Now, wait a minute....

NEWS: VP Pence tells reporters he's "inclined" to believe Gen. Flynn's lying to him was "unintentional."

Pence: "I’m inclined more than ever to believe that what he communicated to me back during transition was unintentional and that he was not attempting to misrepresent facts."

— Geoff Bennett (@GeoffRBennett) April 30, 2020

Yeah, there's always a tweet:

I had to fire General Flynn because he lied to the Vice President and the FBI. He has pled guilty to those lies. It is a shame because his actions during the transition were lawful. There was nothing to hide!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 2, 2017

But Flynn's argument is that his lawyers screwed up and misled him and he was framed!  Framed, I tell ya!  Except:

pic.twitter.com/Q6zApgUQIF

— sunnyskiesahead (@sandsun4me) April 30, 2020

And let's just back up a minute and remember where this all started:

In December 2017, Flynn struck a plea deal with special counsel Robert Mueller’s team — pleading guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with the Russian ambassador, and agreeing to cooperate. Everything seemed to be going according to plan with this, and prosecutors recommended Flynn get no prison time as his sentencing approached in December 2018.

Surprisingly, though, at that hearing, the judge in Flynn’s case, Emmet Sullivan, raked Flynn over the coals, saying he felt “disgust” and “disdain” for what Flynn did and strongly suggesting he might give Flynn some prison time. However, Sullivan offered Flynn the opportunity to delay his sentencing to get credit for further cooperation with the government, and Flynn jumped at the chance.

So Flynn was getting off easy, but not easy enough! And yet he was never charged with lying to the Vice President.  He struck a deal and admitted to lying to the FBI.

So how is what Pence thinks about what Flynn meant to do relevant to anything?

Except, of course, the Audience of One, who is probably going to pardon Flynn and Stone (but never Manafort, it would seem) at least before January 20, 2020.  We really need to amend the Constitution.  This pardon power is definitely a dangerous relic of an expectation of more enlightened minds in office.