A friend of former FBI Director James Comey indicated Saturday that with President Trump’s latest tweet, he may have just answered a critical question for special counsel Robert Mueller if he is to pursue obstruction of justice charges against Trump.
In the tweet in question, Trump referred to former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty Friday to lying to the FBI in January about his contacts with the Russian ambassador.
“I had to fire General Flynn because he lied to the Vice President and the FBI,” Trump said. “He has pled guilty to those lies. It is a shame because his actions during the transition were lawful. There was nothing to hide!”
The first part of that tweet is significant, noted Benjamin Wittes, who is editor in chief of Lawfare, because Trump for the first time suggested that he knew about Flynn’s “legal jeopardy” in February, when Flynn was let go from the Trump administration for lying about his contacts with the Russians.
Furthermore, one day after Flynn’s ouster, Trump pressed then-FBI Director Comey to drop the investigation into Flynn, according to testimony from Comey.
This could be significant as Mueller’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election reportedly is also looking at possible obstruction of justice by Trump.
During an interview with NBC News, Trump also said he considered “this Russia thing” before firing Comey in May.
“There are a number of issues Mueller would have to resolve if there is to be any obstruction of justice case. One of them — and it’s not by any means the only one — is state of mind on Trump’s part,” Wittes wrote on Twitter.
“One component of a state of mind inquiry is what precisely the President knew about Flynn’s legal jeopardy,” he added. “Trump just answered that question.”
Trump just answered that question.
— Benjamin Wittes (@benjaminwittes) December 2, 2017
Wittes wasn’t alone in his assessment. “Oh my god, he just admitted to obstruction of justice,” tweeted Matthew Miller, who is a former Justice Department spokesman from the Obama era. “If Trump knew Flynn lied to the FBI when he asked Comey to let it go, then there is your case.”
Former Office of Government Ethics Director Walter Shuab said Trump’s “tweet alone might have ended a Presidential administration.”
Comey, whom politicos love to speculate is subtweeting Trump every time a major story about the president breaks, once again posted a cryptic message on social media about an hour after Trump tweeted.
“Beautiful Long Island Sound from Westport, CT. To paraphrase the Buddha — Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun; the moon; and the truth,” he said on Instagram, along with a photo of the locale.
One of Trump’s personal attorneys, John Dowd, later said that he drafted the tweet and reportedly apologized to officials for doing a poor job of emulating a statement from Ty Cobb, another Trump lawyer.
Flynn was charged Friday on one count of “willfully and knowingly” making “false, fictitious and fraudulent statements” to the FBI about communications exchanged with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak shortly after Trump took office.
He also agreed to cooperate with Mueller’s team.
Asked by reporters Saturday morning if he was worried about what Flynn might tell Mueller, Trump said: “No, I am not.”
Trump also insisted that “there has been absolutely no collusion” between his campaign and Russia during the 2016 campaign.
