Barack Obama has blasted Attorney General Bill Barr’s decision to drop charges against Michael Flynn as one that puts the rule of law ‘at risk’ just a day after it was learned that the former president knew details about the ex-general’s wiretapped phone calls with Russia’s ambassador.
The 44th president made the remarks during a conference call with former members of his administration. An audio of the call was obtained by Yahoo News.
Obama is facing scrutiny after it was learned from declassified documents that he knew details of an FBI counterintelligence investigation against Flynn and had discussed it with top administration officials just 15 days before Trump took office.
‘The news over the last 24 hours I think has been somewhat downplayed – about the Justice Department dropping charges against Michael Flynn,’ the former president said during a web talk with members of the Obama Alumni Association.
President Barack Obama (right) smiles alongside then-President-elect Donald Trump (left) at the White House before the inauguration on January 20, 2017
Obama on Friday said that the decision by Attorney General Bill Barr (right) to drop charges against Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael Flynn (left), meant that ‘our basic understanding of the rule of law was at risk’
‘And the fact that there is no precedent that anybody can find for someone who has been charged with perjury just getting off scot-free,’ the former president said.
‘That’s the kind of stuff where you begin to get worried that basic – not just institutional norms – but our basic understanding of rule of law is at risk.
‘And when you start moving in those directions, it can accelerate pretty quickly as we’ve seen in other places.’
Obama weighed in on the Flynn case a day after declassified documents showed that he raised the issue of the FBI’s investigation into Flynn with then-Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates.
The documents, that have been used as exhibits in the government’s motion to dismiss the case against Flynn, who at the time was due to become the national security adviser under the incoming Trump administration, show that Obama’s knowledge of the call surprised Yates.
According to Fox News, on January 5 2017, fifteen days before Donald Trump assumed office, Yates attended a meeting in the Oval Office with Obama alongside other notable national security figures, according to the newly declassified documents, which include a ‘FD-302 FBI’ report, a document used to detail interviews the bureau conducts.
The other attendees were then-Vice President Joe Biden, then-directors of the FBI and CIA, James Comey and John Brennan respectively, and then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.
Former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates appears before the Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing entitled, ‘Russian Interference in the 2016 United States Election’ on May 8, 2017
The meeting was held to discuss Russian election interference, and also involved Susan Rice, the National Security Advisor who Flynn soon replaced, and other national security officials.
Following the meeting, the President asked Yates and Comey to ‘stay behind’ in the Oval Office, saying he had ‘learned of the information about Flynn’ and the phone conversations about sanctions with the Russian ambassador.
Obama ‘specified that he did not want any additional information on the matter, but was seeking information on whether the White House should be treating Flynn any differently, given the information,’ according to the documents, which showed at this point ‘Yates had no idea what the president was talking about, but figured it out based on the conversation.’
In a separate memo from Susan Rice about the meeting, Joe Biden also stayed behind after the briefing.
Obama’s knowledge of the phone calls, which at the time the FBI said were not criminal in nature, is notable due to his own history with Flynn.
High-ranking FBI officials had secretly discussed whether their objective was to ultimately get the advisor fired when they interviewed Flynn in the White House on January 24, 2017.
Furthermore, in 2014, President Obama had fired Flynn as his head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, and had warned the incoming Trump administration against hiring him as National Security Advisor, making it clear that he was ‘not a fan’, according to multiple sources.
In December 2017, Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his Russia contacts during the Russia probe.
He also admitted to failing to register as a foreign agent due to his lucrative work for the Turkish government while serving as a campaign advisor to the Trump campaign.
The Justice Department on Thursday abruptly asked a judge to drop criminal charges against Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser, following mounting pressure from the Republican president and his political allies on the right.
Obama erred in saying that Flynn was charged with perjury. Flynn had pleaded guilty to making false statements to the FBI, not perjury.
Attorney General Bill Barr insists he is NOT doing Trump’s bidding by dropping charges against Michael Flynn
Attorney General Bill Barr defended the decision not to pursue charges against fired Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn on Thursday, who had pleaded guilty in court to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia’s ambassador during the Trump transition.
Barr said he doesn’t know how history will judge him because ‘history is written by the winners’ hours after the Justice Department said it would be dropping its criminal case against Flynn.
The attorney general told CBS News that while Flynn did lie, the false statement was not ‘material to a legitimate investigation.’
‘It’s on the question of materiality that we feel really that a crime cannot be established here because there was not, in our view, a legitimate investigation going on,’ Barr said.
‘They did not have a basis for a counterintelligence investigation against Flynn at that stage, based on a perfectly legitimate and appropriate call he made as a member of the transition.’
Attorney General Bill Barr said he doesn’t know how history will judge him because ‘history is written by the winners’ hours after the Justice Department said it would be dropping its criminal case against Flynn. Pictured: Attorney General Bill Barr at the White House in April
The attorney general said that FBI investigators ‘essentially’ entrapped Flynn so that he would lie.
The stunning turnaround drew immediate praise from Trump, who has long claimed Flynn was railroaded and had kept alive the possibility of a presidential pardon while attacking prosecutors he said were on a ‘witch hunt.’
Flynn celebrated by tweeting a picture of his toddler grandson Travis reciting the pledge of allegiance with the words ‘justice for all.’
The Justice Department filed a motion to dismiss the charges with U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan, who has presided over the case and has a reputation for fierce independence.
Judges generally grant such motions, but Sullivan could demand answers from the department about its reversal or even deny the motion and sentence Flynn, a less likely scenario.
Sullivan at a 2018 hearing expressed ‘disgust’ and ‘disdain’ toward Flynn’s criminal offense, saying: ‘Arguably, you sold your country out.’
Donald Trump reacted in the Oval Office by saying Flynn ‘was an innocent man.’
‘Now in my book he’s an even greater warrior,’ the president said. Trump said he would reach out to Flynn at the ‘appropriate’ time.
‘I think he’s a hero. It’s a scam. It was a scam and a hoax. I think he’s a hero, the general,’ Trump said.
Democrats however slammed the move.
‘President Trump doesn’t care about you. He doesn’t care about your health. He doesn’t care about your family. He doesn’t care about testing. He just cares that his cronies are taken care of,’ Chuck Schumer tweeted.
Adam Schiff, who led the impeachment of Donald Trump, said that Flynn was not exonerated by the move and added: ‘But it does incriminate Bill Barr. In the worst politicization of the Justice Department in its history.’
The move drew furious criticism from congressional Democrats and others who accused the department and Barr of politicizing the US criminal justice system by bending to Trump’s wishes and improperly protecting his friends and associates in criminal cases.
Flynn, a retired Army lieutenant general who served as an adviser to Trump during the 2016 campaign, had been seeking to withdraw his 2017 guilty plea in which he admitted to lying to the FBI about his interactions with Russia’s US ambassador Sergey Kislyak in the weeks before Trump took office.
The Justice Department filed a motion to dismiss the charges with US District Judge Emmet Sullivan, who has presided over the case and has a reputation for fierce independence.
Newly declassified transcripts released Thursday by the House Intelligence Committee reveal that top Obama administration officials had no concrete evidence that the Trump campaigned colluded with Russia in the 2016 Election. Susan Power (left) and Loretta Lynch (right) were unable to point to specific examples of collusion, coordination or conspiracy
Trump has described accusations that his campaign may have colluded with Russia in the 2016 Election as a ‘hoax’ and a ‘witch hunt’
Judges generally grant such motions, but Sullivan could demand answers from the department about its reversal or even deny the motion and sentence Flynn, a less likely scenario.
Sullivan at a 2018 hearing expressed ‘disgust’ and ‘disdain’ toward Flynn’s criminal offense, saying: ‘Arguably, you sold your country out.’
Trump, who had publicly attacked the case against Flynn and has frequently castigated the FBI, said he was ‘very happy’ for his former aide, adding: ‘Yes, he was a great warrior, and he still is a great warrior. Now in my book he’s an even greater warrior.’
Trump said in March he was considering a full pardon and accused the FBI and Justice Department of having ‘destroyed’ Flynn’s life and that of his family.
In his web call on Friday, Obama, who is an expert in constitutional law having been the first black president of the Harvard Law Review in spring 1990, said the Flynn case was one of the main reasons that his former administration officials needed to do all they could to help Biden defeat Trump in November.
‘So I am hoping that all of you feel the same sense of urgency that I do,’ he said.
‘Whenever I campaign, I’ve always said, “Ah, this is the most important election.”
‘Especially obviously when I was on the ballot, that always feels like it’s the most important election.
‘This one – I’m not on the ballot – but I am pretty darn invested.
‘We got to make this happen.’
Other newly declassified transcripts released Thursday by the House Intelligence Committee revealed that top Obama administration officials had no concrete evidence that the Trump campaigned colluded with Russia in the 2016 election.
The transcripts come from 57 witnesses who were interviewed by the committee during the Trump Russia probe.
Obama’s national security adviser, Susan Rice, and former Attorney General Loretta Lynch were among those who gave their testimony.
Samantha Power, who was appointed by Obama to be the US Ambassador to the United Nations, told the House Intelligence Committee: ‘I am not in possession of anything – I am not in possession and didn’t read or absorb information that came from out of the intelligence community’
In her interview with the House Intelligence Committee, conducted on September 8, 2017, Rice admitted there ‘wasn’t anything smoking’ that showed the Trump campaign had helped with Russia’s election meddling.
‘I don’t recall intelligence that I would consider evidence to that effect… prior to my departure,’ she stated.
Meanwhile, Lynch similarly stated that she ‘could not say’ whether evidence of collusion, coordination or conspiracy existed when she gave her interview on October 20, 2017.
Other officials who worked in the Obama Administration were also asked about whether or not there was any concrete evidence they had seen.
Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper stated: ‘I never saw any direct empirical evidence that the Trump campaign or someone in it was plotting/conspiring with the Russians to meddle with the election.
‘That’s not to say that there weren’t concerns about the evidence we were seeing, anecdotal evidence. … But I do not recall any instance where I had direct evidence.’
Samantha Power, who was appointed by Obama to be the US Ambassador to the United Nations, was also among the 57 interviewees probed by the House Intelligence Committee.
The House Intelligence Committee on Thursday released the transcripts of interviews with key Trump world figures during the Russia probe, with chair Rep. Adam Schiff complaining about a declassification delay
‘I am not in possession of anything – I am not in possession and didn’t read or absorb information that came from out of the intelligence community,’ Power stated, according to the newly released transcripts.
Also interviewed were people critical of the probe, and who worked closely with Trump on the 2016 campaign trail.
Donald Trump Jr., Hope Hicks, and Steve Bannon were among them.
The release of the transcripts come after a tussle on whether or not they should have been declassified.
The House panel voted in 2018 to release the documents, but it wasn’t until this week that acting Director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell told the committee they were ready for release following a lengthy interagency classification review.
During the intervening period, the impeachment of President Trump and his trial has come and gone, the Mueller report has been released, and Trump has waged a long campaign against FBI agents and other key figures in investigations.
Panel chair Rep. Adam Schiff, a Democrat who is a regular target of Trump’s, complained in a release about the delay in the review, as his panel put out the information for all to see.
‘These transcripts should have been released long before now, but the White House held up their release to the public by refusing to allow the Intelligence Community to make redactions on the basis of classified information, rather than White House political interests,’ Schiff vented, despite the fact former Obama officials were unable to provide concrete evidence about collusion.
OTHER REVELATIONS FROM THE NEWLY DECLASSIFIED TRANSCRIPTS
– Trump’s security head Keith Schiller revealed he provided security services for Melania Trump when she took vacations. Asked by Rep. Jackie Speier if the future first lady took vacations separate from her husband, Schiller replied: ‘Yes m’am.’
– Longtime assistant Rhona Graff got quizzed on an invitation, conveyed by Emin Agalarov, for a Moscow visit that dangled a meeting with Vladimir Putin. It was conveyed by British PR Rob Goldstone, though after Trump turned down a birthday visit for his father, a wealthy Moscow developer. ”I totally understand re Moscow — unless maybe he would welcome a meeting with President Putin which Emin would set up,’ he wrote.
– Schiff quizzed Don Jr. on his receipt of an email from Goldstone before the Trump Tower meeting. ‘Was this the first communication you received from Mr. Goldstone where he indicated that the Russian Government wanted to provide assistance to the campaign?’ ‘Yes,’ he responded. Asked if he ever discussed with his father an email offering dirt on Hillary Clinton, Don Jr. responded: ‘No, not that I recall.’
Obama blasts Trump’s handling of coronavirus pandemic as ‘an absolute chaotic disaster’ and blames the president for America being more ‘selfish, tribal, and divided’ in leaked call
The Trump administration’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been an ‘absolute chaotic disaster,’ former President Barack Obama said on Friday.
President Trump’s predecessor blamed the current occupant of the Oval Office and his allies for exacerbating ‘tribal’ tensions around the country, which he says has hampered the effort to reduce total number of cases nationwide.
‘What we’re fighting against is these long-term trends in which being selfish, being tribal, being divided, and seeing others as an enemy – that has become a stronger impulse in American life,’ the president said in the call.
‘And by the way, we’re seeing that internationally as well.
‘It’s part of the reason why the response to this global crisis has been so anemic and spotty.
‘It would have been bad even with the best of governments.
‘It has been an absolute chaotic disaster when that mindset – of “what’s in it for me” and “to heck with everybody else” – when that mindset is operationalized in our government.’
On April 22, Obama launched a veiled attack on Trump without using the president’s name, claiming there is no ‘coherent national plan’ on coronavirus response
Obama added: ‘That’s why, I, by the way, am going to be spending as much time as necessary and campaigning as hard as I can for Joe Biden.’
Save for campaign speeches during the 2018 mid-term elections, the former president has largely been quiet since Trump took office and replaced him after defeating Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Obama’s comments on the Trump administration’s handling of the pandemic were a much sharper attack on his successor than last month.
In April Obama offered veiled criticism of Trump over the COVID-19 crisis, claiming that there was no ‘coherent national plan’ to address the outbreak.
‘While we continue to wait for a coherent national plan to navigate this pandemic, states like Massachusetts are beginning to adopt their own public health plans to combat this virus––before it’s too late,’ the former president tweeted.
Obama used the tweet to issue an attack on the president, but also praised Massachusetts for its response to the pandemic with a New Yorker article titled: It’s Not Too Late to Go on Offense Against the Coronavirus.
As several states continue to lament that they do not have the supplies to administer enough testing, some have taken matters into their own hands.
