Mon, Mar 27, 2023
Newsweek
U.S.

Michael Flynn: Social Media Trolls Mueller's Heavily-Redacted Sentencing Memo

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U.S. Michael Flynn Mueller Special counsel Memo

Shortly after the office of Special Counsel Robert Mueller filed a government memorandum recommending no jail time for Michael Flynn on Tuesday evening, social media began trolling the heavily-redacted document.

Although the sentencing memo was expected to set out punishment for Flynn after he committed a federal crime by lying to the FBI, it declared that his cooperation with Mueller's probe should exonerate him from jail time.

"Given the defendant's substantial assistance and other considerations set forth below, a sentence at the low end of the guideline range — including a sentence that does not impose a term of incarceration — is appropriate and warranted," the government memorandum read.

"The defendant deserves credit for accepting responsibility in a timely fashion and substantially assisting the government."

Although the sentence suggestion was clear, little else was offered from the heavily-redacted memo, prompting ridicule from social media users on Twitter who were hoping its release would shed more light on the ongoing probe.

"Mueller is not showing his hands yet. All the good stuff are redacted," one user, Navid, wrote, alongside an image of one of the document's pages.

Mueller is not showing his hands yet. All the good stuff are redacted. pic.twitter.com/xpNFpWxAaf

— Navid 🧢🇺🇸 (@NYCNavid) December 5, 2018

Other users cracked jokes about the redaction with memes, while some speculated about its contents.

Girl, are you a heavily redacted document? Because I just can’t read you.

— Christopher Ingraham (@_cingraham) December 5, 2018

Anyway, lots of other stuff was redacted from the Flynn memo, too.

— A Crime a Day (@CrimeADay) December 5, 2018

“Let’s revisit why our relationship ended”
Me: pic.twitter.com/FYN8HYHkMV

— Elahe Izadi (@ElaheIzadi) December 5, 2018

Read Mueller's sentencing memo for Michael Flynn https://t.co/1QBmgYoqbp pic.twitter.com/jX89moWy7q

— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) December 5, 2018

If you play the redaction backwards, you can clearly hear Mueller saying to the Trumps “be afraid, be very afraid.” https://t.co/MPfDjAUF3X

— Tom Perriello (@tomperriello) December 5, 2018

They should keep more punctuation in the redacted documents so that we could at least play Mad Libs. “ ⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️ ⬛️⬛️⬛️ ⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️ collusion by the ⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️ campaign with ⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️⬛️. “ #Flynnmemo

— JayItsAllOverButTheShoutingHo ©️ (@JayHoOfTheRocks) December 5, 2018

When you wear a salute to Flynn's redacted testimony to Mueller. pic.twitter.com/vOAnnKHoh5

— Hillary Warned Us: Trump Will Try to Steal/Sneak (@HillaryWarnedUs) December 5, 2018

The obvious Flynn/Mueller redaction + US flag photomontage: pic.twitter.com/wHllt293wJ

— Ángel Domínguez ♬ (@angeldominguez) December 5, 2018

In February 2017, Flynn was forced to resign from his post as Trump's national security adviser after he was accused of lying about his links with Russia's then-ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak.

Since then, the former Trump adviser has pleaded guilty to lying to FBI investigators and agreed to assist the Special Counsel's probe into Russian campaign meddling and possible collusion between Trump's campaign team and Moscow officials.

Flynn, a retired U.S. Army lieutenant general, is due to be sentenced on December 18. He is the first of five Trump aides who have pleaded guilty in Mueller's investigation.

The memo on Tuesday also alluded to a separate criminal investigation that he appears to have cooperated with. However, almost all of the details were redacted.

"[Flynn's] early cooperation was particularly valuable because he was one of the few people with long-term and firsthand insight regarding events and issues under investigation by the SCO," the special counsel said in the memo.

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