Flynn association may carry price for Pence
Dem wants VP to testify before judiciary panel
WASHINGTON – New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has a theory on why he was replaced by Mike Pence as head of Donald Trump’s presidential transition.
Christie said Wednesday he thinks his opposition to naming retired Army general Michael Flynn as Trump’s national security adviser was a “significant reason” for his ouster.
Putting Flynn in that sensitive position was a “big mistake,” Christie said.
Whether Pence has to pay a legal or political price for his association with Flynn is not clear.
Flynn pleaded guilty this month to lying to the FBI about contacts with Russia’s ambassador. Pence’s response to revelations about interactions between Flynn and other members of the Trump team with Russian operatives is that it was news to him.
“Don’t forget Flynn may well have highly incriminating evidence about VPOTUS Mike Pence, who claimed that Flynn misled him about (Russian Ambassador Sergey) Kislyak,” Harvard Law School professor Laurence Tribe tweeted after Flynn pleaded guilty. “Perhaps Pence wasn’t as clueless as he claims.”
Andy Wright, who was a lawyer for Vice President Gore and President Obama, said it’s too soon to tell what Flynn’s indictment, and other developments in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, might mean for Pence.
“I think they have raised questions that Pence will have to answer,” Wright said. “But right now, I haven’t seen anything that suggests his legal liability, absent more information.”
Pence’s office said he was not one of the top transition officials Flynn — who was the vice chairman of the transition — spoke with about his conversations with Kislyak. At the time of those conversations, which took place at the end of 2016, Pence was in Indiana with his family. Pence’s son got married in Indiana on Dec. 28, the day Obama signed an executive order imposing sanctions on Russia and Kislyak reached out to Flynn. In his plea agreement, Flynn said he discussed on Dec. 29 how to respond to Kislyak with a senior member of the transition team who was with other leaders at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. When Flynn called Kislyak back, he asked the Russians not to escalate the situation.
Pence, based on what he’s said were assurances from Flynn, asserted on CBS’ Face the Nation in January that Flynn and Kislyak did not discuss the sanctions.
Because the Justice Department knew about the call from surveillance of Kislyak, acting Attorney General Sally Yates told the White House that Flynn lied about the nature of the calls so was vulnerable to blackmail. Flynn wasn’t dismissed until mid-February, after news reports of Yates’ warning. In Flynn’s resignation, he said he had “inadvertently briefed the vice president-elect and others with incomplete information.”
Pence has not been interviewed by Mueller. He hasn’t talked to any of the congressional committees investigating Russia’s alleged election interference. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, DConn., a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Pence should testify before that panel.
“I want answers to some of the questions that logically flow from the Flynn guilty plea, such as what did he know about Flynn’s contacts with the Russians during the transition, when he was a very key figure,” Blumenthal told CNN Tuesday.
Even before Flynn’s indictment, Blumenthal sought answers from Pence. He sent Pence a letter in November asking for information on the role Flynn played within the transition team on issues affecting Flynn’s lobbying clients. “It is imperative that we learn the full extent of Mr. Flynn’s hidden lobbying for special interests or foreign interests while on the transition team and in the White House, as well as any undisclosed work he did for the Russian or Turkish governments so that we may know his legal liability,” Blumenthal wrote.