Senate Trial Created A Trap, [DS] Didn’t Even See It Coming – Episode 2084

BREAKING: General Flynn Files Motion to Withdraw Guilty Plea and Dismiss Case Against Him for Egregious Government Misconduct …Update: Federal Prosecutors Soften Stance

Michael Flynn Just Called the Former Special Counsel’s Bluff in a Big Way

• Yesterday, Michael Flynn’s legal team, led by attorney Sidney Powell, filed a “Supplemental Motion to Withdraw Plea of Guilty” on behalf of the retired lieutenant general. Between the motion and the accompanying exhibits, which together exceeded 200 pages, Powell exposed several more troubling details about the prosecution of Flynn, involving both the special counsel team and Flynn’s previous attorneys.
•   At the time Flynn entered his plea, he was represented by Robert Kelner and Stephen Anthony of the well-respected Washington firm of Covington and Burling, LLP.

• In determining whether a “fair and just reason” exists, courts consider three factors: “(1) whether the defendant has asserted a viable claim of innocence; (2) whether the delay between the guilty plea and the motion to withdraw has substantially prejudiced the government’s ability to prosecute the case; and (3) whether the guilty plea was somehow tainted.”
• Powell’s brief walked through these three factors, stressing first that Flynn is innocent of the charge that he lied to the FBI. Powell’s analysis of this factor followed her opening plea to Judge Sullivan to recall that “more than a year ago, at the December 18, 2018, Sentencing Hearing, this Court declared that it could not ‘recall any incident in which the Court has ever accepted a plea of guilty from someone who maintained that he was not guilty,’ and that it did not ‘intend to start’ that day.”
• Next, Powell argued that there is no prejudice to the government’s ability to prosecute the case. No witnesses have died, no evidence has been lost, and the prosecution remains equally able to make out its case—if it had one—now as at the time Flynn entered his guilty plea.
• Finally, Powell addressed the heart of the issue: the third factor and whether Flynn’s plea was somehow tainted. It was, Powell posited, because of the ineffective assistance of counsel Flynn received both at his December 2017 plea hearing and again when Sullivan quizzed him about his guilt at the December 2018 sentencing hearing.
• After setting out the governing legal standard for ineffective assistance of counsel—that “counsel’s advice was not ‘within the range of competence demanded of attorneys in criminal cases,’ and that as a result he was prejudiced, i.e. ‘there is a reasonable probability that, but for counsel’s errors, he would not have pleaded guilty and would have insisted on going to trial’”—Powell dedicates the remaining 30-plus pages of her brief to proving Flynn’s Covington lawyers provided ineffective assistance to Flynn.
• Before Flynn signed the plea, he ‘specifically instructed Anthony and Kelner to call [the Special Counsel] immediately and ask if the agents believed that he lied.’
• His Lawyers Told Him Not to Withdraw His Guilty Plea
• Flynn took their advice, telling Judge Sullivan that he did not want to withdraw his plea, and that he was pleading guilty because he was guilty. But that decision was premised on ineffective assistance of counsel, Powell argued.
• Michael Flynn Was Threatened, Too
• Flynn’s plea and his decision to stand by that plea when appearing before Judge Sullivan in December 2018, was also the result of “undisclosed promises and threats,” Powell argued. “The government leveraged the threat of charges against Mr. Flynn’s son to induce that agreement,” Powell maintained, adding, “yet the government’s decision not to charge his son was not reduced to writing as part of the plea agreement; it was a secret, side deal between counsel.”
• It was “that ‘understanding,’” however, that “was one of two necessary preconditions for Mr. Flynn to enter into the plea agreement,” Powell stressed. But “the government and Mr. Flynn’s prior counsel chose not to disclose that agreement to this court,” Powell concluded.
• It may be some time before we know how Judge Sullivan reacts to Powell’s latest filing, as the government has until February 18, 2020 to file its reply to the Flynn’s supplemental motion to withdraw his guilty plea. In the meantime, or soon after, the long-time federal judge will likely call on the Covington lawyers to testify under oath concerning Flynn’s allegations. Flynn and even the federal prosecutors might also find themselves facing questions from Judge Sullivan.

Source: thefederalist.com

Long story short. His former counsel Covington Burling hung him out to dry to protect their own self interest.  

R. Kelly ‘blackmailed women by making them film child porn videos to stop them coming forward’, his ex-girlfriend Azriel Clary claims

• Clary alleges that R. Kelly made his girlfriends take part in ‘incriminating’ videos 
• She says many women were too ‘ashamed or embarrassed’ to come forward
• Lawyers for Kelly deny her allegations and he denies sexual abuse charges

• R. Kelly blackmailed women into silence by making them film child porn videos, his ex-girlfriend has claimed.

Source: dailymail.co.uk