He Should Just Shut Up About It
Source: AP Photo/Larry Downing
Barry, if you’re going to offer a comment, be sure you know what the hell you’re talking about. Yeah, former President Barack Obama decided to open his mouth again about the Department of Justice filing a motion to dismiss the charges against ex-National Security Adviser Michael Flynn after it was uncovered that his DOJ goons targeted the former general on bogus evidence.
Actually, there was no reason for the FBI to go after Flynn. The new documents show a slew of evidence pointing to the malicious prosecution of Flynn. Even the agents who interviewed Flynn said they felt he didn’t lie to them. This was all part of the FBI counterintelligence probe into Russian collusion, an investigation that Obama wanted to protect. Preferably, all sides in the Obama orbit wanted to keep the incoming Trump administration from finding out about it. Both sides want the case dropped. The prosecutor in the Flynn case resigned. And yet, Barry thinks this act is a threat to the rule of law because Flynn could get away from his perjury charges. Oh wait—Flynn was never charged with perjury. He pleaded guilty to “lying to the FBI,” which was done after relentless pressure from the Trump-deranged DOJ and them threatening Flynn and his family with financial ruin (via Fox News):
Former President Obama falsely told thousands of supporters last week that former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn had been charged with perjury — then followed it up by suggesting that "there is no precedent that anybody can find" for someone accused of perjury "getting off scot-free," according to a leaked account of his remarks.
Obama made the apparently incorrect assertions, which were first reported by Yahoo News and then confirmed by an Obama spokesperson, as it emerged that he was aware of the details of Flynn's intercepted December 2016 phone calls with Russia's then-Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, surprising then-Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates in a White House meeting.
“The news over the last 24 hours I think has been somewhat downplayed — about the Justice Department dropping charges against Michael Flynn,” Obama told more than 3,000 members of the Obama Alumni Association. "There is no precedent that anybody can find for someone who has been charged with perjury just getting off scot-free."
The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board has a better example of who got off “scot-free,” by the way. Also, we have some willful ignorance here from a former president and how his DOJ was operating. He knew. There’s no way he didn’t, but seeing your whole agenda be trashed in 36 months and a better, more economically vibrant one under Trump set up in its place has to rub Obama, who is the epitome of arrogant, the wrong way. So, he’s lashing out—and looking more like an idiot for it. The op-ed also rehashes about Flynn’s targeting by the FBI:
As for “scot-free,” that better applies to former President Bill Clinton who lied under oath in a civil case and was impeached for perjury but was acquitted by the Senate. We understand why Mr. Obama wouldn’t bring that up.
We doubt Mr. Obama has even read Thursday’s Justice Department motion to drop the Flynn prosecution. If he does ever read it, he’ll find disconcerting facts that certainly do raise doubts about whether “our basic understanding of rule of law is at risk,” though not for the reasons he claims.
Start with prosecutorial violation of the Brady rule, which Mr. Obama knows is a legal obligation that the prosecution must turn over potentially exculpatory evidence to the defense. Yet prosecutors led by special counsel Robert Mueller didn’t disclose that the interviewing FBI agents at the time didn’t think that Mr. Flynn had lied about a phone call with the Russian ambassador.
Worst of all, as a legal matter, is that they never told Mr. Flynn that there was no investigative evidentiary basis to justify the interview. The FBI had already concluded there was no evidence that Mr. Flynn had colluded with Russia in the 2016 election and had moved to close the case. James Comey’s FBI cronies used the news of Mr. Flynn’s phone call with the Russian ambassador as an excuse to interview the then national security adviser and perhaps trap him into a lie.
All of this was moved along politically by leaks to the media about Mr. Flynn’s phone call with the Russian. The U.S. eavesdrops on foreign officials as a routine, but names of innocent Americans on those calls are supposed to be shielded from review to protect their privacy. Yet senior Obama officials have had to acknowledge that they “unmasked” Mr. Flynn’s name and others in their last months in power.
Yeah, you’re a real poster boy for the rule of law, Barry. Maybe you should sit this one out. In fact, go away for the next millennia. You came, you got elected, and you were an appalling disappointment. ISIS was created under your watch, Syria devolved into a total fiasco, Russia ran wild (they annexed Crimea), you were caught spying on our allies, and spied on the Trump campaign. All your dirty tricks are coming to light, Barry. Seriously, shut up and go away.