Flynn charged with making false statement to FBI

Source: Politico | December 1, 2017 | Theodoric Meyer and Louis Nelson

A plea hearing for Flynn has been scheduled for today in federal court.

Former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn was charged Thursday with one felony count of making a false statement to the FBI, the latest escalation in an investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller into Russian meddling in the 2016 election that is closing in on President Donald Trump’s close associates.

Mueller’s office announced Friday morning that a plea hearing for Flynn had been scheduled for that day at a federal courthouse in Washington. Flynn was scheduled to appear before U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras at 10:30 a.m. Friday, where he was expected to plead guilty.

The charges accuse Trump’s former national security adviser of lying to FBI agents in January, shortly after the inauguration, about conversations he had with Russia’s then-ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak in late December 2016 during the presidential transition period.

Flynn allegedly told agents that he had not asked Kislyak to avoid escalating tensions over sanctions imposed by former President Barack Obama, and he also told agents he had not asked Kislyak to delay or defeat a pending resolution at the UN Security Council.

Court documents showed that prosecutors planned to present a plea agreement at the hearing.

The charges are a major blow to Trump, bringing Mueller’s criminal case into the White House and Trump’s inner circle. The prospect that Flynn is cooperating with authorities also raises questions about who in the White House could be targeted next. And the charges cast fresh light on a Feb. 14 meeting between Trump and James Comey, at which the former FBI director has said the president asked him to go easy on Flynn. Trump later fired Comey.

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