Prosecutors: Trump team directed Flynn's Russia contacts
December 1, 2017
Former US national security adviser Michael Flynn is cooperating with investigators and has admitted to lying to the FBI. Prosecutors said a "very senior member" of Trump's transition team directed him to contact Russia.
Image: Reuters/J. Ernst
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Main developments:
- Michael Flynn has pleaded guilty to misleading the FBI on Russia conversations
- Flynn is now cooperating with investigators
- Flynn says he was acting on transition team orders and superiors had full knowledge
US President Donald Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn said Trump's transition team had directed him to make contact with Russia before the new administration took power, prosecutors said in court on Friday. This would contradict White House accounts that he was acting on his own initiative and had misled his superiors about the content of two conversations with Russia's ambassador at the time.
Flynn appeared in court on Friday to plead guilty to making false statements to the FBI about his conversations with former Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak, which pertained to Obama administration sanctions on Moscow and a United Nations Security Council vote on Israeli settlements.
Flynn was sacked by the White House for supposedly misleading Vice President Mike Pence, who lead the transition team, about those conversations.
But on Friday, a prosecutor said in court that a "very senior member" of Trump's transition team directed Flynn to make contact with the Russian ambassador in December 2016, and that Flynn kept at least two of his superiors abreast of the talks.
A timeline of the Russia investigation
Allegations of collusion with the Kremlin have dogged Team Trump since the 2016 election campaign. DW takes a look at how special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation unfolded.
Image: Reuters/L. Downing
2013: Mr. Trump goes to Russia
June 18, 2013. Donald Trump tweeted: "The Miss Universe Pageant will be broadcast live from MOSCOW, RUSSIA on November 9. A big deal that will bring our countries together!" He later added: "Do you think Putin will be going - if so, will he become my new best friend?" October 17, 2013 Trump tells chat show host David Letterman he has conducted "a lot of business with the Russians."
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/V. Prokofyev
September 2015: Hacking allegations raised
An FBI agent tells a tech-support contractor at the Democratic National Committee it may have been hacked. On May 18, 2016, James Clapper, the director of National Intelligence, says there were "some indications" of cyberattacks aimed at the presidential campaigns. On June 14, 2016 the DNC announces it had been the victim of an attack by Russian hackers.
Image: picture alliance/MAXPPP/R. Brunel
July 20, 2016: Kislyak enters the picture
Senator Jeff Sessions — an early Trump endorser who led his national security advisory committee — meets Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak and a group of other ambassadors at a Republican National Convention event.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/B. Smialowski
July 22, 2016: Assange thickens the plot
Julian Assange's WikiLeaks publishes 20,000 emails stolen from the DNC, appearing to show a preference for Hillary Clinton over Senator Bernie Sanders.
Image: Reuters/N. Hall
July 25, 2016: Cometh the hour, Comey the man
The FBI announces it is investigating the DNC hack saying "a compromise of this nature is something we take very seriously."
Image: Getty Images/AFP/B. Smialowski
November 8, 2016: Trump elected
Donald Trump is elected president of the United States. On November 9, the Russian parliament burst into applause at the news.
Image: Reuters/K. Lamarque
November 10, 2016: Team Trump denies Russia link
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Rybakov says there "were contacts" between the Russian government and the Trump campaign during the election campaign. The Trump campaign issues a firm denial.
Image: Imago/Itar-Tass
November 18, 2016: Flynn appointed
Trump names General Michael Flynn as his national security adviser. The former Defense Intelligence Agency chief was a top foreign policy adviser in Trump's campaign. Flynn resigned in February after failing to disclose full details of his communication with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
Image: Reuters/C. Barria
January 26, 2017: Yates - 'The center cannot hold'
Acting Attorney General Sally Yates tells White House counsel Don McGahn that Flynn made false statements regarding his calls with Kislyak. On January 30, Trump fires Yates for refusing to enforce his travel ban, which was later blocked by federal courts.
Image: Getty Images/P. Marovich
March 2, 2017: Sessions recuses himself
Trump says he has "total confidence" in Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Sessions announces he will recuse himself from any investigation into ties between Russia and the Trump campaign.
Image: Getty Images/S.Loeb
March 20, 2017: FBI examines Trump-Kremlin links
FBI Director James Comey confirms before the House Select Committee on Intelligence that the FBI was investigating possible links between Russia and the Trump campaign.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/AP/J. S. Applewhite
May 9, 2017: Trump sacks Comey
In a letter announcing the termination, Trump writes: "While I greatly appreciate you informing me, on three separate occasions, that I am not under investigation, I nevertheless concur with the judgment of the Department of Justice that you are not able to effectively lead the Bureau."
Image: Reuters/J. Ernst/K. Lamarque
May 17, 2017: Mueller appointed special counsel
Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein appoints former FBI Director Robert Mueller to look into Russia's interference in the 2016 election and possible collusion with the Trump campaign.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/J.S. Applewhite
August 2017: FBI seizes documents from Manafort
Shortly after Mueller convenes a grand jury for the investigation, the FBI seizes documents from one of Paul Manafort's properties as part of a raid for Mueller's probe. The former Trump campaigner manager stepped down in August 2016 after allegations surfaced that he had received large payments linked to Ukraine's former pro-Russian government.
Image: Imago
September 2017: Trump Jr.'s talks to Senate committee
Donald Trump Jr. tells the Senate Judiciary Committee he has not colluded with a foreign government. The closed-door interview relates to his June 2016 meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, which was also attended by his brother-in-law, Jared Kushner, and then-campaign manager Paul Manafort. Trump Jr.’s emails, however, suggest the meeting was supposed to produce dirt on Clinton.
Image: picture alliance/AP Photo/K. Willens
October 2017: Internet giants allege Russian interference
Facebook, Twitter and Google reportedly tell US media they have evidence that Russian operatives exploited platforms to spread disinformation during the 2016 US presidential election. The three companies are appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee in November 2017.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Lei
July 2018: Trump and Putin meet in Helsinki
Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin meet in Helsinki for their first-ever summit. During the trip, Trump publically contradicts the findings of US intelligence agencies who concluded that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election.
November 8, 2018: Sessions resigns as attorney general
Attorney General Jeff Sessions resigns from his post, under reported pressure from Trump. The president then appoints a critic of the Mueller probe as his successor, but later nominates William Barr to be the next attorney general in December 2018.
Image: picture-alliance/AP/A. Brandon
November 29, 2018: Former Trump lawyer pleads guilty
Trump's former long-time personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, pleads guilty to lying to Congress about discussions in 2016 on plans to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. The FBI raided his home earlier that year in April. He would later be sentenced to three years in prison. In 2019, he tells Congress that Trump is a "racist" and a "con man."
Image: Reuters/J. Ernst
January 2019: Trump associate Roger Stone arrested
Roger Stone, a longtime Trump associate and Republican operative, is arrested at his home in Florida for lying to Congress about having advance knowledge of plans by WikiLeaks to release emails from the Democratic Party that US officials say were stolen by Russia.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/AP Photo/L. Sladky
March 13, 2019: Manafort sentenced to prison
Manafort is found guilty of conspiracy charges and handed an additional sentence, bringing his total prison sentence to 7.5 years. In August 2018, a court in Virginia found him guilty of eight charges, including tax and bank fraud. He also pleaded guilty to two conspiracy counts.
Image: picture-alliance/AP/D. Verkouteren
March 22, 2019: Mueller ends Russia probe
Special counsel Robert Mueller submits a confidential 448-page report on the findings of his investigation to the US Justice Department. The main conclusions of the report are made public when they are given to Congress. A redacted version of the report is released to the public on April 18, though Democrats call for the full report to be released.
Image: picture-alliance/AP/C. Dharapak
March 24, 2019: Trump declares 'exoneration'
The final report concluded that no one involved in Trump's 2016 election campaign colluded with Russia. Attorney General William Barr said the report provided no evidence that Trump obstructed justice, but stopped short of fully exonerating the president. Reacting to the findings, Trump described the probe as an "illegal take-down that failed," and said there was "complete and total exoneration."
Image: Reuters/K. Lamarque
May 1, 2019: Barr testifies
In late March, Mueller writes a letter expressing concerns over the way Barr portrayed his report. The attorney general says the special counsel's letter was "a bit snitty" while testifying in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee in May. Barr then cancels a subsequent appearance before the House Judicial Committee, citing "unprecedented and unnecessary" hearing conditions.
Image: Getty Images/A. Wong
July 24, 2019: Mueller light
Robert Mueller's congressional testimony on the Russia probe was again inconclusive. He sometimes struggled with his answers or avoided queries. To the Democrats frustration he appeared to do little to give any encouragement to the notion that President Trump could be impeached, though he did suggest he might be prosecuted for obstruction of justice crimes after he leaves the White House.
Image: Reuters/J. Ernst
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Multiple US outlets, including NBC, The Washington Post and Bloomberg, reported that Flynn's testimony will name Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner as the unnamed person who directed Fynn's meetings. Broadcaster ABC News reported the order to make contact with Russia came directly from Trump himself, citing a Flynn confidant.
White House: Flynn only implicates himself
The White House said that nothing in Flynn's plea implicates anyone in the Trump administration, saying it "clears the way for a prompt and reasonable conclusion of the Russia probe."
"The false statements involved mirror the false statements to White House officials which resulted in his resignation in February of this year," said White House lawyer Ty Cobb.
If it emerges that Trump had directed Flynn to contact Russian officials, that would not necessarily amount to a crime. However, if it emerges that Trump directed Flynn to lie to the FBI about his contacts, that could be a criminal offense, Reuters reported.
Trump ignored shouted questions from journalists on the issue as he welcomed Libyan Prime Minister Fayez Serraj to the White House on Friday morning, instead waving and giving a thumbs-up. The White House later cancelled a scheduled media appearance for Trump.
In his first post on Twitter for the day, the normally vocal president wrote about speculation over his faltering relationship with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
Afterward, his official POTUS Twitter account retweeted various positive messages, including two tweets about his official Christmas tree.
Flynn faced court for a plea hearing in Washington on Friday morning on a single charge of making "false, fictitious and fraudulent representations" to the FBI. The charge carries a sentence of up to five years in prison, but under a plea deal he could receive six months, or even a suspended sentence.
Flynn said in a statement it was "painful to endure" the "false accusations of 'treason' and other outrageous acts" over the past several months, but that he recognized "that the actions I acknowledged in court today were wrong."
'Dark moment'
House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said the guilty plea represented a "dark moment" in US history.
"All Americans should be alarmed by reports of President Trump's consistent efforts to obstruct the special counsel and Congressional investigations. The American people deserve to know what the president knows about Russian meddling in our election and why he refuses to take action against Russia," she wrote.
Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein said Flynn's guilty plea had great significance.
"This shows a Trump associate negotiating with the Russians against US policy and interests before Donald Trump took office and after it was announced that Russia had interfered in our election," she wrote in a statement.
Senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate intelligence panel investigating potential Russian collusion, said lawmakers will want to again interview Trump's son-in-law turned White House adviser.
"There are a number, like Mr. Kushner and others, that we're going to want to invite back," Warner told reporters. He declined to say whether that would include US Vice President Pence.
Most senior figure to be charged
Flynn is the fourth and most senior person to be charged in connection with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russian election meddling investigation.
Images of the court documents were circulated online by US journalists.
Last month, Mueller announced charges against three other Trump campaign officials — former chairman Paul Manafort and his business associate Rick Gates, and a former foreign policy adviser, George Papadopoulos.
Trump has repeatedly labeled Mueller's investigation a "witch hunt," and in March said Flynn should claim immunity.
US stocks wobble
The US stock market fell on Friday after reports of Flynn's cooperation emerged. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.9 percent, the broad-based S&P 500 lost 1.0 percent while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index dropped 1.4 percent. The markets subsequently recovered most of their losses, but remained in the red.
The news also pushed the euro up and European stocks down.
Flynn's plea came just hours before Republican senators had hoped to pass a wide-reaching tax bill, touted as a significant victory for Trump.
