GOOD NEWS? Federal judge wants to see notes on infamous FBI meeting with Flynn before sentencing

It was reported late last night that the federal judge overseeing the sentencing for Michael Flynn now wants to see the FBI notes on Flynn before he sentences him:

Strassel says this is encouraging news. Here’s more from the Daily Caller:

The federal judge who will issue a sentence against Michael Flynn next week wants to review FBI documents related to a fateful White House interview that the retired lieutenant general gave to two FBI agents just days into his tenure as President Donald Trump’s national security adviser.

District Court Judge Emmet G. Sullivan on Wednesday ordered Flynn’s lawyers to hand over two documents: a memo that then-FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe wrote after speaking with Flynn ahead his Jan. 24, 2017 interview with two FBI agents and the FBI summary of notes taken during that same interview. 

That summary, known as an FD-302, was compiled on Aug. 22, 2017 by the two FBI agents who interviewed Flynn. It is unclear why the summary was put together seven months after the Flynn interview.

Sullivan also ordered the special counsel to hand over any other memos or interview notes relevant to Flynn’s interview.

Sullivan’s interest in the documents appears to have been spurred by claims that Flynn’s lawyers made in a court filing submitted Tuesday night.

Pointing to the McCabe memo, they noted that McCabe nudged Flynn toward meeting with the two FBI agents without an attorney present. He wrote that he told Flynn that a two-on-one meeting would be the “quickest” option.

Flynn agreed and said he did not need to involve White House lawyers.
McCabe also wrote in the memo that he and other FBI officials decided before the meeting that Flynn would not be warned ahead of the interview about the penalties of lying to the agents. McCabe noted that “they wanted Flynn to be relaxed” and “were concerned that giving the warnings might adversely affect the rapport.”

Sounds like a big deal for Flynn. After all, it’s been reported that some agents didn’t even believe that Flynn was lying to the FBI, but that he just misremembered. Despite all of this, Flynn did plead guilty to that charge and his legal team makes clear that he takes responsibility for that.

But regarding McCabe pushing Flynn for an interview without his legal team present and not warning him about the consequences of lying to the FBI – that seems like a really big deal too. McCabe was fired from the FBI for not only leaking to the media, but for ‘lacking candor’ – which basically means he wasn’t honest. I suspect that could also have some bearing on this if the judge also finds that McCabe lacked candor during this interview.


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