Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak tried convincing then-national security adviser Michael Flynn to set up a video teleconference between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin for the day after Trump’s inauguration, new records reveal.
A barely redacted transcript summary of the FBI interview, or a 302, released Thursday by the D.C. District Court revealed that Flynn told then-FBI Deputy Assistant Director Peter Strzok details about Flynn’s dealings related to the Russians. Beyond Kislyak’s desire for a Trump-Putin video chat, the FBI notes also describe a meeting that Kislyak had with Flynn and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner in Trump Tower in November 2016.
When the FBI interview transcript was originally released in December 2018, it was heavily redacted, but the version made public today was almost redaction-free.
Flynn said he participated in the closed-door meeting but didn’t set it up himself. Flynn also “explained that other meetings between the Trump team and various foreign countries took place prior to inauguration” and that these meetings “were sensitive inasmuch as many countries did not want the then-current [Obama] administration to know about them.”
Strzok and another FBI agent interviewed Flynn on Jan. 24, 2017, at the White House, and the misrepresentations Flynn made about conversations he’d had with the then-ambassador during the interview led to his guilty plea for lying to investigators during special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe.
Flynn allegedly told the FBI that he did not speak with Kislyak about sanctions being leveled against Russia by the Obama administration in response to Russia’s election interference in 2016, but his plea deal with Mueller’s investigation included admitting that he had indeed discussed it with the Russian ambassador.
In his discussion with the FBI agents, Flynn said he was reaching out to Russia because he was interested in making them a “common partner” in the fight against terrorism. The 302 said that Flynn “named the primary threats to the U.S. as the ‘four plus one’: China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and ISIS.” And Flynn said that “if the U.S. could neutralize one of the four, or even better, leverage their cooperation fighting a common enemy such as terrorism, that would be a success for U.S. national security.”
The nearly unredacted version of the 302 also recounts that “Flynn described [now-deceased former GRU Director Igor] Sergun as someone the U.S. could work with.”
The GRU is Russia’s military intelligence wing and, according to Mueller, was responsible for hacking the DNC in 2016 and providing the purloined emails to WikiLeaks.
Flynn also discussed his 2015 speaking engagement at a Moscow reception for state-run media outlet Russia Today that he was paid for through his speaker’s bureau. He told authorities he did not know who paid the bureau. Flynn also told the FBI agents that he’d “met with Kislyak at the Russian ambassador’s residence” prior to that Moscow trip, but said the meeting was just a “courtesy call” and that he’d brought his son along with him.
The release of the nearly unredacted FBI 302s comes amid a flurry of other activity in the Flynn case in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia today. U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan ordered the release, along with the audio of a voicemail that former Trump lawyer John Dowd left for Flynn’s lawyer Robert Kelner during the Mueller probe posted on the public docket. That voicemail is listed in Mueller’s report as an example of possible obstruction of justice.
The release of that audio happened the same day that Flynn’s lawyers abruptly announced that they were withdrawing from the case prior to sentencing, although a judge initially denied their request by saying that they hadn’t followed proper court rules.
It is not yet clear who Flynn wants on his new defense team.
