Yesterday, the President started the day off with a call for the nation to heal itself with a “NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER.”
Well, that’s not entirely correct. He started off the day hyping Judicial Watch’s lawsuit to depose Hillary Clinton about Benghazi. But after that, he got down to praying in earnest.
The president prayed for just vengeance on Senator Chuck Schumer for disrespecting the holy Supreme Court. He prayed that the good Lord would open the hearts of America’s governors, so that they might emulate the federal government’s perfect, perfect pandemic response. He prayerfully rebuked the “Fake and Corrupt News” for reporting that he shamelessly mischaracterized Google’s coronavirus test plans. And he praised Jesus for giving him the wisdom to save Social Security and Medicare, unlike Joe Biden, who displeased the Lord with his “VERY boring debate.” Truly, it was a day of sacred inspiration.
During his public and private spiritual meditations, Donald Trump could not but consider the least among us. The poor, the downtrodden, the unjustly accused.
That’s right, he’s worried about Michael Flynn.
The former National Security Advisor pleaded guilty in writing to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak. He allocuted to it twice in open court. And yet, after having replaced his highly competent counsel from Covington & Burling with Sidney Powell, an, uh, outside the box thinker, he’s now decided that none of the stuff he admitted to under oath ever actually happened.
It’s an unorthodox strategy, to say the least.
Trump appears to be referring to allegations by Flynn’s lawyer that there is a missing draft of the FBI agents’ notes (AKA FBI form 302) on their infamous January 24, 2017 interview with Flynn at the White House. That’s the interview where he assured the agents that he had absolutely not discussed sanctions with the Russian ambassador before the inauguration, while joking that the agents probably knew exactly what he’d discussed because they were likely tapping the call, HEH HEH. Which… they were, and that’s how they knew he was lying.
This is a lie Flynn has admitted to under oath, both verbally and in writing. He discussed it multiple times in his proffer agreement and subsequent interviews with the FBI, all of which will undoubtedly be used against him if he actually succeeds in withdrawing his plea. Nevertheless, he would now like to insist he was just confused all those times, because the mean FBI tricked him. Also, his old lawyers were incompetent. And if the court could just overlook that part of his plea agreement where he agreed not to ask for any further Brady materials, that would be awesome, too!
Or, maybe, if he can just make enough noise, he can get a presidential pardon and none of it will even matter. And if that’s the plan, it appears to be going swimmingly, especially after he got Hannity fixture and “National Security/War Correspondent” Sarah Carter on the case.
During his prayer service yesterday, Trump retweeted this entire thread.
And HOSANNA, the nation was healed!
U.S. v. Flynn [Reply in Support, No. 1:17-cr-00232-1 (D.D.C. Nov 4, 2019)]
Elizabeth Dye lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics.