National security expert and Lawfare editor in chief Benjamin Wittes explained in an extensive Twitter thread why President Donald Trump’s supporters shouldn’t count their chickens before they’re hatched when it comes to Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn.

“Hold the champagne—and maybe put away whatever you’re smoking,” he told Trumpland on Wednesday evening. “Gen. Flynn pled guilty to lying to the FBI not because he was framed but because he got a sweet-ass deal to avoid massive criminal liability for being an unregistered agent of a foreign power while working for a presidential transition. He also avoided his son’s prosecution.”

New documents show that the FBI had a conversation about the need to get Flynn to admit in questioning that he violated the Logan Act, which prevents unregistered foreign agents from doing business with international governments on behalf of the United States. There was a discussion that they also look for occasions where Flynn lied under oath. As former federal prosecutors pointed out, it’s something FBI agents do to all suspects. Flynn is no exception.

“While in the White House, he unequivocally lied to both the Vice President of the United States and to the chief of staff to the President of the United States about his interactions with the Russian ambassador,” explained Wittes. “And he was fired for it. Nothing that has come out suggests the facts that he admitted to in the context of his plea are untrue or that his plea was coerced in any way.”

He acknowledged that Trump may still pardon Flynn, but Flynn will never be “cleared” and Judge Emmet Sullivan won’t be surprised by the latest “revelations.”

Read his full Twitter thread.

Former Florida attorney general Pam Bondi, possibly best-known for refusing to join a fraud investigation into Trump University that ultimately led to the President of the United States forking over $25 million, is right now defending President Trump on national TV during the Senate impeachment trial.

As many on social media noted, Bondi refused to join that investigation that led to a $25 million payment from the president, but was only too happy to accept a $25,000 donation from Donald Trump for her re-election campaign, just as she was deciding on whether or not to investigate him.

Bondi rocketed to the number two trending item on Twitter within minutes of speaking.

On social media some are calling it “bizarro world”:

Pam Bondi, who ended an investigation into Trump University as AG of Florida within weeks of Trump donating to her campaign, is going to defend the President on the topic of corruption. We are in bizarro world.

— David Pakman (@dpakman) January 27, 2020

Some posted evidence:

Copy of the $25,000 check from Trump to Bondi after she mentioned she might be looking into fraud complaints at Trump University https://t.co/e5uBSfw9z4

— Bill Weir (@BillWeirCNN) January 27, 2020

Some say Bondi has experience “overlooking allegations made against Trump”:

Pam Bondi’s job is to attempt to persuade the public to overlook the allegations in Trump’s impeachment.

And when it comes to overlooking allegations made against Trump, she’s got experience.https://t.co/xjqhK2rR1C

— Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) January 27, 2020

Some mocked the “frat houses” that never existed at the now-defunct Trump University:

The frat houses at Trump University must be wild now that Pam Bondi is up.

— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) January 27, 2020

More:

Pam Bondi, who dropped an investigation into Trump University after Trump’s foundation gave her campaign $25,000, is here to lecture us about corruption pic.twitter.com/XH5nlwGrqK

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 27, 2020

Trump made an illegal campaign contribution to Florida attorney general Pam Bondi, and she’s the lawyer the Trump defense team chose to talk about corruption? https://t.co/fRBKu0EL2J

— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) January 27, 2020

Ah, we’ve arrived at the “I’m not impeached, you’re impeached” part of the proceedings in which Pam Bondi will lecture us on corruption and why Biden should be impeached. https://t.co/L3HwBThROV

— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) January 27, 2020

This Pam Bondi presentation about Hunter Biden is the Trump team achieving in a Senate trial what Trump couldn’t get Ukraine to do: publicly smear the Bidens.

— Geoff Bennett (@GeoffRBennett) January 27, 2020

Pam Bondi is engaged in government-sponsored slander of a private citizen.

— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) January 27, 2020

“Jefferson was also a rapist and a white supremacist”

Exactly five minutes after the House of Representatives passed a resolution laying out the procedures for the public phase of the impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump, Ivanka Trump posted a tweet with this quote from Thomas Jefferson to defend her boss and father:

“…surrounded by enemies and spies catching and perverting every word that falls from my lips or flows from my pen, and inventing where facts fail them.”

Apparently, Ivanka Trump should have chosen her words more carefully:

It’s interesting Ivanka picked this example because the thing Jefferson’s enemies were accusing him of — fathering a child with a slave — was absolutely something he did. 6 times as a matter of fact. Jefferson was bemoaning being called out for something he actually did. https://t.co/ZnvjPLrkjY

— Rachel Joy Larris (@RachelLarris) October 31, 2019

Few were amused, many appeared angered and indignant, some offered additional founding father quotes, and many reminded her of her father’s crimes and misdeeds:

So, Ivanka, couple things:
a.) Jefferson worked his whole life to ensure the president was not above the law
b.) Jefferson was the first top official to call for the impeachment of a president (Washington) for being too close a foreign nation (when he approved the Jay Treaty).

— David Rothkopf (@djrothkopf) October 31, 2019

Rest of that quote:
“I pant for that society where all is peace and harmony, where we love & are beloved by every object we see.”

When will the White House be promoting that? pic.twitter.com/e3297JAVPa

— Sarah Burris (@SarahBurris) October 31, 2019

For instance, Jefferson was also a rapist and a white supremacist https://t.co/OnecifcC6Q

— David Klion🔥 (@DavidKlion) October 31, 2019

Like Trump, Thomas Jefferson also had a child he refused to acknowledge https://t.co/kCfhTGyLf1

— Ben Dreyfuss (@bendreyfuss) October 31, 2019

The privileged delusion of a pretend princess. https://t.co/CRJ1aLuRpi

— Evan McMullin (@EvanMcMullin) October 31, 2019

Apples and oranges, dearie. Your daddy and his co-conspirators are surrounded by patriots, willing to risk their livelihoods in order to expose and uproot corruption.https://t.co/bvWNvpRJk0

— Julia Davis (@JuliaDavisNews) October 31, 2019

“The public will never be made to believe that an appointment of a relative is made on the ground of merit… nor can they ever see w/ approbation offices, the disposal of which they entrust to their Presidents for public purposes, divided out as family property”—Thomas Jefferson https://t.co/Pa0aKtZtew

— Susan Hennessey (@Susan_Hennessey) October 31, 2019

your dad wishes every day he could be like thomas jefferson and own slaves https://t.co/8Qv2WTXZ3K

— Oliver Willis (@owillis) October 31, 2019

“Shall any man be above Justice?…Shall the man who has practised corruption & by that means procured his appointment in the first instance be suffered to escape punishment by repeating his guilt?”—George Mason on impeachment, 1787.

Some things never change! https://t.co/Pa0aKtZtew

— Susan Hennessey (@Susan_Hennessey) October 31, 2019

jefferson, of course, famously asked france for dirt on alexander hamilton https://t.co/PStY9NBut8

— David Mack (@davidmackau) October 31, 2019

Jefferson reflected more deeply on the abuse of power in the “Declaration of Independence.” He had a list of grievances against King George III that included:

— “He has refused his Assent to Laws”
— “He has obstructed the Administration of Justice”

Some things never change. https://t.co/tKEZnP8nIX

— Tim O’Brien (@TimOBrien) October 31, 2019

How are your kids, sweatshop Barbie? Safe and warm in their penthouse, with at least part time access to their mom? https://t.co/Gtdj6QNmaF

— Randi Mayem Singer (@rmayemsinger) October 31, 2019

Before people get angry with Ivanka comparing her ignorant, unread father to an intelligent, learned man like Thomas Jefferson, Jefferson did have sex with women without consent, so it’s not as big a stretch as it might appear on first glance. https://t.co/gKUUCDO7bL

— Mrs. Betty Bowers (@BettyBowers) October 31, 2019

Thomas Jefferson also said this:

“When once a Republic is corrupted, there is no possibility of remedying any of the growing evils but by removing the corruption and restoring its lost principles; every other correction is either useless or a new evil.”

That’s about your dad. https://t.co/oEQnd0Eo63

— Ahmed Baba (@AhmedBaba_) October 31, 2019