Trump White House rewrites history, this time about Flynn
After announcing that the Justice Department was dropping the criminal case against Michael Flynn, the former national security adviser, Attorney General William Barr was presented with a crucial question: Was Flynn guilty of lying to the FBI about the nature of phone calls he had with the Russian ambassador to the United States?
After all, Flynn had twice pleaded guilty to lying about them.
“Well, you know, people sometimes plead to things that turn out not to be crimes,” Barr said in an interview with CBS News. Then he went even further and described the infamous calls during the Trump presidential transition as “laudable.”
President Donald Trump and his allies now accuse the FBI of framing Flynn, which is part of the president’s broader campaign to tarnish the Russia investigation and settle scores against perceived enemies before the November election.
Their revisionist narrative is in stark contrast to the view held three years ago not only by top FBI management but also by senior White House officials. Flynn, the officials said then, had lied to Vice President Mike Pence and other aides about the nature of his calls to the ambassador, had lied repeatedly to FBI agents about the calls, and might have made himself vulnerable to Russian blackmail.
Revisiting the chaotic weeks surrounding Flynn’s ouster shows how much the original Trump administration concerns about him have been buried under the president’s cause of portraying the Russia investigation as a “witch hunt.”
Barr, for example, recently argued that the FBI interview of Flynn was not justified because agents who had been investigating him had not found any wrongdoing and were on the verge of closing the case. When agents found out about the call with the Russian ambassador, Sergey I. Kislyak, they concocted a reason to keep the case open for “the express purpose of trying to catch, lay a perjury trap for Gen. Flynn,” Barr said in the CBS interview.
A broad array of legal experts disagree.
“This case reeks of political influence,” said Marshall L. Miller, a former top prosecutor in New York City and the principal deputy of the Justice Department’s criminal division. “Mr. Flynn admitted twice under oath that he lied to the FBI. Political appointees at DO J are now trying to rewrite the law to erase the crime.”
Flynn’s troubles began with a phone call.
It was Dec. 29, 2016, the day the outgoing Obama administration announced sanctions against Russia for the country’s widespread effort to disrupt the 2016 presidential election. Flynn, who was Trump’s incoming national security adviser, urged Kislyak in a phone call not to escalate tensions with a retaliatory move against the United States — perhaps by kicking U.S. diplomats and spies out of Russia.
The FBI unearthed the discussions between Flynn and Kislyak when reviewing transcripts of the ambassador’s intercepted calls. FBI officials discussed interviewing Flynn, whom agents had been investigating as part of the bureau’s inquiry into whether any Trump campaign associates had conspired with Russia during the presidential election.
The matter took on greater urgency when Flynn’s discussions with Kislyak were revealed by a Washington Post columnist.
Top Trump transition officials — including Pence as well as Reince Priebus, who was to be White House chief of staff, and Sean Spicer, the incoming White House press secretary — questioned Flynn about The Washington Post column. Flynn denied that he spoke about sanctions with Kislyak and Spicer repeated those claims to members of the news media.
Days later, on Jan. 15, 2017, Pence was asked about the column during an interview on the CBS News program “Face the Nation.” The incoming vice president said that he had talked with Flynn about his calls with Kislyak and he said that Flynn was unequivocal. “They did not discuss anything having to do with the United States’ decision to expel diplomats or impose censure against Russia,” the vice president said.
Pence’s interview set off alarms at the FBI and the Justice Department. If Flynn had lied to the vice president, the Russians knew that and could use it as leverage over Flynn.