Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/01/14/michael-flynn-to-withdraw-guil.html
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Of course the simplest solution is for the judge not to take his change of plea and just sentence him.
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Withdraw guilty plea + ask for pardon…
Wouldn’t a pardon require that he plead guilty, though?
(not a lawyer, but I thought they was how pardons work)
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he can be found guilty and sentenced but the pardon is dependent on THEN admitting guilt.
but no one ever cares about that part, just the pardon.
also IANAL either.
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Trump can pardon him whenever he wishes. But these people try to make the pardon more palatable for public consumption. Withdrawing the plead is part of a PR campaign. Trump can point out to the “fact” that he was railroaded by prosecutors as an excuse for the pardon. The PR also paid to the narrative of deep state conspiracies, etc.
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So that’s what Trump meant.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/07/politics/trump-americans-flushing-toilets-intl/index.html
I keep flushing, but that huge trump just won’t go down.
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Or jallow the request but revoke his bail.
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Lock 'em up; Drain the Swamp, but their emails… these were just prescient statements that we didn’t yet understand.
It’s difficult to not become numb to it all, but that’s how we get 4+ more years and a precedent set that will resonate forever (although that last one’s a foregone conclusion). If the Dems also don’t pull a Voltron move soon, they’re going to be part of the reason as well.
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One can’t be pardoned unless found guilty first.
Pardoning him (or any convicted Trump staff/associate) would be a terrible move for Trump. Because it means they could be called as witnesses on incidents and issues pertaining to their conviction and are barred from pleasing the 5th Amendment.
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I don’t see that it makes any real difference. The only way the change of plea helps him is if Trump doesn’t pardon him.
If anything, his plea change suggests that he’s another person that Trump never heard of, and it’s too late for him to get POTUS’ attention by committing war crimes.
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I would imagine the judge wants him and his grandstanding nonsense gone.
The power to accept a change of plea is discretionary. It would require some kind of showing of patently improper conduct on the part of the judge to be reversed on appeal.
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Someone please remind me exactly what in America is worth fighting for again… I am ready to give up.
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And my eight ball says there is a strong chance that this will work.
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Work to accomplish … what?
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Get a harsher sentence it seems.
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Thank you intrusive popup ads, you finally came through for me.
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- Once more, this puts the Administration back on the offensive: this helps push the narrative of “presidential harassment” over the goal line. Why are we as prosecutors constantly being manipulated into defensive position?
- It puts Flynn back in play again. The right wing loves nothing better than a redemption story—especially one where the dogged hero wins his liberty after being pummeled by the frothing savages straight out of in Birth of a Nation.
- It justifies pardon. The president would be seen by his base as “putting things right” after all the radical obstructions to Making America Great ™.
Not actually true. Ford gave Nixon a blanket pardon. There was no prior conviction.
There is a debate, though, about whether accepting a pardon is an inherent admission of guilt, with one supreme Court decision suggesting that it is so, but there are other reasons to say it is not.
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The Ford pardon wasn’t the same animal. Nixon wasn’t indicted with criminal charges yet. It really amounted to a declaration he would not be prosecuted for acts while as president. For Flynn its a bit too late. There is already a trial underway
