Trump calls probe bogus
President: Inquiry into Moscow ties a ‘witch hunt’
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Friday that Michael Flynn, the national security adviser who resigned in February over his contacts with Russian officials, should ask for immunity from prosecution in the congressional investigation into the presidential campaign’s ties to Moscow. Trump called the inquiry a politically driven “witch hunt” by the news media and Democrats.
The president made the remark on Twitter the morning after it was revealed that Flynn was seeking an immunity deal as part of an offer to testify in the investigations by the House and Senate intelligence committees into Russian meddling. Those inquiries are looking into the presidential election and potential collusion between Trump’s campaign staff members and the Russians.
“Mike Flynn should ask for immunity in that this is a witch hunt (excuse for big election loss), by media & Dems, of historic proportion!” Trump wrote.
The president has been eager to dismiss as “fake news” all allegations that members of his campaign colluded with the Russians, and the post appeared to be
an effort to discredit the congressional inquiries that are examining those claims. It also appeared to be aimed at defusing any speculation that Flynn might be seeking immunity because he has incriminating information to share about Trump or his associates.
Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the ranking Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, said Flynn’s decision to seek immunity from prosecution was a “grave and momentous step,” but not one that investigators were ready to consider at this stage of the inquiry.
“While Mr. Flynn’s testimony is of great interest to our committee, we are also deeply mindful of the interests of the Justice Department in the matter,” Schiff said in a statement. He added that before considering immunity for any witness in the inquiry, “we will of course require a detailed proffer of any intended testimony.”
Schiff also answered Trump’s Twitter post with his own messages, saying that his committee would soon uncover the reasons Flynn wanted immunity.
“The question for you, Mr. President, is why you waited so long to act after you learned Flynn (through your VP) had misled the country?” Schiff wrote.
He was referring to the fact that Sally Yates, then the acting attorney general, had informed the White House in January that Flynn had apparently misrepresented the nature of his communications with Sergey I. Kislyak, the Russian ambassador, saying they had not spoken about U.S. sanctions against Moscow — when they had.
Flynn resigned three weeks later, ostensibly because he had lied to Vice President Mike Pence about his talks with Kislyak, and Pence had gone on to repeat the mischaracterization publicly in a television interview.
The testy social media exchange on Friday was the latest turn in the increasingly bizarre saga surrounding the Trump White House and the investigation into connections with Russia. The credibility of the inquiry was thrown into question on Thursday after it emerged that a pair of White House officials had helped provide Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., chairman of the Intelligence Committee, with intelligence reports showing that Trump and his associates had been incidentally swept up in foreign surveillance by U.S. spy agencies.
Armed with the information, Nunes held a news conference and made a public show of going to the White House to hand-deliver information to Trump, an apparent effort to help the White House explain why the president had taken to Twitter in early March to accuse President Barack Obama of wiretapping his telephone. The chiefs of the FBI and the National Security Agency have both testified that such surveillance never took place.
Nunes postponed a hearing that was to take place this week at which Yates was to testify.
It was not clear from Trump’s post on Friday whether he fully appreciated the potential impact on his administration if Flynn received immunity to participate fully in the investigation. But he has said previously that seeking protection from prosecution is a telltale sign of wrongdoing.
“If you’re not guilty of a crime, what do you need immunity for, right?” he said at a campaign rally in Orlando, Florida, in September. Trump was referring to Hillary Clinton aides who received immunity during an FBI inquiry into her use of a private email server.
Sean Spicer, White House press secretary, declined to address the inconsistency, telling reporters on Friday only that Trump “believes that Mike Flynn should go testify.”
“He thinks that he should go up there and do what he has to do to get the story out,” Spicer said.
A congressional official said investigators were unwilling to broker a deal with Flynn until they were further along in their inquiries and they better understood what information Flynn might offer as part of a deal.
The FBI is investigating whether any of Trump’s advisers colluded with the Russian government in its efforts to disrupt the 2016 presidential election. An immunity deal would make it extraordinarily difficult for the Justice Department to prosecute Flynn.