“and he shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.” (Constitution: Article II, Section 2, Clause 1)
One aspect of Sydney Powell’s pleading guilty to GA state charges last week has gone mostly unnoticed. Mostly. Some outlets including Newsweek have written about it but given everything that’s been going on it’s gotten lost in the blizzard of news that’s been breaking every day. However I’m willing to bet one person is paying close attention, and probably now losing sleep at night. I’m talking of course about disgraced, traitorous former General and short tenured National Security Advisor (23 days – just over two “Scaramuccis!”) Mike Flynn.
I’m sure you remember Flynn. More than you want to. He’s a real P.O.S., and a traitor to boot which means he was (and remains) Trump’s kind of guy. However, Mueller had the goods on both Flynn and his son (who was in business with him) and Flynn cut himself a plea deal. The DC judge handling the case was rather less than okay with the terms, and put both Flynn and prosecutors on the spot about why Flynn was getting off so easy, and asking if he’d REALLY given the government all he had to give. It seemed possible that once he accepted Flynn’s guilty plea the judge might ignore the no jail time part and impose some time in the slammer. It didn’t work out that way but the case turned into a mess when Flynn’s new lawyer filed to have his guilty plea withdrawn. Flynn You see, Flynn decided he needed new representation so he went out and found a fellow fervent Trump disciple to handle his legal problems.
Sydney Powell.
As it happens whatever her reputation once was, by then Powell had disappeared down the Trump rabbit hole and took over Flynn’s defense while he was awaiting sentencing. Law & Crime reported she was a big critic of the Mueller investigation:
In a February interview with RealClearPolitics, Powell said that “the entire Russia collusion narrative was made up,” adding that “the FBI and the intelligence community and the Department of Justice began an investigation against four American citizens simply because they worked for the opposition political candidate, that being Donald Trump.”
So, it was a “marriage made in hell.” Powell would wind up convincing Flynn to withdraw his guilty plea and then since Trump had become President the DOJ was ordered to drop the charges. Judge Sullivan said no and while the DC appeals court overturned the conviction in a 2-1 panel ruling Sullivan asked for an en banc review which wasn’t good for Flynn’s chances. Trump made the whole thing moot by pardoning Flynn.
Now we are caught up to Powell’s guilty plea and why it could ultimately be bad news for Flynn. As the quote from the Constitution indicates a President’s pardon powers are quite broad, as noted by Cornell’s LII. It is not however absolute. It doesn’t imply with impeachments, and while if he were to slime his way into the WH again and try to self-pardon mainstream legal opinion is that President’s can’t self pardon. A murkier issue is whether if the pardon was illegal in that it was a transaction. (or in Trump vernacular a deal) That’s what the Newsweek article I linked to earlier explores:
As noted by Marcy Wheeler, a journalist who uses the online pseudonym Emptywheel, Trump denying that Powell was ever part of his legal team, including on the day he pardoned her client Flynn, came just days after the Department of Justice said in legal filings that it would be illegal for a president to offer a pardon as part of a so-called quid pro quo agreement, or favor. The filings were made as part of the federal 2020 election investigation, where Trump is trying to dismiss the case on the basis of absolute immunity.
Trump’s office when contacted predictably has had no comment on all this. However, the Newsweek article also notes:
The @7Veritas4 account on X, which frequently posts legal updates regarding Trump, wrote: “Why is he having an aneurysm over Sidney Powell?
“Not just because she flipped in Georgia this week. It’s also because of a potential conflict of interest that could put Michael Flynn’s pardon in jeopardy…something the DOJ is very interested in. Buckle up.”
Oh my… Powell’s deal requires her to cooperate, as in testify truthfully in all legal proceedings and you can bet since she’s one of the unnamed people in Jack Smith’s DC case this is going to come up. Flynn wasn’t facing good odds on getting his guilty plea withdrawn. Not when the full DC appeals courts heard the case. (Some bells can’t be un-rung) He was however both a darling of Trump’s and had plenty of evidence that Trump didn’t want him telling to those investigating the Russia stuff. It’s not a stretch to think that a simple request from Powell, a “Pardon Flynn and he will shut up, but without legal jeopardy can fight off any subpoena” and the deal was done. Quid Pro Quo. A corrupt, self-serving pardon.
Granted, it would be a thorny legal issue and maybe even make it to SCOTUS but if a “pardon in exchange for silence” deal was made those involved committed a crime. Which puts Flynn right back in legal hot water! Which is exactly where he needs to be, spending a fortune on legal fees and when he loses winding up in prison which is where judge Sullivan made it clear he thought Flynn should have gone in the first place.
Yes, I know there’s all kinds of stuff going on right now but put a pin in this. The wheels of Justice might, and often do grind quite slowly but we might wind up experiencing the pleasure of see Lady Justice whack Flynn upside the head with her scales.
Having read David McCullough’s book 1776…it’s clear George Washington would have executed him as a traitor. He drew his sword and tried to kill several of his soliders as they fled from battle. He would have shot or hung Benedict Arnold if he’d ever gotten his hands on him. Fact. Flynn is a traitor and yet still carries his rank, and I bet he draws a pension from the taxpayers. George wouldn’t recognize all these traitors as citizens. He would hold 147 trials for the traitors in the house. George was a serious man with steel in his spine. That’s the goddamn reason we defeated the British to begin with. He wouldn’t believe how far off the track we are at the present time.
I agree with Col. Lawrence Wilkinson… Flynn should be court-martialed & spend the end of his life behind bars at Fort Levenworth. He’d loose his rank, pension, etc.
Since DOD Secy Lloyd Austin hadn’t re-activated Flynn for court-martial, this would be sweet justice.
I fervently wish that would happen. For those who don’t know, Flynn is subject to recall to active duty for the rest of his miserbable, traitorous life. He should have been recalled to active duty for Courts Martial long ago. He wouldn’t have fared well then. Now, with all the revelations about how cavalier the Trump administration was with National Security Flynn would get much harsher treatment. He’d wind up with a sentence that would have him dying in Leavenworth.
It puts Flynn in hot water and also trump, who appears to have knowingly signed a pardon in his own self-interest. If that pardon is void, the Mueller investigation will come back to haunt him and it could be Michael Flynn signing a plea agreement somewhere down the road. There is something incredibly poetic about this: a legal chain reaction beginning in Georgia bouncing back to Jan 6, bouncing back to the beginning of trump’s term and before. When you add his business fraud case, it seems like trump’s entire life is coming to a reckoning. Could this be a script for an evil Forrest Gump movie?
The law of unintended consequences seems to have quite some reach, doesn’t it?
The Kraken has been released….. ON TRUMP!
All these asshats are quite limited in their ability to predict the twists and turns of fate. They’re like the murderer who weighs down a body in a bag, throws it in the lake, but doesn’t know enough to realize decomposition will cause the bag to fill with gas causing it to rise to the surface. It seems bodies are starting to float to the surface in bags with Trump printed on the outside.
“…All these asshats are quite limited in their ability to predict the twists and turns of fate.”
It’s more like twists and turns of the legal system they are trying to use to support their crimes.
It would be satisfyingly sweet if the Mueller investigation and the full report came back to light to haunt these scum.
Maybe it will even get people to read the whole thing and remember how Barr worked so feverishly to bury its real conclusions.
Ohhhh… Mike Flynn is one of the conspirators I have been waiting to be brought down by his treasonous behavior. I would love to see Lady Justice whack Flynn upside the head with her scales.