Brad Sallows
Army.ca Legend
- Reaction score
- 8,688
- Points
- 1,040
The WaPo doesn't necessarily "get it right"; it too is merely a particular "point of view".
"current and former law enforcement officials said the decision was a betrayal of long-standing Justice Department principles."
Andrew McCarthy is a "former law enforcement official" who believes the investigation and prosecution was a betrayal of various principles; he at least has argued his points in more than an anonymously-sourced fragment. There is disagreement on what constitutes "right".
Dan McLaughlin (NRO) also has a view. He disagrees with McCarthy and Dershowitz on the questions of materiality and perjury trap:
"As a matter of rules, the legal requirement that lies be material to an investigation can arguably be met in those circumstances: The materiality standard is about what information would affect an investigation, not whether it actually did. As a matter of rules, Flynn would not meet the high test for entrapment, or for a “perjury trap,” even if you applied that doctrine to a lies-to-investigators case."
He also points out:
"But if your argument in the Flynn case is simply “he should be prosecuted if the law allows it,” you’re not dealing seriously with the world as it is.
That is especially so given the Justice Department’s refusal to prosecute former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe, who was found by the DOJ inspector general to have lied to investigators; or President Obama’s director of national intelligence James Clapper, who lied under oath to the Senate about warrantless surveillance; or Obama’s CIA director John Brennan, who lied under oath about CIA drone strikes and spying on Congress; or, for that matter, Democratic National Committee chair Thomas Perez, who was reprimanded by Congress for multiple lies and concealment while serving as assistant attorney general for civil rights."
And:
"If you’re going to base a prosecution entirely on the integrity of the process, you cannot very well hand-wave away your own violations of the integrity of the process."
There is more to come (Durham's investigation), regarding "violations of the integrity of the process". The fictions and bad-faith investigations prompted by the Steele dossier have been peeled away. This matter has been peeled away. I doubt it ends here.
"current and former law enforcement officials said the decision was a betrayal of long-standing Justice Department principles."
Andrew McCarthy is a "former law enforcement official" who believes the investigation and prosecution was a betrayal of various principles; he at least has argued his points in more than an anonymously-sourced fragment. There is disagreement on what constitutes "right".
Dan McLaughlin (NRO) also has a view. He disagrees with McCarthy and Dershowitz on the questions of materiality and perjury trap:
"As a matter of rules, the legal requirement that lies be material to an investigation can arguably be met in those circumstances: The materiality standard is about what information would affect an investigation, not whether it actually did. As a matter of rules, Flynn would not meet the high test for entrapment, or for a “perjury trap,” even if you applied that doctrine to a lies-to-investigators case."
He also points out:
"But if your argument in the Flynn case is simply “he should be prosecuted if the law allows it,” you’re not dealing seriously with the world as it is.
That is especially so given the Justice Department’s refusal to prosecute former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe, who was found by the DOJ inspector general to have lied to investigators; or President Obama’s director of national intelligence James Clapper, who lied under oath to the Senate about warrantless surveillance; or Obama’s CIA director John Brennan, who lied under oath about CIA drone strikes and spying on Congress; or, for that matter, Democratic National Committee chair Thomas Perez, who was reprimanded by Congress for multiple lies and concealment while serving as assistant attorney general for civil rights."
And:
"If you’re going to base a prosecution entirely on the integrity of the process, you cannot very well hand-wave away your own violations of the integrity of the process."
There is more to come (Durham's investigation), regarding "violations of the integrity of the process". The fictions and bad-faith investigations prompted by the Steele dossier have been peeled away. This matter has been peeled away. I doubt it ends here.
op:
