In the midst of a pandemic, Trump is obsessing over Michael Flynn
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Version 0 of 1. President Trump’s supporters are tired of the attention given to the novel coronavirus pandemic. I hear this from my email inbox and see it on the websites catering to those voices. I find this odd, given that the president frequently assures us that his leadership during this public health crisis has been exemplary, 10 out of 10, the best in the world. And don’t take his word for it; Vice President Pence and deputy president Jared Kushner agree. What Team Trump wants America to talk about is the fate of Michael Flynn, Trump’s original national security adviser. U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan has been asked by the Justice Department to dismiss the charges against Flynn, which the same Justice Department pressed successfully to a guilty plea. The judge, who is mulling over this unusual twist, put a hold on the request Tuesday at least temporarily to allow time for outside parties to weigh in. Full coverage of the coronavirus pandemic I expect to learn a lot from Sullivan’s ruling when it happens. Few, if any, judges have fewer illusions about the Justice Department’s ability to go astray. He spent years sorting through the mess that federal prosecutors made of the case against former Alaska senator Ted Stevens. While we await illumination from the bench, open-minded Americans ought to agree that the FBI’s involvement in the 2016 presidential campaign was unsettling — even alarming. The bureau botched the matter of Hillary Clinton’s emails and botched its investigation of Russian interference. The fact is all but forgotten now that Democrats and Republicans were briefly united in the view that then-FBI Director James B. Comey was a runaway train; if Trump had replaced him immediately on account of his political meddling instead of trying to woo him, Washington wouldn’t have batted an eye. Instead, the president dragged out the firing, and when he finally dropped the ax, he did so with the finesse of the Keystone Cops. Here’s a pro tip for future presidents: Bragging to the Russian ambassador about shutting down an investigation of Russia is not a good way to end suspicions about your Russia ties. Trump not only made a martyr of Comey among half the country. He also made it virtually impossible for senior Justice officials to not appoint a special prosecutor. And despite a nearly endless barrage of unfounded abuse from Trump and his allies, Robert S. Mueller III produced a thorough and evenhanded assessment. Mueller found no proof of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian election hackers. Team Trump wanted to collude with the Russians. Team Trump tried to collude. It just didn’t work out as they hoped. When Donald Trump Jr. received an emailed overture at campaign headquarters offering “very high level and sensitive information” about Clinton as “part of Russia and its government’s support for Mr. Trump,” he eagerly replied: “If it’s what you say I love it.” It took the FBI and Mueller some time to figure out that the Trumps aren’t even competent enough to collude. In the process of coming to this realization, agents questioned Flynn, who lied to them about his communications as incoming national security adviser with a senior Russian official. Lying to the bureau can be a crime. Flynn, a big boy with a good lawyer, was aware of this fact when he delivered the lie. Mueller’s team prosecuted. Flynn pleaded guilty — twice. But when new management arrived at Main Justice, he withdrew the pleas. After an internal investigation of the FBI’s conduct, the department asked to dismiss the charge. Flynn’s lie was irrelevant, the department now says, because he shouldn’t have been questioned to begin with. Over to you, Judge Sullivan. Except for one additional note: Long before Flynn was charged with lying to the FBI, he was fired by Trump for bald-face lying about the exact same matter to the vice president. Yes, the Trump who romanced and dallied with Comey dropped Flynn like a hot rock. Whatever supposedly benign topics Flynn discussed with the Russians, it did not take a corrupt FBI to entangle him. Flynn wouldn’t even come clean to the president’s panting poodle, Pence. But now Trump has pronounced Flynn a hero for all that lying. Ask yourself: In the midst of a pandemic that has killed more than 80,000 Americans and decimated the world economy, why is the president of the United States suddenly obsessed with this former aide who — if Flynn is truly a hero — Trump himself had forsaken with scarcely a care? Flynn’s supposedly gigantic integrity mattered little to Trump in early 2017 when the president tossed him overboard. Now it’s Priority One? The Opinions section is looking for stories of how the coronavirus has affected people of all walks of life. Write to us. The president would prefer to discuss anything other than the subject most important to the American people. This sad truth gives all the more reason for the rest of us to continue to focus on the pandemic. Saving lives while saving the economy is among the most complex challenges we’ve faced, and we’re facing it without help from the top. Read more from David Von Drehle’s archive. Read more: The Post’s View: The judge should look skeptically at Barr’s latest effort to rescue another Trump crony Jonathan Kravis: I left the Justice Department after it made a disastrous mistake. It just happened again. John Gleeson, David O’Neil and Marshall Miller: The Flynn case isn’t over until the judge says it’s over Randall D. Eliason: The Justice Department’s lawless reversal on Michael Flynn Chuck Rosenberg: The long list of people who thought Flynn’s lies were material |