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FORMER WHITE HOUSE national security adviser Michael Flynn is moving to cooperate with a special prosecutor probing possible collusion between Donald Trump’s campaign team and Russia during last year’s election, according to the New York Times.
Lawyers for Michael Flynn notified the president’s legal team in recent days that they could no longer discuss the investigation by special prosecutor Robert Mueller, the Times reported, citing four people involved in the case.
The development indicates that Flynn is cooperating with prosecutors or is negotiating such a deal, the report said.
Flynn’s lawyers had been sharing information with Trump’s legal team about Mueller’s probe related to Russian interference in last year’s presidential vote, which saw Trump defeat his Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton.
“That agreement has been terminated,” the Times’ sources said.
Mueller has a broad mandate and has honed in on the activities of Flynn, one of the highest-profile figures to come under his scrutiny.
Three arrests
Flynn, a retired lieutenant general who previously led the Defense Intelligence Agency, became the White House national security adviser after Trump took office on 20 January this year.
He was forced to resign three weeks later amid reports about his communications with then Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak and claims he had misled Vice President Mike Pence about them.
Mueller’s investigation has already led to the arrest of Trump’s one-time campaign chairman Paul Manafort, Manafort’s partner Rick Gates, and George Papadopoulos, a campaign foreign policy advisor.
Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his Russian contacts, in a deal that made clear he is cooperating with Mueller.
In addition to his frequent contacts with Kislyak, Flynn is alleged to have accepted payments before and after the election to lobby for Turkey.
US media have previously reported that Flynn and his son Mike Flynn Jr, who has worked with him, could be Mueller’s next targets.
Three congressional committees have also been probing Russian meddling in US politics.
Although nothing has linked the president directly to the Russians, US media have reported that his firing of FBI director James Comey has drawn Mueller’s attention.
Trump fired Comey in May, citing the FBI chief’s probe into the alleged links between the presidential campaign and Russian interference, as well as Comey’s alleged protection of Clinton.
Memo
Comey, for his part, wrote a memo alleging Trump had asked him to drop his investigation into Flynn.
On a trip to Asia this month Trump lashed out at three former US officials, including Comey, whose agencies helped produce the original intelligence finding of Russian interference.
He called former CIA chief John Brennan, former director of national intelligence James Clapper and Comey “political hacks”.
Trump later qualified his remarks by saying he believed in his country’s intelligence agencies, but also expressed faith in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s denials of meddling in the US vote.
In mid-November US Attorney General Jeff Sessions denied to the House Judiciary Committee that he lied in previous testimony when he said he had no knowledge of contacts between Trump’s campaign and Moscow.
Citing a poor memory, Sessions, whose recusal from the Russia probe led to Mueller’s appointment, said he had forgotten a March 2016 meeting between Trump and his foreign policy advisory team despite leading the team.
One of the advisors was Papadopoulos, who admitted to investigators that he had multiple contacts with Russians and that his contacts were discussed in the meeting.
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That explains the twitter melt down lol.
@james: Which one in particular. Fat Cheetoh Christ has one every night, it seems.
I can visualise Mr.Flynn having a car crash or a drugs overdose in the coming weeks….
Trump is playing a song on loop. It goes “hello darling, nice to see you. Its been a long time….”.
Distraction song Conway Twitty
@Jay Lane:
Tell you one thing, if I’m ever shot with rubber bullets by a guy wearing a Bird Mask I want a Conway Twitty song playing in the background.
@Dean Moriarity: What you mean exactly?
@Jay Lane:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vt67YwRx1T8
Expecting to find Trump’s fingerprints on the gun is naive. It will always be the underlings who take the fall, but only willfully stupid people would believe that Trump did not know what the underlings were doing in the first place. And if Sessions says he doesn’t remember that Russian contacts were discussed at the Foreign Policy Meeting, perhaps Trump will given his “brilliant memory”, because he was at the same meeting, as recent photos clearly show.
hahaha…..oh the irony, US accusing Russia of tampering in an election of a foreign country…this world is gone totally dumb !!
@Johnnathan Biskalero: Has the US interfered in other countries? Absolutely, no doubt, plenty of evidence down the years.
But please explain to me why ANY country would or should tolerate the collusion of it’s OWN citizens with foreign entities to manipulate it’s own elections? That’s the difference here.
Your argument would only make sense the Justice Department was going after the Russians, not their own.
Slowly, slowly, catchey, monkey. Trump must be feeling the noose tighten.
“Russian collusion” – That dead Horse is taking some beating lol
@Remy: Yeah, everybody just conveniently forgot the same meetings when as ked by the FBI under oath the first time. Just a massive coincidence
Bozo trump
Unless he can deliver fatal blow to Trump personally which I doubt. His underlings will no doubt be picked off. Every president dealing with the same stuff, affair , dirty money etc.
@prop joe: These kind of “sure they’re all all at it” comments are the kind of crap that Trump tweets and serve no one but the guilty. I don’t recall anyone connected to the Obama administration being indicted for any any crime let alone treason.
@Larry Doyle: Trump makes very regarding comments. So while Obama brought people together Trump stamped on everyone including Republicans to win the Election. The same crap was thrown at Bill Clinton from day one. He proved to be the best president in living history. Trump more than likely got help from the Russians. But I am Sure every free trade politician gets a little help from China. In the end of the day NAFTA lost the Election for Hillary.
@prop joe: I’m not sure what “…regarding comments……” are, but I do know that Trump getting ” help” from Russia is against US law and he will be prosecuted for that.
Blame Russia for everything especially for their own stupidity, greed and corruption…
have your say