'Criminal Misconduct': Sen. Graham Confident FBI Will Pay After Notes Reveal They Set Up Gen. Flynn
When President Donald Trump called the Russia collusion investigation a hoax, his enemies scoffed, but new evidence suggests collaring former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn was a foregone conclusion in an FBI probe that was rife with corruption.
“It’s pretty apparent to me that Gen. Flynn was a victim of an out-of-control Department of Justice,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said on Fox News’ “Hannity” on Wednesday.
“He basically got railroaded,” the South Carolina Republican contended. He also implied Flynn was targeted because the “Obama administration didn’t have much use” for him.
In 2017, Flynn pleaded guilty to giving false statements to investigators during the FBI’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
His legal team sought to later overturn the plea, citing prosecutorial “bad faith” during the investigation, which mounting evidence increasingly supports.
Recently unsealed FBI documents show that bureau investigators apparently concocted a scheme to entrap Flynn, with one investigator’s handwritten notes explicitly asking, “[w]hat is our goal? Truth/Admission or to get him to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired?”
“These notes reek of criminal misconduct,” Graham charged. He praised Attorney General William Barr’s criminal inquiry into the counterintelligence probe, saying his aim is “to right the ship. It’s to restore trust that’s been lost, to hold people accountable.”
The investigation into a possible link between Russia and the Trump campaign began in part because of the Steele dossier, a piece of opposition research financed by Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee that contained many unsubstantiated claims.
The fact that the special counsel investigation used evidence with that kind of origin story coupled with the recent revelations raise serious doubts about the impartiality of FBI investigators.
“One of the worst things that can happen in any democracy is for those who are in charge of the law to take it in their own hands for political purposes, and I think that’s what’s happened here but time will tell,” the senator said.
Critics, including Trump, have long speculated that the FBI was politically motivated and conducted the probe dishonestly, calling the whole affair a “hoax.”
“The Russia Hoax is the biggest political scandal in American history,” Trump tweeted on Saturday. “Treason!!! Lets see how it ends????
The Russia Hoax is the biggest political scandal in American history. Treason!!! Lets see how it ends???? https://t.co/VRsVdiQrsf
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 2, 2020
The new revelations provided the smoking gun which proved the depth of the FBI’s corruption, and Graham also did not mince words about it.
“I promise you,” Graham continued, “that we’re going to find out how the FBI operated when they were told by the Russian sub-source in January 2017 the dossier’s a bunch of garbage
“I find it impossible to believe that did not work its way up to Comey and McCabe,” he said, referring to then-FBI Director James Comey and former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe who were part of the special counsel investigation.
“In January 2017, the person who prepared the dossier for Christopher Steele told the FBI it’s a bunch of bar talk and hearsay; they obtained two warrants after that. How could that possibly happen?”
The dossier, compiled by British spy Christopher Steele, was part of the basis to obtain warrants through the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to secretly monitor the Trump campaign. This means the whole investigation was predicated on sources that were questionable, at best.
Along the way, many aspects of the Russia-Trump collusion investigation didn’t pass the smell test, but these new revelations show that their motivation and procedures were just plain rotten.
Earlier in the interview, host Sean Hannity pointed out gross misconduct as investigators lied to Flynn and forced him to knowingly make false statements, using the threat of his son’s prosecution to flip him after already bankrupting the retired general.
“Gen. Flynn deserved better from his government. He was willing to die for his country,” Graham said.
The American people undeniably deserve better as well, and it seems Barr’s investigation is about to make that happen.
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