The White House said Friday that President Trump wants former national security adviser Michael Flynn to tell Congress what he knows about his contacts with Russia.
Asked by a reporter if Mr. Trump is concerned that Mr. Flynn has damaging information to tell lawmakers about the president, White House press secretary Sean Spicer had a short answer: “Nope.”
“He believes that Mike Flynn should go testify … and do what he has to do to get the story out,” Mr. Spicer said.
Mr. Flynn’s attorney has asked the House and Senate intelligence committees for a grant of immunity in advance of his possible testimony.
The White House fired Mr. Flynn in February after he admitted that he misled Vice President Mike Pence about the extent of his contacts with a Russian diplomat during the transition.
The president said on Twitter Friday that Mr. Flynn should receive immunity because he’s the subject of a “witch hunt (excuse for big election loss), by media & Dems, of historic proportion!”
Mr. Spicer said the media should be focused instead on the “unmasking” of Trump officials by unnamed U.S. intelligence officials in classified surveillance documents, and subsequent leaks of that information to the media.
He also cited the MSNBC interview on March 2 of former Obama Defense Department official Evelyn Farkas, who suggested she was responsible for leaking sensitive information about government agencies that might have spied on President-elect Trump and Trump Tower.
“I had a fear that somehow that information would disappear with the senior [Obama] people who left, so it would be hidden away in the bureaucracy … that the Trump folks — if they found out how we knew what we knew about their … the Trump staff dealing with Russians — that they would try to compromise those sources and methods, meaning we no longer have access to that intelligence,” she said.
Said Mr. Spicer, “She admitted this on television. There was clearly an attempt to do something politically motivated with the intelligence out there. The question is why.”
Two days after her interview, Mr. Trump created a furor by accusing former President Barack Obama of wiretapping him, posting the allegation on Twitter. That claim led to a political firestorm in Congress and accusations by Democrats that House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, California Republican, was either colluding with the White House or duped by White House officials into airing sensitive information to back up the president’s claim.
Rep. Adam B. Schiff of California, ranking Democrat on the committee, was expected to visit the White House Friday to view the classified documents referred to by Mr. Nunes.
Mr. Spicer said investigators and the media should be looking instead at Hillary Clinton making “concession after concession” to Russia on the sale of uranium to Moscow while she was secretary of state. Other federal agencies also signed off on that deal.
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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