by Daveda Gruber:
On Tuesday General Michael Flynn’s legal team has indicated that they are seeking to have the case against Flynn thrown out of court.
The former national security advisor’s relatively new legal team is accusing the prosecution of “egregious conduct and suppression” of possibly exculpatory evidence.
Fynn’s legal team headed by defense attorney, Sidney Powell, in a status conference in federal court in Washington, said, “There never would have been a plea to begin with if the government had disclosed Brady information about what it knew before the plea agreement.”
The Supreme Court case of Brady vs. Maryland established the government’s obligation to turn over all exculpatory evidence. Flynn lawyers have issued a complaint that references that case.
There have been months of delays in the Flynn case. On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan indicated he would like to set a tentative sentencing date of December 18th.
Powell said, “There is far more at stake here than sentencing. There were stunning failures to produce Brady material, going back to July of 2017.”
Prosecutors have strongly rejected that contention and have said that “the government has exceeded its discovery and disclosure obligations in this matter.” That includes providing Flynn with more than 22,000 pages of documents.
In 2017 Flynn pleaded guilty to providing false statements to the FBI during an interview about his contacts with the former Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
The entire case against Flynn was a part of former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.
Powell has accused the Justice Department of withholding documents critical to Flynn’s defense. Powell is demanding access to classified materials she maintains the government has blocked them from viewing.
Included in the documents that have been denied to Flynn’s legal team are FBI documents surrounding the actions of Bruce Ohr, who is a former high-ranking official at the Department of Justice (DOJ).
Ohr had multiple contacts with the author of the infamous Trump dossier, Christopher Steele.
Powell has alleged that there is an internal DOJ memo that “exonerates” Flynn from being a Russian agent. The prosecution allegedly had this information in their possession and failed to disclose this information before Flynn signed his plea deal.
For now, Powell disclosed that Flynn doesn’t plan to withdraw from the plea deal.
Powell said, “There never would have been a plea to begin with if the government had disclosed Brady information about what it knew before the plea agreement”
Prosecutor Brandon Van Grack has a different take on it. He argued that the charge Flynn pleaded guilty to was lying about his contacts with the Russian government, not of being a Russian agent.
Flynn was never charged with being a Russian agent.
The defense team for Flynn wants all the documents surrounding the FBI’s interview of Flynn.
Flynn’s defense team also wants all the documents surrounding the FBI’s interview of Flynn. Prosecutors stated that they have already turned all those documents over to Flynn’s team before the plea deal.
Powell claims that there is another document that hasn’t been released.
Powell said, “It would be in the FBI computer system.”
It is also alleged that there is evidence that Flynn passed a polygraph test.
Powell said, “There is just a plethora of information out there that we need the actual documents to support and the notes to support.”
In court documents Powell has compared the government’s conduct toward Flynn to the case of former Alaska Senator, Ted Stevens.
That case ended with U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan, who is the same judge in the Flynn case, finding prosecutorial misconduct.
A year ago, government prosecutors said that they would ask Sullivan to spare Flynn any jail time because of his “extensive cooperation” in the Mueller investigation.
Will Flynn go free? Do you stand with General Flynn? I hope so because I stand with Flynn.
The man is an American hero who has been put through a grinder because people involved in the Russian probe were biased to the extreme that they hated President Trump and were desperate to find a way to destroy a legally elected president of the US.
Now we wait. A court hearing on “Brady” material is set for October 31st.
