Outgoing “Law and Order” President Allows Former National Security Adviser to Lie to FBI

Retired president Donald Trump has pardoned his former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI during an investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Flynn, a retired Army General, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his interactions with Russia’s Ambassador to the United States in the weeks leading up to President Trump’s inauguration in January 2017.

I had to dismiss General Flynn because General Flynn lied to the Vice President and the FBI. He pleaded guilty to those lies. It’s a shame because his actions during the transition were legal. There was nothing to hide!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 2, 2017

Since then, he has tried to withdraw the judicial transaction, claiming that the prosecutor infringed his rights and deceived him into the judicial transaction. His decision has been postponed several times.

It was the most noticeable amnesty since Trump took office. In particular, the Republican president has pardoned Army personnel accused of war crimes in Afghanistan and Joe Arpaio, a former Arizona sheriff and hardliner against illegal immigrants.

Flynn served as Trump’s first national security adviser, but the president dismissed him only 24 days later after a dispute over the contact of the former general with then-Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak.

Flynn has been found guilty in an investigation by former special adviser Robert Mueller on Moscow’s intervention in the 2016 US elections to boost Trump’s candidacy, or several former Trump aides convicted in court. Was one of them. Russia denied the interference.

In March, Mr. Trump said he was strongly considering Mr. Flynn’s full amnesty. He said the FBI and the Justice Department had “destroyed” Flynn’s life and the lives of his family, citing unspecified unfounded reports of losing records related to Flynn.

Flynn was to support cooperation with the government as part of his judicial transaction. However, he later switched tactics with a lawyer, claiming that the prosecutor in the case had tricked him into lying about his conversation with Kislyak in December 2016.

The Justice Department has repeatedly denied allegations of illegal activity in prosecution, and Judge Emmet Sullivan of the US District Court dismissed all of Flynn’s allegations in December 2019.

In January, a federal prosecutor asked a judge to sentence Flynn to imprisonment for up to six months, and in a court motion, “The defendant has not learned his lessons. He said the law would give him He acted as if it did not apply and did not affect his behavior. “

Flynn, who also headed the Defense Intelligence Agency of the Pentagon, was deported in 2014 because of his opinion on his style of management and how to fight Islamic extremists.

He participated in the Trump 2016 election campaign and led his supporters at the Republican National Convention that year, referring to Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and chanting “lock her in.”

Another former Trump aide was convicted of a federal crime following a Russian investigation. Roger Stone, a longtime friend and adviser to Trump, has been sentenced to three years and four months in prison from February 20 and tells lawmakers investigating Russia’s election interference to obstruct, tamper with, or lie. arrived.

Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was sentenced to three and a half years in prison last year after being convicted of illegal lobbying and tampering with witnesses.

Trump, who lost the presidential election on November 3, will resign on January 20, when Joe Biden will take office.