Ex-official pleads guilty
Flynn lied to FBI about contacts with Russian ambassador
WASHINGTON — Michael Flynn, U.S. President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, pleaded guilty Friday to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia, becoming the first Trump White House official to face criminal charges and admit guilt so far in the wide-ranging election investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller.
Flynn also agreed to co-operate with Mueller’s probe, which focuses on Russian meddling in the 2016 election and possible co-ordination between Russia and Trump’s team in the campaign that sent the Republican businessman to the White House.
Flynn spent just 25 days in the White House, but his actions — and the Russia investigations broadly — have shadowed Trump throughout the year, angering the president and repeatedly distracting from his agenda. Flynn’s plea came hours before Republican senators hoped to pass a far-reaching tax bill, which would be a significant victory for Trump.
Court papers make clear that Flynn knows the identities of at least two members of Trump’s transition team who were intimately aware of his outreach to Russian government officials in the weeks before the inauguration. Mueller’s prosecutors did not reveal the names of the officials, but indicated they were senior and within Trump’s inner circle.
Those officials discussed the details of what Flynn was supposed to communicate to the Russians about U.S. sanctions imposed by administration of former president Barack Obama. One of the officials, described as a “very senior member” of the presidential transition, also directed Flynn to contact foreign government officials, including Russia’s, about a UN Security Council resolution regarding Israeli settlements.
On Friday, Trump ignored reporters’ shouted questions as he welcomed the Libyan prime minister to the White House, and aides cancelled media access to a later meeting between the two. Flynn visited his son’s house in Virginia shortly after he entered his guilty plea.
Flynn was an early and vocal Trump supporter on the campaign trail and was present for consequential moments in the campaign, the following transition period and the early days of Trump’s presidency, making him a valuable potential tool for prosecutors and agents. His business dealings and foreign interactions have made him a central focus of Mueller’s investigation.
Trump’s former national security adviser admitted to lying about his conversations with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S. during the transition period before Trump’s inauguration.
In a statement, Flynn, a 58-yearold retired lieutenant general, said he accepted responsibility for his actions and added: “My guilty plea and agreement to co-operate with the Special Counsel’s Office reflect a decision I made in the best interests of my family and of our country.”
Flynn is the fourth former Trump associate to face charges in the investigation, and the first who actually served in Trump’s White House. He has been under investigation for a wide range of allegations, including lobbying work on behalf of Turkey.
White House lawyer Ty Cobb sought to distance the plea from Trump himself, saying, “Nothing about the guilty plea or the charge implicates anyone other than Mr. Flynn.”
Early on in is administration, Trump had taken a particular interest in the status of the Flynn investigation. Former FBI Director James Comey, whose firing in May precipitated the appointment of Mueller as special counsel, has said Trump had asked him in a private Oval Office meeting to consider ending the investigation into Flynn. Comey has said the encounter unnerved him so much that he prepared an internal memo about it. The White House has denied that assertion.
Comey tweeted a Bible passage Friday morning: “But justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.”
Flynn, who was interviewed by the FBI just days after Trump’s inauguration, was forced to resign in February after White House officials said he had misled them about whether he had discussed sanctions with the Russian ambassador, Sergey Kislyak. Administration officials said Flynn had not discussed sanctions that had been imposed on Russia in part over election meddling. In charging Flynn, prosecutors made clear they believe that claim to be false.
Days after Flynn’s interview with the FBI, then-acting attorney general Sally Yates alerted White House counsel Don McGahn that Flynn was potentially compromised and vulnerable to blackmail because of discrepancies between public assertions — including by Vice-President Mike Pence — that Flynn and Kislyak had not discussed sanctions and the reality of what occurred.
Mueller’s team announced charges in October against three other Trump campaign officials, former chairman Paul Manafort and his business associate Rick Gates, and a former campaign foreign policy adviser, George Papadopoulos. Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his own foreign contacts.