Michael Flynn, the retired US Army general who vigorously campaigned at US President Donald Trump’s side and then served as his first national security adviser, on Friday pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about reaching out to the Russians on Trump’s behalf and said members of the president’s inner circle were intimately involved with — and at times directed — his contacts.
His plea to a single felony count of false statements made him the first official of the Trump White House to be charged so far in the criminal investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller.
His action could be an ominous sign for a White House shadowed for the past year by investigations, turning Flynn into a potentially key government cooperator as prosecutors examine whether the Trump campaign and Russia worked together to influence last year’s presidential election in Trump’s favor.
Photo: AFP
Friday’s developments did not resolve the paramount question of possible Trump-Russia coordination in the campaign, but they did show that Flynn lied to the FBI about multiple conversations in December last year with the Russian ambassador.
Court papers make clear that senior Trump transition officials were fully aware of Flynn’s outreach to Russian officials in the weeks before the inauguration.
The officials were not named in court papers, but people familiar with the case identified two of them to the Associated Press as Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, and former US deputy national security adviser K.T. McFarland, who is now up for an ambassadorship.
That revelation moves the Russia investigation deeper into the White House, and given the direct involvement of the transition team in Flynn’s calls with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak, the plea also raises questions about the accuracy of repeated assertions by the administration that Flynn had misled US Vice President Mike Pence and other officials when he denied having discussed sanctions with the diplomat.
Flynn stood quietly during his plea hearing, except to answer brief questions from the judge.
He accepted responsibility for his actions in a written statement, although he said he had also been subjected to false accusations.
“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,” Flynn said.
A former US Defense Intelligence Agency chief, Flynn was a considerably more vocal Trump surrogate during the US presidential campaign, known for leading rally crowds in “Lock her up” chants regarding former US secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton’s use of a private e-mail server.
Although prosecutors had also investigated Flynn’s lobbying for work on behalf of the Turkish government, the fact that he was permitted to plead guilty to just one count — and faces a guideline range of zero to six months in prison — suggests that prosecutors see him as a valuable tool in their investigation and are granting a degree of leniency in exchange for cooperation.
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