Michael Flynn’s plea deal forced key member of Team Trump to change testimony
Nearly ten months after Michael Flynn cut a plea deal and agreed to fully cooperate with Special Counsel Robert Mueller in the Trump-Russia investigation, the big question remains: just whom is he taking down with his cooperation? Flynn’s situation has been somewhat unique in that up to now, we haven’t really seen any hints about the impact that his deal has had. But now that he’s finally on the verge of being sentenced, those details are beginning to surface.
Today came the very first publicly known impact of Michael Flynn’s plea deal. When Flynn was serving as Donald Trump’s White House National Security Adviser, his Deputy was K.T. McFarland. At one point last year, the FBI asked her whether she knew that Flynn had been communicating with the Russian Ambassador during the transition period. Suffice it to say that, according to the Washington Post, she gave one answer, and then after she learned that Flynn had cut a deal, she went back and gave the FBI a different answer.
McFarland reportedly isn’t going to be criminally charged for this, because her original answer wasn’t considered to be so much a lie, as it was an attempt at being vague. But it reveals the kind of impact that Michael Flynn’s plea deal was having at the time. McFarland wasn’t even a part of the Trump-Russia plot; she was really just a witness. But she clearly feared she’d end up in prison if she didn’t go back and give a more accurate and helpful answer to the FBI.
We’re just now learning that K.T. McFarland rushed to be more cooperative shortly after Flynn flipped. Stop and ask yourself who all else might have gone running to the FBI after Michael Flynn cut his plea deal – including people who were much more deeply involved in this than McFarland was. You may not have to wonder for long. As Flynn’s sentencing date grows closer, we’re going to see a whole lot more of the fallout from his deal finally coming to the surface.
