Trump’s praise of ‘tormented’ Flynn raises speculation he may be pardoned
WASHINGTON » President Donald Trump on Thursday voiced strong support for his former national security adviser Michael Flynn, raising speculation that a pardon may be coming after Flynn’s lawyers disclosed internal FBI documents they claim show the FBI was trying to entrap him.
Trump has long said he is considering pardoning Flynn, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in early 2017 about his conversations with the Russian ambassador to the United States. The president spent Wednesday night and Thursday morning retweeting supportive statements and a video Flynn tweeted of an American flag flapping in the wind.
He told reporters at the White House that he believed Flynn had been “tormented” and that, following the release of the documents, “now we have to see what’s going to happen.”
“They came at him with 15 buses and he’s standing in the middle of the highway. What they did to this man,” Trump said, without specifying what he meant. “They tormented him. They destroyed him. But he’s going to come back.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called into Fox News Channel to react to the release of the FBI documents, saying, “if true, it is extremely troubling.”
“If all this proves to be true, you will have, certainly, a major, major error on the part of top leadership at the FBI, which could well warrant additional charges against them,” he said.
Lawyers for Flynn
released internal FBI emails and handwritten notes on Wednesday documenting internal correspondence among FBI officials before Flynn’s interview with the bureau. They contend the documents bolster their allegations that Flynn was set up to lie when he was questioned at the White House three years ago. The notes show the officials grappling with how best to approach Flynn, how much information to provide him during the interview and what to do if he made a false statement.
Flynn, who was among the first of the president’s aides charged in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia, is now seeking to withdraw his guilty plea and makes broad assertions of law enforcement misconduct. U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan has rejected many of the defense arguments but has yet to rule on whether Flynn can take back his guilty plea.
Meanwhile, a federal prosecutor from Missouri is reviewing the Justice Department’s handling of the case at the direction of Attorney General William Barr. The department said the notes were provided as part of that ongoing review.
It remains unclear what bearing the documents will have on the case or how significant the judge will determine them to be. But Flynn has emerged as something of a cause celebre in recent months for supporters of the president, who have rallied around the retired Army lieutenant general and seized on the findings of a harshly critical watchdog report on the Russia investigation to try to cast doubt on the entire probe.