President Donald Trump gave a shoutout Tuesday to Michael Flynn, wishing the former national security adviser “good luck” hours before he is sentenced in federal court for lying to the FBI.
“Good luck today in court to General Michael Flynn. Will be interesting to see what he has to say, despite tremendous pressure being put on him, about Russian Collusion in our great and, obviously, highly successful political campaign,” the president said in a tweet.
“There was no Collusion!” he added.
US District Judge Emmet Sullivan is expected to sentence the retired Army lieutenant general — who pleaded guilty to lying about his contacts with former Russian ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak — at 11 a.m. in Washington.
Special counsel Robert Mueller has asked for no jail time and a lenient sentence, citing Flynn’s “substantial assistance” in the ongoing investigation into possible collusion between Team Trump and Russia in the run-up to the 2016 election.
Flynn told investigators early last year that he had not discussed US sanctions against Russia with Kislyak, when in fact he had, according to his plea agreement.
Lying to the bureau carries a statutory maximum sentence of five years in the slammer, though Flynn’s plea agreement states that he is eligible for a sentence of between zero and six months. He also can ask the court not to impose a fine.
His lawyers have asked the court for a sentence of probation of no more than one year, with minimal conditions of supervision, as well as 200 hours of community service.
Flynn — one of Trump’s most staunch supporters, who’d led “Lock her up!” chants about Hillary Clinton at during the president’s rallies — held the White House job for only 24 days.
His lawyers have asked the court for a sentence of probation of no more than one year, with minimal conditions of supervision, as well as 200 hours of community service.
On Tuesday, Trump also thanked Yahoo News investigative journalist Michael Isikoff — one of the first to report on the Steele dossier about possible ties between Russia and Trump — for comments the reporter made raising doubts about the truthfulness of the document compiled by a former British spy.
“Russia Dossier reporter now doubts dopey Christopher Steele’s claims!” Trump tweeted Tuesday.
“‘When you get into the details of the Steele Dossier, the specific allegations, we have not seen the evidence to support them. There’s good grounds to think that some of the more sensational allegations WILL NEVER BE PROVEN AND ARE LIKELY FALSE,’” he wrote.
“Thank you to Michael Isikoff, Yahoo, for honesty. What this means is that the FISA WARRANTS and the whole Russian Witch Hunt is a Fraud and a Hoax which should be ended immediately,” Trump wrote.
“Also, it was paid for by Crooked Hillary & DNC!” he added and asked, “who is going to restore the good name of so many people whose reputations have been destroyed?”
Isikoff, who co-authored “Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin’s War on America and the Election of Donald Trump,” assailed parts of the dossier Monday during an interview on John Ziegler’s Free Speech Broadcasting podcast, according to The Hill.
“In broad strokes, Christopher Steele was clearly onto something, that there was a major Kremlin effort to interfere in our elections, that they were trying to help Trump’s campaign, and that there was multiple contacts between various Russian figures close to the government and various people in Trump’s campaign,” Isikoff said.
But the journalist said there was no “evidence to support” some of the details.
“When you actually get into the details of the Steele dossier, the specific allegations, we have not seen the evidence to support them, and, in fact, there’s good grounds to think that some of the more sensational allegations will never be proven and are likely false,” he said.
The dossier detailed efforts by Russia to coordinate with Team Trump to meddle in the 2016 presidential election.
While several details in the document have been confirmed, according to the Senate Intelligence Committee, some of the more sensational details about possible blackmail Russia compiled on Trump during his visits to Moscow have not yet been verified.
The president and his allies have long slammed the dossier as a work of fiction, noting that it was paid for, in part, by Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee.
With Post wires
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