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The importance of getting Trump team members to flip [View all]
KremlinGate and the Limits of Classified Evidence
The FBI’s been investigating possible links between the Kremlin and President Trump for nearly a year—here’s why it’s moving so slowly
By John R. Schindler • 04/12/17 9:30am
...snip
Comey faces a particular problem, little understood by the public or even by most journalists covering KremlinGate. That’s the fact that classified evidence is inadmissible in court, and top-secret information will never be shown to a jury. FBI agents therefore face the uncomfortable difficulty of knowing (from highly classified reports) what was going on—and finding unclassified corroboration if they want to prosecute anybody.
Hence the pressing need to get co-conspirators to “flip” on each other and, even better, coercing confessions from those facing possible prison time. This is the usual FBI modus operandi, and it’s most effective against smaller fish who aren’t eager to take the rap for bigger ones. We can safely assume that the Bureau will lean on former members of Team Trump to get confessions; here the recent ham-handed effort by Michael Flynn, Trump’s disgraced former national security guru, a man with plenty of odd ties to the Kremlin himself, to get immunity in exchange for telling what he knows seems relevant.
Without such cooperation, including confessions from at least some members of Team Trump, the transition of KremlinGate from the investigation phase to prosecution is likely to stall. We don’t know exactly what the FBI knows, but some examples from past counterintelligence cases can illuminate the conundrum the Bureau faces right now.
More here: http://observer.com/2017/04/kremlingate-and-the-limits-of-classified-evidence/
The FBI’s been investigating possible links between the Kremlin and President Trump for nearly a year—here’s why it’s moving so slowly
By John R. Schindler • 04/12/17 9:30am
...snip
Comey faces a particular problem, little understood by the public or even by most journalists covering KremlinGate. That’s the fact that classified evidence is inadmissible in court, and top-secret information will never be shown to a jury. FBI agents therefore face the uncomfortable difficulty of knowing (from highly classified reports) what was going on—and finding unclassified corroboration if they want to prosecute anybody.
Hence the pressing need to get co-conspirators to “flip” on each other and, even better, coercing confessions from those facing possible prison time. This is the usual FBI modus operandi, and it’s most effective against smaller fish who aren’t eager to take the rap for bigger ones. We can safely assume that the Bureau will lean on former members of Team Trump to get confessions; here the recent ham-handed effort by Michael Flynn, Trump’s disgraced former national security guru, a man with plenty of odd ties to the Kremlin himself, to get immunity in exchange for telling what he knows seems relevant.
Without such cooperation, including confessions from at least some members of Team Trump, the transition of KremlinGate from the investigation phase to prosecution is likely to stall. We don’t know exactly what the FBI knows, but some examples from past counterintelligence cases can illuminate the conundrum the Bureau faces right now.
More here: http://observer.com/2017/04/kremlingate-and-the-limits-of-classified-evidence/
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