The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee believes President Trump had to have known former national security adviser Mike Flynn lied about his conversations with the Russian ambassador and was fine with that lie until it went public.
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said on CNN that the White House was told last month about Flynn’s conversations with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, including the fact that Flynn had lied about the content of those conversations. Originally, the call was supposedly genial and didn’t deal with matters of importance, according to the White House.
But reports indicated transcripts from the calls taken by U.S. intelligence officials showed Flynn and Kislyak did discuss President Obama’s sanctions against Russia. The reports say Flynn may have indicated Trump could ease the sanctions.
Schiff said either Trump knew about what the Justice Department told the White House or national security information is being hidden from him.
“[The White House counsel] must have shared that with others in the administration and I think it’s very implausible that those people if they were having discussions about removing Flynn wouldn’t have shared that with the president,” Schiff said.
He added Trump’s statements on Friday that he didn’t know about the allegations Flynn had lied must have been false.
“He knew exactly what the controversy was as it was swirling around. The question is how much did he know of what [former Acting Attorney General] Sally Yates communicated to the White House counsel. I believe he had to know that as well,” Schiff said. “If he didn’t, important national security is being kept from the president.”
Schiff said one of the most disturbing aspects of the controversy is the fact that the White House knew for weeks about Flynn’s lie and didn’t take any action.
In the interim period, Flynn continued to give the presidential daily briefing and was exposed to the highest levels of American intelligence. He was also included in meetings with world leaders. Schiff said the administration was fine with perpetuating the lie until it got out.
“The White House knew about the fact that Flynn had lied, knew that the vice president had repeated the falsehood to the American people,” Schiff said. “And for Kellyanne Conway to say he’s only stepping down because he misled the vice president, no, the entire country was misled and they were OK with that as long as the public didn’t know. That is deeply troubling.”
