Thread: Mueller releases memo summarizing FBI's interview with Michael Flynn

Mueller releases memo summarizing FBI's interview with Michael Flynn

By Katelyn Polantz, CNN
Updated 6:58 PM ET, Mon December 17, 2018

(CNN)Special counsel Robert Mueller has released a January 2017 FBI memo detailing the interview by agent Peter Strzok and another FBI agent with President Donald Trump's then-national security adviser, Michael Flynn.

In the interview described in the memo, Flynn lied about his contact with then-Russian Ambassador to the United States Sergey Kislyak.

This is a breaking story and will be updated.

VIDEO at link.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/17/politics/mueller-memo-michael-flynn-interview/index.html

You mean they didn't record the interview with Flynn?!!! What kind of FBI do we have? A bunch of idiots? Why were they interviewing Flynn to begin with since they already had the transcript of the recordings of the conversations with the Russian Ambassador? Who authorized giving these illegal surveillance transcripts to the FBI to begin with?

11 page PDF of memo @

https://assets.documentcloud.org/doc...erview-302.pdf

"Pursuant to the Court’s Minute Order dated today, the government herebyfiles two redacted versions of the FD-302 report summarizing the FBI’s interview ofthe defendant on January 24, 2017."

They didn't record the interview? I can't find any audio or video of the interview.

Where is the transcript of the calls that Flynn had from and made to the Russian Ambassador? How can you determine a lie if you don't have the two to compare? I don't think Flynn lied. Why would he? There's no reason unless he forgot or didn't remember.

UPDATED ARTICLE


Mueller releases memo summarizing FBI's interview with Michael Flynn

By Katelyn Polantz, CNN
Updated 8:03 PM ET, Mon December 17, 2018


(CNN)Special counsel Robert Mueller has released a January 2017 FBI memo detailing the interview by agent Peter Strzok and another FBI agent with President Donald Trump's then-national security adviser, Michael Flynn.

In the interview described in the memo, Flynn lied about his contact with then-Russian Ambassador to the United States Sergey Kislyak.

The memo outlines Flynn describing his conversations with Kislyak, offering at times more benign descriptions of the talks than the special counsel ultimately outlined.

The FBI agents, at one point, remind Flynn about a conversation he had with the Russian ambassador that he had not recounted to that point.

"Yes, good reminder," Flynn told the agents. He proceeded to describe calls made to countries regarding a UN vote on Israeli settlements. He listed countries that included "maybe Russia/KISLYAK," the agent wrote.

The memo shows how Flynn downplayed the approach he had taken in his discussions with Kislyak -- even telling the agents outright that, "no" he had not sought to influence Russia's vote on a United Nations Security Council vote about Israeli settlements.

But investigators knew, according to Flynn's charging documents filed last year, that he had asked for Russia to vote against or delay the resolution.

Trump has alleged the FBI determined on the day of the interview that Flynn hadn't lied. The memo that was released Monday does not say the FBI agents made any determinations at that time. instead, it only outlines what he said in a straightforward manner.

The subsequent criminal complaint in December 2017 outlined how Flynn's retelling of the conversations was not true.

Another memo released by Mueller's office last week described how the FBI knew the facts of Flynn's conversations with Kislyak before agents approached Flynn in the West Wing four days into the new administration.

A separate memo filed with the court last week summarized an interview eight months after Flynn's interview. In that memo, Strzok says that both agents "had the impression at the time that Flynn was not lying or did not think he was lying."

The Justice Department charged Flynn with lying to investigators in late December 2017, when he pleaded guilty to the crime.

Flynn's second lie, as described in the FBI memo, came in response to the agents asking him about the US' expulsion of Russian diplomats and closing Russian properties following the Russian interference in the 2016 election.

The agents asked Flynn if he had encouraged Kislyak not to retaliate.

"Flynn responded, 'Not really. I don't remember.' It wasn't, 'Don't do anything,' " the memo said.

But, the FBI knew that Flynn had asked Russia not to escalate its response to the US.

That call with Russia came among a series of phone calls between Flynn and Trump officials, including some who were at Mar-a-Lago along with President-elect Trump, that were revealed in Flynn's charging document and not described in the separate January 2017 FBI memo. The FBI interview summary, based on what was publicly released Monday, does not include what Flynn said about the Mar-a-Lago calls.

Flynn made the calls from the Dominican Republic, where he was vacationing with his wife. Kislyak had texted Flynn on December 28, 2016, asking him to call, which set off the series of calls in the following days.

The FBI memo also describes in detail Flynn's interactions with Russian officials, trips to the country and the relationship he developed with Kislyak through when he became national security adviser. Those interactions date back to 2013, when he was the first Defense Intelligence Agency director to visit the Russian military intelligence headquarters. He made another visit years later.

Twice in late 2016, Flynn called Kislyak to express condolences after the assassination of a Russian ambassador in Turkey and the crash of a Russian military plane.

"Flynn does not know if Putin and Trump will get along, but it is Flynn's job to figure out paths to work with Russia to fight terrorism," the FBI memo said.

Flynn will be sentenced tomorrow in DC federal court.

This is a breaking story and will be updated.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/17/politics/mueller-memo-michael-flynn-interview/index.html

Published 30 mins ago
Last Update 6 mins ago

Flynn responses in fateful White House interview documented in witness report released by Mueller

By Gregg Re | Fox News

Were improper FBI tactics used on Flynn to create charges?

Former Southern District of New York prosecutor Doug Burns weighs in ahead of the sentencing.

Then-National Security Adviser Michael Flynn told FBI agents at the White House on January 24, 2017 "not really" when asked if he had sought to convince Russian ambassador not to escalate a brewing fight with the U.S. over sanctions imposed by the Obama administration, according to an explosive new FD-302 witness report released just hours before Flynn is set to be sentenced.

Flynn issued other apparently equivocal responses to FBI agents' questions, and at various points suggested that such conversations might have happened or that he could not recall them if they did, according to the 302.

The document contained few definitive statements from Flynn, who later pleaded guilty to making false statements about his contacts with Russia's ambassador, in connection with the White House meeting.

Flynn was not charged with wrongdoing as a result of the substance of his calls with the Russian ambassador -- and a

Washington Post article published one day before his White House interview with the FBI agents said that the FBI had wiretapped Flynn's calls, and cleared him of any wrongdoing.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller filed the heavily redacted witness report documenting FBI agents' fateful conversation with Flynn late Monday, shortly after U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan issued an order Monday requiring that prosecutors publicly turn over the document.

Sullivan had ordered the special counsel to turn over all government documents and “memoranda” related to the questioning of Flynn last week, after Flynn's attorneys, in a bombshell filing, claimed the FBI had discouraged him from bringing a lawyer to the White House interview.

Last Friday, Mueller met Sullivan’s deadline and provided some documents, some of which were heavily redacted.

However, the special counsel did not publicly provide the January 302, leading to speculation as to whether one was ever drafted.

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Sullivan's order on Monday stated that Mueller's team had made confidential arguments under seal as to redactions they would need to make to the 302. Sullivan ruled that the redactions were appropriate and that due to "strong presumption in favor of public access to judicial records," the 302 could be made public Monday.

The newly released 302 -- which was finalized on Feb. 15, 2017, just two days following Flynn's resignation after he misled Vice President Pence about his communications with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak -- stated that Flynn told agents "not really" when asked if he had told Kislyak not to escalate the diplomatic conflict over sanctions with the U.S. -- although he later admitted in his guilty plea to doing so.

"I don't remember," Flynn told the agents, according to the 302, which placed that comment in quotation marks. "It wasn't, 'Don't do anything.'"

Separately, agents asked Flynn whether Kislyak had promised that Russia would "modulate" its response to the sanctions, which were imposed by the Obama administration in its final days in power in response to Russian election meddling.

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"Flynn stated it was possible that he talked to Kislyak on the issue," the 302 stated, "but if he did, he did not remember doing so. Flynn stated he was attempting to start a good relationship with Kislyak moving forward."

The 302 continued: "Flynn remembered making four to five calls that day about this issue, but that the Dominican Republic [where he was vacationing] was a difficult place to make a call as he kept having connectivity issues. Flynn reflected and stated that he did not think he would have had a conversation with Kislyak about the matter, as he did not know the expulsions [of Russian diplomats from the U.S. as part of the Obama administration's sanctions] were coming."

FlynnOrder12-17-18 by Fox News on Scribd

The document concluded by noting that "Flynn stated he did not have a long drawn out discussion with Kislyak where he would have asked him to 'don't do something.'"

Flynn, in fact, had asked Kislyak to "refrain from escalating the situation in response to sanctions that the United States had imposed on Russia that same day," according to prosecutors, who said Kislyak "had chosen to moderate its response to those sanctions as a result of his request."

Flynn also denied to investigators that he had asked Russia to vote in any particular way at the United Nations.

One of the agents who conducted the Flynn interview, Peter Strzok, was fired from the Russia probe in late July 2017 for his apparent anti-Trump bias.

On Sunday, GOP Rep. Devin Nunes told Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures" it was likely Flynn pleaded guilty only because of that overwhelming financial pressure and because "he was just out of money."

California Republican Rep. Darrell Issa, for his part, told host Maria Bartiromo that he "would not be surprised a bit if the conviction of Flynn is overturned, because of the Justice Department and FBI's misconduct."

In June, Freedom Caucus Chair Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C, charged that the FBI may have "edited and changed" key witness reports in the Hillary Clinton and Russia investigations. Meadows also raised the possibility that the FBI misled the Department of Justice watchdog in an attempt to hide the identities of FBI employees who were caught sending anti-Trump messages along with Strzok.

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In a lengthy court filing last Tuesday, Flynn's attorneys alleged that then-FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe pushed Flynn not to have an attorney present during the questioning that ultimately led to his guilty plea on a single charge of lying to federal authorities.

According to Flynn's legal team, FBI agents in his case deliberately did not instruct Flynn that any false statements he made could constitute a crime, and decided not to "confront" him directly about anything he said that contradicted their knowledge of his wiretapped communications with Kislyak.

Speaking separately to "Fox News Sunday," Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani flatly charged that Flynn had been "railroaded" and "framed."

"What they did to General Flynn should result in discipline," Giuliani told host Chris Wallace. "They’re the ones who are violating the law.

Giuliani acknowledged that Flynn had misled Pence regarding his conversations with the then-Russian ambassador, but added, "that was a lie, but that’s not a crime."

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/mue...ouse-interview
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Well, sorry, but in my world, if you don't offer up the transcripts of the actual conversations with Kisylak and the full transcript of the interview between FBI agents and Flynn, you got nothing to prove in court someone "lied" in a "material way" to throw a criminal investigation off its track.

I don't even understand why the FBI or DOJ have a) access to the Kislak transcripts with Flynn b) why the FBI can wiretap Flynn's phones or c) why they're involved in national security relationships out of the White House behind the back of the President. These are supposed to be protected classified diplomatic conversations controlled by the White House and State Department, not anyone in the US Department of Justice.

So I'm confused as to who involved the US DOJ in this to begin with, because there is no role in foreign affairs, foreign policy or diplomatic relatonships between the United States and other countries for the DOJ let alone the FBI for reasons all too obvious to mention and perfectly illustrated by this Witch Hunt.

Originally Posted by Judy

. . . So I'm confused . . .

Now there is a statement that most people here can agree on.