Headline got your attention? Good. If I am reading the amicus brief filed by discredited former Federal Judge John Gleeson on behalf of Judge Emett Sullivan, Gleeson and Sullivan are incensed that Michael Flynn had the audacity to withdraw his guilty plea, which Flynn insists was coerced. Gleeson argues that Flynn (and I presume others who have done the same thing) must be charged with perjury for having the audacity to go into court and recant his plea. You do not need a keen sense of irony to appreciate the hypocrisy of Judge Emmet Sullivan, an African American, wanting to throw the book at Flynn for doing what many black men falsely accuse of crimes have done. If the Emmet Sullivan and John Gleeson standard becomes the rule–i.e., once you confess to a crime in court under oath you cannot take back your confession–then there are a bunch of innocent black men we need to round up and put back in the pokey.
Let me introduce you to two black men from Chicago–Kevin Bailey and Corey Batchelor. They were physically coerced by an Area 2 Chicago Police detective into falsely confessing to the June 1, 1989 murder of Lula Mae Woods–Bailey subsequently served 28 years for the crime while Batchelor was imprisoned for 15 years.
According to the Innocence Project:
Bailey and Batchelor eventually sought post-conviction relief, with the Innocence Project and the People’s Law Office representing Bailey and The Exoneration Project and The Center on Wrongful Convictions of Youth representing Batchelor. Despite early opposition by the prior Cook County State’s Attorney, attorneys secured DNA testing of the crime scene evidence. Bailey and Batchelor were excluded as the source of all DNA detected. Further, hairs with matching DNA profiles were recovered from (1) the Domino’s Pizza cap worn by the murderer and (2) a bloody towel found near the body. Bailey and Batchelor have been excluded as the source of these hairs. The identity of the person who shed his hair on these key items is still unknown.
“This is yet one more example of detectives from the Chicago Police Department closing murder cases too quickly by coercing false confessions from black teenagers,” said Steven Drizin, one of Batchelor’s attorneys from Northwestern Pritzker School of Law’s Center on Wrongful Convictions of Youth. “This further cements Chicago’s reputation as the ‘false confession capital’.”
Over 120 Black men and women were subjected to torture that was racially motivated and included electric shock, mock executions, suffocation and beatings by now convicted former Police Commander Jon Burge and his subordinates. Although Burge was terminated from the Chicago Police Department in 1993 and convicted for perjury and obstruction of justice stemming from the torture cases in federal court in 2010, scores of individuals continue to languish in prison as a result of confessions based in whole or in part on physically coerced confessions.
I hope you realize I am not suggesting that being accused of murder is the same as being accused of lying to the FBI. I tend to believe that murder is a far more serious charge. Call me crazy. But I also recognize that just because a person is coerced into confessing to a crime, whether heinous or mundane, the defendant still has the right to recant their plea if it was coerced by crooked or corrupt authorities.
Michael Flynn did not commit murder. In fact, he committed no crime. But that did not stop a criminal conspiracy by politicized elements of the Department of Justice with loyalties to Barack Obama from going after Flynn with every trick and tool in their bag of skullduggery. Flynn was accused of lying to FBI agents–a charge that we now know is demonstrably false. We have the transcripts of his phone conversation with the Russian Ambassador and we have notes from FBI Agents Strzok and Pientka stating that the two agents did not believe Flynn was lying.
But truth did not matter to senior FBI leadership and the equally corrupt team of lawyers working for the mentally addled Robert Mueller. Yes, Flynn initially caved in the face of threats to prosecute his son unless he pled guilty. But he was represented by lawyers who were either incompetent or corrupt. Once he obtained proper counsel he filed to withdraw his plea.
We will be witnessing history tomorrow, albeit a sad chapter in our history, as Emmet Sullivan, with the encouragement of Deep State conspirators keen on the illegal ouster of President Donald Trump, will argue before a U.S. Court of Appeals that he should be allowed to behave as a 21st Century reincarnation of Robespierre and inflict new terrors on Michael Flynn. This is beyond delusional. It is dangerous and a fundamental threat to our Republic. Judges are not prosecutors.
It is ironic that this issue of recanting a coerced confession is taking center stage while the American media is cheerleading the refrain that America is a racist society and that only some Black Lives Matter. If the Court decides that a coerced confession must stand, there are a slew of black men walking the streets of America who were freed from prison because they had been forced to lie who must be rounded up and put back in the slammer. Has Judge Sullivan really thought this through? I doubt it. I have but one word for Sullivan–J’Accuse.
Irony!
What did Michael Flynn do or not do to get this third degree treatment including bankruptcy?
Shameful.
I can only believe that someone has the goods on Sullivan and he is being forced to take the case to what many would regard as ridiculous lengths and which would potentially destroy his legal reputation, in an attempt to be able to say “I could do no more, release me”. He might still emerge as a hero of the Left anyway.
The main objective being to either delay till after the election release of the gagging order on Flynn or his appointment in some position by Trump; or get a perjury conviction against Flynn which would effectively eliminate him from potential future court cases as a witness.
If Flynn gets off, as he should, he will still be pilloried in the MSM as it was just a favour to Trump’s mate.
1. Judge Sullivan was potentially biased in his appointment of Gleeson by not asking Gleeson to dismiss or not dismiss – this is potentially against the Code of Conduct for United States Judges Canon 2(A)- “…impartiality…”
2. Judge Sullivan also potentially acted against the Code of Conduct for United States Judges Canon 3(4)
“(c) obtain the written advice of a disinterested expert on the law, but only after giving advance notice to the parties of the person to be consulted and the subject matter of the advice and affording the parties reasonable opportunity to object and respond to the notice and to the advice received”
Judge Sullivan allowed Gleeson to submit a filing before the objection by the defendant was heard in the Appels Court.
Larry,
What is the point?
The majority of us rubes just work away our days and pay the taxes while the media and politicians lie to our faces and call us bad names while screwing us and anyone who cares about us. They just make it up as they go. When they were impeaching Trump, they kept saying “no one is above the law.” Now rioters are heroes as are sanctuary cities and those little jack offs in Seattle that have taken over 6 blocks and a police station…how F’ed up is that?
And on and on it goes. We can get angry, we can write about it, but what good does it do? Unless we band together and kill them all, they will keep going. They have honor or shame to keep them in check. Now I’m probably on a watch list for saying that. Sigh.
What good is this information? Might as well get drunk or stoned and zone out to some porn and go to work and pay the taxes the next day. Because no one is going to actually fight. No one is going to straighten any of this out. Sad day when Antifa has more balls than anyone else in the country.
Two thoughts:
1. In addition to your interesting comparison involving a potential perjury charge,
there is also a comparison of the “lying to the FBI” charge
to a hypothetical analogous situation involving an African-American:
“How would President Obama be reacting to the collapse of the case against Michael Flynn if Flynn were a black teen?
“Picture a racist white FBI agent who hates a black student and became enraged when that teen publicly insulted one of the agent’s close friends.
Say the FBI sends two guys over to the teen’s house, claiming it suspects him of being involved in drug trafficking, and starts asking the kid questions in hopes that the kid will lie…. ”
https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/05/dont-shrug-at-obamas-michael-flynn-scandal/
2. The left, and Judge Gleeson, are lambasting AG Barr as stooging for Trump, claiming DOJ’s motion to drop charges was influenced by Trump.
But recall Barack Obama made a widely-reported appeal to charge Flynn with perjury.
So if Trump influenced Barr, by the same token could Obama have influenced Sullivan and Gleeson?
And if Flynn is fairly described as Trump’s ally and friend,
is it not equally fair to describe Flynn as Obama’s opponent and enemy?