Donald Trump is worried about Michael Flynn’s Russia testimony, has been warned not to interfere
In the hours since the Senate Intelligence Committee issued a subpoena to Michael Flynn in regard to Donald Trump’s Russia scandal, details have begun leaking out about Trump’s reaction. Various reports say that Trump is now worried about Flynn will say, and that he wanted to reach out to Flynn about the matter but was warned not to. It’s also being reported that Trump has become frustrated and isolated as the scandal unravels.
First up comes a report from The Daily Beast which says that Trump feels bad about the situation Michael Flynn is in, and keeps wanting to reach out to him, but keeps getting talked out of it by his own White House attorneys (link). Then comes a report from The Atlantic which reveals that Trump is privately questioning whether or not he should have fired Flynn to begin with, as he’s now worried what Flynn will end up revealing (link). But those two stories together, and you get a better picture of what’s going on.
In other words, Donald Trump appears to want to reach out to Michael Flynn in the hope of finding a way to influence his testimony. Whether that would be through friendly or subversive means is unclear. But Trump’s lawyers are correct in that he’d be committing obstruction of justice or witness tampering just by picking up the phone, now that the Senate has clearly identified Flynn as a target in its Trump-Russia investigation. As Palmer Report reported earlier this week (link), Trump arguably violated federal witness intimidation laws with his tweet aimed at Sally Yates just before her testimony.
It’s clear that Trump is in panic mode now that his firing of James Comey has backfired and resulted in the immediate Flynn subpoena, among other swift reactions. Washington Post reporter Robert Costa says that according to his sources, a “frustrated” Donald Trump has become “increasingly isolated in recent days” (link). So it appears at this point that Trump’s rash actions are out of pure exasperation, as things continue to not go his way.
