President Trump on Thursday accused US officials involved in the prosecution of Mike Flynn of “treason” and called them “human scum” after the Justice Department dropped the case.
Flynn briefly served as Trump’s White House national security adviser and in late 2017 he pleaded guilty to lying to FBI agents about two contacts with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
Flynn was attempting to withdraw his guilty plea ahead of sentencing. He says he did not intentionally lie.
“I didn’t know that was happening at this moment,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “I felt it was going to happen just by watching and seeing, like everybody else does. He was an innocent man. He is a great gentleman. He was targeted by the Obama administration and he was targeted in order to try and take down a president.”
Trump added: “What they’ve done is a disgrace and I hope a big price is going to be paid. A big price should be paid. There’s never been anything like this in the history of our country. What they did, what the Obama administration did, is unprecedented. It’s never happened. Never happened. A thing like this has never happened.”
In court documents, the Justice Department said it dropped the case “after a considered review of all the facts and circumstances of this case, including newly discovered and disclosed information.”
“I hope a lot of people are going to pay a big price because they’re dishonest, crooked people,” Trump said. “They’re scum and I say it a lot, they’re scum, they’re human scum. This should never have happened in this country.”
Trump said, “The Obama administration Justice Department was a disgrace and they got caught. They got caught. Very dishonest people. But much more than dis – it’s treason, it’s treason.”
According to a plea document, Flynn lied to the FBI in January 2017 about two contacts — on Dec. 22 and Dec. 29, 2016 — with Kislyak. Both contacts were made during Trump’s presidential transition with the knowledge of other aides.
Prosecutors said one contact occurred after Flynn “called a senior official of the presidential transition team” to discuss sanctions and that the other contact occurred after a “very senior member of the transition team” directed an outreach effort regarding a United Nations vote.
At the time, the FBI was investigating whether Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia to undermine Hillary Clinton. Flynn agreed to cooperate with investigators in pleading guilty. In accepting a plea, he also avoided charges for working as an unregistered lobbyist for Turkey.
A subsequent investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller found no evidence of Trump-Russia collusion.
“So I’m very happy for General Flynn,” Trump said Thursday. “He was a great warrior and he still is a great warrior. In my book, he’s an even greater warrior. What happened to him should never happen again and what happened to this presidency, to go through all of that and still do more than any president has ever done in the first three years. It’s pretty amazing when you think of it.”
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