White House counsel advised Susan Rice to write memo on Oval Office discussion about Michael Flynn

Obama national security adviser Susan Rice wrote an email to herself detailing an early January 2017 Oval Office meeting pertaining to the incoming national security adviser, Michael Flynn, at the guidance of the White House counsel.

The confirmation by Rice’s representative could move the “Obamagate” controversy, which is driven by calls to investigate whether the previous administration improperly targeted the Trump team, one step closer to former President Barack Obama.

An email, which was fully declassified and released on Tuesday, describes a Jan. 5 discussion in the Oval Office. The newly revealed portion of the memo Rice sent to herself on President Trump’s Inauguration Day showed Obama and then-FBI Director James Comey discussing the bureau’s investigation into Flynn and the apparently suspicious frequency with which the retired lieutenant general made contact with a Russian envoy during the transition period.

Erin Pelton, a spokeswoman for Rice, told Fox News on Wednesday that Rice drafted the memo at the advice of Neil Eggleston, who was the White House counsel.

This echoed what Rice’s attorney said in a 2018 letter to GOP senators.

“Given the importance and sensitivity of the subject matter, and upon the advice of the White House Counsel’s Office, Ambassador Rice created a permanent record of the discussion,” Rice’s attorney, Kathryn Ruemmler, wrote. “Ambassador Rice memorialized the discussion on January 20, because that was the first opportunity she had to do so, given the particularly intense responsibilities of the National Security Advisor during the remaining days of the administration and transition.”

Still, the memo, which was mostly unredacted prior to Tuesday, has raised questions about why Rice would send herself the note in the final hours of Obama’s presidency.

K.T. McFarland, who was a deputy of Flynn’s during his brief tenure as national security adviser, told Fox News on Tuesday that sending the memo to herself was an “odd thing to do.”

“Why would you write a memorandum to the record for yourself unless you assumed that somebody was going to come and look for those clues, that somebody was potentially going to come after the fact and see that they’ve done something wrong?” McFarland said.

In the newly revealed portion of the memo, Rice wrote that Comey insisted to the outgoing president that the Flynn investigation was being conducted “by the book” and raised concerns about the incoming national security adviser despite not having any evidence that Flynn shared classified information with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.

“Director Comey affirmed that he is processing ‘by the book’ as it relates to law enforcement. From a national security perspective, Comey said he does have some concerns that incoming NSA Flynn is speaking frequently with Russian ambassador Kislyak. Comey said that could be an issue as it relates to sharing sensitive information,” Rice wrote. “President Obama asked if Comey was saying that the NSC should not pass sensitive information related to Russia to Flynn. Comey replied ‘potentially.’ He added that he has no indication that Flynn has passed classified information to Kislyak, but he noted that ‘the level of communication is unusual.’”

After the email was declassified by acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell and released by GOP senators on Tuesday, Pelton said Rice “welcomes the release” of the email in its entirety and called for the disclosure of the transcripts of Flynn’s conversations with Kislyak.

Flynn pleaded guilty in December 2017 to lying to investigators about his 2016 conversations on Dec. 22 and Dec. 29 with Kislyak about a United Nations resolution on Israel and sanctions. The U.S. government intercepted Flynn’s discussions with Kislyak, after which FBI agent Peter Strzok and another agent, believed to be Joseph Pientka, interviewed him on Jan. 24, 2017, about the contents of the discussion.

After changing legal teams, Flynn said at the start of this year that he was innocent of the crime and sought to withdraw his guilty plea. The Justice Department moved to dismiss the charges against him last week after new evidence was unearthed, but the judge presiding over the case has resisted immediately doing so, inviting outside opinions last week and appointing a retired judge to argue against the motion to dismiss and to explore whether Flynn should be held in contempt for perjury.

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