Veteran investigative journalist Carl Bernstein reported that “top” FBI officials are dismissing the claims that officials tried to entrap retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn.
Flynn, who served as President Trump’s national security adviser for less than a month, pleaded guilty in 2017 to lying to the FBI about his conversations with a Russian diplomat before Trump entered the White House but is now fighting to get the case dismissed. His legal team has seized on the release of FBI notes last week that they claim show their client was set up by the FBI.
Some legal experts and supporters of Flynn believe he will be exonerated in the future, but Bernstein said leading FBI officials dismiss the talk of entrapment.
“I’ve talked to top officials in the FBI, and they say, ‘No,'” Bernstein explained during an appearance on CNN’s Reliable Sources on Sunday. “What’s clear from the notes as well as what happened is Flynn lied to the White House chief of staff, to the vice president of the United States — he had still worked for a foreign power, Turkey, going up to the point when he was the national security adviser. He lied and lied and lied ,and what the notes show is standard operating procedure of a discussion about how to interview a witness.”
The Watergate sleuth argued that the story was significant because the president and his allies “are saying this is more evidence of the deep state.”
“We can keep an open mind about it, but so far, I think the evidence is this is yet another red herring by the president of the United States and his supporters who keep saying this was all about the deep state with the Russian investigation,” Bernstein added.
Flynn pleaded guilty, but he filed to withdraw his guilty plea in January after the Justice Department asked the judge to sentence him to up to six months in prison, though the department later said probation would also be appropriate. The Justice Department described Flynn’s claims of innocence “an extraordinary reversal.”
Flynn’s defense team accused top FBI officials of concealing exculpatory evidence, but the bureau has denied the accusation. Brian Hale, the assistant director of the FBI’s Office of Public Affairs, previously said in a statement to the Washington Examiner, “The assertion that Director Wray pushed to withhold exculpatory evidence in the Michael Flynn case is absolutely false.”
Rep. Devin Nunes, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, said last week there needs to be an investigation into a cover-up at the FBI.
Trump is said to be increasingly fed up with FBI Director Christopher Wray as a Justice Department review has led to disclosures of notes in the counterintelligence investigation into Flynn. Axios reported on Sunday that Trump is unlikely to fire Wray before the 2020 election but has grown frustrated with the top FBI official because he is not seen as a fighter against “corruption” within the highest levels of the bureau.
