President Trump said Thursday that his former White House aide Mike Flynn is “essentially exonerated” of lying to the FBI after a new document release.
Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that “dirty, filthy cops at the top of the FBI” had “destroyed” the retired Army general, who briefly was Trump’s national security adviser.
“He’s in the process of being exonerated if you looked at those notes from yesterday. That was total exoneration,” Trump said. “These were dirty, filthy cops at the top of the FBI, and you know the names better than I do. And they were dishonest people.”
Trump said, “what they did to this man, they tormented him.”
In a morning Twitter spree, Trump amplified a Justice Department document disclosure in Flynn’s case, including a handwritten note from former FBI counterintelligence director Bill Priestap.
Priestap wrote, after a meeting with then-FBI Director James Comey and then-Deputy Director Andrew McCabe: “What’s our goal? Truth/Admission or to get him to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired?”
At the time, the FBI was investigating whether Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia to undermine Hillary Clinton. A subsequent investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller found no evidence of collusion.
Lying to the FBI is a federal crime, but it isn’t always prosecuted. In a plea deal, Flynn agreed to cooperate with investigators. He’s now seeking to withdraw the guilty plea ahead of possible sentencing.
In what Flynn defenders see as a double standard, prosecutors recently decided not to prosecute McCabe, who was fired after an inspector general report identified multiple alleged lies to FBI officials about his role authorizing a leak to the media.
Flynn was fired by Trump in early 2017, less than one month into his administration, for lying to Vice President Mike Pence about his talks with Russia’s ambassador. In late 2017, Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to FBI agents about those contacts.
Trump has repeatedly fended off questions about pardoning Flynn and other convicted associates, such as former adviser Roger Stone, who was convicted of lying to Congress and witness intimidation, and former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who is jailed for tax evasion and other crimes.
“I like to stay out of it,” Trump said Thursday about Flynn. “I don’t have to stay out of it at all. But I like to say out of it.”
Trump offered the new disclosures as evidence of rogue law enforcement that “would happen in other countries.”
“At the beginning of the administration the dirty cops came in,” Trump said. “What they did to General Flynn, and by the way to Roger Stone and to others, was a disaster and a disgrace. It should never be allowed to happen in this country again.”