CNN on DoJ Dropping Case Against Flynn: ‘Unprecedented,’ ‘the Fix Is in’ and ‘Absolute Injustice’
RUSH TRANSCRIPT:
BALDWIN: “We needed to pull away from that because we are just now getting this huge piece of news. This breaking news into CNN. The Justice Department dropping its case against Michael Flynn, the President’s very first National Security Adviser whose lies about his contacts with Russia prompted the President to fire him, that was three years ago, and led to Flynn working with the Mueller investigation. Shimon Prokupecz is here with me. Shimon, what exactly do you know?”
PROKUPECZ: “Yeah, so the government, the U.S. Attorney at the Department of Justice in Washington, DC filed this motion, they’re filing to have the case dismissed. It’s a 108-page filing, so we’re still going through it, but some of the headlines here, certainly one of the things, the Department of Justice here arguing that this case, they could no longer pursue this case and that the prosecution of this case would not serve the interest of justice. They say that the Michael Flynn interview, remember that controversial interview, what really became controversial certainly under this Attorney General, they say that should never have taken place, it was unjustified. To the initial counterintelligence investigation of Russia interference, of course, I covered that extensively. I was covering the story when Michael Flynn was arrested, the morning he surrendered and was arrested, remember, when Michael Flynn pleaded guilty, decided to cooperate. The Department of Justice under this attorney general, Attorney General Barr saying none of this should have happened, essentially, the FBI should have never interviewed Michael Flynn, they weren’t justified to do the interview. And therefore, now, this case, they can no longer go forward with this case. Of course, to remind folks, Michael Flynn pleaded guilty. He cooperated with the government. He in essence got a cooperation agreement with the FBI, with the Department of Justice, and in turn they didn’t bring certain charges. Controversy sort of started after he pleaded guilty and was getting ready to be sentenced. And when he came before a D.C. judge to be sentenced, I was out there, I remember this when the judge said to him, was asking all sorts of questions about his cooperation, and Michael Flynn, of course, and his attorneys became concerned that the judge was going to give him prison time. Then, of course, things sort of took a turn. And ever since then we’ve been seeing these motions from his attorneys, new attorneys. Of course, we’ve heard the Attorney General raise concerns with the case. The President of the United States just last week consistently tweeting, reminding folks, telling folks, arguing that Michael Flynn was treated unfairly. Well, now today, in really what is a remarkable move by the Department of Justice, and just really unprecedented, after someone has been cooperating, after someone has pleaded guilty, was a government witness, for them to turn around and do this today, I’m not going to tell you that anyone is surprised by this move but it’s certainly unprecedented.”
BALDWIN: “Elie Honig — Shimon, stay with me. Elie Honig, former federal prosecutor. Elie, I can see the look on Shimon’s face just having been in the trenches and covering this story, right, to know that Michael Flynn said, ‘Yes, I did it,’ he then cooperated, and nnow they’re dropping the case? What do you make of this?”
HONIG: “Brooke, the fix is in. This is an absolute injustice- But like Shimon says, you could see this coming. But let’s just remember the basics here. Michael Flynn lied to the FBI, he pled guilty under oath in federal court to doing that, he took a plea, and then what does Bill Barr do? He says of all the tens of thousands of cases that he’s been in charge of in the Department of Justice, look at that one. Let’s take a closer look at that one. Not coincidentally, the same one the President has been railing on for months and years now. And now we see Bill Barr really just doing Donald Trump’s dirty work. Now Donald Trump is not going to have to issue a pardon because Bill Barr has stepped in and taken this really unprecedented step. I never saw anything like this in my 14 years as a federal or state prosecutor, Brooke.”
