Obama appeared to slam the Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic as an “absolute chaotic disaster' as he offered blistering criticisms that he’s rarely aired in public.
against Flynn, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with a Russian ambassador amid Robert S. Mueller III’s special counsel inquiry. He is now seeking to withdraw that plea.“There is no precedent that anybody can find for someone who has been charged with perjury just getting off scot-free,” Obama said in the Friday night call to about 3,000 members of the Obama Alumni Association, according to his spokeswoman.
The news that the government would not pursue its case against Flynn “has been somewhat downplayed,” Obama said. The move to abandon Flynn’s case was cheered by Trump supporters who have long derided the special counsel and believe the former Trump adviser was unfairly targeted — bolstered by a Justice Department finding that lower-level prosecutors and agents made key errors while investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election.
In court documents filed Thursday, the Justice Department said that Flynn’s FBI interview was “untethered to, and unjustified by, the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation into Mr. Flynn” and that it was “conducted without any legitimate investigative basis.” While Obama has spoken out critically of the Trump administration before — including the month he left office, when he encouraged Americans to protest a travel ban on citizens from seven majority-Muslim countries — his comments Friday night stood out.
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