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| Jonathan Ernst/Reuters |
THE CUT
The Justice Department asked a judge to drop the case against former Nation Security Adviser, Michael Flynn for charges against his lying to the FBI about is connections with Russia shortly before Trump’s inauguration.
Flynn agreed to cooperate with the Department of Justice in 2017 and plead guilty. However, recently he’s been fighting the charges and withdrawn from the agreement.
Memos that were released last month claim the FBI tried to trap Flynn into pleading guilty.
In the filing wrote on Thursday, prosecutors wrote, “based on an extensive review and careful consideration of the circumstances, that would not serve the interested of justice.:
“The government concluded that the interview of Mr. Flynn was untethered to and unjustified by, the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation into Mr. Flynn,” the filing wrote.
Trump told reporters Thursday in the Oval Office, “I didn’t know that was happening at this moment. I felt it was going to happen just by watching and seeing like everybody else does. He was an innocent man. He was targeted by the Obama administration.”
“I hope a lot of people are going to pay a big price. They’re dishonest, crooked people. They’re scum,” Trump concluded.
The Trump campaign issued a statement saying, “After a thorough, independent review, we now know that on Vice President Joe Biden’s watch, James Comey and Peter Strzok carried out a corrupt witch hunt ‘without any legitimate investigate basis’ against a decorated military veteran. Weaponizing the FBI and its surveillance powers to target General Flynn and others associated with President Trump will go down as one of the greatest abuses of power by an administration in American history.”
“People sometimes plead to things that turn out not to be crimes,” Attorney General William Barr said during a CBS interview Thursday night.
Read the filing
This is a developing story and may be updated.
This article was last modified on May 8, 2020 at 6:08 AM ET.