Although the mid-2016 FBI investigation into Flynn’s possible corrupt connections to Moscow had been ordered closed for lack of evidence, the FBI manufactured a possible ground of criminality to justify its investigation of Flynn for this call: namely, possible violations of the Logan Act, a 150-year-old law that purports to criminalize attempts by a private citizen to conduct foreign policy at odds with official U.S. foreign policy which (a) has never been used to prosecute anyone; (b) is almost certainly unconstitutional; and (c) has been ignored — properly so — in countless more blatant cases, such as when then-House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi undermined Bush administration policy to isolate Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad for helping Iraqi insurgents kill U.S. troops in Iraq by visiting Assad in 2007, infuriating the Bush White House and leading to frivolous calls from fringe right-wing voices for Pelosi’s prosecution under the Logan Act.
But Flynn’s ordinary call with the Russian ambassador became the pretext for further abuse of FBI and NSA powers as part of the security state’s ongoing efforts to interfere in the 2016 election and then sabotage the Trump administration before it even began. One way this corrupt agenda was carried out was by attempting to criminalize officials of the Trump campaign and then the new government with blatantly political motives.
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