Last week was certainly interesting. With a high profile
guilty plea, and a surprising not guilty verdict, among other things, it was
quite a week.
Michael Flynn, who served as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency in the Obama
administration, then briefly as President-elect Donald Trump’s national
security advisor, on Friday followed predictions that he would plead guilty to
one count of making false statements to the FBI about conversations he had with
Russian officials during Trump’s period of transition to the presidency.
This has gotten the Russia-obsessed left all excited in its so-far
frustrated grand hopes of showing that Trump should be impeached for
interfering in the election. This incident, however, will not satisfy those desires.
As a transition team member, Flynn’s talking to
representatives of foreign governments is not illegal, and in fact is routinely
done. Sorry, Trump haters, it is not evidence of collusion in the election.
Given all of that, why did Flynn lie about what he discussed
with the Russian ambassador? Who knows? He hadn’t done anything illegal, and
could simply have declined to talk with the FBI. It’s a mystery. A report in
National Review, in fact, says that Flynn’s lies were so small and
insignificant a crime that the FBI didn’t think it would prosecute him. And then, the FBI already had transcripts of Flynn’s
discussion with the Russian ambassador, so why question him? Could it be they
did it in hopes of trapping him in a lie?
A
source close to Flynn said that said the investigation has taken a toll on his
family’s financial condition and has been emotionally draining, and that he
pled guilty to end the process, according to a Fox News story. Following
the guilty plea Flynn agreed to cooperate with the FBI’s continuing
investigation.
The news of the plea spawned an ABC News story that Flynn
would be testifying that he was directed by then-candidate Donald Trump to
reach out to Russia during the campaign. As you can imagine, this story created
some crazy reactions. The Dow Jones Industrials took a 300-plus point drop.
And, Trump-hater Joy Behar on ABC’s “The View” delightedly told the TV audience
that, “ABC News’ Brian
Ross is reporting Michael Flynn offered full cooperation to the Mueller team
and is prepared to testify that as a candidate, Donald Trump directed him to
make contact with the Russians! Yes!” Her excited announcement drew
enthusiastic responses from her co-hosts and the studio audience.
Unfortunately
for all those Trump haters, it was “fake news.” Ross’ report was incorrect,
which ABC finally acknowledged after eight hours, and later suspended Ross for
his incompetence.
Moving from that fake news to an incomprehensible jury
verdict in a tragic death: on a pleasant San Francisco evening a couple and their
32 year-old daughter walked leisurely on Pier 14, when the daughter fell to the
ground. Seriously injured, she begged her father, “Dad, help me!” as he held
her in his arms. He couldn’t help her and shortly thereafter Kate Steinle was declared
dead of a gunshot wound.
At the time the gun went off, it was in the possession of an
illegal alien who had been previously deported five times, and had seven felony
convictions. Jose Ines
Garcia Zarate’s answers to police questions had at least two very
different accounts of what happened, but he said the shooting was an accident.
One account held that he simply found the gun, which had been stolen from a
federal law enforcement officer’s car a week earlier, under a bench wrapped in a
tee shirt, and that the weapon accidentally discharged. Another account claimed
the gun accidentally discharged. Three times. Another had him shooting at seals
in the ocean. The shot, or one of the three shots, ricocheted off the ground
and hit Steinle.
CBS
News reported “Garcia Zarate had been deported five times and was homeless in
San Francisco when he shot Steinle. He had recently completed a prison sentence
for illegal re-entry to the U.S. when he was transferred to the San Francisco
County jail to face a 20-year-old marijuana charge.
“Prosecutors
dropped that charge,” the CBS report continued, “and the San Francisco sheriff
released Zarate from jail despite a federal immigration request to detain him
for at least two more days for deportation. The sheriff's department said it
was following the city's sanctuary policy of limited cooperation with federal
immigration authorities.”
Zarate was charged and tried for first-degree murder, second-degree murder, involuntary
manslaughter, assault with a semi-automatic weapon, and possession of a firearm
by a felon. He was found not guilty of all but the possession charge.
A
person who was in the country illegally for the sixth time and had seven felony
convictions was breaking the law by handling a weapon, during which time that weapon
(accidentally?) discharged and killed an innocent person. That is pretty much the definition of
involuntary manslaughter.
Many
people bear some responsibility for this tragedy. First, Zarate; then, in no particular order, the
sheriff; those operating and supporting sanctuary jurisdictions; and the
defense attorneys, who put saving their client from his just rewards above their
duty to achieve justice.
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