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Many Voices, One Freedom: United in the 1st Amendment

March 29, 2024

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First let me start off in mentioning that Mike Flynn and I are friends having served together in multiple capacities during our military careers. As a result, I was requested by his legal team to write a character reference and letter of support as a U.S. senior military officer and Colonel, which was used as an exhibit in the sentencing hearing documentation presented to Judge Sullivan.
As I noted in that letter, prior to my military retirement, I served as Deputy Director for Intelligence for the U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM) in Tampa, FL. Throughout my career, I served mostly in Joint military assignments and operations within the Joint Special Operations and across the intelligence community, as did Mike Flynn. I also served on the White House National Security Council staff, during the George H. W. Bush administration and am therefore thoroughly familiar with the extent and magnitude of the job of the national security advisor.
I worked with Lt General Flynn in varying capacities as part of my and his intelligence responsibilities and efforts supporting Joint operations, projects, and programs within the intelligence community while on active duty. Our efforts were critical in the Global War on Terrorism from 2004-2007 while I served as Deputy Director for Intelligence for USCENTCOM, and General Flynn was Director of Intelligence for the Joint Special Operations Command, and later Director for Intelligence for USCENTCOM. Our joint responsibilities and efforts required close collaboration and coordination to ensure absolutely mission effectiveness and success. General Flynn ensured that happened.
That said, the professional relationship that exists carries no bias and has no bearing on personal right and wrong. In fact, because of the nature of our work in national intelligence and national security, it carries a higher expectation, greater scrutiny, distinguished honor and integrity, a special trust and a considerable degree of dignity. More importantly, as brothers in arms, it carries a serious and prominent loyalty to both his fellow service members and his nation. Mike Flynn never wavered — if he did, he would be at fault, and I would not be writing this in this vain.
In Washington, DC Federal Court, Judge Sullivan noted General Flynn was an unregistered agent of Turkey, a foreign country, while in the White House. Which in itself is another issue taken out of context in Flynn’s case. Nevertheless, not registering is a common practice in Washington, DC as it restricts registered agents from doing business with Congressmen as they vote on financial issues and has never been prosecuted as it would end a major corruption. Special Counsel Robert Mueller may cause this to change and that will end his career, if not his life. Why, because it is the part of the reason the “swamp” exists.
To that end, since the legislation was passed and in effect implemented, no one has been prosecuted for violating this law. Judge Sullivan angrily pointed to the furled U.S. flag in his courtroom. “Arguably, that undermines everything this flag over here stands for. Arguably, you sold your country out!” Judge Sullivan said. “All along you were an unregistered agent of a foreign country while serving as the national security advisor to the President of the United States!” That of course, was not the case, as Flynn had relinquished himself from his private practice with his son, in order to serve as President-elect Trump’s national security adviser.
Fortunately, soon afterwards, Judge Sullivan rescinded his remarks likely after having heard from a number of K Street lobbyists and Congressmen recipients of dark money in their offshore number accounts. Though the damage was done as it provide a wealth of sound bites for the mainstream media, Democrats and the political-left to again hammer Flynn. As it is known, General Flynn pled guilty a year ago, telling Judge Sullivan he had lied to the FBI, and he was out of money to defend himself, at the time to primarily protect his son from the despicable hands of Mueller, who by the way, used the tactic and threat of targeting and destroying his son next.
Unfortunately and quite remarkably, General Flynn’s lawyer, Robert Kelner, when asked if the FBI had engaged in any misconduct by way of violating Flynn’s rights in the interview, he said they had not, when in fact, they clearly had. They had recordings of his conversations and if a crime had been committed they would have had to act. Remember that they wanted an informal, low level interview with Flynn and told him not to get an attorney means they were trying to entrap him.
Fortunately, for Flynn, that act gives him a cause of action with punitive damage potential in the tens of millions. Kelner’s response is demonstrates a measure of the depth of the swamp and the Deep State. Kelner is in it and understands it – he knows the game being played and knows how to play it. It is a hole to Hell! Attorney Kelner is the man Flynn has been paying $840 per hour to the point that Mike Flynn had to dispose of his savings, investments, and home to pay Kelner.
In his pre-sentencing remarks, Judge Sullivan said, “This is a very serious offense. A high-ranking senior official of the government, making false statements to the FBI while on the physical premises of the White House,” suggesting that the Deep State likely had warned Judge Sullivan he had better “toe-the-line.” Subsequently, Judge Sullivan returned to reality and his principles, got back on track, and put the sentencing until March.  It is more than likely Sullivan is giving Flynn a chance to realize, or be told, of the opportunity he has for deep revenge dripping in a large payout.
Prior to Flynn’s sentencing hearing, five of Trump’s former aides and associates, including his former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, and his former New York lawyer, Michael Cohen have pled guilty as part of the investigation led by special counsel Mueller who has a long-standing reputation for immoral behaviors in his career.
It began in 1970 in his first case in San Francisco where 18 accused drug runners got off as Mueller had manipulated the evidence and got caught! Same story in Boston where Mueller fumbled three cases that resulted in the death of two innocent men he sent to prison and over $150 million in compensation settlements being paid for Mueller’s errors and crimes for which he was never held responsible!
General Flynn, as the incoming national security advisor in the White House and had access to some of the government’s most closely held secrets, however, under federal sentencing guidelines, Flynn could have faced up to a maximum of six months in prison.  But in late November, Mueller recommended Flynn be spared imprisonment because his 33-year military career that included service in Iraq and Afghanistan, and “substantial assistance’’ to prosecutors in three separate investigations, including the probe into possible coordination between Trump’s campaign and the Kremlin-backed effort to interfere in the 2016 election, but anything Flynn would have to say about political matters would have to be invented as he was working with national defense and security issues only. Any such actions would further drag him into Mueller’s conspiracy.
Another, misunderstanding is the narrative that he lied to the Vice President. In fact, all he did was omit any discussion with the Vice President about some of the discussion with Russian Ambassador Kislyac, because essentially there was no there, there…mainly for the sake of time…and because no promises were made were made to the Russian ambassador, because he couldn’t in his capacity at the time.
After prosecutors raised the prospect of Flynn’s continued cooperation with other investigations in the future, Judge Sullivan warned Flynn that he might not get the full credit for his assistance to the government if he were sentenced as scheduled on Tuesday. Typically, judges like to sentence cooperating defendants after their cooperation is done so they can fully evaluate the help they gave to the government.
The judge gave Flynn a chance to talk it over with his lawyers, and the court went into a brief recess. When they returned, Flynn legal team defended Flynn’s cooperation — but requested a postponement to allow for him to keep cooperating.
Note that the hearing took place amid escalating legal peril for President Trump, who was implicated by federal prosecutors in New York this month in hush-money payments to cover up accusations of extramarital affairs. As previously noted, five former aides and advisers — including Flynn — have pleaded guilty or agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.
Early on Tuesday, Trump signaled his intense interest in the case by tweeting “good luck” to Flynn hours before the sentencing hearing. He added: “Will be interesting to see what he has to say, despite tremendous pressure being put on him, about Russian Collusion in our great and, obviously, highly successful political campaign. There was no Collusion!”
At the hearing, Sullivan told Flynn that he would take into account his extensive cooperation with the government, which includes nearly twenty meetings with investigators as well as a 33-year military career. But he also said he was forced to weigh other factors, too, including Flynn’s decision as national security adviser to lie to the FBI on the premises of the White House in the Situation Room about contacts he had with the Russian ambassador to the United States.
Earlier in the hearing, Sullivan asked Flynn a series of questions to make sure he wanted to move forward with his sentencing in light of a memo his attorneys submitted last week that took aim at the FBI’s conduct during agents’ January 2017 interview of Flynn. Flynn said that memo notwithstanding, he was ready to proceed with sentencing.
In the end, that entire construct has collapsed. While Flynn’s problems with Turkey nevertheless remain, there is little chance Mueller can leverage that given Judge Sullivan’s actions. Flynn’s lawyers know that too. Meanwhile, Mueller’s actions have given him vulnerabilities in the realm of “abuse of process,” “false arrest,” and the misuse and misapplication of other false process crimes convictions. It may be over in the coming months for Mueller and the special counsel, while at the same time, as I’ve always said, on with perhaps a multi-million dollar pay day for Lt. General Michael Flynn who may be getting a very big, tax-free reimbursement check for falsely being raked over the coals by the Federal Government.
And we haven’t even discussed the illegal and misuse of the FISA warrants, illegal intelligence collection against U.S. citizens on U.S. soil and those who made the decision to break those laws.
I closed my letter to Judge Sullivan stating; “Throughout my professional and private relationship with General Flynn, I can only speak with the highest regards of him. He is a man of the highest degree of integrity, trust, honesty, professionalism, and patriotism. He is and has always been the consummate professional — putting his people, mission, family, and country first!”
“As a former senior commissioned military officer, I am honored to know him and to have served our nation with him. Mike Flynn’s life-long commitment to our nation has been paramount and is exemplary – he is a true American Patriot!”
And he is!
Image: STEPHEN CROWLEY/NYT

  • Col. Jim Waurishuk

    Jim Waurishuk is a retired USAF Colonel, serving nearly 30-years as a career senior intelligence and political-military affairs officer and special mission intelligence officer with expertise in strategic intelligence, international strategic studies and policy, and asymmetric warfare. He served as a special mission intelligence officer assigned to multiple Joint Special Operations units and with the CIA’s Asymmetric Warfare Task Force and international and foreign advisory positions. He served as Deputy Director for Intelligence for U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM) during the peak years of the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and the Global War on Terrorism. Waurishuk is a former White House National Security Council staffer and a former Distinguished Senior Fellow with the Atlantic Council, Washington, D.C. He served as a senior advisor to the Commander U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) and served as Vice President of the Special Ops-OPSEC. Currently, he is the Chairman of the Hillsborough County (FL) Republican Executive Committee and Party and serves on the Executive Board of the Republican Party of Florida.

MANY VOICES, ONE FREEDOM: UNITED IN THE 1ST AMENDMENT

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