I Can See Clearly Now

AG Bill Barr on dropping Flynn charges, CBS Evening News:
BARR: They did not have a basis for a counterintelligence investigation at that stage.
Q: Does the fact remain that he lied?
BARR: Well, people sometimes plead to things that turn out not to be crimes.

— Will Rabbe (@WillRabbe) May 7, 2020

Barr is not trying to save Trump from having to pardon Flynn.  Barr is trying to give Trump political cover so he can pardon Flynn.

As Asha Rangappa pointed out, the charges against Flynn were vetted by Rod Rosenstein, who signed off on the prosecution, and then by Judge Sullivan, who accepted the plea deal after careful review and an extensive (and typical) hearing where he questioned Flynn, who unequivocally plead guilty.  The judge said that Flynn "arguably sold out the country."

Flynn pleaded guilty in December 2017 to making false statements to the FBI about his dealings with the Russian ambassador and other diplomats during the presidential transition. Much of the recent strife surrounds an accompanying admission that he submitted false and misleading information to the Justice Department about his lobbying for Turkish interests while he served as an adviser to Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign.

And now Barr says what Flynn plead guilty to was not crimes?  He's doing the defense counsel's work for them:

Soon after going to work for Flynn, Powell said in court that she planned to file a motion to dismiss the charges against Flynn on the basis of outrageous government conduct. In a bid to buttress that plan, she sought nearly 50 categories of information that she said would help Flynn show that he was unfairly targeted and bullied into a guilty plea on the basis of incomplete and inaccurate information.

But he's doing it to squirt squid ink in the water so Trump can pardon Flynn because "injustice!" and "unfair!"  And he's doing it quite specifically for Michael Flynn, who was not handled any differently than any other defendant prosecuted by the DOJ.  Barr is not even attempting to make a good faith argument.   But he also knows the FoxNews crowd watching doesn't understand anything about criminal prosecutions beyond what they've seen on TeeVee, and besides, Flynn is an upright white man, another Oliver North without the puppy dog demeanor.  And there was a basis for a prosecution, or Rosenstein and Sullivan would never have cooperated with Mueller. But Barr knows the peanut gallery and the rubes won't understand that, so he throws sand in the air because it serves Trump's personal interests.  Flynn didn't plead to something that "turned out not to be a crime."  That's bullshit, and Barr knows it.  Sullivan won't accept it, and probably won't accept the DOJ motion to dismiss.  And then Trump will pardon Flynn because Flynn is the victim of another "deep state" conspiracy that's out to get Donald Trump.

Which is when this whole circus will have served its purpose, and the rot in the DOJ will deepen.  I am firmly convinced the only way to purge the system after Trump is removed by the electorate is to pursue charges against Flynn that were set aside for the plea agreement (he faced multiple criminal charges, and dismissal "with prejudice" of the one he plead guilty to won't prevent prosecution of the others) and Trump face criminal charges for the obstruction of justice counts outlined in the Mueller report.  We cannot, as a country, say "Well, that's over now," and "move on."  If this kind of corruption is not cleansed by We the People through our representatives and elected officials, We the People will have only ourselves to blame when it happens again.