FILE – In this Thursday, June 8, 2017, file photo, former FBI director James Comey testifies before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, on Capitol Hill in Washington. Comey is urging voters to support Democrats in November’s midterm elections. Comey says on Twitter that the “Republican Congress has proven incapable of fulfilling the Founders’ design that ‘Ambition must … counteract ambition.'” (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite/File)

Note: Four documents were unsealed tonight. The newly released documents can be viewed here. (DD is a reference to then-FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe.) Fox News is reporting that there are eleven more documents expected to be unsealed in the next 24-48 hours. It should be noted that Attorney General William Barr compelled their release.

It would not be an exaggeration to call this story a bombshell. This is truly a seminal moment in the war against the deep state. Newly unsealed internal FBI notes taken by the agency’s former assistant director of counterintelligence Bill Priestap, show top bureau officials discussing strategy ahead of their January 24, 2017 interview of General Michael Flynn, the Trump administration’s newly minted National Security Advisor. There was no reason to interview him. He hadn’t committed a crime.

Priestap’s notes say, “What is our goal? Truth/Admission or to get him to lie, so we can prosecute [Flynn] or get him fired?” Top FBI officials were devising a plan to force him into making a false statement. They intended to catch him in a perjury trap. They hoped to get him to admit he violated the Logan Act.

In order to understand Flynn’s long legal journey over the last three years, one must be aware of the animosity President Obama and his top intelligence officials felt toward him.

Flynn had served as the Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) during the Obama Administration from July 2012 to August 2014. Throughout his tenure, Flynn found himself strongly and frequently “at odds with the administration’s policies on ISIS and the Iran nuclear deal, among other things, which put him at odds with the Obama-friendly deep state.” Following his ouster, Flynn’s public remarks deepened the rift. For instance, in November 2015 during an appearance on Fox News, ” Flynn called for an investigation into the ISIS intel-skewing scandal, recommending that it “start right at the top.”

Over the transition period, Flynn, who had already been tapped as Trump’s NSA, held several conversations with then-Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak. During one of the calls, Kislyak brought up Obama’s just-announced sanctions. (Although it was perfectly legal for Flynn to discuss the sanctions with Kislyak, for whatever reason, he chose to lie to Vice President Mike Pence about the calls and President Trump quickly fired him.)

Kislyak had been under US surveillance and Obama intelligence officials had access to recordings and transcriptions of his calls. After listening to the calls, several of Obama’s DOJ officials decided Flynn was in violation of the Logan Act, a law enacted in 1799, which “prohibits private citizens from acting on behalf of the U.S. in disputes with foreign governments.” (No one has ever been prosecuted under this law.)

The Washington Examiner’s Byron York explains:

The Obama officials also said they were concerned by reports that Flynn, in a conversation with Vice President Mike Pence, had denied discussing sanctions. This, the officials felt, might somehow expose Flynn to Russian blackmail. So Obama appointees atop the Justice Department sent FBI agents to the White House to interview Flynn, who was ultimately charged with lying in that interview.

Their expressed concern that Flynn might become the target of a Russian blackmail scheme was a lie. This was a set-up.

PJ Media’s Debra Heine explains:

Obama already despised Flynn. But his hate likely turned to fear when his former DIA decided to throw his support behind Donald J. Trump, another boat-rocker who had a real chance of winning. Obama made a point after the 2016 election of advising Trump not to hire Flynn. But Trump didn’t listen.

Next thing Flynn knew, government spies were listening in on his innocuous phone conversations with Kislyak, his name was unmasked by someone in the Obama administration, and the contents of the calls were leaked to the Washington Post’s David Ignatius, (which remains the only serious crime to have emerged in the Russia investigation).

This was an ambush of an innocent man, an American citizen, a General who served in the U.S. military for 33 years, and the premier law enforcement agency in the United States tried to frame him.

MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace interviewed James Comey in December 2018. Wallace said, “You look at this White House now and it’s hard to believe two FBI agents wound up in the sit. room. How did that happen?”

Comey replied, “I sent them.” This remark was followed by laughter from the audience.

He told Wallace the FBI had not followed protocol with this interview and said it was “something I probably wouldn’t have done or maybe gotten away with in a more … organized administration.”

Funny, huh?

This is a moment many of us had almost given up on. The deep state has covered their tracks very well, but they just didn’t count on an attorney general like William Barr who would actually seek justice. He turned the case over to an outside prosecutor for independent review in February. Nor did they count on a strong, determined lawyer like Sidney Powell.

This is the day that the dam burst open and the deep state got swept away.

Here’s to you, General Flynn.



MBA, former financial consultant, options trader

Mom of three grown children, grandmother

Email Elizabeth at



Writer at RedStateMBA, former financial consultant, options traderMom of three grown children, grandmotherEmail Elizabeth at [email protected] Read more by Elizabeth Vaughn