FLYNN WIN: Justice Department Drops General Flynn’s Trump-Russia Case

The newly revealed documents reveal that Flynn was pressured to plead guilty and that the FBI was determined to prosecute him, not uncover the truth.

Attorney General William Barr is defending the DOJ's actions of dismissing its criminal case against Flynn.

According to CBS News:

Attorney General William Barr defended the Justice Department's decision to seek a dismissal of its criminal case against Michael Flynn, President Trump's first national security adviser who admitted to lying to federal investigators.

Flynn pleaded guilty in December 2017 to lying to the FBI about his contacts with the former Russian ambassador to the U.S., Sergey Kislyak, in the wake of the 2016 presidential election. The case against Flynn stemmed from special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian meddling in the election.

In December 2016, President Obama imposed sanctions against Russia in retaliation for its meddling in the election. Soon after the sanctions were announced, the Washington Post reported that Flynn called Kislyak several times in December. Flynn initially denied that he had discussed the sanctions in his conversations with Kislyak. But later, in his guilty plea, Flynn admitted that he had in fact spoken with Kislyak about the sanctions and had asked that Russia "not escalate the situation and only respond to the U.S. sanctions in a reciprocal manner."

In January, Flynn asked the court to allow him to withdraw his guilty plea, citing the government's "bad faith, vindictiveness and breach of the plea agreement." Flynn also accused federal prosecutors of refusing to comply with legal and ethical obligations.

The former national security adviser was set to be sentenced in February, but the hearing was canceled.

In an exclusive interview with CBS News senior investigative correspondent Catherine Herridge, Barr dismissed the notion from critics that he is doing the bidding of Mr. Trump.

As the case against Flynn melts away, just like the Russian hoax, Democrats are now attempting to demonize Attorney General Barr.

Democrats such as Adam Schiff and Elizabeth Warren are calling for investigations into Barr as well as his resignation!

The newly revealed FBI documents show that agents were attempting to "get him [Flynn] to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired."

The case has long been under scrutiny, especially as many conservatives fear that Flynn was unfairly targeted for simply being associated with President Trump.

Fox News has more details on the DOJ's decision to drop the case as well as Flynn's response:

The Justice Department on Thursday moved to drop its case against former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, in a stunning development that comes after internal memos were released raising serious questions about the nature of the investigation that led to Flynn’s late 2017 guilty plea of lying to the FBI.

The announcement came in a court filing "after a considered review of all the facts and circumstances of this case, including newly discovered and disclosed information," as the department put it. DOJ officials said they concluded that Flynn's interview by the FBI was "untethered to, and unjustified by, the FBI's counterintelligence investigation into Mr. Flynn" and that the interview was "conducted without any legitimate investigative basis."

Later Thursday afternoon, Flynn tweeted a video of his grandson reciting The Pledge of Allegiance, along with the message, "and JUSTICE for ALL."

The federal judge overseeing the case would have to make the final determination to dismiss it.

The retired Army lieutenant general for months has been trying to withdraw his plea, aided by a new attorney aggressively challenging the prosecution’s case and conduct. But, the case has been plodding through the court system with no resolution ever since his original plea, even amid speculation about whether President Trump himself could extend a pardon.

The DOJ move to dismiss the case would appear to put an end to that process.

Earlier Thursday, the top prosecutor on the case, Brandon Van Grack, abruptly withdrew from the case, without explanation, in a brief filing with the court.

Breadcrumbs were being dropped in the days preceding the decision that his case could be reconsidered. Documents unsealed a week ago by the Justice Department revealed agents discussed their motivations for interviewing him in the Russia probe – questioning whether they wanted to "get him to lie" so he'd be fired or prosecuted, or get him to admit wrongdoing. Flynn allies howled over the revelations, arguing that he essentially had been set up in a perjury trap. In that interview, Flynn did not admit wrongdoing and instead was accused of lying about his contacts with the then-Russian ambassador – to which he pleaded guilty.

The latest DOJ filing noted Flynn's false statement plea pertained to a crime that required a statement "to be not simply false, but 'materially' false with respect to a matter under investigation." The filing showed that the government "is not persuaded that the January 24, 2017 interview was conducted with a legitimate investigative basis and therefore does not believe Mr. Flynn's statements were material even if untrue."

The U.S. attorney reviewing the Flynn case, Jeff Jensen, recommended dropping the case to Attorney General William Barr last week and formalized the recommendation in a document this week.

"Through the course of my review of General Flynn's case, I concluded the proper and just course was to dismiss the case," Jensen said in a statement. "I briefed Attorney General Barr on my findings, advised him on these conclusions, and he agreed."

President Trump reacted from the Oval Office just minutes after the DOJ filing surfaced. "He was an innocent man... Now, in my book, he's an even greater warrior," Trump said, while criticizing Obama administration officials. "They're human scum. ... It’s treason."

Rather than investigating the FBI or those involved with the persecution of General Flynn, Democrats are calling for investigations into Barr.

For those who watch CNN or MSNBC, the news may have come as a surprise.

But investigative journalists have long been warning about corruption deep within the FBI.

Now, it appears that they have been proven right all along.