WASHINGTON (AP) – Michael Flynn, the retired general who campaigned at Donald Trump’s side and then served as his first national security adviser, pleaded guilty Friday to lying to the FBI about reaching out to the Russians on Trump’s behalf and said members of the president’s inner circle were intimately involved with – and at times directing – his contacts.
Court papers didn’t name the senior officials, but The Associated Press has confirmed that they were Trump’s son-in-law and senior White House adviser Jared Kushner and former Deputy National Security Adviser KT McFarland, who is now up for an ambassadorship.
Flynn’s plea could be a crucial development in the wide-ranging criminal investigation into possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election in Trump’s favor because it means Flynn is now required to cooperate with federal investigators.
His plea to a single felony count of false statements made him the first official of the Trump White House to admit guilt so far in the criminal investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller.
Friday’s developments don’t resolve the paramount question of possible Trump-Russia coordination in the campaign, but they do show that Flynn lied to the FBI about multiple conversations last December with the Russian ambassador to the United States. Court papers make clear that senior Trump transition officials – including Kushner and McFarland – were fully aware of Flynn’s outreach to Russian officials in the weeks before the inauguration.