Flynn Lawyer’s Letter to Barr: Flynn Was Set Up to ‘Take Out’ Trump By Petr Svab October 2, 2019 Updated: October 2, 2019
Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn’s lawyer, Sidney Powell, wrote a letter to Attorney General William Barr in early June outlining her belief that the government targeted Flynn for “concocted and political purposes” in order to “take out” President Donald Trump.
She informed Barr that she intended to demand production of a large volume of evidence and suggested “a just resolution” to the Flynn case “if the evidence shows what we believe to be true.” She also made several requests, including for Barr to replace the prosecution team on the case and to determine “when, how, and on what basis the first investigation of General Flynn began.”
The letter, marked confidential and dated June 6, was released by the Flynn case prosecutors with minor redactions on Oct. 1 (pdf).
Flynn, former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency and former national security adviser to Trump, pleaded guilty on Dec. 1, 2017, to one count of lying to FBI agents during a Jan. 24, 2017, interview.
The letter outlines a plethora of documents that Powell believed would show that the agents didn’t have a proper reason to interview Flynn to begin with.
“It is increasingly apparent that General Flynn was targeted and taken out of the Trump administration for concocted and political purposes,” she said. “We believe there is specific evidence of that fact. He was the tip of the spear aimed at President Trump.”
Powell demanded that prosecutors produce dozens of pieces of evidence in an Aug. 30 court filing that to a degree mirrors the June letter. She also moved to have the judge hold the government in contempt of court for withholding the documents.
On Oct. 1, the prosecutors responded by refusing to produce anything in response to the request (pdf). Of the 49 points of evidence, they said 20 have already been provided and that the rest were mostly not relevant or helpful to the defense. Only on two points, though, did they say the document didn’t exist or the government didn’t have it. Three points were marked as overly broad.
The prosecutors focused on the fact that Flynn already pleaded guilty and on their assertion that most of the requested documents weren’t related to Flynn’s alleged offense—lying to the FBI.
Instead, they labelled as “conspiracy theories” Powell’s suspicions that the government and the prosecutors behind the Flynn case in particular acted improperly and with improper motives.
Flynn has until noon on Oct. 22 to file his response. .......................................................