Trump story switch

New take on firing national security adviser for Russia lies

US PRESIDENT Donald Trump has changed his story on why he fired Michael Flynn as his national security adviser, now suggesting he knew at the time that Flynn had lied to the FBI, as well as to Vice President Mike Pence about his contacts with Russians during the presidential transition.

That was an about-turn from his initial explanation that Flynn had to go because he hadn’t been straight with Mr Pence about those contacts. Lying to the FBI is a crime, and one Flynn acknowledged on Friday in pleading guilty and agreeing to cooperate with the special counsel’s Russia investigation.

Mr Trump tweeted: “I had to fire General Flynn because he lied to the Vice President and the FBI. He has pleaded guilty to those lies. It is a shame because his actions during the transition were lawful. There was nothing to hide!”

It is not clear why Mr Trump would cite lying to the FBI as a reason for firing Flynn. Doing so suggests he knew then Flynn had done something that was against the law, and therefore the investigation could not be as frivolous as he has been portraying.

It is not clear how he would know that if information about Russian contacts had not reached him, as he has been implying in his own defence. Flynn left the White House in February, only admitting he had given an incomplete account to Mr Pence of his conversations with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak.

After Mr Trump forced Flynn out, he asked FBI director James Comey to end the bureau’s probe into the matter, according to Mr Comey’s account. Mr Comey refused, and Mr Trump fired him, too.

Mr Trump has been publicly dismissive of Mr Comey and of special counsel Robert Mueller’s continuing investigation, and was often generous in his appraisal of Flynn, except to say his adviser could not stay on the job after misleading his Vice President.