General Flynn: Hero or Traitor?

Before we get into the goods, I wanted to thank each of you who have subscribed to the blog, diligently followed each post, or passively kept up with the story.  It means the world to me that you take heart in our life and relationship!  It’s hard to believe I have been writing and posting about this saga for three months already; even harder to believe we have been living it for nearly 14 months.  Beginning this week, there will be one post a week going forward.   And beginning next week, those posts will be published on Tuesdays.  Ok, now back to the reason you came here in the first place:  information!

On March 15, 2023, General Flynn filed a $50 million lawsuit against the United States for malicious prosecution and abuse of process.  When I saw this story, my curiosity was instantly piqued for two reasons:  should he win the lawsuit the taxpayers will get to pay this settlement rather than the federal officials who acted outside their scope, and what did the government do that was so malicious someone feels they are owed $50 million?  I can certainly relate to this perspective so I had to know more, and I am so glad I went down the rabbit hole.

Were you paying attention to the General Flynn case when the Department of Justice (DOJ) charged him with making false statements to federal investigators (18 USC 1001) back in 2017?  Don’t feel bad if you weren’t.  I wasn’t either.  Back then I was working two jobs and not affording any time to the current events happening in the world around me.  For those of you, like me, who need caught up here’s the framework of the case.

General Flynn was a retired lieutenant general in the U.S. Armed Forces when he accepted President-elect Trump’s offer to serve in the position of National Security Advisor in 2016.  He briefly served in this position.  General Flynn’s false statements involve conversation he had with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislayak during the time when General Flynn was an incoming National Security Advisor to President-elect Trump.

General Flynn entered into a plea agreement which required him to cooperate with the Special Counsel Investigation led by Robert Mueller.  The plea agreement was accepted by Judge Rudolph Contreras in December 2017, and Judge Contreras quickly recused himself.  Judge Emmet Sullivan was then assigned to the case. 

In June 2019, General Flynn fired his original defense counsel who had guided him into this plea agreement and retained Sidney Powell, and in December 2019 General Flynn moved to withdraw his guilty plea claiming the government had acted in bad faith and breached the plea agreement.

In May 2020, the DOJ filed a motion to dismiss the charge against General Flynn with prejudice, asserting it no longer believed it could prove beyond a reasonable doubt that General Flynn had made false statements to the FBI.  Judge Sullivan then appointed John Gleeson to prepare an argument against dismissal.  A judge is supposed to be a disinterested party in cases they rule over, but in this case Judge Sullivan said oh hey, DOJ I see you don’t think you can prove this case anymore, so I’ll go ahead and step in preventing it from being dismissed and closed.

Under the Principles of Federal Prosecution, it states the government should not prosecute an individual unless the attorney for the government believes the admissible evidence is sufficient to obtain and sustain a guilty verdict by an unbiased trier of fact.  How odd, once the DOJ makes the determination it cannot prove their case, Judge Sullivan steps in and intervenes to keep the case open!  How does this support the best interest of justice? 

It’s important to understand how Ms. Powell, the second defense attorney, influenced the change of position of the prosecution.  Upon digging into the case, it was discovered General Flynn had in a way been entrapped. 

• The government had lied to get FISA warrants issued and renewed. These are the same foreign intelligence warrants I’ve discussed before (mentioned in Jim Jordan’s letter released to the public on November 3, 2022) because of the concern of abuse in how they are being used against average American citizens. 
• The FBI had transcripts of the call where General Flynn was charged for supposedly lying even though FBI agents had documented he had NOT lied during their investigation.
• FBI Agent Strzok had his 302 report edited by an FBI lawyer, Lisa Page, with whom he was having an extra-marital affair. (A 302 report is documentation made by an agent from investigation interviews, and when the interview is not recorded it’s their word against the defendant.)  There are a couple issues here.  First, the fraternization between the attorney and the agent.  They shouldn’t be allowed to touch each other’s cases due to the nature of their relationship.  Second, the integrity of the 302 reports have so much room for error while the court gives them so much weight in the legal process.
• Agents Strzok and Pientka took three weeks to submit their 302 reports when regulations require completion of those reports in five days.
• The Special Counsel’s Office failed to disclose exculpatory evidence (evidence in support of the defendant) which is constitutional under Brady v Maryland.
• General Flynn plead guilty and entered into the plea agreement after the DOJ threatened to charge his son, all while the DOJ was withholding the exculpatory evidence which ended with the case being dismissed. Once General Flynn retired from the army, he entered into business with his son, and thus the DOJ leveraged involving his son to bring the case against General Flynn.  Threatening family members for the sake of leveraging an outcome in a case is a form of prosecutorial misconduct.

How did this case end?  President Trump pardoned an innocent man.  Yes, a presidential pardon for a defendant where the prosecution had petitioned the court to dismiss the case because they can no longer convict the defendant.  Yet, Judge Sullivan wouldn’t dismiss the case, so the President of the United States enters the scene.

Seriously bizarre.

There are a multitude of reasons I wished I had followed this case in real time.  I second guessed the decision to take the plea agreement a lot, but I did not voice it.  Travis had such little time to make a decision which was already incredibly pressurized, traumatizing, and stressful.  I felt the last thing he needed was someone chirping in his ear questioning what he felt was in his best interest; especially with the promise of probation being so likely. 

While I know we would be experiencing a long court process likely drawn out over a year or two, but I do wonder what our lives would look like had Travis chosen to fight?  Would we end up in one of these odd case scenarios which seem to be more common all the time, or would we have been the average defendants who exhaust all of their resources to end up sentenced to even more time on the original charges?

What would Trav’s case look like if we, too, had fired the original counsel and hired someone who felt withdrawing his plea held opportunity?  Travis discussed this option with his attorney who advised it would be suicide for Travis.  This is the same attorney who made this determination without looking at the exculpatory evidence himself.  If the defense attorney isn’t looking at the exculpatory evidence, there is no chance the defense attorney will argue the case law of Brady v. Maryland which could be relevant in Travis’s case since the prosecutor admitted he had seen the exculpatory photos on Travis’s phone.

General Flynn’s case shows us so many of the flaws in the system.  The same flaws I’ve been writing about now for a couple months.  Seeing most of those flaws come together as the perfect storm in one singular case is eye opening.  This case shows us the faults with the 302 reports, the lack of integrity amongst FBI agents and attorneys, the prosecutorial misconduct of the prosecuting attorney, the abuse of FISA warrants, and it solidifies why innocent defendants enter into plea agreements for crimes they didn’t commit.

While I hope General Flynn receives compensation for the stress, hardship, and destruction of his reputation since he was touted as a traitor for the two years his case was going through proceedings, in the end he will be the only one who wins, should this case be issued a settlement.  The system will continue running with the same malfeasance, mainstream media will continue to push whatever narrative is wanted at that moment in time, and the hard-working American taxpayers will pay for this settlement while the multiple federal employees (from FBI agents all the way up to the judge) who dropped the ball on this case will continue their dishonorable practices.  Ironically, judges are referred to as “Your Honor” in the courtroom. 

Confidence in our systems continue to erode, division and separation in our country deepens, and the need for justice reform grows stronger every day.  But please remain steadfast in hope and faith.  Just as our pastor reminded us of a few weeks ago:  we can live in the wisdom of the world or the wisdom of God.  The wisdom of God knows no fear, no anxiety, and no despair.

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Peace & Love,

Janessa