The Justice Department filed in court Thursday a less redacted version of the FBI’s notes recapping a key January 2017 interview at the White House with then-National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.
The documents shed more light on the extent to which Flynn mischaracterized and minimized his conversations with Russia’s then-ambassador to the United States, Sergey Kislyak, between 2015 and Flynn’s ouster from the Trump administration in February 2017.
In one conversation, Flynn recalls calling Kislyak after the 2016 death of former Russian intelligence chief Igor Sergun to express his condolences. Sergun, Flynn told the FBI, was “someone the U.S. could work with.”
The less redacted documents show Flynn taking pot shots at the Obama administration for failing to cultivate relationships with nations like Russia, claiming that lack of contact prompted the Trump transition to break protocol and hold meetings with foreign government emissaries while Barack Obama was still in office.
One such meeting was a November 2016 meeting at Trump Tower between Kislyak, Flynn and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, which Flynn told the FBI was “relatively sensitive.”
Flynn also described a December 2016 phone conversation he had with Kislyak while vacationing in the Dominican Republic, which he falsely claimed was focused on arranging a call between Trump and President Vladimir Putin. Flynn and Kislyak actually discussed U.S. sanctions imposed against Russia during that call.
The FBI interview notes — known as 302s — were first released last December as part of Flynn’s federal criminal trial. The former U.S. intelligence official and Trump campaign adviser became a key witness in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation after pleading guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russian officials.
In an unusual development, Flynn appears to have fired his longtime lawyer as he awaits sentencing in his case.
Read the less redacted 302 below.
