Ugly new Michael Flynn scandal surfaces
Even though Donald Trump made a point of giving a blanket pardon to convicted felon Michael Flynn in December of 2020, pardons don’t cover future crimes. So all eyes have been on Flynn this year to see whether he’s decided to commit more felonies.
This weekend a Pennsylvania Senate candidate claimed that representatives of Michael Flynn asked him for help on an extortion plot to try to blackmail public officials into supporting 2020 election audits. The candidate claims that he gave the evidence to federal investigators:
PA GOP Senate candidate Everett Stern announces he was approached earlier this year by representatives of Michael Flynn’s ‘Patriot Caucus’ to “gather intelligence” on Senators, Judges and Congressman in order to extort them to support audits. He says he gave the evidence to Feds. pic.twitter.com/F7QBT9Gr15
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) October 31, 2021
Three things stand out here as notable. First, the election audits took place awhile ago. So why is this candidate just now publicly announcing that he turned over the evidence awhile back? As a Republican candidate, this announcement certainly doesn’t help him. He must be expecting that the story was about to come out anyway.
Second, the key word here is “evidence.” This means the Feds don’t merely have to take this guy’s word for it; he’s got something like emails or recordings and he’s already turned them over.
Finally, the big question here is whether this evidence shows that Michael Flynn himself was involved in the plot, or merely people claiming to be representing him. If this candidate’s claims are true and his evidence is solid, you can expect criminal indictments against whoever was involved. Reaching out to a political candidate in furtherance of an extortion plot is a felony, whether any actual extortion was attempted or not.
