President Donald Trump in a tweet on Saturday said he fired his former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn because Flynn lied to the vice president — and the FBI.
Trump: I knew Michael Flynn lied to the FBI when I fired him
Trump tweets he fired Michael Flynn because Flynn lied to the vice president and the FBI — which could play into a case of obstruction of justice against him.
Emily Stewart covered business and economics for Vox and wrote the newsletter The Big Squeeze, examining the ways ordinary people are being squeezed under capitalism. Before joining Vox, she worked for TheStreet.
If that is indeed the case, that means Trump knew that Flynn had lied to the FBI when he asked FBI Director James Comey to drop his inquiry into Flynn and then fired Comey when he failed to do so.
“I had to fire General Flynn because he lied to the Vice President and the FBI,” Trump said in a midday tweet. “He has pled guilty to those lies. It is a shame because his actions during the transition were lawful. There was nothing to hide!”
Flynn on Friday agreed to a plea deal with prosecutors in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe, which is the biggest development yet in the ongoing investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Flynn resigned on February 13 as Trump’s top national security adviser after it came to light that he had lied to Vice President Mike Pence about discussing Russian sanctions in calls with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak prior to Trump’s inauguration.
Trump met with then-FBI Director Comey in the Oval Office the next day and asked him to talk about Flynn, according to a contemporaneous memo written by Comey. During that meeting Trump allegedly told Comey that Flynn “is a good guy” and hoped Comey could see his way to “letting Flynn go.” Trump fired Comey under dubious circumstances in May.
Trump’s Saturday tweet seems to indicate that he knew Flynn had lied to the FBI when he made his comments to Comey. That could play into a case of obstruction of justice against him, as many were quick to point out.
Former U.S. Office of Government Ethics Director Walter Shaub reacted strongly, as did Lawfare Blog executive editor and Brookings Institution fellow Susan Hennessey.
It’s also worth noting that Sally Yates, who Trump fired as acting attorney general in January, testified before Congress in May that she had warned the Trump administration about Flynn. In her testimony, Yates told White House counsel Don McGahn on January 26 that Flynn was vulnerable to blackmail by Russia and that he had been lying about his contacts with Russia. Former President Barack Obama reportedly warned Trump about Flynn as well.
The White House did not return a request for comment on Trump’s tweet or clarification of his assertion that he knew about Flynn’s lies to the FBI.
Trump’s changing tune on Michael Flynn
Trump in March tweeted that Flynn should “ask for immunity” from the “witch hunt” by the media and Democrats, although the White House has since sought to distance itself from the embattled former general.
In a statement in response to Flynn’s guilty plea on Friday, Trump’s lawyer, Ty Cobb, noted that Flynn only served in the Trump administration for 25 days. “The false statements involved mirror the false statements to White House officials which resulted in his resignation in February of this year,” he said. “Nothing about the guilty plea or the charge implicates anyone other than Mr. Flynn.”
When asked by reporters on Saturday if he was worried about Flynn, Trump repeated the words “no collusion” three times: “What has been shown is no collusion, no collusion. There’s been absolutely no collusion, so we’re very happy.”
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