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President Donald Trump speaks about tax reform at the St. Charles Convention Center on November 29, 2017 in St. Charles, Missouri.
U.S. President Donald Trump defended his disgraced former national security adviser Michael Flynn on Saturday, saying that basis of a special prosecutor’s actions against the former general were “lawful” and above board.
Earlier, Trump told reporters that there was “no collusion” with Russia, in spite of Flynn’s guilty plea entered on Friday. The former White House official confessed to lying to the FBI about discussions he held with a Russian diplomat.
However, Trump tweeted that he was forced to fire Flynn for lying to both Vice President Mike Pence and federal investigators. The president added that Flynn’s actions were “nothing to hide.”
Friday’s report by ABC, which has now been corrected by the news outlet, suggested that Flynn was prepared to testify that he was directed by Trump to make overtures to a Russian diplomat. The initial report sparked a media firestorm that was quelled only after ABC clarified that Flynn’s actions had occurred during the transition.
Months of probing by special prosecutor Robert Mueller culminated in Flynn’s guilty plea, which came days after it emerged that the former general’s legal team had stopped cooperating with Trump’s lawyers. Still, there appeared to be little immediate evidence that the Trump campaign made any efforts to collaborate with Russia’s suspected attempts to influence the general election.
