The notes exist in the Flynn litigation file. Counsel for Michael T. Flynn put a transcription on the public docket after the government produced a handwritten page (Bates described in Flynn filings as DOJSCO-700023464). Outlets that printed the line in April 2020 include Fox News and CNN. Politico wrote that the notes “appear to bear the initials of E.W. ‘Bill’ Priestap.”
Other lines on the same page, as transcribed in public filings and contemporaneous reporting: he had agreed the day before not to show Flynn material if Flynn did not admit; he thought overnight and believed they should rethink; “We regularly show subjects evidence with the goal of getting them to admit their wrongdoing”; “If we get him to admit to breaking the Logan Act give facts to DoJ + have them decide”; “If we’re seen as playing games, WH will be furious”; “Protect our institution by not playing games.”
The document is real. What it means is contested commentary. Flynn’s lawyers treated it as evidence of a setup. Officials familiar with the case, in contemporaneous news accounts, treated it as a debate about interview tactics. This site does not invent a conviction from a handwritten question. Flynn was later charged with making false statements; the Department of Justice later moved to dismiss; the President later issued a pardon. Those later events are other people’s dockets. This post is the notes.
The Federalist and Breitbart published Flynn pieces that quote the same line. That is labeled reporting and commentary, not a court finding that Priestap ordered a perjury trap.