The biggest public development in Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation came on December 1st, when President Trump’s former national security advisor pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with the Russian government. It was huge news,…
The biggest public development in Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation came on December 1st, when President Trump’s former national security advisor pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with the Russian government. It was huge news, but it immediately led many people to wonder: Will Trump pardon Michael Flynn?
The president was asked that question on Monday, but he dodged it.
“I don’t want to talk about pardons for Michael Flynn yet,” Trump told reporters outside the White House. “We’ll see what happens.”
He then added, cryptically: “I can say this: When you look at what’s gone on with the FBI and with the Justice Department, people are very, very angry.”
Although Trump critics have generally been encouraged by Mueller’s investigation, they also haven’t lost sight of the fact that Trump has pardon power, and that Sword of Damocles has been hanging over the investigation from day one. Any Trump associates charged with wrongdoing in conjunction with Mueller’s investigation could, at least in theory, receive a pardon from Trump himself, potentially rendering the investigation itself moot.
Mueller has already charged four of the president’s associates with crimes, but Flynn is the only one who actually served in the Trump administration. This, combined with the fact that Trump seems to be very personally fond of Flynn, has led many to suspect that, if Trump pardons anybody implicated in the Russia investigation, it will be Flynn.
Watch closely as Trump builds a case that the public demands he pardon Flynn because they are “very very angry…” https://t.co/DYM7fm4Kaw
More to come…
