{"id":2279,"date":"2017-12-03T05:53:28","date_gmt":"2017-12-03T13:53:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=2279"},"modified":"2017-12-03T05:56:35","modified_gmt":"2017-12-03T13:56:35","slug":"in-pre-dawn-twitter-message-trump-issues-a-fresh-denial-about-intervening-in-flynn-investigation-the-washington-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=2279","title":{"rendered":"“In pre-dawn Twitter message, Trump issues a fresh denial about intervening in Flynn investigation”, The Washington Post"},"content":{"rendered":"

By John Wagner,\u00a0Post Politics,<\/span>\u00a0December 3, 2017<\/span><\/p>\n

President Trump issued a fresh denial Sunday that he asked former FBI director James B. Comey to halt an investigation into the conduct of his dismissed national security adviser Michael Flynn.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never asked Comey to stop investigating Flynn,\u201d Trump said in a pre-dawn message on Twitter. \u201cJust more Fake News covering another Comey lie!\u201d<\/p>\n

The tweet was the latest in a running commentary on the case from Trump that began Saturday, a day after Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his interactions with a Russian official.<\/i><\/p>\n

Trump fired Flynn 25 days into this administration for misrepresenting the nature of his conversations with Sergey Kislyak, then the Russian ambassador, to Vice President Pence and other administration officials.<\/p>\n

Comey has alleged that the day after that, Trump urged him to be lenient with Flynn, producing notes that said Trump told him, \u201cI hope you can let this go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump stoked the controversy with one of his Saturday tweets in which he said part of the rationale for firing Flynn was that he had lied to the FBI.<\/p>\n

[Trump says he has nothing to fear from Flynn, then stokes new controversy with tweet<\/a>]<\/i><\/p>\n

“I had to fire General Flynn because he lied to the Vice President and the FBI,\u201d Trump wrote in that tweet.<\/p>\n

But critics pounced Saturday on Trump, arguing that if he knew at the time of his conversation with Comey that Flynn had lied to the FBI and was under investigation, it may constitute an attempt to obstruct that investigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre you ADMITTING you knew Flynn had lied to the FBI when you asked Comey to back off Flynn?\u201d Walter Shaub, the former head of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, asked in a tweet Saturday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Trump lawyer John Dowd drafted the president\u2019s tweet, according to two people familiar with the message. Its authorship could reduce how significantly it communicates anything about when the president knew that Flynn had lied to the FBI, but it also raises questions about the public relations strategy of the president\u2019s chief lawyer.<\/p>\n

Two people close to the administration described the tweet simply as sloppy and unfortunate.<\/p>\n

Dowd declined to answer questions about how and when Trump learned of Flynn\u2019s alleged lies to the FBI, a deception that did not become public until several days after Flynn\u2019s dismissal.<\/p>\n

As Flynn pleaded guilty Friday, he made clear that he is now cooperating with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III as Mueller probes Russian meddling in last year\u2019s election and possible collusion with the Trump campaign.<\/p>\n

Flynn\u2019s decision to cooperate with Mueller was widely seen as a sign of increasing legal peril for other White House aides and perhaps Trump himself, as the investigation has expanded beyond potential collusion with Russia to include obstruction of justice and financial crimes.<\/p>\n

The president continued tweeting about Flynn late Saturday. In one message, he complained that it was unfair for Flynn\u2019s life to be \u201cdestroyed\u201d for lying to the FBI, arguing that the agency pursued Democrat Hillary Clinton far less aggressively while investigating her use of a private email server as secretary of state.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s commentary on the case began Saturday morning, as he addressed reporters before leaving the White House for a fundraising trip to New York.<\/p>\n

He said he was not worried about what Flynn might share now that he is cooperating with prosecutors, forcefully asserting that there was \u201cabsolutely no collusion\u201d between his campaign and Russia.<\/p>\n

[Top FBI official assigned to Mueller\u2019s Russia probe said to have been removed after sending anti-Trump texts<\/a>]<\/i><\/p>\n

In other tweets Sunday, Trump also addressed news that Peter Strzok, the former top FBI official assigned to Mueller\u2019s investigation was taken off that job this summer after his bosses discovered he and another member of Mueller\u2019s team had exchanged politically charged texts disparaging Trump and supporting Clinton. Strzok was also a key player in the investigation into Clinton\u2019s use of a private email server.<\/p>\n

\u201cTainted (no, very dishonest?)\u201d Trump wrote in an apparent response to coverage on \u201cFox & Friends\u201d of Strzok\u2019s role in the Clinton inquiry.<\/p>\n

Trump also retweeted a pair of posts on the subject written by Paul Sperry, a media fellow at the conservative Hoover Institution. One suggested that the current FBI director, Christopher A. Wray, should \u201cclean house\u201d due to the politicization of the agency.<\/p>\n

A little later, Trump promised a better FBI under his leadership.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter years of Comey, with the phony and dishonest Clinton investigation (and more), running the FBI, its reputation is in Tatters – worst in History!\u201d Trump wrote. \u201cBut fear not, we will bring it back to greatness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carol D. Leonnig contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Washington Post<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By John Wagner,\u00a0Post Politics,\u00a0December 3, 2017 President Trump issued a fresh denial Sunday that he asked former FBI director James B. Comey to halt an investigation into the conduct of his dismissed national security adviser Michael Flynn. \u201cI never asked Comey to stop investigating Flynn,\u201d Trump said in a pre-dawn message on Twitter. \u201cJust more […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001004,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2279"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1001004"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2279"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2279\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2283,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2279\/revisions\/2283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}