Flynn pleads guilty to lying
Cooperating with Mueller probe, inquiry draws closer to Trump’s inner circle
WASHINGTON – Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn brought the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election to President Donald Trump’s inner circle Friday, promising to give prosecutors information about other senior aides as he pleaded guilty to a charge of lying to the FBI.
Flynn’s abrupt guilty plea is the dramatic culmination of an investigation Trump had once asked the FBI to drop. His cooperation means a top adviser in the campaign and the early days of Trump’s presidency is now providing evidence in an investigation that has cast a shadow over the president’s first year in office. And it suggests the investigation remains far from over.
Flynn is the fourth former Trump aide to face criminal charges in special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election but the first to be prosecuted for things that happened during the Trump administration.
In court Friday, prosecutors offered their first hint of the information Flynn
might provide, saying that conversations he had with Russia’s U.S. ambassador had been coordinated by a “senior official of the presidential transition.”
In a court filing made public Friday, prosecutors alleged that Flynn “did willfully and knowingly make materially false, fictitious and fraudulent statements” to FBI agents during a Jan. 24 interview about his conversations with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak in the weeks before Trump took office. Prosecutors charged that he falsely told FBI agents he did not ask Kislyak to delay a vote on a pending U.N. Security Council resolution critical of Israeli settlements.
That call, prosecutors said, was made at the direction of a “very senior member of the Presidential Transition Team.”
Prosecutors did not identify the official; the Associated Press and NBC News reported that it was Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, citing unnamed officials. Kushner’s lawyer could not be reached to comment Friday.
Prosecutors also charged that Flynn lied to agents about a Dec. 29 conversation about how Russia might respond to sanctions the U.S. government had levied over its election meddling. President Barack Obama imposed those sanctions Dec. 28; the same day, Kislyak contacted Flynn to discuss how the Russian government would respond.
The next day, Flynn called a “senior official of the Presidential Transition Team” at Trump’s private Mar-a-Lago resort “to discuss what, if anything, to communicate to the Russian Ambassador about the U.S. sanctions,” according to a court filing signed by Flynn and prosecutors. Immediately after that call, Flynn called Kislyak and asked that Russia “not escalate the situation.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin said the following day that his government would not retaliate for the sanctions. Trump praised Putin’s move on Twitter, writing, “I always knew he was very smart!”
While incoming presidents traditionally have calls with world leaders during the transition, it is improper for his aides to begin conducting foreign policy of any kind before the inauguration.
After pleading guilty, Flynn issued a personal statement that said, “I recognize that the actions I acknowledged in court today were wrong, and, through my faith in God, I am working to set things right. My guilty plea and agreement to cooperate with the Special Counsel’s Office reflect a decision I made in the best interests of my family and of our country.”
The administration quickly sought to distance itself from Flynn on Friday. White House lawyer Ty Cobb described the former Trump confidante as “a former National Security Adviser at the White House for 25 days and a former Obama administration official.” Flynn headed the Defense Intelligence Agency under Obama while a three-star Army general.
But in a court filing, prosecutors went out of their way to highlight the former general’s close connection to Trump, pointing out that he served as a “surrogate and national security adviser” for his campaign and a “senior member” of his transition team before becoming his top national security aide as president.
“I recognize that the actions I acknowledged in court today were wrong, and, through my faith in God, I am working to set things right. My guilty plea and agreement to cooperate with the Special Counsel’s Office reflect a decision I made in the best interests of my family and of our country.” Michael Flynn Former national security adviser