Michael Flynn’s sentencing delayed, may not avoid prison time
12 replies, posted
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/michael-flynn-trumps-former-national-security-adviser-scheduled-to-be-sentenced/2018/12/17/19ce1bb4-0247-11e9-b5df-5d3874f1ac36_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.4dce0d3ff391
A federal judge on Tuesday postponed the sentencing for Michael Flynn after he lambasted President Trump’s former national security adviser for trying to undermine his own country
and said he could not guarantee he would spare Flynn from prison.
The stunning development means that Flynn will have to be sentenced at a later date, when he can possibly convince a judge more thoroughly of how his cooperation has benefited
law enforcement.
Flynn’s attorneys asked for the delay after U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan accused Flynn of acting as “an unregistered agent of a foreign country, while serving as the national
security adviser to the president of the United States” — an allegation he later walked back. Sullivan granted the request and asked for a status report in 90 days, though he said he was
“not making any promises” that he would view the matter differently in three months.
After reviewing some of the allegations against Flynn, including that he worked to advance the interests of the Turkish government in the United States during the 2016 presidential
campaign, the judge pointed to an American flag behind him in the courtroom and said heatedly, “Arguably, that undermines everything this flag over here stands for. Arguably you
sold your country out.
“The court’s going to consider that,” the judge said. “I cannot assure you, if you proceed today, you will not receive a sentence of incarceration.” Sullivan also asked a prosecutor with
the special counsel’s office whether Flynn could be charged with “treason.”
Flynn pleaded guilty in Mueller’s probe more than a year ago, admitting that he lied to the FBI about conversations with Sergey Kislyak, Russia’s ambassador to the United States at the
time. Flynn had talked with the diplomat in the weeks before Trump’s inauguration about efforts to blunt Obama administration policy decisions — on sanctions against Russia and
a U.N. resolution on Israel.
Wonder what it feels like to see a judge literally tell you you're a traitor.
How long til judge reccomends for Flynn to be charged for treason?
Given they asked, in proceedings, whether or not they could it doesn't seem to be a matter of willingness but rather procedure so either never or however long it takes for the SCO to tell the judge 'you can charge him with treason'.
The keyword in any capital-T Treason charge is “declared.” By definition, in order to commit Treason the U.S. must be in a declared military conflict. This is an 18th-century reading however, not exactly applicable to 21st-century cyberwars which are, by definition, undeclared/unofficial.
Legally speaking, the Treason statute has never applied to Flynn’s actions, or Trump’s for that matter, even if in practical effect that is exactly what they’ve committed: treason (lowercase-t).
On topic, the extraordinary turn of events in the courtroom today suggests a few things: one, that the judge views Flynn’s actions as treason in all but name; two, that he recognizes Flynn’s intention to pull out of the plea agreement post-sentencing in anticipation of a Trump pardon, and is offering him one last chance to commit to full cooperation under threat of prison-time; and three, that any Trump backchanneling, grandstanding, or other dirty tricks by cooperating witnesses will be taken into account at sentencing and heavily punished.
Judges don't 'recommend' charges, it would be up to the SCO to make that determination and they've reached a deal with Flynn to not do it
Yep. This is another case where originalist reading of the constitution is bullshit. You no longer have to have a single soldier overseas inside a foreign country to be conducting war against them. We should not take 18th century definitions of treason into account in an era where Russia can covertly destabilize an entire nation via the internet.
It would actually be amazing if the nature of these offenses (conspiracy to commit computer crimes, aiding and abetting and so forth) resulted in the overturning of years of precedent in favor of a more modern and relevant definition of treason that encompasses cyber warfare. That’s obviously a lot to hope for and it doesn’t seem particularly realistic given the circumstances, but if the question is how best to protect the country and uphold the rule of law, then a 21-century, cyber-compatible definition of treason needs to be at the top of the agenda.
he's already pled guilty to crimes, they won't bother taking him back to court. This was probably delayed because as the judge pointed out, sentencing rarely occurs before a person is done cooperating, which means mueller or the judge decided flynn might still be needed.
Christianity is so goddamn creepy once you're watching it happen
eugh
It's really kinda disconcerting reading through Twitters like that and then seeing them post something like this:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dut81haV4AEQOy4.jpg
with absolutely no sense of self-awareness.
what is with evangelicals thinking that God is just a make a wish machine that you can ask for anything and receive
It feels good, just like everything else they do. Feelings over science, stats, and reality.
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