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https://nypost.com/2020/04/30/it-sure-looks-like-the-fbi-was-
gunning-for-
mike-flynn/

Perhaps no figure in the Trump universe better exemplifies the
struggle
between his administration and those who’ve investigated it than
Gen.
Michael Flynn.

Flynn was an early takedown by Robert Mueller’s investigation
into alleged
Russian collusion in the 2016 election. In 2017, the ex-general
pleaded
guilty to lying to investigators looking into the matter. He has
since
sought to revoke that plea, and a bombshell that dropped
Wednesday shows
why.

Documents released by the Department of Justice include
handwritten notes
in which FBI operatives suggest their goal in interviewing Flynn
might
well be “to get him to lie so we can prosecute him or get him
fired.” It’s
far from clear they cared much about actually finding the truth.

The revelation adds to claims the government never had any
legitimate
reason to probe Flynn in the first place. It was a dirty fishing
expedition, plain and simple.

The excuse the FBI has tried to use for investigating Flynn is
that he
allegedly violated the Logan Act — a 1799 law meant to stop
private
individuals from conducting foreign affairs that’s widely viewed
as
unconstitutional, has never been successfully prosecuted and
surely
doesn’t apply to incoming national security advisers.

Yet once the Feds get a foot in the door, all kinds of things
can happen —
and did. The Logan Act charge over Flynn’s conversations with a
Russian
official was absurd, but after former FBI boss James Comey was
fired and
Mueller took up the Russia investigation, officials learned that
Flynn had
failed to register as an agent of Turkey in a previous job. He —
and his
son, too — were threatened with prosecution, and he eventually
pleaded
guilty to lying.

There are good reasons why lying to federal investigators is a
crime.
Those conducting law enforcement for the nation need that degree
of power
to help them ferret out the truth.

But with that power comes significant responsibility. What the
handwritten
notes blatantly suggest is that the questioning of Flynn may
have been
less an attempt to find the truth than an effort to entrap him
in a lie,
get him fired and strong-arm him at a later point.

Such tactics should send chills through anyone concerned with
due process
and an FBI focused on fact-finding, not on playing political
games in
which they target their enemies. It is increasingly likely Flynn
was the
victim of a cynical investigation in which he probably never had
a chance.

Meanwhile, for all his whimsical tweets featuring bucolic
settings in
which he wonders what happened and why, Comey keeps looking
worse and
worse, as we learn more about the early days of the Russia
investigation.

Unbridled zeal and self-righteousness led to his agents taking
dangerous
liberties in looking into the man Trump would tap to be his
national
security adviser.

Add to all this the Lisa Page and Peter Strzok anti-Trump love
texts and
the abuse of the fabulist Steele dossier, among other outrages,
and the
FBI’s record during that time stinks to high heaven.

When Congress and the executive branch finish looking into the
FBI’s
shenanigans, there must be serious consequences for those who
abused their
offices in pursuit of political ends. It is not the job of
federal law
enforcement to intimidate incoming members of an administration
elected by
the people just because FBI leadership thinks the people got the
choice
wrong.

After more than two years that must have been grueling for
Flynn, the
truth seems to be coming out. What was done to him appears to be
a set-up
job for the ages — never an honest attempt to get to the bottom
of Russian
election interference, always an effort to kneecap a nascent
presidency.
And a shameful one at that.

We need accountability. The American people need officials who
spent their
time on farcical investigations, and those who would do so
again, to
understand that such behavior will not be tolerated.

The arc of justice is long; it has been for Gen. Flynn. But now,
as the
truth begins to emerge, let’s make sure we’re all paying
attention. And
let’s let our federal government’s law-enforcement apparatus
know that it
serves the people — and can’t control or intimidate us.

David Marcus is The Federalist’s New York correspondent.

Twitter: @BlueBoxDave

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