’re to survive, we must walk a new way.
      No more excessive and mindless consumption
      Let’s sharpen our minds and garner our gumption.
      For the ideas are simple, but the practice is hard,
      And not to be won by a poem on a card.
      It needs the ideas and the acts of each Who,
      So let’s get together and plan what to do!
       
      And so they all gathered from all round the Earth
      And from it all came a miraculous birth.
      The hearts and the minds of the Whos they did grow,
      Three sizes to fit what they felt and they know.
      While the Grinches they shrank from their hate and their greed,
      Bearing the weight of their every foul deed.
       
      From that day onward the standard of wealth,
      Was whatever fed the Whos spiritual health.
      They gathered together to revel and feast,
      And thanked all who worked to conquer their beast.
      For although our story pits Grinches against Whos,
      The true battle lies in what we daily choose.
      For inside each Grinch is a tiny small Who,
      And inside each Who is a tiny Grinch too.
      One thrives on love and one thrives on greed.
      Who will win out? It depends who you feed!
       

      1. If you wrote that, it is really great and shows a lot of talent!

        While I am a social conservative, I am a lot more progressive on economic issues. So, I can agree with many of the sentiments.

        Squeeky Fromm
        Girl Reporter

  13. Trump is proving himself to be the worm on the hook, by the North Korean leader, by the Chinese leader, and my Mueller. Make American Great Again-Dump Trump.

    1. Meuller is the worm

      Kim is a dangerous adversary and Trump has done meritorious diplomacy with him, making the world a safer place, if only by lending his implicit support to more cross border communication and deescalation between the DPRK and the ROK

      Xi is a dangerous adversary and the PRC has been ripping off the USA of its intellectual property massively for decades. A trade fight was long overdue

      Thank Trump if you care but you are a Canadian so probably want us to be weak so you can “Dump” more subsidized Canadian milk in our market. Enjoy winter up in the Great White North, please!

    2. Isaac is proving himself to be somebody in whose head, Trump lives! Rent free!

      Isacc’s very own imaginary boogie man, who is the mostest evilest man who ever lived! How childish! How mentally ill!

      Squeeky Fromm
      Girl Reporter

  14. As to Flynn. The statement by Meuller is a two way escape hatch. It in no way states what the ‘assistance ‘ was which means it could be he blew the whistle on anyone to he showed how the phony collusion charge could not have occurred. There is nothing in that recommendation for light sentence including no jail time to indicate either way. Only the strong arming and intentionally corrupt technique used to threaten Flynns family was left unmentioned. He knows the Judge is after his sorry ass and that’s his way of evading.

    1. yes Meuller is “Walking it back” that is his persecution of Flynn was too aggressive and he’s trying to play nice now.

      1. The bargaining stage of the grieving process is supposed to follow the death of the denial stage of the grieving process. There’s no way to negotiate the denial stage back to life–no matter how artistic the deal-maker might be. Flynn understood that. Trump will be made to understand the same.

      2. Flynn let go of the denial stage of his grief the day Trump fired Flynn. Flynn’s lawyer then tried to bargain a grant of immunity for Flynn’s testimony to Congress. Congress balked at it. That left Mueller and his shop as the only deal maker in town. Because the man who fired Flynn was never going to pardon Flynn. Flynn has given 19 interviews with Mueller’s shop since December 1st. 2017. Can anyone seriously believe that Flynn and Mueller and his crew have sitting around for more than a year on 19 separate occasions swapping tall tales about the big fish that got away?

      3. Absolutely – he does not want to have to explain divergent views by DOJ on Flynn i.e. FBI says he was not lying then Herr Muler comes knocking on door and offers jail time or admission to lying. Just CYA and avoidance of more embarrassment for Muler special police force.

        1. Manafort was interviewed c. a dozen times by “Mueller and his crew”.
          If Mueller is to be believed, Manafort told some whoppers in those interviews.
          “Can anyone seriously believe” that Manafort was telling fish stories?
          What it comes down to, for some, is a matter of what is expedient to believe.

        2. That’s not what the FBI said. And you know it. What the FBI said was that there was that they saw no indication that Flynn was lying. But they already had signal intelligence proving that Flynn was lying. So what the FBI meant by what they said is that Flynn used his training as a military intelligence officer to conceal his body language, gesture, facial expressions and vocal intonation in just such a way as to appear to believe what he was saying even though everybody in the room with Flynn, including Flynn, himself, already knew that Flynn was lying because of the signal intercepts of Flynn’s conversation with Kislyak.

          1. Yes, I understand. Flynn was lying and not lying, depending on which version you want to use for expediency.
            My comment SPECIFICALLY addressed your assertion that Flynn must not be lying to Mueller BASED ON the number of interviews over an extended peroid.
            If that’s your “logic”, then Manafort would not have lied either.
            If you want to address the SPECIFICS of what I comment on, fine.
            Since deflection and distortion are your favorite tools, you are a waste of time.

            1. Flynn gets no jail time. Manafort gets beaucoup jail time. Don’t talk to me about logic until you learn it.

              That reminds me. Today, Friday December 7th, 2018, is the day that Mueller files his detailed sentencing memo on Manafort setting forth all of his crimes and lies, including, especially, the ones Manafort committed after he plead guilty to the ones he had already committed.

                  1. Check your calendar, today. If it says Friday December 7th, 2018, then you are part of our coven now, too. Ha-Ha!

            2. BTW, the comment to which you’re now replying was a reply to Bill Martin.

              You still can’t follow the nesting cues on the thread any better than you can follow your own beloved logic schmogic.

              1. Dear Ms. Late4Yoga: Maybe you can start a website with real-time map plotting of your cherry-picked points “proving” Trump-Russia collusion as Tom Nash and rest of us cannot keep up with you. If you don’t have mapping technology then perhaps use pins and yarn and update via photos – like something out of True Detective.

              2. Given your fondess for and practice of sophistry, as well as your use of Dianese, it’s ironic that you lecture others about “logic”.

                1. Gnash can’t remember how to type his own email address, either. And that’s no sophism.

                  1. I would explain to you why that happens (why some of my posts are labeled as “Anonymous”), but there’s no point in doing so.
                    You’d just be off on another one of your subject-changing tangents in response, so I won’t bother going over why some here have had their comments mislabeled as Anonymous.

              1. Bill Martin,…
                This is in reply to your comment about L4B’s mapping.
                It is out of sequence due to the lack of any “reply” box below your comment, so I’m placing it here.
                I think it’s fair to warn those who might rely on Diane’s mapping skills; you can click on the link that I provided to see what happens to those who follow Diane’s road map.

              2. Bill Martin,…
                I’ll try posting here again, closer to the link.
                The link demonstrates what happens to those who follow L4B/ Diane’s road map, so I don’t know if you really want to encourage map-plotting by her.😉

                1. Congratulations, Ptom. You typed your own name correctly four times in a row.

                  Did you use pins and yarn?

  15. Not word one in Flynn’s sentencing report about Russian collusion and there would be no reason to redact those words. Trump should be pretty happy about now.

    1. I would say you took your stupid pill early today but it just comes natural to you.

      1. Why not finish high school before you call an attorney with more than 30 years trial practice under his belt ‘stupid’?

        1. If there was smoke and no fire, it would not have been possible for Flynn to contribute substantially. So, it is not only clear that there is fire, but also that the former NSA dumped plenty of gasoline on it. In fact, he must have emptied the tank.

          The second problem, from the perspective of Trump, is that the memo was low on details, with portions redacted. Pretty much the only reason for redactions like this is that Mueller has additional targets he wants to catch in his net, and he doesn’t want to tip them off as to what he knows.

          1. weak speculations from the peanut gallery. thank you for your contribution nonetheless

          2. Mr. Prosecutor:

            Flynn is guilty of the process crime of lying to investigators, who, not-so-coincidentally didn’t think he lied at all. Silly them. His substantial cooperation consists of simply telling the truth. The truth may be that knew nothing about collusion or he knew everything about collusion. That it was never mentioned suggests that Mueller isn’t using him for that purpose. In fact, Flynn was fired for lying to the Trump team, VP Pence and the FBI for talking to the Russian ambassador about sanctions and then denying it to all of them. Mueller happily confirmed the lies in the sentencing memo and used it for part of the criminal charge. Flynn is now an admitted and proven liar on multiple occasions which renders his useful as a witness against Trump about zero.That is good news for Trump anyway it is sliced.

                1. Liars lie, if Flynn’s lies are good for tRump then tRump’s lies must be extra good. When dealing with tRump and his cohorts, you will obviously be deep in the swamp and there are no virtuous witnesses to be found.

            2. The rest of the document is redacted. There are crimes beyond lying to police that Flynn testified to.

              If the Flynn testimony only involved his own lying, there would be nothing to redact.

              1. There are crimes beyond lying to police that Flynn testified to.

                So you imagine.

                1. The only reason for a prosecutor to redact a public document is so targets of other investigations are not tipped off that he has evidence/testimony about them.

                  This is also why grand juries are secret.

                  Mike Flynn was a foreign agent of Turkey. Trump knew this, but named Flynn the Director of National Security anyway.

                  Putting a spy in charge of our security is a clear dereliction of duty and violation of his oath.

                  2. FARA, one of the most violated statutes in DC. lots of oxes may get gored if Meuller’s brushing that one off leads to more persecutions in the future. I’ll bet a lot of Democrats have taken a second look at that one.

                  3. The only reason for a prosecutor to redact a public document is so targets of other investigations are not tipped off that he has evidence/testimony about them.

                    They’ve been dicking with this since July of 2016, not counting the months they were running informants before the FBI formally ‘opened’ the investigation. This is the slowest special prosecutor investigation on record. Gotta keep hopin’, I guess.

              2. PME:

                “The rest of the document is redacted. There are crimes beyond lying to police that Flynn testified to.”

                **********************

                So in your world the absence of proof is ipso facto proof of criminal conduct of Trump (“The second problem, from the perspective of Trump, is that the memo was low on details, with portions redacted.”)
                My how the Simian mind works.

                1. Absolutely.

                  The only reason why Mueller would react a public document is so testimony before the grand jury doesn’t become public and compromise the investigation.

                  As an attorney, you should know this.

                  The investigation is taking a long time because it involves international suspects, which always take longer to resolve because foreign governments can stonewall requests for questioning suspects.

                  Other witnesses are taking the 5th Amendment, which also delays the investigation.

                  1. Prossy:
                    Grand jury testimony about what? Turkey? Russia? Chevy Chase, Maryland? Your leap of faith rivals Jesse Owen’s.

                    1. Perhaps Late4Yoga has two voluntary side-hustles: fervently cherry pick dots to tie together to “prove” Trump-Russia collusion and help OJ finally catch the real killers.

                    2. There’s an outside chance that Flynn knows something about Reza Zarrab and that Reza Zarrab knows something about Flynn:

                      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reza_Zarrab

                      Reza Zarrab is a Turkey-based businessman. He has quadruple Iranian, Azerbaijani, Turkish and Macedonian citizenship. On 19 March 2016 he was arrested …

                    3. Excerpted from the article linked above:

                      By the time, it came out that Zarrab’s attorneys, Rudolph W. Giuliani, a former New York City mayor, and Michael B. Mukasey, who served as attorney general in President George W. Bush’s administration, held a secret meeting with Erdoğan.

                      [edit]

                      On November 16, 2017, NBC News, reported that Zarrab is now cooperating with federal prosecutors in a money-laundering case and that he was then out of jail, a move President Erdoğan had been desperately hoping to avoid. It is thought that Zarrab is Robert Mueller’s key to taking down Michael T. Flynn in the 2017 Special Counsel Investigation.

                    4. Mueller assigned Zainab Ahmad to the team interviewing Flynn. Chances are that at least one of the three investigations alluded to in Flynn’s sentencing memo is being conducted by Zainab Ahmad. Ahmad specializes in extraterritorial investigations and extraditions.

          3. If Mueller had evidence that Trump conspired with Putin to deprive Her Highness of the throne, it seems likely to me that Mueller would have made that evidence known by now. It’s hard to imagine he’d have kept it a secret this long. He doesn’t strike me as the kind of guy who would want an illegitimate Manchurian candidate president directing foreign and domestic policy for nearly two years.

            1. Scott said, “If Mueller had evidence . . . [edit] . . . Mueller would have made that evidence known by now.”

              There’s no logical connection between your antecedent and your consequent, Scott. The gambler’s fallacy is not a “logical” connection. Even so, the notion that none of the many long blacked-out sentences in Mueller’s sentencing memo on Flynn have anything at all to do with Trump is downright adorable. Maybe there’s nothing there behind the magic marker. Ha-Ha!

            2. Scott,…
              -If you are not familiar with Dianese, a form of gibberish that Late4Dinner/Diane speaks, see her response to you below for an introduction.

              2. The OSC has interviewed Flynn on 19 occasions since December 1st, 2017. Flynn’s sentencing memo runs 13 pages long and refers to three investigations; two of which are within the scope of the special counsel and one of which is a criminal investigation outside of the scope of the special counsel.

                The redacted sentences in the memo have words, names and dates behind the black magic marker lines. Some of those words, names and dates would reveal the sources and methods of ongoing investigations if disclosed.

                Flynn and Mueller have not swapping fishing stories about the ones that got away for a little over a year already and on 19 separate occasions. Nor did Mueller delay Flynn’s sentencing four times already just to hear more Flynn’s wondrous stories about the big fish who still thinks he’ll get away.

        4. Being a lawyer is no guarantee of intelligence and anyone who claims tRump is above it all is a fool or a sycophant. Plus how many “process” crimes has he worked. He should be debarred for the use of the term process.

          1. YNOT:
            That you’re ignorant of
            the term “process crime,” tells me you’ve never worked any criminal case.

      1. I don’t presuppose what redacted information is about. I only look at the available evidence which on the topic of collusion is zero. If there’s more, let’s see it. With Flynn and Cohen now convicted liars, the proof is probably now less than zero.

        1. You have presupposed what the redacted information is not about. You may choose to believe Mueller has nothing on Trump relative to Collusion, Conspiracy, Money Laundering, and more. I’d bet against you in all of those cases. The man who will provide the most damaging information… Allen Weisselberg.

          1. “You have presupposed what the redacted information is not about.”

            ***************

            I’ll give you a do over on this stupid statement.

              1. At least one of the redacted sentences refers to all of the other witnesses who came forward after Flynn’s plea deal suddenly to remember that Flynn was acting on Trump’s orders when he talked to Kislyak during the transition. Flynn forced everybody else to rethink their positions when being interviewed by the OSC or when testifying before the grand jury. That’s why Flynn gets no jail time. Sing early, sing often.

                1. Cite the section of the US Code making it a federal crime by “talking to Kislyak” about Russian sanctions during the transition. Flynn lied about a non-crime. Silly Flynn. Logan Act? Please.

                  1. Flynn’s lie was just one more overt act in the furtherance of Trump’s conspiracy to defraud the United States (18 USC 371–the defraud clause). Viewing each act in isolation from every other act is not a viable defense against conspiracy charges. Instead such a disjointed view is a persistent state of denial that has gone well beyond mere decay and decomposition and on into outright petrification.

  16. Trump needs to clean up this mess by issuing pardons for everyone harassed by Mueller.

    1. Wretched,…
      I don’t think that a pardon for Cohen is now on the table😄, since Cohen has reset his inner moral compass.😉😀😂
      Pardons for others seem likely if Trump is re-elected, or if he’s on his way out the door.

      1. Michael D. Cohen might not be the only Trump associate who kept kompromat on Trump. Manafort may very well have kept kompromat on Trump at the behest of his handlers, Konstantin Kilimnik and Oleg Deripaska. What’s more, it’s possible that Mueller seized Manafort’s kompromat on Trump in consequence of the search warrants for Manafort. If Mueller reveals those possibilities in his sentencing memo on Manafort, today, Friday December 7th, 2018, then Trump will not pardon Manafort. And to think that Trump was ever going to pardon Flynn flies in the face of the sense God gave horses. There are only three people whom Trump might pardon. Two of them are named Trump and the other is named Kushner. Of the two named Trump, one of them is The POTUS, himself. Did you know that Flynn was acting on Trump’s orders when Flynn lied to Pence? I’m pretty sure Pence knows that. And even if Pence doesn’t know it, Mueller does.

  17. Professor Turley, what I don’t understand is considering the broad scope of Mueller’s appointing commission, why hasn’t he looked into the obvious criminality that was laid out so well in July, 2016 by then Director Comey regarding Hillary Clinton’s treatment of classified documents, the use of a private server, and here quid pro quos associated with the Clinton Foundation

      2. When? I recall Comey falsifying the charges and usurping the job of the AG by declaring her not guilty for lack of intent. Two BIG mistakes. The appropriate charge in that section excludes intent as an element. HOWEVER other sections include a continuous pattern of illegal activity as intent. Either way they are both guilty. You should have paid attention.

        That is only one of the areas of wrong doing. from Senate to Sec Def. and after as a private citizen. The next area is the payments for production of a phony document used to falsely acquire FISA warrants and the third is connection with the dirty cops and fourth come to think of it is connection with the complicit members and eaders of the DNC and the suborning of her staffs plural to give false testimony and what else oh yes using Huma Gotcha as a bag lady to transfer large sums of money then in having those funds transferred to canada by Chelsea to whom she also sent classified information and by Bubba J.

        How fracking long a list do you want? Investigated? NO. She was for the most pasrt never put under oath.Which brings us to Benghazi and the intentional coverup as documented by members of that committee.

        Repetitive coverup stories do not make the truth they just make a pattern of intentional lies. TO GOVERNMENT AGENTS.

        1. well said Comey talked out of school. Hillary negligently mishandled classified information and at the very least should have been charged for that. But it was a prosecutor call not the investigator’s call and Comey badly overstepped.

          but then again AG Lynch let him do this, because she was put in a spot by Bill Clinton very cleverly— the Clinton Crime Clan strikes again!

        2. Awesome…MORE BENGHAZI HEARINGS!!!! You might want to go for the trifecta, shoot for Bigfoot, and the Roswell alien, too.

          this is to “my decoder ring has secret info on Oswald” mikey

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