The Death of an Investigation

Regardless of what you may think of LTG Michael Flynn as a person, he is indeed the victim of a “police state” witch hunt. The FBI political elites at the top of the bureaucracy decided that General Flynn was perfect for their clever manipulation of the law and an investigation to get to the newly elected President Trump. The reason for this is all political and does not have to do with any criminal acts or counterintelligence scenarios. Getting President Trump was the goal. General Flynn was a useful tool to accomplish its mission.

In a 47 year career, I worked as a special agent criminal investigator and as an intelligence officer for seven years of that time. I have been an agent in charge of an office, a polygraph examiner, a member of a multi-agency task force that included the FBI as a team member and worked in internal affairs or what they now call the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR). All my positions and career have been in the military or in federal law enforcement as an 1811 criminal investigator, the same designation an FBI agent carries in the federal system. I do understand the processes needed to open a criminal investigation or, for that matter, a counterintelligence investigation. The criteria for opening an investigation failed to meet the established standards.

Criminal investigations are opened based on justification for such an action, or what they are calling predication. In other words, if an investigator opens up an inquiry into John Doe because he does not like John Doe and John Doe’s reputation is that he is a dirtbag and that is all the investigator has for justification, it does not meet the standard. That would be the justification used in a “police state.” To meet the standard, consider this: a witness comes forward and makes a complaint that John Doe is stealing checks and forging names to negotiate the check stealing the funds.

They know because they were present and witnessed a transaction by John Doe at a bank. That would be justification or a predication to open an investigation. That information is memorialized in the very first document of the case file outlining all the information, when it was received, by whom, and all the possible details. A supervisor would approve the opening of a case and assign a tracking number. The next step would be to verify the information by going to the bank and seeking documents and information.

In a counterintelligence inquiry, the rules shift to a slightly lower standard since there is a possibility of a national security problem. In this case, General Flynn’s name is swept up in a wiretap as a person talking to a Russian diplomat. That in and of itself is not a problem considering his appointment as the National Security advisor, and he can speak with any diplomats he wants to for establishing a relationship as a representative of the new administration.

As I understand the reported information in the media, by the time General Flynn is approached and talked to by the FBI, he has engaged in multiple conversations with many diplomats, and no laws are broken. The FBI knows no laws have been broken. However, they plan to use the “lazy investigators” ploy to see if he will lie about any contacts or conversations. That ploy is the 18 United States Code 1001 False Statement. First, the FBI circumvents standard procedure by not informing White House counsel of the pending interview. Second, they intentionally withhold any rights advisement. They can later claim since he was not a suspect, no rights advisement under Miranda is necessary. Third, they convince General Flynn this was not a formal interview, but just a chat as they sort through information. General Flynn believing he is helping the FBI, naively submits to the encounter on good faith.

The fruits of the discussion/interview with General Flynn by the FBI does not disclose any “lies” by General Flynn and is documented in the agent’s report known as a 302. Later that 302 is falsely altered, and the original report disappears. I strongly suspect the original 302 has not vanished as everyone thinks it has. The original writer of that report has a copy of it. Most investigators I know keep a separate file for any drafts, notes, and miscellaneous writings. They do this because many months, if not years later, a case may go to trial, and an investigator will want all the information to refresh his or her memory. It is common sense.

The above is a general description of what I believe happened. What supports this is the Deputy Director’s handwritten notes from a meeting with Comey, McCabe, and lover boy that describes the real ambitions of the interview with General Flynn. Those notes were all about entrapping General Flynn into a lie in violation of 18 USC 1001 False Statement. The law says that a person is guilty of this statue when they make a material misrepresentation of the facts. General Flynn did not do that, and this led to the false 302 showing he did.
What many citizens do not know is that the Supreme Court has ruled that law enforcement can lie, bluff, and use trickery to obtain information or a confession. There is no penalty for doing that in an investigation.

I will say I have done that to get full admissions to a crime. I have convinced subjects of an investigation I had specific evidence, which in truth, I may have had only partial evidence, and they believed the “jig” was up and confessed. I have never liked or used the 18 USC violation because all suspects or subjects will lie. It is just part of what people do to avoid the consequences of their acts. I have used their lies against them to obtain a confession. That is fair as I knew they were lying. I just have never presented a case to a prosecutor and said my case is so weak I can not prove the case, so let us get them on violation of 18 USC 1001, just to get a solved stat for my record. Therefore, I call the invocation of 18 USC 1001 the “lazy investigators” ploy. They failed to obtain the evidence, or there was no case. Lazy prosecutors use the 18 USC 1001 charge as leverage during prosecution to drop charges to get defendants to plead to more serious crimes or to put pressure on defendants to talk about others.

In my opinion, General Flynn, falsely accused and indicted on manufactured and misleading “evidence,” is what all of the facts show. What about him pleading guilty, twice, to make a false statement? By all accounts, the FBI, as part of their strategy, used General Flynn’s son as leverage and forced him to falsely admit to lying, when in fact, he could not recall specifics in a conversation with a Russian diplomat. General Flynn fell on his sword to save his son. He acted like a father, a soldier, and a leader because he believed falsely the FBI would do something to his family. In the end, they ruined General Flynn’s life, family, and finances to get him to testify against President Trump on false charges of working with the Russian Government to throw an American election. The FBI has now become the epitome of what is a “police state.” Real justice is out the window, and it is all about destroying political enemies—a crying shame to a once-respected federal law enforcement agency.

Currently, this case has a hyper-political leftist judge sitting on the bench hell-bent on punishing General Flynn because DOJ has dropped the case. It makes you wonder how many times the FBI has done the same thing in the past to innocent citizens. My advice, regardless of the circumstances, do not ever submit to law enforcement interview without a lawyer present. Until the attorney arrives, sit in silence, it will drive law enforcement nuts.