DOJ Flynn Story Breaks Through Coronavirus-Dominated News Cycle

BY JACK CROWE

May 11, 2020

SINCE CORONAVIRUS BEGAN DOMINATING THE NEWS CYCLE in mid-March, unrelated stories have been left to fight for oxygen for a day or two before being drowned out by the next proclamation from public-health officials or drastic recalibration in modeling.

That dynamic shifted slightly last week when the Department of Justice announced that it had dropped its case against former national-security adviser Michael Flynn. The ensuing coverage managed to break through and carve out some space in the virus-dominated news cycle, sending political activists, pundits and politicians scrambling back to their pre-coronavirus camps.

Chuck Todd gave the DOJ decision top billing in Sunday's edition of the Meet the Press, using a deceptively edited clip of Attorney General Bill Barr's interview with CBS's Catherine Herridge to paint Barr as a cynical partisan who didn't feel obligated to defend the move on anything approaching neutral grounds. In the brief clip, Barr is asked how history will remember the DOJ's decision to drop the charges against Flynn. "History is written by the winners, so it will depend on who is writing the history," Barr says before launching into a defense of the decision.

"I think a fair history would say it was a good decision because it upheld the rule of law," Barr said. "It upheld the standards of the Department of Justice, and it undid what was an injustice."

Not only did Todd omit the second half of Barr's answer, in which he suggests the decision was consistent with "the rule of law," he actually said Barr "didn't make the case that he was upholding the rule of law. He was almost admitting that, yeah, this was a political job."

The Meet the Press Twitter account apologized for "inadvertently and inaccurately" omitting the second half of Barr's interview after DOJ spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said she was "very disappointed" by the coverage.

Barr himself was also accused over the weekend of cynically twisting someone's words to fit his agenda. In a New York Times op-ed titled "Bill Barr Twisted My Words in Dropping the Flynn Case. Here's the Truth." former acting A.G. for National Security Mary McCord attacks Barr's reliance on her 2017 FBI interview, which is cited 25 times in the DOJ's motion to dismiss the Flynn case.

McCord argues that, while she objected in her interview to the FBI's decision to question Flynn without going through the proper channels, she doesn't believe the FBI's pursuit of Flynn was entirely improper. She argues that the bureau's suspicion that the Russians had leverage over Flynn led them to interpret as nefarious his decision to conceal his phone call with Russian ambassador Sergei Kisylak from Vice President Pence.

President Obama also attacked the Flynn decision as an indication that the "rule of law is at risk" during a Friday phone call with alumni of his administration, laying down a marker for fellow Democrats that the Flynn charging decision will be an effective line of attack against the administration going into election season.

As reader appetite for coronavirus-related news begins to wane, will America's pundits return to adjudicating the propriety of the Flynn investigation in particular and Russia-gate in general? Somewhere in Washington, D.C., a response to McCord's op-ed is probably already being written. On the other hand, there's a bigger story looming: The election is only six months away.

Georgia A.G. Requests Federal Investigation into Handling of Arbery Case

Georgia's attorney general has requested that the Justice Department probe how local authorities handled the case of Ahmaud Arbery, a black man who was reportedly out for a jog when he was shot dead by two white men who were not arrested for two months.

Attorney General Chris Carr made the formal request to federal authorities on Sunday.

"We are committed to a complete and transparent review of how the Ahmaud Arbery case was handled from the outset," Carr said in a statement. "The family, the community and the state of Georgia deserve answers, and we will work with others in law enforcement at the state and federal level to find those answers."

Friendly Fire during Iranian Navy Exercise Leaves 19 Dead

Iran's navy on Sunday announced that 19 sailors were killed and 15 wounded after a missile struck a support craft during a training exercise.

The ship, which usually carries a crew of 20 sailors, was placing targets in the ocean for other ships to use during the exercise, held in the Straits of Hormuz. Iranian state media revealed the friendly fire incident, signaling the severity of the mishap.

The incident marks the second severe friendly fire accident by Iranian military forces this year. The first occurred following the American killing of top Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani in January. Iran retaliated by launching around 15 ballistic missiles at U.S. positions in Iraq, but hours after that retaliation Iran's missile defense system shot down a Ukrainian passenger jet taking off from Tehran International Airport. (AP)

U.S. to Warn That China Is Attempting to Steal Coronavirus Vaccine Research

The U.S. will issue a warning that China is planning to steal research on possible coronavirus vaccines via cyber attacks, the New York Times reported on Sunday.

China is actively seeking "valuable intellectual property and public health data through illicit means related to vaccines, treatments and testing," a draft of the warning by the FBI and Homeland Security Department reads. The Trump administration will draw attention to the role of "nontraditional actors," namely students and researchers employed by the Chinese government to steal data on vaccine development. (NYT)

Federal Regulators Draft Guidelines for Reopening Nursing Homes amid Pandemic: Report

Federal health regulators have developed guidelines for the phased reopening of nursing homes, which have proved to be extremely vulnerable to the coronavirus, even as the pandemic continues to infect more people across the country.

An early draft of the guidelines from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services proposes a phased reopening process similar to the Trump administration's guidelines for states to begin lifting lockdown and stay at home orders, the Wall Street Journal reported. (WSJ)

Obama Claims 'Rule of Law Is At Risk' after DOJ Drops Flynn Case

Former president Barack Obama claimed in a private phone call last week that the "rule of law is at risk" following the Justice Department's decision to drop the case against former national security adviser Michael Flynn, Yahoo News reported on Friday.

"The news over the last 24 hours I think has been somewhat downplayed — about the Justice Department dropping charges against Michael Flynn," Obama told members of the Obama Alumni Association during the call, a tape of which was obtained by Yahoo.

"And the fact that there is no precedent that anybody can find for someone who has been charged with perjury just getting off scot-free," Obama continued. "That's the kind of stuff where you begin to get worried that basic — not just institutional norms — but our basic understanding of rule of law is at risk." (Yahoo)

Attorneys for Conn. High School Runners Ask Judge to Recuse after He Forbids Them from Describing Trans Athletes as 'Male'

Attorneys representing three female high school track athletes in their effort to bar biological males from competing against them filed a motion on Saturday calling for the presiding judge to recuse himself after he forbid the attorneys from referring to the transgender athletes at issue as "males."

The ADF filed suit in February against the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC) on behalf of three girls — Selina Soule, Alana Smith, and Chelsea Mitchell. The suit challenges the CIAC policy allowing students to compete in the division that accords with their gender identity on the grounds that it disadvantages women in violation of the Title IX prohibition against discrimination on the "basis of sex."

Washington Post: Republicans grow nervous about losing the Senate amid worries over Trump's handling of the pandemic

Republicans are increasingly nervous they could lose control of the Senate this fall as a potent combination of a cratering economy, President Trump's handling of the pandemic and rising enthusiasm among Democratic voters dims their electoral prospects.

In recent weeks, GOP senators have been forced into a difficult political dance as polling shifts in favor of Democrats: touting their own response to the coronavirus outbreak without overtly distancing themselves from a president whose management of the crisis is under intense scrutiny but who still holds significant sway with Republican voters.

"It is a bleak picture right now all across the map, to be honest with you," said one Republican strategist closely involved in Senate races who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss concerns within the party. "This whole conversation is a referendum on Trump, and that is a bad place for Republicans to be. But it's also not a forever place."

NBC: U.K.'s Boris Johnson unveils 'conditional' easing of lockdown

LONDON — U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson unveiled his road map for easing coronavirus lockdown restrictions Sunday, even as the country's death toll continued to rise in Europe's deadliest outbreak. Nearly 32,000 people in the U.K. have died in the pandemic.

In a televised address, Johnson, who battled the coronavirus himself, outlined a series of staggered steps for exiting the lockdown, which he said would be "conditional" on how diligently the public follows the government's advice.