In 2017, liberal journalists and hosts flipped out over the prospect of Michael Flynn bringing down the Trump administration. MSNBC host Rachel Maddow called “the news….that the White House counsel was notified weeks in advance that a national security adviser candidate [Michael Flynn] was under federal investigation and the White House then went ahead and made the hire….a bigger scandal than almost anything we’ve ever seen in any presidential administration.”
NBC’s Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd exclaimed it was the “biggest presidential scandal….since Iran-Contra.”
But in 2020 the case against Flynn began to collapse, as it became clearer that there was an attempt to entrap Flynn. These new developments unfurled from January through May, but the Big Three (ABC, CBS, NBC) evening news programs refused to report them. So anyone who relied on them for their news was probably shocked when on May 7 the case was suddenly dropped.
The following are just a few of the major developments in the Flynn case and how they were ignored by the ABC, CBS, NBC evening news programs:
Flynn Withdraws Guilty Plea
On Jan. 14, 2020, as reported by FoxNews.com:
“Flynn moved to withdraw his guilty plea for lying to the FBI, citing ‘bad faith, vindictiveness, and a breach of the plea agreement’ by the government.’ The prosecution has shown abject bad faith in pure retaliation against Mr. Flynn since he retained new counsel,’ [Flynn attorney Sydney] Powell wrote in the filing. ‘This can only be because with new, unconflicted counsel, Mr. Flynn refused to lie for the prosecution.’
ABC, CBS, NBC evening news coverage: 0 seconds
Trump Considers Full Pardon of Flynn
On March 15, 2020, as reported by FoxNews.com:
“President Trump said he was ‘strongly considering’ a pardon for Flynn after reports that the Justice Department misplaced the records from Flynn’s January 2017 initial interview with federal prosecutors. So now it is reported that, after destroying his life & the life of his wonderful family (and many others also), the FBI, working in conjunction with the Justice Department, has ‘lost’ the records of General Michael Flynn,’ Trump tweeted. ‘How convenient. I am strongly considering a Full Pardon!’”
ABC, CBS, NBC evening news coverage: 0 seconds
Damaging FBI Documents Unsealed
On April 29, 2020, as reported by FoxNews.com:
“New internal FBI documents were unsealed in late April, revealing that top bureau officials discussed their motivations for interviewing then-national security adviser Flynn in the White House in January 2017—and openly questioned if their ‘goal’ was ‘to get him to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired.’ The handwritten notes—written by the FBI’s former head of counterintelligence Bill Priestap after a meeting with then-FBI Director James Comey and then-FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, Fox News is told—further suggested that agents planned in the alternative to get Flynn ‘to admit to breaking the Logan Act’ when he spoke to then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the presidential transition period….’ What is our goal?’ one of the notes read. ‘Truth/Admission or to get him to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired? If we get him to admit to breaking the Logan Act, give facts to DOJ + have them decide,’ another note read. Constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley called the document’s implications ‘chilling.’”
The memo appears to weigh the pros and cons of pursuing those different paths. ‘I don’t see how getting someone to admit their wrongdoing is going easy on him,’ one note reads. Flynn did not ultimately admit to wrongdoing in the interview.
The document indicates that the agents at least discussed the merits of a by-the-book approach: ‘If we’re seen as playing games, WH [White House] will be furious.’ Flynn’s attorney, Sidney Powell, told Fox News after the document release that ‘this persecution will have to be thrown out entirely.’”
ABC, CBS, NBC evening news coverage: 0 seconds
DOJ Drops Case Against Flynn
On May 7, 2020 as reported by FoxNews.com:
The Justice Department dropped its case against Flynn. “‘The Government has determined, pursuant to the Principles of Federal Prosecution and based on an extensive review and careful consideration of the circumstances, that continued prosecution of this case would not serve the interests of justice,’ the filing said.”
ABC, CBS, NBC evening news coverage: 7 minutes and 51 seconds. CBS Evening News (3:19); NBC Nightly News (2:04); ABC World News Tonight (2:28)
On the May 7, not one of the evening news programs showed viewers the exculpatory evidence presented in recently released notes from FBI investigators, who made it clear they were going out of their way to target the General.
On May 9, CBS and ABC reported on the DOJ decision but only to advance former President Barack Obama’s spin, as seen in this portion of a May 9 ABC World News Tonight report:
CORRESPONDENT ANDREW DYMBURT: During a call with thousands of former staffers and officials that was leaked, Obama also taking aim at the Justice Department’s unusual move to drop the criminal case against fired national security adviser Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.
BARACK OBAMA: There is no precedent that anybody can find for someone who’s been charged with perjury just getting off scot-free. You begin to get worried that our basic understanding of rule of law is at risk.
DYMBURT: President Obama had forced Flynn’s removal from his own administration and warned president trump about bringing him on.
ABC NEWS POLITICAL DIRECTOR RICK KLEIN: He’s often warned when you start to see an undermining of a rule of law, so this hits close to home for president Obama. This kind of action, this kind of speaking out is just a taste of what's to come.
