The Pardoning of Michael Flynn
In a time in our country where every single act seems to be politically motivated, it is easy to see why George Washington warned against political parties.
Politics certainly seemed to play a huge role in the charges brought against Lieutenant General Michael Flynn. Michael Flynn was a war hero he served in Grenada and played a key role in both the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. In total he had over thirty years of military service.
Michael Flynn was appointed by the Trump administration as National Security advisor, where he served for only 24 days before resigning due to allegations that he had given false information to Vice President Pence regarding an interaction he had with the Russian ambassador pertaining to sanctions.
After resigning Flynn fell under investigation by Robert Muller and the special counsel appointed to run the investigation, they then alleged that Flynn had violated the law by receiving payment to speak at dinner in Moscow without previous authorization to do so. The law that Flynn had violated, according to the council, was the Logan Act.
So what is the Logan Act and how is it used? The Logan Act of 1799 was named George Logan who attempted to negotiate with France without approval from the United States government. The act makes it illegal for U.S. citizens to correspond with foreign governments without receiving permission to do so first. Since the act has been passed, only one person in the early 1800’s had been indicted by it, but no prosecution ever resulted from it. Since that point with the exception of the occasional political accusation, the law has never been used.
Whether or not Flynn actually violated the Logan Act is unclear, as the law is somewhat broad and unclear. In addition it is unclear as to why the Logan Act, an archaic law which has never been used to prosecute anyone, was used to indict Michael Flynn. Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to the charges after concern that his family would be harassed by the investigation. However Flynn withdrew his guilty plea earlier this year, leaving further speculation that the plea was entered only to protect his family. Then again, maybe it is clear why the Logan Act was used, the Muller investigation was a thirty two million dollar investigation that spanned over the course of almost three years, despite all of this the investigation really found none of the supposed “collusion” they were searching for.
Is it possible that Michael Flynn was subjected to trumped up charges in order to show something for the investigation or could the charges have something to do with the constant political attacks on the Trump administration? Maybe Michael Flynn was actually very guilty, but when every step of Trump’s administration has been met with political resistance it certainly makes that a less credible theory.
Everything has been made political, and when prosecutors allow politics to infect them and their investigations, they lose all credibility whether they were right or not.
Regardless, President Trump granted Michael Flynn a full pardon November 25th of this year, rightly so. Ending a needless mess and unnecessary legal assault, trumped up by political interests, against one of the country's war heroes.
Ryan Weathers is a student at Texas Tech University and an active member of Raiders Defending Life, a pro-life student group on the Texas Tech University Campus in Lubbock, Texas.
