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BOMBSHELL MICHAEL FLYNN DOCUMENTS EMERGE: We’re beginning — just beginning — to see some of the FBI papers shaken loose by Attorney General Bill Barr’s review of key portions of the case against former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn. One jaw-dropping document is notes by FBI officials planning the interview of Flynn on January 24, 2017 — just four days into the Trump administration. “What is our goal?” the officials asked. “Truth/Admission or to get him to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired?” The FBI was trying to set a perjury trap for the national security adviser? Or just get him fired? It doesn’t look good. Flynn lawyer Sidney Powell says there is much, much more of what she calls “stunning evidence that proves Mr. Flynn’s allegations of having been deliberately set up and framed by corrupt agents at the top of the FBI.”
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JOE BIDEN’S SECRET PAPERS: Joe Biden served in the Senate for 36 years, from 1973 to 2009. During that time, he produced what archivists say are 1,875 boxes of papers and 415 gigabytes of electronic records. Seeing the papers would give the public a look at Biden’s actions during all sorts of consequential moments during his Senate career, from the Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas Supreme Court confirmation battles (Biden served on and then chaired the Judiciary Committee) through the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and beyond. They would likely give voters insight into what kind of president Biden might be.
But the public cannot see Biden’s papers. In 2011, while serving as vice president, he donated them to the University of Delaware. The terms of the donation say the papers will be made public “two years after the donor retires from public life.” That restriction, imposed by Biden, could mean anything, and it certainly means no access until after the presidential election.
Would the papers tell us anything about Tara Reade? That’s unclear. But look for demands that Biden produce some sort of inventory of the papers to see if any might refer to Reade, who claims Biden sexually assaulted her in 1993 when she served as an aide in his office. Even the Washington Post editorial board, which has been sluggish to call for an explanation from Biden, wants one now.
BACK TO BUSINESS: The Senate has a huge amount of coronavirus work ahead, but it is also getting back to other business. Judiciary Committee chairman Lindsey Graham has scheduled a hearing for next Wednesday for a nomination to the extremely-important Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. The nominee is Justin Walker, who also happens to be close to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. As of today, President Trump has put 51 judges on the federal courts of appeals — the most of any president ever at this point in his term.
