By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com
President Trump insisted Thursday that newly released FBI notes “exonerated” Michael Flynn, reviving his conspiracy theories that federal authorities had schemed to bring down his national security adviser.
Trump seized on documents detailing how FBI officials planned to handle a January 2017 interview with Flynn, who was serving at Trump’s national security adviser at the time.
The documents indicated the FBI was preparing to close the case before top bureau officials made a last-minute reversal, The Washington Post reports. The documents don’t show why the reversal occurred.
Although Flynn eventually pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with a Russian diplomat, Trump said the documents prove Flynn was treated unfairly.
“Look at what they did to the guy,” Trump told reporters Thursday. “What they did to this man, they tormented him.”
Trump later indicated he would “certainly consider” rehiring Flynn.
Legal experts say Flynn’s lawyers will have a tough time convincing a judge that he was entrapped.
“It is not a close call,” Chuck Rosenberg, a former U.S. attorney who also served as FBI Director James Comey’s chief of staff, told The Washington Post. “In this situation, Flynn had three options: tell the truth, lie or refuse to talk. The FBI did not plant a lie, urge him to repeat the lie, record him in the lie, and then prosecute him for lying. That might be entrapment. Here, Flynn was predisposed to lie, chose to talk, and then lied. That’s not entrapment.”
