........ Prosecutors did this, Powell argues, by threatening that if he refused to plead, they would prosecute his son. The son, also named Michael Flynn, worked in Gen. Flynn’s private intelligence firm, which Team Mueller was scrutinizing over its alleged failure to register with the government as a foreign agent — a dubious allegation that was rarely handled as a criminal offense before Mueller’s probe.
After DOJ’s revelations last Friday, Powell filed a submission with the court, asserting that the new disclosures demonstrate that Mueller’s prosecutors not only pressured Flynn with the possibility of indicting his son; they also secretly assured Flynn’s former counsel, the well-connected Washington firm of Covington & Burling (C&B), that Flynn’s son would not be prosecuted if Flynn pleaded guilty. This “side deal” (a) was not explicitly memorialized in the formal plea agreement, (b) was not otherwise disclosed to the court as federal law requires, and (c) was designed to enable prosecutors to evade their due process obligations in future cases.
To back up her claims, Powell’s submission included exhibits. They are still under court-ordered restrictions and thus heavily redacted. But the glimpses we get are intriguing. Exhibit 1 includes an unredacted snippet of an email between two of Flynn’s C&B lawyers; in it, Robert Kelner states to Stephen Anthony: “We have a lawyers’ unofficial understanding that they [i.e., the prosecutors] are unlikely to charge Junior [Flynn’s son] in light of the Cooperation Agreement” — Flynn’s commitment to provide information and testimony in other prosecutions.
Paradoxicals comment: The reason I point out that Eric Holder is a head honcho at this firm is obvious. Flynn's OWN attorneys wanted him found guilty.
Exhibit 2 is an email from Anthony to Kelner, among others, stating: “The only exception is the reference to Michael Jr. The government took pains not to give a promise to MTF [Gen. Flynn] regarding Michael Jr., so as to limit how much of a ‘benefit’ it would have to disclose as part of its Giglio disclosures to any defendant against whom MTF may one day testify.”
“Giglio” refers to the Supreme Court’s 1972 ruling in Giglio v. United States, which requires the government to disclose to the defense any promises made or benefits given in exchange for the testimony of a witness called by the prosecution.
These passages cited in Powell’s exhibits tend to corroborate the claim of an agreement not to prosecute Flynn’s son. It is fair, then, to infer that the threat of such a prosecution was indeed used to pressure him. The exhibits also strongly suggest that the prosecutors did not want an explicit acknowledgement of such a commitment — which would make sense only if they planned not to disclose the commitment in future cases in which they anticipated calling Flynn as a cooperating witness.
Still, Powell’s allegations are very disturbing.
Some have argued that the C&B lawyers should be given the benefit of the doubt because they were merely trying to get the most favorable agreement for Flynn. By keeping their client in the dark about the prosecutors’ commitment not to charge his son, this theory goes, the C&B lawyers ensured that Flynn would not be influenced to curry favor with the prosecutors by this commitment. (MY comment: In other words, C&B FIXED this case. Besides, they should have NEVER told him to plead guilty to a never used law from Medieval days)
That, in turn, convinced the prosecutors (THE FBI!!!)
they could give Flynn the plea agreement without fear of being embarrassed by a revelation that they pressured him by threatening his son. See? Everybody wins
