From Republican lawmakers and conservative pundits to right-leaning scholars and Fox News hosts, Trump has received a unified message: His national security adviser was wronged.
President Donald Trump has so far been coy about whether he’ll save Michael Flynn from doing time behind bars.
But the public pressure campaign that’s erupted from Republican and conservative figures in Trump’s orbit—as well as his own remarks—from the release of new documents has fueled speculation he will grant his former national security adviser a pardon.
„The pressure from the right-wing friends is going to be massive,“ a senior Republican congressional aide told Newsweek, whose name is being withheld because he is not authorized to speak publicly about the issue. „[Trump] might have to appease the base.“
FBI officials‘ handwritten notes from the Mueller investigation on how to proceed with the probe into Flynn and his contacts with Russians that were unsealed by a federal judge Wednesday revealed an internal debate over how to handle the case that has Trump and his allies crying foul.
Republicans say the evidence proves the probe into Russian election interference was conducted with malice against Trump associates, pointing to one of the notes that reads: „What is our goal? Truth/admission or to get him to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired?“
Flynn pleaded guilty for lying to the FBI in December 2017 about a conversation he had during the campaign with the then-Russian ambassador but has yet to be sentenced pending a review of the case ordered by Attorney General William Barr. Attorneys for the Justice Department recommended to the judge that Flynn spend up to six months in jail.
