Flynn goes on the discard pile
by digby
Oh look, they've had to "pivot" from discrediting Mueller to discrediting Flynn. All those liars out to get Trump.
President Trump’s legal team plans to cast former national security adviser Michael T. Flynn as a liar seeking to protect himself if he accuses the president or his senior aides of any wrongdoing, according to three people familiar with the strategy.
The approach would mark a sharp break from Trump’s previously sympathetic posture toward Flynn, whom he called a “wonderful man” when Flynn was ousted from the White House in February. Earlier this month, the president did not rule out a possible pardon for Flynn, who is cooperating with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
[...]
Earlier this month, he pleaded guilty to one felony count of lying to to the FBI, a charge that carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. Prosecutors said they will recommend a sentence from zero to six months in prison as part of his cooperation deal. Flynn’s son, who served as his chief of staff, also faced the risk of criminal charges, according to people familiar with the plea negotiations, but was spared.
Trump’s legal team has seized on Flynn’s agreement with prosecutors as fodder for a possible defense, if necessary. In court filings, the retired lieutenant general admitted that he lied to the FBI about conversations he had with the Russian ambassador to the United States during the December 2016 transition.
“He’s said it himself: He’s a liar,” said one person helping craft the strategy who was granted anonymity to describe private conversations.
Probably not a great idea to blast out the plan this way even though Mueller undoubtedly expected this. It's a standard defense.
But it may explain this weird story:
Joseph Flynn — brother of former presidential national security adviser Michael Flynn, who recently pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI — demanded a pardon for his brother on Tuesday.
“About time you pardoned General Flynn who has taken the biggest fall for all of you given the illegitimacy of this confessed crime in the wake of all this corruption,” Flynn tweeted to President Donald Trump, in a post that was later deleted.
You can imagine how that went over with Flynn's lawyers. It's not a good idea for him or anyone around him to be begging for a pardon when Junior still faces multiple criminal charges.
These people aren't very bright.
I'm sure Flynn was told by his attorneys that Trump was going to turn on him and make him into a lying, treasonous Benedict Arnold. At this point one doubts that his feelings will be hurt. He has to know by now that cozying up to Trump was the biggest mistake of his life. He could have been making millions quietly lobbying for all those foreign countries right now and instead his life is ruined.
If it's any compensation, he's far from the first fool who bought some snake oil Trump was selling and lost everything.
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