Attorney slams FBI ‘ambush’ of 'unguarded' Flynn

FPI / October 27, 2019

FBI higher-ups James Comey, Andrew McCabe and Peter Strzok were “executing their own agenda” when they set up an “ambush” of former national security adviser Michael Flynn, attorney Sidney Powell told the judge hearing Flynn’s case.

“When the Director of the FBI, and a group of his close associates, plot to set up an innocent man and create a crime — while taking affirmative steps to ensnare him by refusing to follow procedures designed to prevent such inadvertent missteps — this amounts to conduct so shocking to the conscience and so inimical to our system of justice that it requires the dismissal of the charges for outrageous government conduct,” Powell wrote in a court filing.

Comey’s FBI “unilaterally” made the decision to interview Flynn without input from the Department of Justice, Powell told Judge Emmet Sullivan. The FBI chief also ignored White House counsel and convinced Flynn that agents were friends who wanted to discuss terrorism, Powell said.

McCabe, the then-deputy director who was later fired for allegedly lying about an unrelated leaked news story, telephoned Flynn one day prior to the interview which was held without Flynn’s legal counsel.

Strzok would say that he found Flynn “relaxed and jocular” and “unguarded.”

“This and Strzok’s admissions make clear that Comey and McCabe were executing their own agenda — not investigating a crime,” Powell said.

Washington Times reporter Rowan Scarborough noted on Oct. 25 that Powell’s new court filing came in response to a reply from Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Brandon Van Grack, who called Powell’s previous assertions “conspiracy theories.” He said that all of her requested documents either didn’t exist or were immaterial.

After leaving the White House after interviewing Flynn, Strzok texted FBI counsel Lisa Page, then his lover, writing: “Describe the feeling, nervousness, excitement knowing we had just heard him denying it all. Knowing we’d have to pivot into asking. Puzzle round and round about it. Talk about the funny details. Remember what I said that made Andy [McCabe] laugh and ask if he really said that.”

Powell wrote in her court filing: “In this case, high-ranking FBI officials orchestrated an ambush-interview of the new president’s National Security Advisor, not for the purpose of discovering any evidence of criminal activity — they already had tapes of all the relevant conversations about which they questioned Mr. Flynn — but for the purpose of trapping him into making statements they could allege as false.”

Free Press International