Just hours after commuting his longtime friend and former political adviser, Roger Stone, President Donald Trump on Saturday tweeted support for his former national security adviser, Michael Flynn.
The president claimed that “new documents” boosting Flynn who admitted to lying to the FBI amid the Russia probe had surfaced according to the conservative news network One America News.
New documents just released reveal General Flynn was telling the truth, and the FBI knew it! @OANN
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 11, 2020
While Trump has hinted at a pardon for Flynn in the past, some in the Trump camp are also calling to have the general join the president’s re-election campaign trail, nine sources confirmed to POLITICO.
Flynn has been embroiled in a long legal battle after admitting that he lied to the FBI during an investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
The tweet comes just a day after the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on Friday put on hold an order that the judge immediately dismiss Flynn’s case, reigniting a fight over whether a federal judge can question the Justice Department’s reasons for wanting to dismiss the case.
While it was not evident which “new documents” the president was referring to, a report from One America News on Thursday pointed at a detailed a new lawsuit by Judicial Network, a conservative group that claims to have documents that reveal how former U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power made multiple requests to unmask Flynn’s identity. “Documents show Power made at least seven requests to obtain Michael Flynn’s redacted identity in meetings with top Russian officials,” OAN said.
Trump forced Flynn out of his position as national security adviser in February 2017 – after just about a month of service in that job. Following Flynn’s guilty plea for lying, Trump tweeted that he “had to fire General Flynn because he lied to the Vice President and the FBI.”
But in May this year, after the Justice Department called for the dismissal of Flynn’s case which it said was “conducted without any legitimate investigative basis,” Trump lauded his former adviser, telling reporters that Flynn was “an even greater warrior” and calling those who pursued him “human scum.”
In another tweet on Saturday, emboldened by his own move to commute his friend, Trump further articulated his own warped ideas about “law and order” that involved the jailing of his opponents. Perhaps further seeking his own vindication, Trump called for the jailing and extradition of Christopher Steele, the writer of the “Steele Dossier,” calling him a “sick liar[sic]” for alleging illegal conduct by Trump and his allies before and during his first campaign for president.
