Former Vice President Joe Biden admitted, in an interview with Good Morning America Tuesday, that he was “aware” of an Obama-era Department of Justice investigation into whether former Trump national security advisor Michael Flynn was collaborating with Russian officials but says Trump is using Flynn as a “diversion” from his poor performance on coronavirus.
Biden first denied, in the interview, that he knew of any pending investigation against Flynn — an investigation that increasingly seems as though it was orchestrated by Obama administration officials to paint the Trump campaign, and later the Trump administration, as a puppet of the Russian government. Pressed on the issue, however, Biden was forced to say he was “aware” that the Obama White House had concerns about Flynn.
“I know nothing about those moves to investigate Michael Flynn,” Biden said initially.
Surprisingly, though, host George Stephanopoulos pressed the former Veep, asking him, specifically, whether he was present at a January 5th meeting when FBI Director James Comey reportedly briefed then-President Obama on “Russian hacking” during the presidential election.
A now-declassified email, from Rice to herself, notes that, “On January 5, following a briefing by IC leadership on Russian hacking during the 2016 presidential election, President Obama had a brief follow-on conversation with FBI Director Jim Comey and Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates in the Oval Office. Vice President Biden and I were also present.”
Biden quickly backtracked.
“No, I thought you asked me whether or not I had anything to do with him being prosecuted,” Biden said, nervously. “I’m sorry. I was aware that there was—that they asked for an investigation, but that’s all I know about it, and I don’t think anything else.”
The Justice Department dropped its charges against Flynn last week, despite Flynn pleading guilty twice to lying to the FBI about his conversations with a then-Russian ambassador, after discovering evidence that FBI officials attempted to entrap Flynn, coordinating an effort to lure Flynn into lying during an official interview.
The Flynn issue seems to involve a number of top Obama administration officials, according to Fox News reports, and several members of Congress and the Trump administration have now pledged to get to the bottom of the Obama White House’s efforts to construct a narrative connecting the Trump campaign and transition team to Russian efforts to upend the 2016 presidential election.
Biden, though, dismissed those efforts as a “diversion,” claiming Republicans want to distract voters from President Trump’s failures on the coronavirus pandemic.
“This is all about diversions,” Biden said. Trump, he added, “has acted irresponsibly from the very beginning. He continues to act irresponsibly. He hasn’t done his job. This is all about diverting attention, diverting attention from the horrible way in which he’s acted.”
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