Updated Friday, Dec. 1, 2017, 1:03 p.m. EST: After pleading guilty Friday to lying to the FBI about conversations he had with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak, Michael Flynn released the following statement accepting responsibility for his actions:
Statement by Lt. General Michael T. Flynn (Ret.)
After over 33 years of military service to our country, including nearly five years in combat away from my family, and then my decision to continue to serve the United States, it has been extraordinarily painful to endure these many months of false accusations of “treason” and other outrageous acts. Such false accusations are contrary to everything I have ever done and stood for. But I recognize that the actions I acknowledged in court today were wrong, and through my faith in God, I am working to set things right. My guilty plea and agreement to cooperate with the Special Counsel’s Office reflect a decision I made in the best interest of my family and of our country. I accept full responsibility for my actions.
Yes, he did invoke his military service and his faith in God.
Clearly, former FBI Director James Comey was not going to let that slide, because he sent out the most epic subtweet, complete with biblical-Scripture quote:
And the accompanying Instagram post shows us just how deep Comey’s petty runs:
As has been said many times this morning already, this finna be good.
Earlier:
Michael Flynn, the former national security adviser to Donald Trump, pleaded guilty Friday to charges of lying to the FBI about conversations he had with the Russian ambassador last December during the presidential transition.
The New York Times reports that Flynn made an appearance in a federal court in Washington, D.C., as part of a plea deal that inches special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election just a bit closer to Donald Trump’s inner circle.
Flynn lasted only 24 days as national security adviser before being forced to resign after it was revealed that he had lied to Vice President Mike Pence about his conversations with Russian officials during the presidential transition.
So did he really lie to Pence, or was Pence also complicit? Is Jared Kushner now dangling in the wind? Could Flynn be preparing to testify against the president himself?
The charges Flynn pleaded guilty to Friday morning amount to a veritable slap on the wrist in comparison with all the evidence stacked against him, and they are nothing compared with the charges faced by another Trump associate, Paul Manafort.
Manafort was charged with conspiracy against the United States, to which he pleaded not guilty.
So the question is, with Flynn pleading guilty to this light-as-a-feather charge, what is he getting—and giving—in exchange?
There is no way Mueller is granting plea deals for small fish. Flynn has to be dropping the goods on someone big—maybe more than one someone.
This is also a clear indication that Mueller’s team was able to flip Flynn, but not Manafort. Manafort took his lumps, pleaded not guilty to the charges and now waits to see what happens next.
Flynn, on the other hand, was apparently as nervous as a sow at a North Carolina pig-pulling when it became clear that the investigators would stop at nothing to get to the dirt, even if it meant taking his son Michael G. Flynn down with him.
He was ready to sing, but which song did he pick?
My money is on the Kushner-Pence-Trump trifecta. For as smug as Pence is, you know he had to know a lot. He did not operate in that campaign in the dark. He is just as complicit as his boss and his boss’s puppet of a son-in-law.
If we are lucky, Donald Trump Jr. will go down, too.
At this point, Michael Flynn is Nino Brown to the bullshit, and I’m here for it. “If I’m going down, I’m taking all y’all with me.”
Sing, Michael Flynn. Sing. Sing until you can’t sing no more.
We need to flush the toilet on this administration and power-wash the White House.
The only way to do that is to get everyone out first.
Read more at the New York Times.