It is big news concerning retired Lt. General Michael Flynn. An appellate court has sided with the government’s motion to dismiss the criminal charges against him. While the rest of us rejoice that the rule of law seems to be prevailing in this matter, at long last, that the great injustice being perpetrated against Flynn and indeed against all of us has been at least temporarily stymied, we hear belligerent lost souls screaming out: “But Flynn pled guilty.” To which one should reply, “No, he did not.” The short explanation is that the statute requires materiality. As the DOJ pointed out, the false statement must be material to an investigation. (And arguably only regarding a criminal one; non-criminal, counter-intelligence, investigations don’t have a criminal purpose, hence concepts of materiality would be problematic because they're speculative, since the purpose of the counter-intelligence investigation is unmoored...(Read Full Post)