Democrat Law Professor Shreds Obama Over False Statements on Flynn Case
Prof. Jonathan Turley nukes ex-POTUS's claims about DOJ dropping Michael Flynn's charges
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A prominent Democrat law professor has shredded former President Barack Obama for making false statements regarding the Justice Department's decision to drop its case against ex-Trump advisor Michael Flynn this week.
On Saturday, Jonathan Turley, Constitutional Law Professor at George Washington University, blasted Obama after the ex-POTUS made false claims about the DOJ dismissing the charges against former national security adviser Flynn.
A leaked audio file emerged late this week that was recorded during a web call Obama held with members of his former administration.
During the call, Obama made several bombshell statements and allegations, while also attacking President Donald Trump's pandemic handling and blasting the "tribal" and "selfish" attitudes of the American people.
"The news over the last 24 hours I think has been somewhat downplayed — about the Justice Department dropping charges against Michael Flynn,” Obama said during the call.
"And the fact that there is no precedent that anybody can find for someone who has been charged with perjury just getting off scot-free."
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"That’s the kind of stuff where you begin to get worried that basic — not just institutional norms — but our basic understanding of rule of law is at risk," Obama continues.
"And when you start moving in those directions, it can accelerate pretty quickly as we’ve seen in other places."
Professor Turley, who is a Democrat, responded by blasting Obama's claims as false.
Turley notes that Flynn was never charged with perjury and that his claim that there was “no precedent” for what the DOJ did with Flynn is false.
The Obama administration did the same thing with former Attorney General Eric Holder, Turley explains.
Turley wrote on his website:
While people of good faith can certainly disagree on the wisdom or basis for the Flynn motion, it is simply untrue if President Obama is claiming that there is no precedent or legal authority for the motion.
The rare statement by President Obama is also interesting in light of the new evidence.
As I discussed in a column this morning in the Hill newspaper, the new material shows that Obama was following the investigation of Flynn who he previously dismissed from a high-level position and personally intervened with President Donald Trump to seek to block his appointment as National Security Adviser.
Obama reportedly discussed the use of the Logan Act against Flynn. For a person concerned with precedent, that was also a curious focus.
The Logan Act is widely viewed as unconstitutional and has never been used to successfully convicted a single person since the early days of the Republic.
Now that is dubious precedent.
Turley later took aim at CNN over their reporting on Obama’s false claim.
"CNN continues to report on Obama’s statement without noting that he was wrong on Flynn’s criminal charge and wrong on the lack of precedent," Turley tweeted.
"Given its slogan ‘Facts First,’ it appears the facts are not even coming last.
"They are not coming at all.”
(resent) CNN continues to report on Obama's statement without noting that he was wrong on Flynn's criminal charge and wrong on the lack of precedent. Given its slogan "Facts First," it appears the facts are not even coming last. They are not coming at all. https://t.co/UQ58aLDB6T
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) May 9, 2020
Newly unsealed documents revealed this week that Obama was aware of the FBI’s wiretapping of Flynn’s phone calls.
Fox News reported:
President Obama was aware of the details of then-incoming national security adviser Michael Flynn’s intercepted December 2016 phone calls with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, apparently surprising then-Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, according to documents released Thursday as exhibits to the government’s motion to dismiss the Flynn case.
Obama’s unexpectedly intimate knowledge of the details of Flynn’s calls, which the FBI acknowledged at the time were not criminal or even improper, raised eyebrows because of his own history with Flynn — and because top FBI officials secretly discussed whether their goal was to “get [Flynn] fired” when they interviewed him in the White House on January 24, 2017.
Obama personally had warned the Trump administration against hiring Flynn, and made clear he was “not a fan,” according to multiple officials.
Obama had fired Flynn as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2014; Obama cited insubordination, while Flynn asserted he was pushed out for his aggressive stance on combating lslamic extremism.
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Elsewhere in the leaked audio of Obama's call, the former president launched a vicious attack against Trump, claiming his response to the coronavirus crisis has been an "absolute chaotic disaster."
The ex-POTUS also accused the American public of becoming "selfish, tribal and divided" because of President Trump's leadership.
Obama's comments were exposed in a leaked audio file obtained by Yahoo News.
During the call, Obama rants about Trump, accusing him and his allies of exacerbating "tribal" tensions across the country.
The supposed "selfish" attitude of the American people has hampered the effort to reduce the total number of cases nationwide, according to Obama.
