Trump grants ‘full pardon’ to Michael Flynn, his disgraced ex-national security adviser
President Trump pardoned his disgraced former national security adviser Michael Flynn on Wednesday, using executive power to squash a key component of the Russia investigation that shadowed his waning administration.
Trump, who has long railed against the various federal inquiries into his campaign’s ties to Russia, said in a tweet that it was his “great honor” to issue the “full pardon” for Flynn, who has in recent months tried to withdraw his guilty plea to charges that he lied to the FBI about his 2016 contacts with a Kremlin official.
“Congratulations to @GenFlynn and his wonderful family, I know you will now have a truly fantastic Thanksgiving!” tweeted Trump, who has signaled he may issue several more pardons before he leaves office on Jan. 20.
Flynn, who served as Trump’s first national security adviser for less than a month in 2017, tweeted out a cryptic religious reference shortly before the pardon announcement.
“Jeremiah 1:19,” Flynn wrote along with an American flag emoji, citing a Bible verse that reads: “They will fight against you but will not overcome you.”
The former White House staffer is the second Trump associate convicted in the Russia probe to be granted clemency by the president.
Roger Stone, Trump’s longtime political confidant, was awarded a sentence commutation from the president just days before he was supposed to report to prison for his obstruction of the Russia investigation.
Other Trump associates convicted in the Russia probe — especially those who cooperated with investigators — were not as lucky, with several of them still serving prison sentences, including former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
It’s unclear if Trump will pardon other associates swept up in the Russia probe before he’s booted from the White House.
Democrats were appalled — though not surprised — that Trump’s using his final days in office to rewrite parts of history that reflects poorly on him and his associates.
“Flynn lied to the FBI about his communications with the Russians — efforts which undermined U.S. foreign policy after sanctions were imposed on Russia for interfering in our elections, and Flynn pleaded guilty to those lies,” said House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), who spearheaded the impeachment of Trump. “It’s no surprise that Trump would go out just as he came in — crooked to the end.”
Trump’s Flynn pardon puts an abrupt end to one of the most enduring criminal dramas of his presidency.
Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to FBI agents in 2017 about what he had discussed with Sergey Kislyak, Russia’s former ambassador to the U.S., in the aftermath of Trump’s 2016 election victory.
The FBI knew from intercepts that Flynn and Kislyak had discussed the possibility that the incoming administration would ease U.S. sanctions on Russia, which interfered in the 2016 election to help Trump.
Still, Flynn told the agents in a sworn interview that he hadn’t talked sanctions with the Kremlin official. He eventually pleaded guilty to perjury charges over that lie and also cooperated in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russia’s Trump-boosting attack on the 2016 election.
But Flynn had a curious change of heart this year and asked to withdraw his guilty plea.
In a move that pleased Trump, Attorney General William Barr’s Justice Department then sought to drop the case against Flynn altogether — even though the ex-national security adviser had already pleaded guilty twice.
U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan refused the Justice Department’s unusual request and appointed an outside expert to argue against tossing the Flynn case. Arguments, in that case, are ongoing, but Trump’s pardon effectively kills them.
A source familiar with Trump’s thinking told the Daily News that the president issued the pardon because he was concerned the case wouldn’t get resolved before Joe Biden’s inauguration, at which point Flynn would no longer have a protector in the White House.
