Abundance of malice.

Screen shot from “Absence of Malice” starring Paul Newman and Sally Field. (Columbia Pictures)

There are stories in the news other than the coronavirus, one of which reminded me of a good movie. Rent or buy the 1981 film “Absence of Malice.” It’s a good flick, and watching it will give you good background against which to synthesize a chilling story of 21st century Washington swamp-creature depravity.

“Absence of Malice” is about the malicious prosecution of a Florida business owner – played by Paul Newman – by a malfeasant Assistant US Attorney – played by Bob Balaban. That prosecution turns Newman’s life upside down. It causes him to lose his business and his reputation. The prosecutor’s misconduct leads directly to a suicide death.

Watch the movie and then consider recent reports on the story of retired Army general Michael Flynn. The parallels between the movie and Flynn aren’t precise but they’re close enough.

Gen. Flynn, who was briefly President Trump’s National Security Advisor, pled guilty to lying to the FBI in connection with the agency’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Those of us with a nose for these things have long smelled a rat. We have long suspected that Flynn was set up by an FBI that was working overtime to undermine the new Trump administration. That malodorous rat has now been caught out in daylight.

A document dump last Friday reveals the handwritten notes of former FBI counterintelligence head Bill Priestap that make it clear that the prosecution of Flynn was predatory. An intellectually honest observer can now plainly see that the Department of Justice and the FBI maliciously prosecuted Flynn, and in so doing withheld exculpatory evidence, threatened without cause to prosecute Flynn’s son as leverage to get Flynn to cop to a plea, saddled a man of modest means with ruinous legal costs and blackmailed Flynn’s attorneys into working against him.

There are two horrors revealed in this episode. The first is that a small group of high-ranking Washington insiders attempted to substitute their judgment as to who should be President of the United States over that of the majority of voters in a majority of the counties in a majority of the states in the union. It is perhaps the most brazen political misconduct in our history.

And second, in furtherance of that malignant plan, they weaponized the awesome power of federal law enforcement and ruined the life of an innocent man. Just like Paul Newman’s life was shattered in the movie, Flynn’s reputation and finances now lie shattered in real life.

SPOILER ALERT: We feel better at the end of “Absence of Malice” because some justice is finally had. Bob Balaban gets smacked by a crusty old-hand US Attorney played by Wilford Brimley. (See a portion of the scene below.)

In order for us to feel better now, a whole raft of Obama-era DOJ holdovers – a raft that includes James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page and others – will need to get smacked by Attorney General William Barr – an old hand himself.

Let’s pray that it happens. The very future of the republic depends on it.

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Paul Gleiser

Paul L. Gleiser is president of ATW Media, LLC, licensee of radio stations KTBB 97.5 FM/AM600, 92.1 The TEAM FM in Tyler-Longview, Texas.

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17 Responses

  1. R. Eagleman says:

    Can we just all agree that the 7th floor of the J. Edgar Hoover building was framing Gen. Flynn to get him to drop the dime on President Trump? Anyone who cannot see this squeeze as a pathway to finding something that might recall the newly elected president is either enjoying an IQ of 50, or a total political hack. Maybe we are finally getting to the bottom of this act of treason, and if justice is served, the perpetrators will be tried and convicted accordingly. As yours truly opined in a Dec.16, 2017 post to Paull’s “To Drain the Swamp, Start in the Deepest Part”, do not be surprised to find our former president at the bottom of this conspiracy.

    • Michael Reagan says:

      Yes Sir, this is chilling but something many knew even if speculative. When a Presidential administration can hand pick their attack dogs and coordinate with outside resources; both foreign and domestic, to employ an all out strategy of systematically attempting to destroy an opponents Presidential bid by total deceit and fraud, brother us little folks are nothing more than worker ants in this form of government. Treasonous, you bet! This makes Watergate look like a child picking up a piece of fruit, putting it in their pocket while walking out of a store. Question now is what will be done about it?

  2. Jim Lee says:

    Paul,
    Another excellent article. Keep up the good work. Tyler is lucky to have you my friend.

  3. C M Solomon says:

    If the Treasonous “Deep State” Obama-era holdovers (James Comey, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, John Brennan, Jim Clapper, Susan Rice, et al.) are officially EXPOSED by Attorney General William Barr (and his investigators U.S. Attorney John Durham and Bill Priestap) to have been on a mission to SABOTAGE and criminalize the newly elected Trump Administration and his Staff members, in particular, then YOU CAN BE SURE that the “Lie State” Socialist Democrats and their Malevolent Media Propaganda Machine will go ballistic with an ADDITIONAL 24/7 offensive against Trump, his Family, Barr, Durham, Priestap, and anyone else they can demonize as the TRUE ENEMIES of the American people. There is no doubt that they will use the same model of character assassination they used in the Adam Schiff and Nancy Pelosi (Russia Hoax) investigation for which their Mob Media partners gave overwhelmingly sycophantic coverage.

    As a campaign issue, the Democrats will portray this controversy as Trump’s REVENGE against his political opponents, NOT as an exercise of TRUE American justice. I just hope that the Barr directed Justice Department and Court systems in this country can override this predictable Democrat/Media onslaught and bring devastating punishment to these miscreants that will be judged to be guilty of CRIMINAL acts as the TRUTH is uncovered in spite of their three-year suppression of the manufactured fake evidence against their chosen victims.

  4. R. Eagleman says:

    Amen brother Solomon! If Barr and Durham do not get to the bottom of this attempted overthrow of a constitutionally elected president, there will be no deterrent for future attempts to employ the same strategy. A lot rides on this investigation; too bad the media have relinquished their responsibility enshrined in the First Amendment. How idiotic for these “journalists” to abet a coup d’etat that will eliminate the freedom of the press, as well as exterminate all those who do not conform to the party line! Sounds radical? Study history!

  5. Breaking News: Charges dropped!

    Flynn blames his lawyers.

    Had my fellow Rhode Islander not lied to the FBI and the Vice President, I’d join the vindication chant.

    • C M Solomon says:

      HC, why do you continue to mislead your readers with half-truths? Surely, you know that Flynn’s original lawyers (subsequently fired) ENCOURAGED him to confess to the “lie” charge while sacrificing his own credibility in order to protect his family from threatened abuse. Flynn was the target of a perjury trap promoted by the FBI’s James Comey in order to get him discredited or fired from the early Trump Administration. Comey is one of the dirtiest cops in a generation as an Obama activist with a mission to take down Trump. Those of us who forage for the TRUTH in the midst of a Malevolent Media Megaphone (owned by the Democrat Party) have known this information for at least two years. How come you haven’t kept up with reality?

      As Paul has explained, Flynn is a patriot and a decorated General. He is now destitute, having lost his house and all of his wealth, as he was trying to defend himself and his family. Flynn knew where all the skeletons were hidden in the corrupt Obama Administration. He was a target of defamation in order to protect the Obama miscreants that were embedded throughout the highest levels of the State Dept., DOD, DNI, DOJ, CIA and FBI. And yet, you don’t recognize one of the greatest scandals in American history.

      HC, as an internet and media consultant, surely your credibility can’t be hurt by telling the WHOLE TRUTH. Maybe you will believe one of your “respected Progressive” articles at the following link.

      https://progressivelineup2020.com/obama-brennan-coup-involved-state-dept-dod-dni-doj-cia-and-fbi/

      • Thanks for your concern.
        I’m getting by.

        Flynn DID lie.

        • Paul Gleiser says:

          “Flynn DID lie,” you say. I’m glad you’re so certain.

          The FBI agents who interviewed Flynn were not so certain. How do I know this? I actually read the entire 20 pages of the document titled, “GOVERNMENT’S MOTION TO DISMISS THE CRIMINAL INFORMATION AGAINST DEFENDANT MICHAEL T. FLYNN. It is a detailed accounting of some of the most egregious abuse of law enforcement and prosecutorial power that you could ever imagine. The document tells a story of something that at one time I would have emphatically said couldn’t happen in the United States.

          But I digress. You said that “Flynn DID lie.” Here is just a brief snippet of what the agents who actually interviewed Flynn said as lifted from the government’s Motion to Dismiss:

          “FBI agents reported to their leadership that Mr. Flynn exhibited a “very sure demeanor” and “did not give any indicators of deception.” Both of the agents “had the impression at the time that Flynn was not lying or did not think he was lying.”

          That’s only one quote on the topic from the government’s motion. There are many others.

          More on this horrifying episode in American history will be forthcoming on this site. For now suffice to say that the most authoritative source on the subject of Flynn’s veracity is, of necessity, the report written by the agents who actually interviewed him. They said he didn’t lie.

          And yet Comey, McCabe, Mueller, Strzok, et. al. cobbled up a way to prosecute him anyway.

          It is at once infuriating and dispiriting.

  6. C M Solomon says:

    I am now totally convinced that the Hard Core (HC) Marxist Socialist Liberal Democrat Ideologue has no Heart of Compassion (HC) for those who fall victim to the Horrible Cusses (HC) of this world that are determined to torment their enemies and/or victims at ALL costs. Damn them all who use “Color of Law” in their vaunted positions to pour their Evil on others while sanctimoniously holding themselves as righteous paragons of virtue. How sick can it get! 18 U.S. Code § 242 – “Deprivation of rights under color of law” is a CRIME. The tyrants have been exposed and it is time for good ‘ol American Constitutional Justice to be rendered in FULL measure.

    • “Second Amendment remedies?”

      • R. Eagleman says:

        Any idea why the 2nd amendment was so important? The authors were trying to protect us from the same tyranny they were escaping…….expand your knowledge sources. An armed citizenry is more difficult to control by tyrants……a disarmed population is REQUIRED for the government to establish total control. Ask any survivor of the many countries who obediently relinquished this protection. Additionally, universal healthcare is just a smokescreen to remove firearms from the hands of citizens. It would be a prerequisite to being covered. Firearm possession is an unacceptable health risk……right?

        • So, that said, WHAT IS the Second Amendment application to the status quo?

          Those camouflaged soreheads bearing assault weapons at various statehouse protests should open fire upon WHOM?

          • R. Eagleman says:

            C’mon H.C., you know that the Second Amendment does not give the right to brandish a firearm; only a right to keep and bear arms. These protesters had a perfect right to petition (read 1st amendment),and since Michigan is an open carry state, it was not illegal to have the firearms. Carrying them to the protest was probably not the most effective strategy, but laws were not broken! Yeah, these “camouflaged soreheads” are only trying to get back to work to earn a living; this is an odd concept to bureaucrats and politicians! They have no clue, but they do have a guaranteed income! This little factoid gives a whole different perspective.

      • C M Solomon says:

        HC, are you accusing me of wanting to take up arms against the US Government by saying “Second Amendment remedies?” Given your many posts, you obviously don’t share my reverence and awe of the miracle of the Constitution to be our “Supreme Law of the Land” that has established the greatest country in all of human history. NO!, my comment of “American Constitutional Justice” is what Attorney General Barr is trying to re-establish in all of those government agencies that were polluted by the Progressive Religion as headed by your false Obama Idol. Obama subverted our hallowed Constitution that he and your Socialist/Marxist Democrats are guilty of diminishing as evidenced by ruining the life and reputation of General Flynn by Color of Law (which is a Crime) not to mention eight years of our loss of basic Liberties by Socialist government regulations, run amok. The Progressive Religion is intellectually bankrupt as evidenced by most of your posts that fail the Integrity and Logical Quotient tests. Hence, it is impossible to have any degree of productive dialogue with you on this blog. However, I am able to see how you THINK as a Hard Core (HC) Progressive Leftist, which has educational value to me.

        Since you are a public Progressive figure in the Leftist media as indicated by the following LINKS, you are simply without the type of conscience that we Conservatives share by your callous disregard for the Golden Rule. My proof of this is the Flynn persecution issue and the deliberate virus infection of nursing home issue in NY, which you failed to condemn.

        Shame on you and all Progressives! You have REGRESSED into the ideology of Tyranny as practiced by despots in most of human history. You have not learned from the Enlightenment Period that directly led to our Founding Fathers who created the Constitution that exalted individual Freedom and Liberty as a GOD given Right. This blessed Constitution abolished the State Rule by Decree of despots, drunk on their own power. This is WHY we believe you “Progressives” are on a mission to destroy our Liberties in spite of your deceptive tactics to fool us with empty logic and promises of utopia.

        Meet Holland Cooke: https://www.rt.com/shows/big-picture/405103-big-picture-new-host/

        https://www.rt.com/about-us/press-releases/big-picture-new-host/

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Picture_with_Thom_Hartmann

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thom_Hartmann#Political_views

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RT_America

        http://www.talkers.com/2018/08/06/advice-to-rush-limbaugh-stations-pander/

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