DOJ drops criminal case against Michael Flynn after doubts of legitimacy emerge
Fox News Contributor Andrew McCarthy, Fox News Contributor Sara Carter, Wallstreet Journal Columnist Kim Strassel, and Fox News Analyst Lawrence Jones join 'The Next Revolution' to weigh in.
Former federal prosecutor Andy McCarthy told "The Next Revolution" Sunday that the FBI feared former national security adviser Gen. Michael Flynn would uncover illegitimacies surrounding the origins of the Russia probe, and that they "needed to remove him if they wanted to continue this particular investigation."
"I think the best way to look at this is what the FBI and the Obama Administration wanted to do here was really audacious if you think about it in terms of the idea of trying to continue an investigation after a new president has come into power and is in a position to shut down the investigation -- when the president ultimately is the target of the investigation," McCarthy explained.
"In terms of Flynn, it's better to look at him as... something that was obstructing the bureau, rather than their objective in the investigation."
"I think what happened specifically with General Flynn is that while the president brought in a lot of people into his original administration who had various types of expertise, he was kind of short on people with a lot of national security and foreign relations background. General Flynn was an exception," he continued.
The former national security adviser was a "savvy intelligence operator," who posed a threat to the FBI's handling of the investigation focussed on Russian interference in the 2016 election, explained McCarthy.
DOJ DROPS CASE AGAINST MICHAEL FLYNN, IN WAKE OF INTERNAL MEMO RELEASE
"He had been the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, he knew how the FBI worked in conjunction with the intelligence community and it is inconceivable to me, if you wanted to continue an investigation of the president during the president's administration, that they could have pulled that off with a sophisticated intelligence actor being the national security advisor and being loyal to the president," McCarthy, a Fox News contributor explained.
The House Intelligence Committee on Thursday released dozens of transcripts of interviews from its Russia probe in 2017 and 2018 following demands by Republicans to make the records public -- after the content was cleared for release by the intelligence community.
The transcripts included testimony from many officials who said they were unaware of evidence showing coordination between the Trump campaign team and the Russians.
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"He [Flynn] would necessarily have found out that they had investigated the Trump campaign, he would've found out for example that they were in the FISA court conducting surveillance on Trump campaign advisors," McCarthy added, "and he would've been able to figure out pretty easily that President Trump was the ultimate quarry that they had in connection with the investigation."
The Justice Department has moved to drop its case against Flynn last week after a series of bombshell documents were released exposing an alleged set-up in which top bureau officials indicated that their "goal" was to "to get him [Flynn] to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired."
READ THE BOMBSHELL FBI DOCUMENTS
"I think in terms of Flynn, it's better to look at him as kind of something that was obstructing the bureau rather than their objective in the investigation," McCarthy said. "They needed to remove him if they wanted to continue this particular investigation."