Reading News 4U: Trump alters story on why he fired Flynn
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| Michael Flynn, former White House's National Security Adviser charged by a special Counsel for lying to FBI |
VietPress USA (Dec. 2nd, 2017): RT reports that "US President Donald Trump has defended the actions of his former national security adviser Michael Flynn, saying they were “lawful.” He added, however, that he fired Flynn because he lied to the Vice President and the FBI.
"I had to fire General Flynn because he lied to the Vice President and the FBI. He has pled guilty to those lies. It is a shame because his actions during the transition were lawful. There was nothing to hide!" Trump said in a tweet.
Earlier on Saturday, Trump also told reporters that his election campaign was not engaged in any collusion with Russia. He made his comment after Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about a phone call he had with the former Russian ambassador. At that time, Trump, however, did not give any definitive answer to the question of whether he would stand by his former advisor.
At issue was the phone call between Flynn and then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak at the end of December 2016, after the outgoing president, Barack Obama, ordered a number of Russian diplomats to leave the US and closed two Russian diplomatic properties. Flynn reportedly asked Moscow to restrain its reaction to anti-Russian sanctions at that time, but later told FBI that he did not do that.
US intelligence services listened in on the phone call. Information about it was leaked to the media in January, after Trump’s inauguration. Flynn resigned in February, less than a month into Trump's term of office.
Flynn’s plea came as part of an investigation into the alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia ahead of the 2016 presidential elections led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. However, a year after the vote, the inquiry still is unable to provide any solid evidence of any interference in the electoral process by Moscow. Instead, the investigators have so far managed to catch two lobbyists with ties to Ukraine."
Today Trumps one more time denies any collusion with Russia and explains why Trump fired Michael Flynn.
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Trump alters story on why he fired Flynn
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxFGo8eLrD8
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump changed his story Saturday on why he fired Michael Flynn as his national security adviser, now suggesting he knew at the time that Flynn had lied to the FBI as well as to Vice President Mike Pence about his contacts with Russians during the presidential transition.
That was a turnabout from his initial explanations that Flynn had to go because he hadn't been straight with Pence about those contacts. Lying to the FBI is a crime, and one that Flynn acknowledged Friday in pleading guilty and agreeing to cooperate with the special counsel's Russia investigation.
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Trump's tweet: "I had to fire General Flynn because he lied to the Vice President and the FBI. He has pled guilty to those lies. It is a shame because his actions during the transition were lawful. There was nothing to hide!"
It's unclear now why Trump would cite lying to the FBI as a reason for firing Flynn. Doing so suggests the president knew at the time that Flynn had done something that is against the law, and therefore the investigation could not be as frivolous as he's been portraying.
It's also unclear how he would know that, if information about Russian contacts had not reached him, as he has been implying in his own defense.
Flynn left the White House in February, only acknowledging that he had given an incomplete account to Pence of his conversations with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. After Trump forced Flynn out, he asked FBI Director James Comey to end the bureau's probe in the matter, according to Comey's account. Comey refused, and Trump fired him, too.
Trump has been publicly dismissive of Comey and of special counsel Robert Mueller's continuing investigation, and was often generous in his appraisal of Flynn, except to say his adviser could not stay on the job after misleading his vice president.
At the time, Pence said Trump was justified in firing Flynn because Flynn had lied to him. Neither Trump nor Pence indicated concern then that the FBI had not been told the true story.
Pence, who served as head of Trump's transition, has not publicly commented on Flynn's plea.
White House officials did not respond to questions Saturday about Trump's altered explanation as to why he fired Flynn.
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