On 25 November, US President Donald Trump announced that he had pardoned his former national security adviser Lieutenant-General Michael Flynn over charges related to…
Michael Flynn’s pardon has spurred a wave of speculations from media commentators about whether President Trump will now issue similar remissions to his high-profile associates, including ex-lobbyist Paul Manafort or the President’s 2016 campaign adviser George Papadopoulos, both of whom were convicted in relation to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation which has repeatedly been dismissed by POTUS as “hoax”. Trump’s ex-national security adviser Flynn was accused in 2017 of lying to the FBI about the content of his conversations with then-Russian Ambassador to the US Sergei Kislyak during the 2016 transition period. He pleaded guilty to the charges and agreed to co-operate with Mueller’s probe that eventually failed to find any substantial evidence to claim Russia’s interference into America’s democratic processes. Flynn later moved to withdraw his guilty plea, accusing authorities of violating his constitutional rights in relation to the bargain. Trump’s pardon of Flynn came just several months after the President had commuted another official charged in relation to Mueller’s investigation, Roger Stone – his former campaign consultant who was preparing to serve 40 months in prison on charges of lying to Congress and witness tampering. In 10 July 2020, just several days before Stone was to report to prison, the US President commuted his sentence, a move that has sparked a lot of controversies back then.
