President Donald Trump unloaded on CNN late on Wednesday night for not reporting on the day’s major development in the case involving former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
The Department of Justice unsealed court documents earlier in the day that showed that the FBI questioned whether to use their interview of Flynn on January 24, 2017, to “get him fired” and to “get him to lie.”
“@CNN doesn’t want to speak about their persecution of General Michael Flynn & why they got the story so wrong,” Trump tweeted. “They, along with others, should pay a big price for what they have purposely done to this man & his family. They won’t even cover the big breaking news about this scam!”
.@CNN doesn’t want to speak about their persecution of General Michael Flynn & why they got the story so wrong. They, along with others, should pay a big price for what they have purposely done to this man & his family. They won’t even cover the big breaking news about this scam!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 30, 2020
Fox News reported:
The handwritten notes — written by the FBI’s former head of counterintelligence Bill Priestap after a meeting with then-FBI Director James Comey and then-FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, Fox News is told — further suggested that agents planned in the alternative to get Flynn “to admit to breaking the Logan Act” when he spoke to then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the presidential transition period.
The Logan Act is an obscure statute that has never been used in a criminal prosecution; enacted in 1799 in an era before telephones, it was intended to prevent individuals from falsely claiming to represent the United States government abroad.
…
Flynn previously charged that top FBI officials, including McCabe, pressed him not to have the White House counsel present during the questioning with two agents that led to his guilty plea on a single charge of lying to federal authorities. Flynn was not charged with any Logan Act violation.
Flynn has sought to withdraw his guilty plea and has been seeking exoneration, saying the FBI engaged in “egregious misconduct.” Flynn, who has said more recently that he did not lie to the FBI, pleaded guilty in late 2017 as mounting legal fees pushed him to sell his home. Prosecutors have suggested Flynn’s guilty plea allowed him to escape liability for a possible charge under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), another little-known and once-rarely used law, for his alleged work in Turkey.
Trump continued by slamming CNN over a report they published earlier in the day that claimed that Trump had blown up at campaign manager Brad Parscale.
Trump tweeted, “Just told that Fake News @CNN is falsely reporting that I was recently shouting at my campaign manager over made up nonsense. Actually, he is doing a great job, I never shouted at him (been with me for years, including the 2016 win), & have no intention to do so. Just FAKE NEWS!”
Just told that Fake News @CNN is falsely reporting that I was recently shouting at my campaign manager over made up nonsense. Actually, he is doing a great job, I never shouted at him (been with me for years, including the 2016 win), & have no intention to do so. Just FAKE NEWS!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 30, 2020
This report has been updated to include additional information.
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