Memorandum to Barack Obama

In the wake of the declassified documents showing how the government agencies had violated the law and FISA abuse, the DOJ finally dropped its prosecution of General Flynn. Barack Obama then complained that the Rule of Law was been trampled, claiming that Flynn was guilty of perjury and that he was let off “scot-free.” Actually, the Rule of Law was already being trampled, and William Barr’s decision partially restored the Rule of Law.

Flynn’s lawyer responded to Obama’s public complaint in a memorandum reminding the former president of a number of items.

https://sidneypowell.com/media/open-memorandum-to-barack-obama/

First, General Flynn was not charged with perjury—which requires a material false statement made under oath with intent to deceive.¹ A perjury prosecution would have been appropriate and the Rule of Law applied if the Justice Department prosecuted your former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe for his multiple lies under oath in an investigation of a leak only he knew he caused.

McCabe lied under oath in fully recorded and transcribed interviews with the Inspector General for the DOJ. He was informed of the purpose of the interview, and he had had the benefit of counsel. He knew he was the leaker. McCabe even lied about lying. He lied to his own agents—which sent them on a “wild-goose-chase”—thereby making his lies “material” and an obstruction of justice. Yet, remarkably, Attorney General Barr declined to prosecute McCabe for these offenses.

Applying the Rule of Law, after declining McCabe’s perjury prosecution, required the Justice Department to dismiss the prosecution of General Flynn who was not warned, not under oath, had no counsel, and whose statements were not only not recorded, but were created as false by FBI agents who falsified the 302.

Secondly, Powell wrote, shortly after Eric Holder became Obama’s DOJ, he moved to dismiss charges against Senator Ted Stevens after a jury had convicted him on multiple counts, because of “egregious misconduct by prosecutors who hid exculpatory evidence and concocted purported crimes.” This was the same reason William Barr dropped the case against Flynn.

Fifth, there is precedent for guilty pleas being vacated. Your alumni Weissmann and Ruemmler are no strangers to such reversals. At least two guilty pleas they coerced by threats against defendants in Houston had to be thrown out—again for reasons like those here. The defendants “got off scot-free” because—like General Flynn—your alumni had concocted the charges and terrorized the defendants into pleading guilty to “offenses” that were not crimes. 

Sixth, should further edification be necessary, see Why Innocent People Plead Guilty, written in 2014 by federal Judge Jed Rakoff (a Clinton appointee). Abusive prosecutors force innocent people to plead guilty with painful frequency. The Mueller special counsel operation led by Andrew Weissmann and Weissmann “wannabes” specializes in prosecutorial terrorist tactics repulsive to everything “justice” is supposed to mean. These tactics are designed to intimidate their targets into pleading guilty—while punishing them and their families with the process itself and financial ruin.

Seventh… General Flynn did not even know he was the subject of an investigation—and in truth, he was not. The only crimes here were by your alumni in the FBI, White House, intelligence community, and Justice Department.