Tag: Michael Flynn

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18 Months In Prison For Man Who Phoned In Death Threat To Judge

(stock image via Depositphotos)
A man who phoned in a threat to assassinate a federal judge overseeing the criminal case of former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn has been sentenced to 18 months in prison. to leaving a threatening voicemail promising to put a “hot piece of lead” in the judge’s head. Law & Crime reports Frank Caporusso pleaded guilty this past April to leaving a threatening message in a voicemail with chambers for U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan on May 14, 2020. That was shortly after Judge Sullivan allowed legal experts and outside parties to oppose the Justice Department’s plan to dismiss Flynn’s case. The prosecutor read a transcript of the chilling message in court:

“We are professionals. We are trained military people. We will be on rooftops. You will not be safe. A hot piece of lead will cut through your skull. You bastard. You will be killed, and I don’t give a fuck who you are. Back out of this bullshit before it’s too late, or we’ll start cutting down your staff. This is not a threat. This is a promise.”

A tearful Caporusso reportedly told the courtroom on Tuesday: “I am not a man that would harm anyone. I asked myself, ‘How could I have done such a thing?’” And yet…he did. The one-and-a-half year sentence is the term recommended by the government.

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Appeals Court Says ‘No’ To Dismissing Case Against Michael Flynn

Michael Flynn (photo: Gage Skidmore/Flickr)
A federal appeals court has denied a request by Michael Flynn and the Department of Justice to shut down the investigation against him. From CNN:

The 8-2 decision restores power to a judge to question the Justice Department’s moves in the politically divisive case when Attorney General William Barr dropped charges against President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser earlier this year despite twice pleading guilty to lying under oath to lying to the FBI.

Flynn had fought District Judge Emmet Sullivan’s decision to ask a third-party lawyer to argue against the Justice Department’s dismissal in the case, and his plans to hold a hearing, which has not yet happened.

Monday’s decision adds what may be the most consequential round yet to what’s become an unusual and deeply political court case in an election year, and one of the most symbolic prosecutions of a Trump adviser during this presidency.

In an earlier decision, a panel of three judges on the DC Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 to allow Flynn’s case to be tossed. Today’s ruling from the full court reverses that decision. The appeals court also declined to reassign Flynn’s case to another trial judge, after Flynn’s attorneys accused Judge Sullivan of being biased against Flynn. I still maintain that, at the end of this whole sordid affair, Donald Trump will pardon Flynn.

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Appeals Court Orders Judge To Dismiss Case Against Michael Flynn

Michael Flynn (photo: Gage Skidmore/Flickr)
From the New York Times:

A divided federal appeals court panel ordered an immediate end on Wednesday to the case against Michael T. Flynn, President Trump’s former national security adviser — delivering a major victory to Mr. Flynn and to the Justice Department, which had sought to drop the case.

In the ruling, two of three judges on a panel for the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ordered the trial judge overseeing the matter, Judge Emmet G. Sullivan, to immediately dismiss the case without further review. The third accused his colleagues of “grievously” overstepping their powers, and the full appeals court has the option of reviewing the matter.

The order — a so-called writ of mandamus — was rare and came as a surprise, taking its place as yet another twist in the extraordinary legal and political drama surrounding the prosecution of Mr. Flynn, who twice pleaded guilty to lying to F.B.I. agents in the Russia investigation about his conversations in December 2016 with the Russian ambassador to the United States.

Trump fired Flynn in early 2017 for lying to Vice President Pence and other colleagues about what he and the Russian ambassador discussed in December 2016. Flynn then agreed to cooperate with the investigation led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller and plead guilty to one count of making a false statement when F.B.I. agents had questioned him about the conversations. But after pleading guilty, he reversed course last year and sought to withdraw his guilty plea.

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Former Judge Calls DOJ Attempt To Drop Flynn Charges ‘Gross Abuse Of Power’

Michael Flynn (photo: Gage Skidmore/Flickr)
A former federal judge asked to look into the Justice Department’s highly unusual request to drop its criminal case against Michael Flynn, Donald Trump’s first national security advisor, did not demure in his assessment calling the move a “gross abuse of prosecutorial power.” From CNBC:

“The Government has engaged in highly irregular conduct to benefit a political ally of the President,” the ex-judge, John Gleeson, wrote in a scathing legal filing opposing the proposed dismissal. Trump has strongly criticized the prosecution of Flynn.

Gleeson, who was assigned by the judge in Flynn’s case to advise him on several questions, also wrote that the retired Army lieutenant general “has indeed committed perjury” in his statements to the case judge during proceedings in the case, “for which he deserves punishment.”

But Gleeson added that while federal Judge Emmet Sullivan has the power to hold Flynn in criminal contempt for perjuring himself during a plea hearing and another hearing conducted by Sullivan, the judge should “not exercise that authority.”

“Rather, [Sullivan] should take Flynn’s perjury into account in sentencing him on the offense to which he has already admitted guilt,” Gleeson wrote in a filing in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.

Twice under oath, Flynn admitted to lying to FBI agents about his discussions with Russia’s ambassador to the United States prior to Trump’s inauguration. In the end, all of this won’t matter. Trust and believe, the Donald will issue a pardon for Flynn. #LockHimUp

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Justice Dept To Drop Charges Against Michael Flynn

Michael Flynn (photo: Gage Skidmore/Flickr)
The Department of Justice is reportedly planning to drop charges against former national security adviser Michael Flynn. I guess this saves Donald Trump from issuing a pardon… From the Washington Post:

The Justice Department moved to drop charges against former national security adviser Michael T. Flynn, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his Russian contacts during the presidential transition.

The unraveling of Flynn’s guilty plea marked a stunning reversal by the Justice Department in the case of the former three-star Army general who was convicted in special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Flynn was one of the first and highest-ranking Trump aides to cooperate and be convicted in special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. He pleaded guilty in December 2017 to making false statements about his Russian contacts during the Trump presidential transition.

Having been a senior foreign policy aide for Trump during the 2016 campaign, Flynn served 24 days as national security adviser before being fired from the White House in 2017 for “misstating the nature of his contacts with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak to Vice President Pence, senior White House aides, federal investigators and the news media.” I feel the need to reiterate – Flynn pleaded guilty.

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Trump ‘Considering A Full Pardon’ For Michael Flynn

Michael Flynn (photo: Gage Skidmore/Flickr)
In a surprise to no one, Donald Trump said on Sunday he is “considering a full pardon” for his former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI. Flynn admitted he lied to the FBI in December 2017 about his conversations with Sergey Kislyak, then the Russian ambassador to the United States, in the weeks before Trump took office. NBC News reports the Justice Department reversed its original position in January and recommended that Flynn be sentenced to up to six months in prison. Attorneys for Flynn then filed papers to withdraw his guilty plea claiming federal prosecutors violated his rights and tricked him into pleading guilty. Referencing an unspecified report that the Justice Department had “lost” records pertaining to Flynn, Trump tweeted, “I am strongly considering a Full Pardon!”