Trump blasts ‘scam’ Michael Flynn investigation after new FBI documents released

President Donald Trump weighed in Wednesday on newly released government records and recent media reports regarding the FBI’s 2017 investigation into Michael Flynn — calling the probe that resulted in his former national security adviser’s pleading guilty before a federal court a “scam.”

“.@CNN doesn’t want to speak about their persecution of General Michael Flynn & why they got the story so wrong,” Trump wrote on Twitter just before midnight. “They, along with others, should pay a big price for what they have purposely done to this man & his family. They won’t even cover the big breaking news about this scam!”

A spokesperson for CNN did not immediately return a request for comment.

Prior to that social media post, the president shared stories Wednesday evening from Fox News and the right-wing news website The Daily Caller reporting on a cache of FBI records unsealed earlier in the day by a federal judge. Those documents revealed new details about the origins of the bureau’s criminal case against Flynn.

Trump also retweeted a short video posted by Flynn which the retired Army lieutenant general and former Defense Intelligence Agency chief appeared to have filmed himself, showing an American flag fluttering above a lush green, hilly landscape.

The four pages of documents, provided to Flynn’s defense attorneys last week, have been seized upon by the president’s defenders and his allies in conservative media in a continued effort to paint the investigation of Flynn and the far-reaching Russia probe as an excessive, politically motivated ambush on the White House by federal law enforcement officers.

Flynn, who served as national security adviser for 24 days before being dismissed over inappropriate conversations he had with Russia's ambassador to the U.S. during the presidential transition period before Trump's inauguration.

“He was unfairly and unjustly targeted by ‘Deep State’ bureaucrats that clearly, with all the evidence now to prove it, wanted to take him down,” Fox News host Sean Hannity said of the Flynn revelations on his Wednesday night broadcast.

One page of handwritten notes contained in the documents — dated the same day Flynn was interviewed by the FBI on Jan. 24, 2017 — appears to show a debate about how forthcoming to be with the former general or others at the White House about the nature of the bureau’s investigation, warning that if “we’re seen as playing games, WH will be furious.”

The notes also reflect deliberation about whether confronting Flynn with a lie in real time would be helpful to the FBI’s investigation. “What is our goal? Truth/admission or to get him to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired?” the notes read.

Flynn eventually pleaded guilty in December 2017 to one felony count of lying to the FBI about conversations he had with Russia’s ambassador, and a federal judge in February indefinitely postponed his sentencing.

source https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/30/trump-blasts-scam-michael-flynn-investigation-after-new-fbi-documents-released-225509