The trial of retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn is nearing its end. In fact, it could be just days away. Special Counsel Robert Mueller is recommending no jail time for Flynn, and his sentencing hearing is scheduled for early next week. 

Surely no one wants this case to be over more than Michael Flynn. He sold his home to pay mounting legal bills and his reputation has been destroyed — all over a perfectly legal phone call that the incoming-national security adviser might be expected to have with the Russian ambassador.

But Flynn’s case took a surprising turn this week when his lawyers filed a brief with the court alleging misconduct on the part of the FBI, including fired agent Peter Strzok and former Deputy Director Andrew McCabe. Now Judge Emmett Sullivan is demanding answers from Robert Mueller and the Justice Department. 

Sullivan wants to know why McCabe pressured Flynn not to have a lawyer present during his FBI interview.  For example, McCabe specifically dissuaded Flynn from involving the White House counsel.  

In addition, the agents who interviewed Flynn, one of whom was Peter Strzok, failed to tell him at any point that he was under investigation or risked serious penalties for making misleading statements. Nor did they confront him on statements they knew were inaccurate. 

In other words, this “interview” really looks more like an ambush or deliberate perjury trap. 

It is also obvious that Flynn was treated very differently than other recent subjects of FBI interviews who were warned about misleading FBI agents and who had lawyers present. 

For example, Hillary Clinton had nine lawyers at her FBI interview. Next to a signed confession, nothing screams “GUILTY” more than walking into an interview with nine lawyers!

For his part, Michael Flynn didn’t seem to think anything was wrong. He invited the FBI agents over to his office immediately after getting McCabe’s call. He even gave them a tour of the West Wing. 

In their summary report, the agents declared Flynn was “unguarded,” “relaxed and jocular,” that they “didn’t think he was lying,” and that he “clearly saw the FBI agents as allies.”

Speaking of that summary, sometimes referred to as a 302 report, there is something odd about it. These reports are supposed to be contemporaneous records — the agent’s fresh recollections made almost immediately after an interview. 

Yet Flynn’s legal filing states that the agents’ 302 report from his interview is dated August 22nd — seven months after he spoke with FBI agents in the White House. 

Who knows what Judge Sullivan will find or what he will do. But it is worth noting that Sullivan turned the tables on the government and appointed a special prosecutor to investigate the Department of Justice’s corrupt prosecution of former Alaska Senator Ted Stevens.

California Crazy

California bureaucrats are once again demonstrating what is wrong with the Left Coast. According to various reports, the California Public Utilities Commission wants to tax your text messages.

Seriously, friends, you just can’t make this stuff up!

And you know things are getting bad when Governor Jerry “Moonbeam” Brown says his party is becoming too extreme. And it seems most Democrats agree with him. 

According to a new Gallup poll, 54% of Democrats say they want their party to be more moderate. In contrast, 57% of Republicans say they want the GOP to be more conservative.

While it is hard to imagine Jerry Brown as a “voice of reason,” he’s not wrong about the state of his party. On this the social science is clear — the Democrat Party has lurched hard to the left in recent years, while the GOP has barely moved at all.