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Just read from Brian Cates one of the lawyers hired by Flynn's team to help on cooperation of the Main case is also a witness for the prosecution in that case? How can that be ethical?
It isn't ethical but the reason the judge is allowing it isn't too hard to figure out. The judge has also ordered Senior Ethics officials to attend. Kelner and his firm Covington, Burling are in a heap o' trouble.
Covington, Burling was also corporate counsel for Flynn Intelligence Group (FIG) at the time of the negotiation and finalization of the deal with a Dutch company, Innovo. Having so-called specialists in lobbying and disclosure laws on staff, Flynn and his partner, Rafekian (Kian) directed the lawyers to advise them on which disclosures to the federal government were required of them and then to prepare the necessary papers.
That goes to intent. FIG and its principals were trying to comply with the applicable law and relied on Covington, Burling to guide them.
Only Covington, Burling recommended FIG need only file disclosures under another law, not FARA. FIG complied. That filing gets flagged pretty damn quick. (Unconfirmed at present but most likely because there was a Title I FISA on Flynn or at a minimum someone doing 702 queries on his every communication.)
At this point the games begin. Flynn is already winding down and dismantling FIG in preparation for his joining the incoming Trump administration. To say this issue was a minor paperwork for a defunct entity and not the highest priority would be an understatement. But one he trusted his counsel to take appropriate action to close the matter.
Now Covington, Burling is in a box. The head of DOJ/Nat Sec Division, David Laufmann is gunning for Flynn claiming his failure to file under FARA was an intentional crime. FIG's lawyers know that isn't true and it is their fault. They try to finesse that point without outright saying they committed malpractice and scramble to assemble more evidence that there was no need for FIG to file under FARA. They do that by talking to Kian and then Alpetkin, the owner of Inovo BV. Based on the information the lawyers are being told (according to them) didn't back-up Laufmann's assertions that Inovo was a front for the Turkish government. (Again, neither Flynn nor his lawyers know what Laufmann knows by virtue of the surveillance.)
Laufmann continues to push them hard to file under FARA. Flynn really isn't that focused on it as e has other duties to attend to and again trusts them to take appropriate action to handle it. Covington, Burlng prepares the filing to reflect what they have been told by Kian and Alpetkin. Flynn doesn't read it just signs it. And the feds pounce for filing a false FARA.
Here's where Covington, Burling made their biggest mistake, they still represented Flynn individually in the criminal case. They should have referred him to another criminal attorney. By encouraging Flynn to take plea deal, their asses would be covered. But then Mueller threw them a curve ball as he was exiting the door and indicted Kian and Alpetkin last December for false statements related to the FARA filing.
All of the weirdness with the Flynn sentencing hearings before Judge Sullivan has been kind of a kabuki danc between the defense and Team Mueller for basically CYA on both sides with Flynn caught in the middle.
Sorry about the length but it is a complicated, labyrinthine mess where everybody except Flynn had conflicts of interests.