{"id":30838,"date":"2020-10-10T21:07:05","date_gmt":"2020-10-11T02:07:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/?p=30838"},"modified":"2020-10-10T21:07:05","modified_gmt":"2020-10-11T02:07:05","slug":"criminal-cronies-right-at-the-top-ctd-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2020\/10\/10\/criminal-cronies-right-at-the-top-ctd-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Criminal Cronies Right At The Top, Ctd"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Flynn case<\/a> continued on 29 September or a trifle earlier, and Anna Salvatore and Benjamin Wittes of Lawfare<\/strong><\/em> have provided<\/a> a useful & mostly non-technical hearing of this argument as to whether Judge Sullivan should accept the government contention that the case against Flynn should never have been opened, or decline it and continue the sentencing phase. Among a lot of interesting interpretations, I think this recount of the behavior of Flynn’s lawyer, Sidney Powell, is indicative of yet another third-rate Trumpian personality. The Gleeson mentioned below is retired Judge Gleeson, asked by Judge Sullivan to advocate for continuing the sentencing phase of Flynn’s trial, since the government refuses to fulfill that responsibility. Barr is, of course, AG William Barr.<\/p>\n

Now it\u2019s Powell\u2019s turn.<\/p>\n

The attorney for Flynn claims that Barr did not respond to her letter, nor did he ever meet with her. Then, apropos of nothing, she states that she hasn\u2019t spoken with the president either \u201cother than an update into the status of the litigation.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is a collective gasp among the 500 people on the conference call. You can hear it over the mute function that has all but a few of them in listen-only mode.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat?\u201d asks Judge Sullivan, speaking for the masses.<\/p>\n

Powell says she can\u2019t discuss the issue, as she claims that any of her conversations with the president are protected by executive privilege. Sullivan reminds Powell that she doesn\u2019t work for the government; there is no executive privilege for lawyers representing private parties or for anyone outside the government.<\/p>\n

Powell, in response, admits that she recently spoke personally to Trump and requested that he not pardon her client.<\/p>\n

It is a magical kind of a courtroom moment. Here Judge Gleeson has been trying to argue that there\u2019s been political interference in the case, but he\u2019s largely had to rely on the implausibility of the government\u2019s stated reasons for its positions to justify the claim\u2014along with dozens of presidential tweets. But here\u2019s the lawyer for the defendant announcing that she has been briefing the president personally on the status of the litigation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Not one, but two<\/strong> unforced errors. Salvatore and Witte’s general description of Powell is also noteworthy in the context of evaluating the personalities attracted to Trump’s orbit:<\/p>\n

Sidney Powell, the lawyer for Flynn, plays the role of the table-banging Fox News pundit\u2014furiously denouncing the witch hunt against her client that was hatched by Barack Obama and executed by his entire administration and, as she put it, continues to this day.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s never a good sign when someone says you belong in the company of table-banging Fox News<\/strong><\/em> pundits – famously known<\/a> even within Fox News<\/strong><\/em> for their incompetence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Flynn case continued on 29 September or a trifle earlier, and Anna Salvatore and Benjamin Wittes of Lawfare have provided a useful & mostly non-technical hearing of this argument as to whether Judge Sullivan should accept the government contention that the case against Flynn should never have been opened, \u2026 Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30838"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30838\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30839,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30838\/revisions\/30839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}