Sally Yates, others were alarmed about FBI treatment of Mike Flynn

March 18, 2020

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A little-noticed letter from special counsel Robert Mueller’s office divulges Obama DOJ concerns about FBI treatment of ex-Trump national security adviser.

~John Solomon

“Former acting Attorney General Sally Yates and other senior Obama-era Justice Department officials told the Russia special prosecutor in private interviews they had concerns about the FBI’s conduct in investigating former Trump National Security Adviser Mike Flynn, according to memos that paint a dark portrait of the bureau’s behavior, writes investigative reporter John Solomon.

Documents include a possible exculpatory letter:

It shows Mueller accepted the guilty plea knowing the agents said they did not think General Flynn lied.
These officials thought the Logan Act threat used against Flynn to get him to cave was a “stretch.”
Flynn was lured into the fateful interview under the guise that he was not in legal jeopardy.
Former deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe agreed with some of what these the DOJ officials were saying.

They railroaded the General.

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YATES EXPRESSED CONCERNS AND THEN SAID THE OPPOSITE

Former acting Attorney General Sally Yates expressed concerns to the Mueller team about the January, 2017 interview with Flynn.

“During an SCO (Special Counsel Office) interview of former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates, Yates said that on January 24, 2017, Comey advised Yates that two FBI agents were on their way to interview Flynn,” a May 2018 Mueller team letter to Flynn’s lawyers stated. “The interview was problematic from Yates’ perspective because, as a matter of protocol and courtesy, the White House Counsel’s Office should have been notified beforehand.

“Yates relayed that the FBI previously had said that notification would mess up an ongoing investigation, but Yates said it was not always clear what exactly the FBI was doing to investigate Flynn.”

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The next day, Yates told the Mueller team, the FBI briefed her on what transpired during the Flynn interview and the FBI’s focus on whether he remembered talking to the Russian ambassador about sanctions.

“The gist of what she was told was that Flynn was very accommodating, but the agents had not confronted him directly,” the letter explained. “He was nudged at one point, and he said something like, ‘Oh, thank you for reminding me.’ Flynn denied having a conversation about sanctions. Yates did not speak to the interviewing agents herself, but understood from others that the interviewing agents’ assessment was that Flynn showed no ‘tells’ of lying, and it was possible he really did not remember the substance of his calls with Ambassador Kislyak.”

She Changed Her Story

That’s not what Yates said in May 2017 to CNN. She said, Flynn was in a “serious compromise situation, that the Russians had real leverage over him.” You can watch those here.

Other DOJ officials expressed concerns, but they let the miscarriage go through.

MARY MCCORD TOLD THE MUELLER TEAM THE FBI DIDN’T BELIEVE FLYNN WAS LYING

Former acting Assistant Attorney General Mary McCord told Mueller’s prosecutors that the FBI did not tell Flynn he could be charged with a crime. She understood the meeting was to determine if he had a relationship with Russia.

“The FBI did not want to insinuate the existence of a criminal investigation to Flynn, and to that end they did not give a Title 18 United States Code Section 1001 warning to Flynn,” the Mueller correspondence said. “The FBI also indicated there was no need to reinterview Flynn at the time.”

By Jan. 30, 2017, the FBI sent senior DOJ officials a memo declaring the bureau did not believe Flynn was acting as an agent of Russia, the Mueller correspondence states.

Although exonerated of Russia collusion, he still faced the Logan Act, a probably unconstitutional act no one used.

“McCord said that upon learning of Flynn’s phone calls with Ambassador Kislyak, a Logan Act prosecution seemed like a stretch to her,” the Mueller summary of her interview stated.

MCCABE AND THE LOGAN ACT

“According to McCabe, after the January 24 interview with Flynn, the interviewing agents returned to the FBI and briefed McCabe,” the Mueller memo stated. “The agents believed Flynn seemed very credible in his interview. Everyone in the room thought it was amazing that the agents believed that Flynn seemed credible since he denied something that everyone else knew to be true.”

“McCabe and then-acting assistant attorney general Mary McCord had many subsequent discussions about the Logan Act,” according to the memo. “They believed prosecuting a Logan act violation was a long shot.”

AXELROD SAID STRZOK TOLD HIM FLYNN WAS TRUTHFUL

Then-Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Matthew Axelrod also was interviewed by the Mueller team about the Flynn interactions.

“Strzok provided his view that Flynn appeared truthful during the interview,” the memo recounted Axelrod as saying. “Strzok based his assessment more on Flynn’s mannerisms and lack of hesitation when answering questions as opposed to what Flynn actually said.”

Read the rest of the story here. Mr. Solomon did not link to any documents or explain how he came about them.

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