Sen. Dan Sullivan has penned a letter to FBI Director Chris Wray, asking for answers after the recent revelations that former National Security Director Michael Flynn was set up by the FBI or the Department of Justice.
It’s just too similar to the abuses by the Justice Department and FBI of the late Sen. Ted Stevens, Sullivan implied, and not something Alaskans can tolerate.
“The vast majority of our FBI agents and those who work in our criminal justice system, including our federal prosecutors, are patriots who every day abide by their constitutional obligations. However, the recent troubling revelations regarding the Michael Flynn investigation and prosecution have reopened old wounds for Alaskans,” Sullivan wrote.
“As the U.S. Senator who has the honor of occupying the seat of the late Senator Ted Stevens, I am all too familiar with the lasting effects of due process violations and corrupt activities by the FBI. Senator Stevens was the target of an egregious injustice by FBI agents and federal prosecutors—including the withholding of exculpatory Brady evidence.
Those responsible were not held accountable, and, to my knowledge, the culture within the FBI that allowed such abuses appears to still exist at least in some quarters even after Senator Stevens’ verdict was thrown out by the federal district court and the Department of Justice given the constitutional violations perpetrated by federal agencies during that unjust prosecution of this exceptional public servant,” Sen. Dan Sullivan
The Justice Department will reportedly investigate Obama Administration officials who “unmasked” intelligence data about the former national security adviser Michael Flynn. The acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell has declassified the names of those officials, and many expect those names to become public.
The Justice Department moved last week to drop a criminal case against Flynn, who had previously pleaded guilty to misleading the FBI about contacts with Russian diplomats. Later, information has indicated that the FBI was all along setting Flynn up for entrapment.
Sullivan said he was shocked to learn about the recent disclosures of abuse on the part of FBI agents who interviewed Flynn, as well as the Justice Department prosecutors who withheld from defense attorneys evidence that may have told a different story.
“Further, it appears, based on Brady evidence that had been withheld, that the FD-302, which is the interview report form intended to memorialize information that might become testimony, was altered, if not heavily edited. As you know, FD-302s are intended to provide an objective assessment of what was observed during an interview of a suspect. What is immediately observed and heard during such an interview is supposed to be sacrosanct, and it is rare that they are so heavily edited, much less altered,” Sullivan wrote.
Last year, Sullivan introduced bipartisan legislation to help prevent this kind of misconduct.
The Due Process Protection Act would require judges in all criminal trials to issue an “order to prosecution and defense counsel that confirms the disclosure obligation of the prosecutor.”
“In the case of Mr. Flynn, the FBI’s tactics and the prosecution’s withholding of evidence once again call into question conduct by your agency. I applaud the DOJ’s recent decision to drop the criminal charges against Mr. Flynn, but I strongly encourage you to investigate the underlying investigatory and prosecutorial violations and to punish those responsible. Otherwise, the world’s most respected law enforcement agency will, unfortunately, continue to lose credibility and the trust of the American people,” Sullivan wrote.
