OpEd by Brian Cates
Lt. General Michael Flynn's defense team, led by powerhouse lawyer Sidney Powell, made a stunning filing in his case on October 24th. In that filing, Powell makes some very serious claims against the government's prosecutors.
She charges them with not only withholding exculpatory evidence, but with aiding and abetting the alteration of official government documents – called 302 forms.
The Ghost Of Andrew Weissmann
Although the name Brandon Van Grack is the one that appears in all of these Flynn filings as counsel for the government, the person Sidney Powell is actually locked into legal warfare with here is Andrew Weissmann.
That's because Weissmann was the person who was actually crafting the government's strategy in pursuing this case against Gen. Flynn.
The Flynn case actually isn't the first time Powell has tangled with Weissmann. Powell first encountered Weissmann and his bag of dirty tricks back when she was representing Jim Brown, one of the Merrill Lynch executives who was appealing his conviction. She tells the entire sordid story in her compelling book, “License To Lie”.
But Weissmann departed the Special Counsel's office long ago, back in March of this year. Van Grack is the junior guy who's now stuck with the unenviable task of managing the fallout as Weissmann's corrupt tactics begin to be exposed.
This is exactly what happened with Weissmann in the past.
Let me explain how history is repeating itself.
The Corrupt Enron Task Force
Weissmann was the top guy in what was dubbed 'The Enron Task Force' back in the early 2000's, a team of crack prosecutors assembled by the Dept. of Justice to pursue fraud cases against former Enron executives after the company's epic collapse.
Weissmann and the star prosecutors had all already moved on to cushier jobs either inside the DOJ itself or in private practice by the time appeals courts went back to look and examine exactly how these convictions had been obtained.
As fantastic as this is going to sound the first time you hear it, I want you to understand something: all of this is proven and it’s why most of the convictions the Enron prosecutors managed to get ended up being reversed.
This Enron task force of “superstar” prosecutors literally charged innocent people with things that weren't crimes, while simultaneously hiding exculpatory evidence from the court. And they got convictions. Several of these innocent targets went to prison.
By the time Sidney Powell was hired to represent Jim Brown during the appeal of his conviction, Weissmann had already moved on to a cushy new job at the DOJ working as special counsel for then-FBI Director...Robert Mueller.
In her book, Powell relates how it was some other hapless prosecutor left holding the bag and frantically fighting to hide the methods the prosecution team had used to build it's case.
Mueller Gets The Band Back Together
Would you be shocked to learn that several members of this disgraced Enron Task Force were hand-picked by Mueller to be members of the new Special Counsel team he was tasked with forming? Leading the pack was Weissmann himself.
Not surprisingly, Weissmann & Co. seem to have gone right back to their tried and true tricks, the same unethical and corrupt practices they had used to drive their cases back in their Enron/Merrill Lynch days:
- inventing crimes out of thin air
- hiding exculpatory evidence
- altering documents
I've been saying for two years now the biggest reason Flynn's actual sentencing keeps being delayed is because there were serious problems with this prosecution from the start.
An Amazing Turn Of Events
If there was one judge in the country that Sydney Powell would want to have presiding over a case where the prosecution could be shown to have charged a non-crime, while also hiding exculpatory evidence and altering official documents, that judge would be Judge Emmet Sullivan. Here's why:
When the prosecutors in the Senator Ted Stevens case were caught red-handed hiding exculpatory evidence, presiding Judge Emmet Sullivan not only levied sanctions against them, he appointed a Special Prosecutor to thoroughly investigate what they had done.
Ever since that infamous case, whenever he handles a new case, the very first thing Judge Sullivan does is file what's known as a “Brady order”, directing federal prosecutors to make absolutely sure they have turned over all exculpatory evidence to the defense.
Surprisingly enough, when the original Judge in the Flynn case suddenly recused himself under mysterious circumstances, the judge that was randomly appointed to replace him just happened to be….Emmet Sullivan! What incredible luck there, eh?
And then in early June it was announced that Flynn was firing his defense team and who should end up replacing them just three days later but…Sidney Powell!
Its almost as if.....nah, couldn't be. That's just my overactive imagination at work...
Since she was hired as Flynn's attorney, the Fake News Media and Democrats have been laughing at Sidney Powell and mocking her for what they call the 'bizarre conspiracy theory' filings she's been making, in which she claims prosecutors are [checks card] hiding exculpatory evidence, charging people for non-crimes and altering official records.
We'll see who laughs last.
