President Donald Trump is reportedly planning to pardon former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who was accused of lying to the FBI after agents met with him to discuss a phone call he had with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
Axios reported Tuesday evening that two sources close to Trump said the president was considering a pardon for Flynn, whom the FBI described as “forthright” during their interview.
“Sources with direct knowledge of the discussions said Flynn will be part of a series of pardons that Trump issues between now and when he leaves office,” Axios reported.
As The Daily Wire previously reported, documents released by the Justice Department to Flynn’s attorneys showed FBI agents knew Flynn wasn’t a Russian agent and that he didn’t lie during their meeting, yet he was prosecuted anyway as part of the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation in Russian interference in the 2016 election, which included farcical allegations that Trump’s 2016 campaign colluded with Russia to steal the election. Fired FBI director James Comey even admitted that the FBI interview with Flynn didn’t follow standard protocol. The FBI knew what Flynn discussed with Kislyak, yet they brought him in for questioning anyway. The FBI had a transcript of Flynn’s phone call; Flynn did not. Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI but has since tried to rescind that plea. Many people plead guilty when they are innocent in order to avoid harsher sentences.
Others who have lied to the FBI, such as former Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, were never charged.
Several pages of notes from different FBI agents showed the FBI acted inappropriately in dealing with Flynn. Documents unsealed earlier this year included notes written by former FBI general counsel James A. Baker questioned why Flynn was being interviewed when the probe was about to be shut down. Baker asked if the Flynn interview was about “Truth/Admission or to get him to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired?”
Another page of notes, believed to be written by ex-FBI agent Peter Strzok, asking FBI leadership not to shut down the investigation into Flynn. Journalist John Solomon previously reported on a court filing from Acting U.S. Attorney Michael Sherwin.
“This page of notes was taken by former Deputy Assistant Director Peter Strzok. While the page itself is undated; we believe that the notes were taken in early January 2017, possibly between January 3 and January 5,” Sherwin wrote in his court filing to U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan, who has refused to dismiss charges against Flynn even though the U.S. Department of Justice dropped its case against Flynn. An appeals court previously ordered Sullivan to drop the charges against Flynn.
“A source directly familiar with the discovery of the document told Just the News they include one paragraph of notes believed to be taken around Jan. 4, 2017, the date Strzok relayed a request from FBI leadership to the lead agent in the Flynn case asking him not to shut down the investigation as had been planned. The notes are ‘highly exculpatory,’ the source said, declining to describe them more fully because they are under seal,” Solomon reported.
In July, The Daily Wire reported that documents provided to Flynn’s attorneys showed the FBI knew Flynn wasn’t trying to deceive, and prosecutors struggled with the decision to charge him.