Trump should be 'gravely concerned' that Flynn's sentencing judge questioned him about treason: national security expert

A national security expert explained Wednesday that although she was initially shocked to learn Michael Flynn's sentencing judge questioned the former Trump advisor about treason, she eventually came around to realizing he was right.

"I will be honest with you: I was screaming at [Federal Judge Emmet] Sullivan when I read this being tweeted out in real time," independent journalist Marcy Wheeler wrote Wednesday on her website, Emptywheel, "in part because I spend so much time arguing that Trump and his flunkies won’t be charged with treason because we’re not at war."

Wheeler noted that Sullivan "got out over his skis" when repeatedly claiming Flynn was a foreign agent for Turkey during his time as a White House national security adviser -- and later admitted that he had been mistaken in doing so because he stopped working for Turkey in mid-2016.

Transcripts of the sentencing hearing showed that upon open court consultation with Brandon Van Grack, one of special counsel Robert Mueller's prosecutors, Sullivan admitted the fault in his reasoning and corrected himself by asking whether Mueller believed Flynn had taken part in "treasonous activity."

In spite of that incorrect assertion, Wheeler explained why Sullivan's comments "are far more defensible" than meets the eye.

The judge, she noted, had reviewed multiple sealed documents regarding Flynn -- including confidential information from Mueller about the information he shared as part of his cooperation.

"By yesterday morning, Emmet Sullivan probably became one of the few people outside Mueller’s team and his DOJ supervisors that understands the activities that Trump and his associates, including Flynn, engaged in from 2015 to 2017," Wheeler wrote. "He understands not just the significance of Flynn’s lies, but also how those lies tied to graft and conspiracy with foreign countries — countries including, but not limited to, Russia."

"It should gravely worry the Trump people that Sullivan’s comments about whether Flynn’s behavior was treasonous came from someone who just read about what the Mueller investigation has discovered," she added.

Read the entire analysis at Emptywheel.