Michael Flynn’s son dismisses immunity story as ‘#fakenews’ spread by Twitter ‘bots’
WASHINGTON — Michael Flynn Jr., the son of President Trump’s former national security adviser, took to Twitter on Friday to dispute reports that his father is willing to testify before Congress in exchange for immunity.
Flynn Jr.’s father, retired Gen. Michael Flynn, is at the center of the allegations surrounding Trump’s ties to Russia. On Thursday evening, the Wall Street Journal reported the elder Flynn is willing to be interviewed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and congressional officials investigating links between Trump’s presidential campaign and the Russian government “in exchange for a grant of immunity from prosecution.” The Journal story cited “officials with knowledge of the matter.”
Flynn’s attorney, Robert Kelner, seemed to confirm the Journal’s reporting when he tweeted a statement on Thursday evening saying the former general “certainly has a story to tell” and “very much wants to tell it, should the circumstances permit.” Kelner confirmed that Flynn’s legal team is in communication with the House and Senate intelligence committees running the Russia probes, but the attorney’s statement did not describe the nature of those talks beyond saying that Flynn wants “assurances against unfair prosecution” in a “highly polarized, witch hunt environment.” The statement from Flynn’s attorney did not specifically use the word “immunity.”
It isn’t clear what Flynn’s potential legal jeopardy might be, if any. The intelligence community has said the Russian government interfered in last year’s election to help Trump win, but law enforcement has not alleged that the Trump campaign was complicit with these efforts.
In testimony before Congress earlier this month, FBI Director James Comey confirmed the bureau is investigating the possibility of collusion. Flynn and other Trump associates did have contact with Russian officials, including Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, during the campaign and presidential transition. Flynn was fired from his position as national security adviser in February after it was revealed that he misled Vice President Mike Pence about the nature of his conversations with Kislyak. There have been reports Flynn also made false statements to the FBI about his contacts with Kislyak and failed to properly register with the Justice Department as a lobbyist for the government of Turkey. It’s not known if the FBI is still investigating those matters, or whether it would pursue charges, but if it did, it could complicate any efforts to secure immunity because Congress doesn’t normally make immunity deals that could interfere with federal investigations.
After the Journal’s report about the immunity deal was published, Flynn Jr. sent a series of tweets dismissing it. First, he retweeted Kelner’s statement and an earlier message from the attorney criticizing the Journal for including “sensational claims” about Flynn in a story published earlier this month. The disputed story, based on an account by former CIA Director James Woolsey, concerned a plot to transport a Turkish opposition figure from the U.S. to Turkey, which has sought his extradition. Flynn has denied any connection to the alleged plot. Flynn Jr. also linked to an article containing Kelner’s statement and highlighted a line where his father’s lawyer accused “the media” of being “awash with unfounded allegations, outrageous claims of treason, and vicious innuendo” about Flynn.
Flynn Jr. also shared a tweet from an anonymous account that cited his father’s military record, lauded the erstwhile general as a “patriot,” and encouraged others to retweet the message if they “trust him more than anybody in the press.” The younger Flynn also retweeted three tweets from people suggesting automated bots were spreading the Journal story in order to get it on Twitter’s trending list, which would put it in front of many of the site’s users.
Notice how these Mike Flynn bots have ZERO to very few RTs. no one reads these Tweets, they are here to pump hashtags only pic.twitter.com/sRJXXRDtVC
— MicroMagicJingle™ (@WDFx2EU95) March 31, 2017
@PresidentIvanka @GenFlynn Another @davidbrockdc bot, 1 follower, its only concerned about how bad Mike Flynn is pic.twitter.com/m1CIzV7Prg
— MicroMagicJingle™ (@WDFx2EU95) March 31, 2017
Great work by @WDFx2EU95 exposing how Twitter is allowing paid bots to push the Mike Flynn story to top trend
Comment, @Jack?
— Jack Posobiec ???????? (@JackPosobiec) March 31, 2017
Flynn Jr. then posted a message suggesting a link between what he described as the “Mike Flynn fake news” and efforts by Obama associates to gather intelligence on the Trump team’s ties to Russia during the transition. Finally, Flynn Jr. shared a tweet from a pro-Trump blogger who declared Flynn has “not requested immunity,” and one from Paul Joseph Watson, an editor with the conspiracy site InfoWars, that included Kelner’s statement and disputed the Journal report.
“No mention of asking for immunity,” Watson wrote of the statement. “Wall Street Journal publishing fake news YET AGAIN.”
Flynn Jr. has previously gotten into hot water for sharing conspiracy theories on Twitter. He was initially working with his father on Trump’s transition team, but Flynn Jr. was fired in December after he sent a tweet touting the widely debunked “pizzagate” story about Democrats participating in a pedophilia ring at a Washington restaurant. The elder Flynn has also been criticized for using Twitter to share wild conspiracies about Democrats and Muslims.
Kelner and both Flynns have not responded to multiple requests for comment from Yahoo News about whether the former general is seeking an immunity deal.
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