Schiff called for the documents to be shared with the full intelligence committees. The Senate intelligence committee has decided not to accept his offer to testify at this time, according to a person familiar with the matter.
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A spokesman for Rep. Devin Nunes, the Republican chairman of the House intelligence committee, said the panel has not offered an immunity deal to Flynn. Flynn attorney Robert Kelner says no reasonable person with legal counsel would answer questions without assurances. Trump echoed that sentiment on Twitter Friday, encouraging Flynn to seek immunity from a “witch hunt”.
President Donald Trump tweeted that Flynn, his former adviser, should ask for immunity because he’s facing “a witch hunt”.
“When you are given immunity, that means you probably committed a crime”, Flynn told “Meet the Press” in an interview past year. Speaking derisively from a campaign stop in Wisconsin, Trump said “the reason they get immunity is because they did something wrong”.
Flynn’s initial form was submitted to the Office of Government Ethics and the White House on February 11 – just days before he was forced to leave his post amid controversy over his contacts with Russia’s ambassador. The president asked for Flynn’s resignation when it was disclosed that Flynn had given Vice President Mike Pence a false account of his conversations with Kislyak.
WELNA: Well, you know, I think it’s mainly to shift the focus from Russian Federation and Trump to the leaking of information, like the revelation that Flynn had these conversations.
Concerns were also raised on Friday about Mr Flynn’s failure to disclose contacts with a Russian-British academic at an intelligence seminar in Cambridge in 2014.
The Wall Street Journal first reported Flynn was seeking immunity.
A reporter asked Spicer during Friday’s press briefing whether Trump still held such a view. “That was it. Plain and simple”.
Flynn’s actions came before Trump’s inauguration, when Barack Obama was still president. First of all, you know, inevitably this has brought up the issue of General Flynn himself talking about the issue of immunity.
It was unclear from Trump’s tweet whether he was advising the Justice Department or the congressional panels to give his former adviser immunity.
The object of the Left’s game is to nullify Trump’s presidency, whether by impeachment or withering rebuke.
Since witnesses are under no obligation to speak with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, it’s fairly standard for them – through their lawyers – to demand immunity as an unwavering condition for any kind of conversation they agree to have. Flynn’s fee was $33,750; the remainder was the agent’s fee. “That tells you something”.
On his new disclosure, Mr Flynn said only that he personally earned compensation in excess of 5,000 dollars from Inovo BV. “This is an effort to get to the truth of some very important questions. On his return, he briefed DIA about his trip to Russia”, Floyd said.
“While I can not discuss the content of the documents, if the White House had any concern over these materials, they should have been shared with the full committees in the first place as a part of our ordinary oversight responsibilities”, Schiff said.
He referenced reports, including a New York Times story published on March 1 that suggested that at the end of the Obama administration, officials spread information about Russian attempts to meddle in the election – and about possible contacts between Trump aides and the Russians, across the government.
He said Flynn “is now the target of unsubstantiated public demands by Members of Congress and other political critics that he be criminally investigated”.
Flynn Intel Group received $530,000 in payments from the company and acknowledged in its registration as a foreign agent that the work may have benefited the Turkish government.
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It’s the investigation into Russia’s meddling in the presidential election and what role, if any, the Trump campaign had in it. NPR national security correspondent David Welna has been following the latest developments.
