{"id":4951,"date":"2017-12-01T16:18:31","date_gmt":"2017-12-02T00:18:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=4951"},"modified":"2017-12-01T16:18:47","modified_gmt":"2017-12-02T00:18:47","slug":"flynn-enters-guilty-plea-will-cooperate-with-mueller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=4951","title":{"rendered":"Flynn enters guilty plea, will cooperate with Mueller"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"blogs-social-wrp\">\n<div class=\"addthis_inline_share_toolbox_ru82\" data-url=\"http:\/\/thehill.com\/policy\/national-security\/362750-flynn-pleads-guilty-to-lying-to-the-fbi\" data-title=\"Flynn enters guilty plea, will cooperate with Mueller\" data-description=\"It's one of the most dramatic developments yet in the special counsel\u2019s Russia investigation.\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"share-additional\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"share\"><a class=\"email\" href=\"mailto:?subject=TheHill.com%3A%20Flynn%20enters%20guilty%20plea%2C%20will%20cooperate%20with%20Mueller&amp;body=From%20TheHill.com%3A%20%0A%0AIt%27s%C2%A0one%20of%20the%20most%20dramatic%20developments%20yet%20in%20the%20special%20counsel%E2%80%99s%20Russia%20investigation...%0A%0Ahttp%3A\/\/thehill.com\/policy\/national-security\/362750-flynn-pleads-guilty-to-lying-to-the-fbi\">\u00a0<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"content\" class=\"column\">\n<article class=\"node-362750 node node-article view-mode-full clearfix\">\n<header><\/header>\n<div class=\"content-with-sidebar-wrp\">\n<div class=\"content-wrp\">\n<div class=\"field field-name-field-free-html field-type-text-long field-label-hidden\">\n<div class=\"field-items\">\n<div class=\"field-item even\">\n<div id=\"inform-player-single\" class=\"inform-embed ndn_embed ndn_embedContainer ndn-widget-embed-1 ndn_widget_VideoPlayer-Single ndn_embedded\" data-config-id=\"2\" data-pb=\"1\" data-aspect-ratio=\"16:9\" data-type=\"VideoPlayer\/Single\" data-tracking-group=\"91690\" data-playlist-id=\"20197\" data-video-id=\"33318065\">\n<div class=\"ndn_floatContainer ndn_floatContainer_disabled\">\n<div id=\"inform-viewer-container-0\" class=\"ndn_playerContainer ndn_floatContainer_contents inform-viewer-container\">\n<div class=\"inform-viewer-loading-screen\">\n<div class=\"inform-loading-spinner-hidden\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"inform-viewer-loading-screen-bg\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"backstretch\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/content.newsinc.com\/jpg\/2124\/33318065\/67820896.jpg?t=1512169800\" \/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"ndn_playerOptions\"><a href=\"http:\/\/thehill.com\/policy\/national-security\/362750-flynn-pleads-guilty-to-lying-to-the-fbi#\" data-autoplay=\"off\"><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden\">\n<div class=\"field-items\">\n<div class=\"field-item even\">\n<p>President Trump\u2019s short-lived first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, on Friday morning pleaded guilty to lying to FBI agents in one of the most dramatic developments yet in special counsel Robert Mueller\u2019s investigation into Russian interference in the U.S. election.<\/p>\n<p>As part of the plea agreement, Flynn has agreed to cooperate fully with Mueller&#8217;s investigation. For the time being, at least, he will remain free \u2014\u00a0although the charge he faces carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison.<\/p>\n<p>Flynn is the first official to hold a formal office in the Trump administration to be brought down by the Mueller probe, which is examining potential ties between the campaign and Moscow during the 2016 campaign.<\/p>\n<p>A low-level campaign aide, George Papadopoulos, has also pleaded guilty to lying to investigators and is cooperating with Mueller\u2019s team, according to court documents \u2014 but Flynn, as a one-time close confidant of the president and a sitting administration official for 24 days, is a much bigger fish.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">According to court documents filed by Mueller, Flynn lied when he told investigators that he did not ask then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak to &#8220;refrain from escalating the situation&#8221; in response to sanctions that then-President Obama had levied on Russia in response to meddling in the election.<\/p>\n<p>Flynn also lied, the counsel charged, when he said he did not ask the ambassador to stymie an unrelated United\u00a0Nations Security Council vote.<\/p>\n<p>Flynn&#8217;s misrepresentation of his conversations with Kislyak \u2014 which took place in December 2016, before Trump took office \u2014 were the justification for his ouster from the White House after just 24 days.<\/p>\n<p>But government prosecutors on Friday raised new questions about who in Trump\u2019s orbit knew Flynn was misrepresenting the content of the calls.<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors told U.S. District Court Judge Rudolph Contreras that Flynn spoke with a &#8220;senior official&#8221; in President\u2019s Trump&#8217;s transition team at the Mar-a-Lago resort to discuss what he should communicate to the Russian ambassador during the calls.<\/p>\n<p>Flynn and the senior officials discussed both the recently implemented U.S. sanctions on Russia, as well as the fact that they did not want Russia to escalate friction between the two nations, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n<p>After the discussion, Flynn telephoned Kislyak. He then called the senior transition official and reported the sanctions discussion, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Shortly after that phone call, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that Russia would not retaliate against Obama&#8217;s sanctions at that time.\u00a0Kislyak later followed up with Flynn and affirmed that Russia would moderate its response to the sanctions. Flynn communicated that exchange to other transition officials.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Prosecutors also say that a &#8220;very senior member&#8221; of the president&#8217;s transition team &#8220;directed&#8221; Flynn to contact officials from foreign governments \u2014 including Russia \u2014 to persuade them to vote against a U.N. Security Council resolution. Flynn obtained such assurances from Kislyak.<\/p>\n<p>Asked by Contreras if he had done what the government alleges in the plea deal, Flynn,\u00a0standing at the lectern\u00a0flanked by his lawyers,\u00a0had a one-word answer: \u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Reporting based on leaks of U.S. surveillance revealed in February that Flynn had misled Vice President Pence about the contents the phone call, saying that sanctions were not mentioned \u2014 an account Pence then repeated to the American people.<\/p>\n<p>At the time, then-deputy Attorney General Sally Yates warned the White House that Flynn created a &#8220;compromise situation&#8221; and could have been &#8220;blackmailed.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe weren\u2019t the only ones that knew all of this,\u201d Yates testified earlier this year, referring to the revelation that Flynn misled Pence about the true content of the December call with Kislyak. \u201cThe Russians also knew about what Gen.\u00a0Flynn had done. The Russians also knew that Gen.\u00a0Flynn had misled the vice president and others.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The White House fired Flynn 18 days after Yates issued her warning. The identity of the senior transition team official with whom Flynn coordinated is not yet known.<\/p>\n<p>A White House lawyer who is handling matters related to the various Russia investigations said Friday that the false statements Flynn made to the FBI \u201cmirror the false statements to White House officials which resulted in his resignation in February of this year.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNothing about the guilty plea or the charge implicates anyone other than Mr. Flynn,\u201d Ty Cobb said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>Flynn was interviewed by the FBI as part of its investigation into Russian interference in the election in January when Mueller&#8217;s office now says he made false statements about the phone calls with Kislyak. The interview came just four days after Trump\u2019s inauguration.<\/p>\n<p>Speculation has swirled for weeks about when \u2014 or if \u2014 Mueller would move to charge Flynn, who was seen almost universally as legally vulnerable for a myriad of reasons beyond the Kislyak calls.<\/p>\n<p>According to multiple outlets, Flynn is also under investigation for an alleged quid pro quo with the Turkish government, in which Flynn would have been paid millions of dollars in exchange for the extradition of a Muslim cleric living in the U.S.<\/p>\n<p>Federal records show that Flynn did not register the $530,000 he was paid during the 2016 campaign for work he did that the Justice Department said principally benefited Turkey \u2014 a potential violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act.<\/p>\n<p>And heightening the personal drama, Flynn&#8217;s son is also thought to be a focus of the Mueller probe, giving the special counsel another way to put pressure on Flynn.<\/p>\n<p>The Kislyak calls, meanwhile, appear to be a potential violation of the Logan Act, an obscure and likely unenforceable 1799 law prohibiting private citizens from engaging in foreign policy.<\/p>\n<p>No one has ever been successfully prosecuted under that law.<\/p>\n<p>Given the breadth of potential charges Flynn could have faced \u2014 at least if the reporting is accurate \u2014 the single count of lying to investigators is incredibly light, analysts say.<\/p>\n<p>It carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a fine up to $250,000. Sentencing has been deferred \u201cfor the time being\u201d at the request of Mueller\u2019s team, with a status update set for Feb. 1.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cThe fact that Flynn was charged with, and is pleading guilty to, such a minor crime, suggests a bombshell of a deal with prosecutors,&#8221; said Cornell Law Vice Dean Jens Ohlin.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">&#8220;If this is the entirety of the plea deal, the best explanation for why Mueller would agree to it is that Flynn has something very valuable to offer in exchange: damaging testimony on someone else,&#8221; Ohlin said.<\/p>\n<p>Two other campaign officials, former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his aide Richard\u00a0Gates, also face charges in the investigation. They have both pleaded not guilty.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Flynn said in a statement &#8220;it has been extraordinarily painful to endure these many months of false accusations of &#8216;treason&#8217; &#8230;<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0B<\/span>ut I recognize that the actions I acknowledged in court today were wrong.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Trump has continued to defend his embattled former adviser, an outspoken figure who was fired from the Obama administration.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Flynn became a central figure in Trump&#8217;s orbit during the campaign, appearing at the Republican convention and leading the crowd in a chant of &#8220;Lock her up!&#8221; during his speech.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cGen. Flynn is a wonderful man. I think he has been treated very, very unfairly by the media, as I call it, the fake media, in many cases,\u201d Trump said shortly after dismissing him earlier this year. \u201cAnd I think it is really a sad thing that he was treated so badly.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0 President Trump\u2019s short-lived first national&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-u-s-a"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4951"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4951\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4953,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4951\/revisions\/4953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}