Leading members of the US Republican Party have joined calls for a wide investigation into the former national security adviser’s links with Russian Federation.
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President Trump fiercely defended his former national security advisor on Wednesday, saying Michael Flynn is a “wonderful man” who has has “been treated very, very unfairly by the media, as I call it the fake media in many cases”, he said.
Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn denied to Federal Bureau of Investigation agents in an interview last month that he had discussed US sanctions against Russian Federation with that country’s ambassador to the United States before President Donald Trump took office, contradicting the contents of intercepted communications collected by intelligence agencies, current and former USA officials said.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said he expects the Senate Intelligence Committee, which is already investigating allegations of Russian meddling in the presidential election, to expand its investigation and interview Flynn.
There are very strict laws that prohibit spying on private American citizens as well as very defined protocols for when USA citizens are inadvertently picked up in conversations involving foreign nationals.
When first informed, on January 26, that Flynn may have made misleading statements about his talks with Russia’s envoy, Spicer said the president “instinctively thought that General Flynn did not do anything wrong”.
Democrats, doubting Mr Trump’s Justice Department or the Republican-led Congress will pursue the matter vigorously, have demanded an independent investigation of possible illegal communications between Mr Flynn and the Russian government, and any efforts by Mr Flynn or other White House officials to hide wrongdoing. The White House counsel “determined that there is not an illegal issue, but rather a trust issue”, Spicer said.
Flynn got fired not due to underlying misconduct, but because he told Vice President Pence he hadn’t discussed sanctions with Kislyak.
“We constantly have the responsibility about securing classified information, and when that’s leaked, we do exactly what’s being done”.
Trump appeared to contradict himself by calling the leaks “real” and the reporting “fake”. “I have no deals there”.
At his press conference, President Trump was asked essentially a two-part question about Flynn.
The CNN report added that while talks between campaign staff and foreign officials is not unusual, the discovered communications stood out to the US intelligence committees due to their frequency.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz, the Republican chair of the committee, has also called for an investigation into the leaks plaguing the Trump administration, which the president railed against today from a White House podium.
However, House speaker Paul Ryan sidestepped questions on whether he backed an independent investigation.
“The new order is going to be very much tailored to what I consider to be a bad [court] decision”, Trump said.
A spokesman for Flynn said he had no response.
“This is the internal affair of the Americans, the internal affair of the Trump administration”, he added. “It’s nothing to do with us”. If Hillary Clinton had done one tenth of what Mr. Flynn had done, she likely would be in jail.
At another point during the press conference, he said “nobody that I know of” from his campaign had contacts with Russian Federation during the election. Because of the current reporting regarding Trump’s relationship with Russian Federation, he said it’s very hard for him to develop a better relationship with President Vladimir Putin.
Mr Pence, who had vouched for Mr Flynn in a televised interview, is said to have been angry and deeply frustrated.
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Like all presidents before him, Mr Trump does not exactly have a zero-tolerance policy toward leaks.
