A top Republican investigator called attention to the timing of a key date in the case against retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn.
Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan noted on Sunday that Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s suggestion to MSNBC host Rachel Maddow in early January 2017 that intelligence officials have ways to strike back at Trump came just one day before an FBI agent abruptly stopped the bureau from closing an investigation into Flynn, as indicated in newly released notes.
“On Jan. 3, Chuck Schumer on the Rachel Maddow Show says this in response to a statement that President-elect Trump had said, where he said we were being spied on, Schumer says if you mess with the intel community, ‘They have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you.’ The very next day, Jan. 4, … Peter Strzok overrules the agents who say Michael Flynn did nothing wrong,” Jordan said during an appearance on Fox News’s Sunday Morning Futures.
The unsealed documents suggest the former FBI agent, Strzok, blocked the FBI from closing its counterintelligence investigation into Flynn, even though the agency found no “derogatory information” at the time. Jordan also noted what appeared to be the involvement of FBI Director James Comey and FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, as the records show Strzok talked about getting the “7th floor involved.”
Jordan’s recollection of the Schumer interview came during a broader examination of three weeks in January 2017, which led up to the interview Strzok and another FBI agent had with Flynn. Lawyers for Flynn argue documents released last week are proof the FBI unfairly treated their client. Flynn, who was briefly Trump’s first national security adviser, pleaded guilty to lying to the agents about his communications with a Russian envoy but is now trying to get the case dismissed.
Jordan, who was being interviewed by Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo along with former Rep. Trey Gowdy, argued the FBI was trying to “set up” Flynn as well as Trump.
When Schumer made the comments about intelligence officials in January 2017, he was reacting to how Trump, then the president-elect, alleged there was a delay in his briefing on “so-called Russian hacking.”
“Let me tell you: You take on the intelligence community — they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you,” the New York Democrat said after Maddow informed him that intelligence sources told NBC News that the briefing had not actually been delayed.
“So, even for a practical, supposedly hard-nosed businessman, he’s being really dumb to do this,” he added.
As minority leader, Schumer is a member of the “Gang of Eight,” a bipartisan group of leaders from both parties in the House and Senate with access to classified intelligence.
The clip has been repeatedly invoked by Republicans as they raise concerns about government officials trying to undermine a duly-elected president.
