Michael Flynn

I think John Yoo's take is pretty spot on:

Attorney General William Barr’s decision to drop the prosecution of retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn is an ugly, but necessary element of the cleanup of the Justice Department and FBI in the wake of their failures in the Russian collusion probe.

While Flynn had pled guilty to lying to federal investigators, the revelations of FBI shenanigans by people whom the Trump administration has since fired or have resigned justified the extraordinary step of letting Flynn go.

Dropping the charges against the former national security adviser, like the firing of James Comey as FBI director and the removal of his circle of aides, is an important step in restoring control over a law enforcement agency that believed it had a right to pick and choose who were acceptable leaders for our nation rather than respecting the electoral process.

That's borne out by the fact that Peter Strzok re-opened the case as soon as it had been closed:

The FBI had closed its investigation into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn in early January 2017, but now-disgraced anti-Trump FBI official Peter Strzok reopened it the same day, new court documents unsealed Thursday revealed.

The documents were made public one day after a handwritten note in Flynn’s criminal case was also unsealed. That note — thought to have been written by former FBI head of counterintelligence Bill Priestap ­— discussed whether the goal of interviewing Flynn was “to get him to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired.”

In his first day on his new job, FBI agents came to Flynn's office. They kept everything as low-key as possible, leading him to believe that they were just dropping by to touch base. Hell, what they were doing was sounding him out, looking for anything with which to amass a file of dirt.

Now, longtime LITD readers know I am no fan of Barack Obama, a.k.a. the Most Equal Comrade. I know him to be a lifelong hard leftist who was chomping at the bit to fundamentally transform America. But I also am aware that he's no dummy, and that he'd garnered eight years of experience in a job only 43 other people had ever held. He understood the seriousness of his private conversation with the person who would be taking over his office in a little over two months. For instance, he was genuinely spooked enough about North Korea to tell Trump that that would be the most immediately pressing foreign policy issue on his plate right off the bat. And he took the occasion to offer this advice to his successor:

Former President Obama warned President Donald Trump against hiring Mike Flynn as his national security adviser, three former Obama administration officials tell NBC News.

The warning, which has not been previously reported, came less than 48 hours after the November election when the two sat down for a 90-minute conversation in the Oval Office.

A senior Trump administration official acknowledged Monday that Obama raised the issue of Flynn, saying the former president made clear he was "not a fan of Michael Flynn." Another official said Obama’s remark seemed like it was made in jest.

According to all three former officials, Obama warned Trump against hiring Flynn. The Obama administration fired Flynn in 2014 from his position as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, largely because of mismanagement and temperament issues.

Obama’s warning pre-dated the concerns inside the government about Flynn’s contacts with the Russian ambassador, one of the officials said. Obama passed along a general caution that he believed Flynn was not suitable for such a high level post, the official added.

And then there's the pesky foreign-agent-for-Turkey matter:

Scrutiny on Flynn’s ties to Turkey first stemmed from an op-ed he wrote for The Hill on Election Day 2016.

In the op-ed, Flynn defended Erdogan from criticism of his crackdown on dissidents and labeled Gulen a “shady Islamic mullah” who “portrays himself as a moderate, but he is in fact a radical Islamist.”

It was later revealed that his now-defunct Flynn Intel Group had been paid $530,000 by Dutch-based company called Inovo BV, which in turn had ties to the Turkish government.

The bulk of the $530,000 contract was to produce a documentary to boost Turkey’s image, as well as to conduct research on Gulen.

In March 2017, Flynn and his consulting firm retroactively registered as foreign agents working on behalf Turkey.

In a Dec. 2017 legal filing, though, Flynn admitted lying in the March filings to the Justice Department, including by falsely stating that the Flynn Intel Group did not know to what extent the Turkish government was involved in the project and that the op-ed was written on his own initiative.

The charges unsealed Monday were against two Flynn associates: Bijan Kian and Kamil Ekim Alptekin.

Kian, also known by Bijan Rafiekian, co-founded the consulting firm with Flynn and served as its vice chairman, director, secretary and treasurer. He also worked on Trump's national security transition team.Kian was charged with conspiracy and acting as an unregistered foreign agent of the Turkish government. He appeared in court Monday in Alexandria, Va., and was released on a personal recognizance bond.

Alptekin, meanwhile, ran Inovo. He is a Turkish national currently believed to be in Istanbul.

Alptekin was charged with conspiracy, acting as an unregistered foreign agent and four counts of making false statements to the FBI.
The Dec. 12 indictment unsealed Monday alleges that Kian and Alptekin “conspired covertly and unlawfully to influence U.S. politicians and public opinion concerning a Turkish citizen living in the United States whose extradition was then being sought by the Government of Turkey.”

The indictment does not specifically name Gulen. But it describes the Turkish citizen as an “imam, writer and political figure” who “runs a network of schools and charitable organizations,” lives in the United States and has been blamed by Turkey for the 2016 coup attempt — a description that perfectly fits Gulen. 

The narrative the indictment lays out starts on July 27, 2016. On or about that date, Kian told Alptekin that he and Flynn are “ready to engage on what needs to be done,” according to the document.
By Aug. 10, 2016, the indictment says, Alptekin told Kian that he had a “green light” to discuss the confidentiality, budget and scope of a contract after meetings with two Turkish government ministers.

In September 2016, a contract was drawn up for $600,000 for the Flynn Intel Group to “deliver findings and results including but not limited to making criminal referrals” against Gulen, according to the indictment. 
The indictment alleges Kian and Alptekin hid the covert effort, first branded the “Truth Campaign” and later “Operation Confidence,” by listing Alptekin’s company as the Flynn Intel Group’s client rather than the Turkish government.

On Sept. 19, 2016, Flynn, Kian and Alptekin met with two Turkish government officials in New York City to discuss Gulen, the indictment says. Throughout September and October that year, Kian and others met with a member of Congress, a congressional staffer and a state government official to “depict [Gulen] as a threat who should be returned to Turkey,” the indictment adds.

On Nov. 2, 2016, according to the filing, Alptekin complained to Kian that Flynn’s firm had “not publicized enough negative information” about Gulen. That day, Kian sent Alptekin a draft of the op-ed, telling him that “a promise made is a promise kept.”

Two days before the op-ed ran, Kian emailed Aptekin that “The arrow has left the bow!” and shared another draft.
“This is a very high profile exposure one day before the election,” Kian added.

After the op-ed was published, the Justice Department began investigating, the indictment says.

I realize we are all fallible human beings, and that General Flynn has made undeniable contributions to our country. Still, it seems that he did not consider as thoroughly as he should have the taint of crumminess that his various dealings were imprinting on his career trajectory.

Bottom line: This is not a clear-cut victory for any kind of immutable principle. It's just a sad drag-this-one-over-the-finish-line development in a post-America that is so toxic that one wonders how it makes it through each day.