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Flynn’s Former Lawyers Covington And Burling Turn Over Another Trove Of Docs, Again

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Michael Flynn

Covington and Burling LLP, the former defense team for former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, turned over thousands of more pages of documents to Flynn’s new defense team that should have been submitted more than a year ago. Last week, another batch of documents withheld by former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team on Flynn was turned over to his defense that allegedly reveals that the retired three-star general did not commit any crimes, as suggested by Department of Justice prosecutors.

This new batch of voluminous documentation turned over by his former defense team – which includes emails, texts, voice messages, notebooks, handwritten notes and legal documents – amounted to approximately 6,800 additional documents bringing the total amount of documents to roughly 669,800, along with attachments.

In early April, Flynn’s former law firm revealed to the court that it had discovered emails and handwritten notes that were not turned in with the original batch of millions of documents that were required by the court to be turned over last year. At the time, they suggested the delay was due to technical issues since being ordered by the presiding federal judge six months ago to turn over all documents.

At the time, presiding Federal Judge Emmet T. Sullivan, ordered the law firm to ‘promptly turn over the entire file’ on Flynn to his new defense attorney Sidney Powell. That order was made under threat of a hearing before the District of Columbia Ethics Counsel. The law firm turned over what is described as a ‘voluminous’ amount of documents but it apparently wasn’t all the documents. In early April the law firm hinted in its supplemental notice filed with the court that there may even be more documents still to be produced.

Powell told this reporter Tuesday that she is astonished that Covington and Burling LLP had failed to locate the documents earlier and just now turned over another voluminous batch to her team.

“The Flynn defense is stunned that Covington and Burling has only now found thousands of additional documents amounting to more than 17,000 pages that should have been produced to the defense almost a year ago,” she stated. Powell, who has been battling for documents from the Department of Justice as well, said the enormity of documents withheld from Flynn’s defense is proof of the misconduct against her client.

Powell obtained the new information from the DOJ after an extensive review by attorneys appointed by U.S. Attorney General William Barr to review Flynn’s case. Barr’s team included United States attorney in St. Louis, Jeff Jensen, who is handling the Flynn matter, along with prosecutors from the office of the deputy attorney general, Jeffrey A. Rosen. The documented evidence Powell said will exonerate Flynn was delivered to Powell but is under court seal.

Tuesday’s supplemental notice, which was signed by Flynn’s former defense counsel Robert Kelner with Covington and Burling LLP, stated that the reason the documents were turned over so late to Powell was due to “an unintentional miscommunication involving the firm” information technology personnel had led them, in some instances, to run search terms on subsets of emails the firm had collected for its response to document requests United States v. [Bijan] Rafiekian, the case involving Mr. Flynn’s business partner and their FARA-related work through their consulting firm, rather than on the broader sets of emails that should have been searched.”

Rafikian, Flynn’s former business partner, had been indicted on two criminal counts by government prosecutors, which included conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government, according to his original unsealed indictment. Rafiekian’s conviction, however, was overturned in an unexpected move by the court, which cited that prosecutors had ‘insufficient evidence’ to prove their case against him.

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education

BREAKING: Disney drops suit challenging special district status in settlement with Florida, DeSantis

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A settlement was reached Wednesday in the two-year lawsuit over who controls the special governing district that encompasses the Walt Disney World Resort, which includes Disney dropping its lawsuitsagainst a newly created tourism board.

“We are glad that Disney has dropped its lawsuits against the new Central Florida Tourism Oversight District and conceded that their last-minute development agreements are null, void, and unenforceable,” Bryan Griffin, DeSantis’ communications director, said in a statement. “No corporation should be its own government. Moving forward, we stand ready to work with Disney and the District to help promote economic growth, family-friendly tourism, and accountable government in Central Florida.”

Fox News explains the dispute began “after Disney’s criticism of Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Act – derided by critics as the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill – prompted the DeSantis administration to revoke the special Disney-controlled tax district that gave the entertainment autonomy over its theme parks in the region.”

“No corporation should be its own government,” Bryan Griffin, a spokesman for the governor, said in an emailed statement. “Moving forward, we stand ready to work with Disney and the District to help promote economic growth, family-friendly tourism, and accountable government in Central Florida.”

Misleadingly deemed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, prohibited the teaching of sexual orientation and gender identity to young students in the state. National Review reports:

After receiving pressure from employees, Disney’s then-CEO, Bob Chapek, said that the company’s leaders had been opposed to the bill “from the outset,” and Disney declared that the legislation “should never have passed and should never have been signed into law.”

In February 2023, DeSantis signed House Bill 9B, which established the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District to replace Disney’s Reedy Creek Improvement District. Reedy Creek was a 56-year-old special taxing district that allowed Disney control its own development, regulations, building codes, and other municipal services.

Lawmakers voted to give the governor the power to appoint the district’s board members.

However, before a DeSantis-appointed board took over last March, the Disney-controlled board handed control of the district’s development over to Disney…

As part of the settlement, Disney acknowledges that the development agreement approved by the outgoing Reedy Creek board has “no legal effect or enforceability.”

As for the media reports that DeSantis had been humiliated and out-maneuvered by Disney, Griffin said that “as usual, the media were wrong.”

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