CNN’s political director David Chalian either didn’t pay attention to what was said Tuesday at Michael Flynn’s sentencing delay or he invented a new lie that was explicitly meant to hurt the White House.
Chalian reacted to the delayed sentencing of Flynn on the air, wrongly stating that the judge presiding over Flynn’s case had just accused the former national security adviser of treason in relation to Russia.
“[He was] committing crimes that the judge was equating to treason,” said Chalian, before tying the judge’s remarks to President Trump’s past defense of Flynn. “Now, if you believe [former FBI Director] Jim Comey’s version of events, it is that scenario that the judge believes is treasonous, that the president was asking to let the whole Flynn thing go.”
This is a laughably inaccurate accounting of what Trump said, what Comey said, and when they both said it.
At the hearing on Tuesday, when U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan delayed Flynn’s sentencing, Sullivan told Flynn, “You were an unregistered agent of a foreign country while serving as the national security adviser to the president. Arguably, this undermines everything this flag over here stands for. Arguably, you sold your country out.”
Sullivan was referring to Flynn’s activity as a lobbyist on behalf of the Turkish government, which Flynn did not disclose to the U.S. government as required by law.
But Chalian was attempting to tie Trump’s defense of Flynn as it pertained to Russia, not Turkey.
Trump has repeatedly pointed to Comey’s testimony in front of Congress that Flynn, who has been charged with lying to the FBI, did not appear to have been deliberately deceiving federal agents during an interview in January 2017, when he denied certain interactions with Russia’s then-U.S. Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
CNN itself reported in June last year of Trump’s interactions with Comey, as Comey recalled it in contemporaneous notes and in front of Congress: “Comey said that Trump asked him to drop FBI investigations into Flynn centering on his calls with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the transition, which eventually led to his dismissal as national security adviser after it emerged he had lied about the conversations to Vice President Mike Pence. He wrote that Trump said: ‘I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.'”
The Associated Press as recently as last week reported on Comey’s testimony on Flynn to Congress, quoting him as having said Flynn did “nothing that indicated to [the agents] that he knew he was lying to them.”
This is all about Russia and nothing about Turkey.
Chalian is either mistaken or he is lying. Good thing it’s not in front of Congress.
