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THREAD: Flynn Gets His Backdoor Pardon (1/10)
themoscowproject.org/dispatch/flynn…
The DOJ just dropped charges against Mike Flynn. It’s a brutal reminder of how brazenly Trump and his top lackey, Attorney General Bill Barr, are willing to abuse their power to defend Trump by rewriting the history of the Russia investigation. (2/10) themoscowproject.org/dispatch/flynn…
The DOJ's filings don't even pretending Flynn is innocent. After all, he pleaded guilty—twice—to lying about conspiring with the Russian ambassador to undermine the Obama administration’s sanctions on Russia. (3/10) nytimes.com/2017/12/01/us/…
Instead, the DOJ is claiming that call and Flynn's lies about it were somehow immaterial to the investigation into Russia’s attack on the 2016 election—even though its whole purpose was to telegraph to Russia that Trump would play ball. (4/10) courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
This is another example of Barr acting as Trump’s new Roy Cohn. He's pretty much Trump’s personal hatchet man, no matter how much it undermines the rule of law (which is exactly what Trump appointed Barr to do in the first place). (5/10) themoscowproject.org/explainers/the…
Trump has been *obsessed* with getting Flynn off: The day after Flynn resigned in disgrace, Trump pressured Comey to drop the case into Flynn. (6/10) amp.cnn.com/cnn/2017/06/07…
Trump’s also been floating a pardon for Flynn for years, and was reportedly considering it as recently as last week—even though he almost certainly knew it would be seen as still more evidence of obstruction of justice. (7/10) nytimes.com/2020/05/07/us/…
Flynn’s backdoor pardon gives Trump the easy way out, letting him claim vindication without ever having to expose himself to the risks of pardoning one of his top co-conspirators—or even trying to explain away Flynn’s confessed crimes. (8/10)
themoscowproject.org/dispatch/flynn…
As Quinta Jurecic and Benjamin Wittes wrote for The Atlantic, the Russia investigation is “a lodestar” for the president’s defenders: “Discredit it, and you can discredit all the subsequent scandals and investigations with reference to it.” (9/10) theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
That’s why this is all unfolding as Trump tries to deflect accountability for both his past wrongdoing and his botched handling of the coronavirus: For Trump, it’s all about rewriting history so he can play the victim card in the 2020 election. (10/10) themoscowproject.org/dispatch/flynn…
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The Moscow Project
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We'll trust these transcripts when we can actually read them—all of them, not just the parts Trump and his lackeys think will be politically useful.
Until then, remember: Selective declassification has been a key tool in their scandal playbook for years. themoscowproject.org/dispatch/creat…
The transcripts are starting to trickle out.
So far, they show exactly what we've always expected: Flynn and Kislyak undermining the Obama administration's sanctions on Russia so as not to "box in" the Trump administration's Russia policy.
Then there's the follow-up where they confirm their plan worked—and agree the conspiracy theory that the investigation was actually about hurting Trump, as if Russia hadn't just attacked American democracy to get Trump elected.
Read 4 tweets
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The Moscow Project
@moscow_project
Reminder: Barr very publicly opening investigations into Trump’s political opponents with no evidence and discussing what he expects them to find is the exact opposite of the 2016 Russia investigation, which was carefully kept secret until post-election.
(If anything, it’s much more similar to how the FBI handled its investigation into the *other* candidate in 2016, which Comey—a top target of Trump and Barr’s conspiracy theories—went out of his way to repeatedly publicize, to Trump’s political advantage.) americanprogressaction.org/issues/securit…
These are happening because they can’t actually dispute the *results* of the investigations into Trump’s criminal presidency; even the motion to undo Flynn’s prosecution didn’t dispute his guilt. It’s just distraction and deception.
themoscowproject.org/dispatch/creat…
Read 3 tweets
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The Moscow Project
@moscow_project
Selective declassification has always been one of Trump and his accomplices' favorite tools. Now, they're using it to manufacture a scandal about Trump's political opponents while covering up the evidence of Trump's actual wrongdoing. Here's how:
themoscowproject.org/dispatch/creat…
They released the scope memo for the Mueller investigation, which Trump's cronies have long claimed would show Trump was the victim of a witch hunt. Meanwhile, they got the Supreme Court to help them keep actual evidence from the investigation secret. washingtonpost.com/politics/court…
Acting DNI Richard Grenell gave out a list of officials who signed off on unmasking requests that revealed Flynn's name, claiming it showed they were targeting Flynn (even though that's not possible, given how unmasking actually works). cnn.com/2020/05/13/pol…
Read 12 tweets

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