WND
Report: Feds withholding evidence exonerating Flynn
'18-month effort' to resist declassifying document
The Defense Intelligence Agency is resisting efforts by Congress to declassify a document that would exonerate Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, according to investigative reporter John Solomon of The Hill.
Solomon told the Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity Thursday night that the document has been “identified to a small number of people in the United State government.”
“For 18 months there’s been an effort to resist declassifying that document,” he said. “I know that that document contains extraordinary exculpatory information about General Flynn.”
Solomon said that, to his knowledge, President Trump had never been told about the document.
“One lawmaker discovered it, but he was thwarted by the Defense Intelligence Agency in his ability to disclose it,” he said. “I think we all should ask for that declassification. Get that out. It may enlighten the judge.”
Trump and Flynn’s supporters contend Flynn was pressured or tricked into lying. Flynn pleaded guilty in 2017 to lying to the FBI during an interview about his contacts with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the presidential transition.
Flynn’s lawyers have prepared a memo for the court ahead of Flynn’s sentencing stating that former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe recommended to Flynn that he not have a lawyer present during questioning by FBI agents.
The agents also, according to Flynn’s lawyers, did not advise Flynn that lying to the FBI is a federal offense.
In addition, the FBI agents did not file a report on the interview until seven months after it was conducted, the lawyers said.
Marc Ruskin, a 27-year veteran of the FBI, told The Epoch Times, that the alleged omission is a “virtually unprecedented” violation of bureau policies.
Trump said via Twitter on Thursday: “They gave General Flynn a great deal because they were embarrassed by the way he was treated—the FBI said he didn’t lie and they overrode the FBI.”
The reference was to then-FBI Director James Comey’s admission to lawmakers that FBI agents didn’t believe Flynn lied during the interview.
“They want to scare everybody into making up stories that are not true by catching them in the smallest of misstatements. Sad!” Trump wrote. “WITCH HUNT!”
