Michael Flynn’s resignation letter implies Donald Trump knew about Russian collusion all along
National Security Advisor Michael T. Flynn has resigned tonight after just twenty-four days on the job, in what is likely the shortest tenure of any top level White House advisor in modern U.S. history. But even more stunning than his departure is the manner in which he’s exiting. Donald Trump spent four days not firing him, before he finally resigned. And now Flynn’s own resignation letter appears to confirm that Trump knew about Flynn’s Russian collusion all along.
Flynn’s resignation letter is seven paragraphs long, but here’s the relevant passage: “Unfortunately, because of the fast pace of events, I inadvertently briefed the Vice President Elect and others with incomplete information regarding my phone calls with the Russian Ambassador. I have sincerely apologized to the President and the Vice President, and they have accepted my apology.” In other words, Flynn lied to Mike Pence and he’s now trying to pretend that he somehow didn’t have ‘complete information’ regarding his own phone conversations. But the key here is what Flynn has omitted.
Nowhere in the above passage did Michael Flynn say that he misinformed or misled Donald Trump with regard to his phone calls to the Russian Ambassador. If Trump had been unaware of Flynn’s phone calls at the time they were taking place, Trump would surely have been asking Flynn questions about the matter when it came to light. And in this scenario, Flynn would have misled Trump just the same as he misled Pence – and Flynn would now be apologizing to Trump as well as Pence.
But Flynn makes no mention of having misled Trump on this at all – which suggests that Trump never asked Flynn about it. And there would only have been one logical reason for Trump to have not bothered asking Flynn about this revelation: Trump already knew about the Russian collusion, because Trump told Flynn to make the phone calls. Flynn’s resignation letter essentially acknowledges that Trump knew about Flynn’s criminal antics all along. It was a huge mistake for the White House to allow this resignation letter to go out tonight with this wording.
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