Michael Flynn History Being Rewritten

President Trump and his allies in the right-wing media are resurrecting former National Security Director Michael Flynn as a patriot induced by dirty cops to fall into a perjury trap which destroyed his life and career. This rewrite of history has been abetted by Attorney-General William Barr whose Justice Department, in an unprecedented move, has opened its investigative files to share documents with Mr. Flynn's counsel. These documents, which are not exculpatory, clearly fall outside the scope of required disclosure and are being mischaracterized to create a false impression of FBI wrongdoing.

Let's review the facts. Mr. Flynn was fired by Mr. Trump for lying to Vice President Pence about his contacts with Russians. Did Mr. Pence entrap Flynn into these lies? Mr. Flynn has twice admitted in court that he made false statements to the FBI. Was Flynn compelled to lie to his questioners when telling the truth was an available, and better, option?

The judge should impose the sentence Mr. Flynn deserves. Mr. Trump should butt out. Mr. Barr should, hereafter,  accord all criminal defendants the same open file access he has provided to Mr. Flynn.

Barr Equates Stay At Home Orders To House Arrest

Having succeeded in cleaving the nation is two, Donald Trump believes he can appeal to each half by speaking out of both sides of his mouth.
Thus, he pays lip service to the guidelines adopted by his pandemic task force even as he exhorts his base to ignore the safeguards put in place by governors and tweets, “liberate” states governed by Democrats.
Thoughtless mobs have responded to his call to arms by repurposing their Tea Party flags and regalia and crowding in clusters, some ominously armed, in several state capitols. They claim their constitutional rights to speech and assembly trump public safety. By defying locally imposed restrictions these would be vigilantes are courting infection and raising the risk of viral spread throughout their communities and beyond.
Their dangerous and legally defective constitutional claims have now been adopted by Attorney General William Barr, who persists in politicizing the Department of Justice. Mr. Barr says he will support legal actions against governors whose only wrongdoing has been to adopt the very restrictions proposed by Mr.Trump’s own task force. It has long been legally recognized that even constitutional rights must cede to the imperatives of public health and safety.

President Trump's Press Briefing Meltdown

Some TV channels have opted not to televise those portions of Donald Trump's daily press briefings, while he carries on about everything but the Corona crisis. That is a mistake. It is important for the American people to see for themselves the megalomaniac mutterings of their president. Today's briefing was especially revealing. Mr. Trump, freed of  the sycophantic presence of his vice-president, engaged in a series of rambling, deceitful, disconnected rants, bordering on incoherence, that brought to mind Humphrey Bogart's devastating portrayal of Captain Queeg, in the Caine Mutiny, declaiming about the strawberries missing from the ship's store. In the face of this nation's greatest peril, this madman demonstrated, once again, that we are leaderless.

Barr Distorts Facts of Inspector-General's Firing

By persistently interjecting himself in political controversies and regularly ruling in a partisan, protective fashion in all things Trump, Attorney General William Barr has destroyed any semblance of the notion that the Attorney General, as the nation's chief law enforcement officer, is the pillar of an independent and non-partisan Department of Justice.

Even in the face of mass public denunciation by former federal prosecutors and some judges, Mr. Barr's callous disregard for the truth and the rule of law endures. Now he denounces the inspector-general who followed the law and did his duty to alert Congress to the complaint of a whistle-blower whose allegations were proven true and which moved the House of Representatives to impeach the president.

While Mr. Trump's vengeful firing of Inspector-General Atkinson was predictable, the disingenuous defense of that shameful act, by AG Barr, is a dangerous detour from the traditional role of the attorney-general and further besmirches a once revered institution.

U.S. Prepares to Sanction Russian Group as Terrorists

Nathan Sales, the State Department's counter terrorism coordinator, has designated a Russian nationalist group as a terrorist organization (4/6, A24). In typical Trumpian fashion, Mr. Sales touted his action as "unprecedented", and, tellingly, said "this is the first time the United States has ever designated white supremacists as terrorists..."

With the number of white supremacist groups growing ominously in the US during the Trump presidency, the administration had to look abroad to condemn this threat to our democracy? How about those "very fine people"  who violently demonstrated their hatred and racism in Charlottesville? If the Trump administration feels an imperative to label Russians as terrorists, why doesn't it begin by branding Mr. Putin who has been and continues to be hard at work undermining free elections and democratic societies around the world?