Flynn's Lies About Russia Contacts Fully Exposed, White House Refuses to Defend Him

The Sunday That Sealed Flynn’s Fate

By Sunday, February 12, 2017, the walls had closed in on National Security Advisor Michael Flynn. Three days after The Washington Post reported that Flynn had in fact discussed U.S. sanctions against Russia with Ambassador Sergey Kislyak — directly contradicting public denials made by Flynn, Vice President Pence, and other senior officials — the question was no longer whether Flynn had lied, but how long Trump would keep him.

The answer came in the form of conspicuous silence. Senior White House policy advisor Stephen Miller appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press, CBS’s Face the Nation, and other Sunday shows, and when pressed on whether President Trump still had confidence in Flynn, he pointedly refused to say. “It’s not for me to tell you what’s in the president’s mind,” Miller told Chuck Todd, calling the Flynn situation “a sensitive matter.” The refusal to offer even a tepid defense was a death sentence in Washington terms.

The Knives Come Out

Behind the scenes, the picture was even bleaker. Anonymous administration officials told reporters that “the knives are out for Flynn,” with one stating bluntly that the consensus view inside the White House was that Flynn “lied” and predicting he would not “last much longer.” Trump, vacationing at Mar-a-Lago, reportedly expressed private frustration with Flynn but made no public statement defending or criticizing his embattled advisor — claiming he had not yet reviewed the news reports.

This claim of ignorance was itself damning. The president of the United States was asserting he hadn’t bothered to read reports that his national security advisor — the person responsible for protecting America from foreign threats — had secretly negotiated with a hostile foreign power and then lied about it. Either Trump was telling the truth and was dangerously disengaged, or he was lying to buy time.

What Trump Already Knew

The most explosive detail was what the White House was still concealing from the public on February 12: Acting Attorney General Sally Yates had personally warned White House Counsel Don McGahn on January 26 — seventeen days earlier — that Flynn had been compromised and was vulnerable to Russian blackmail. The intelligence community had intercepted Flynn’s calls with Kislyak as a matter of routine surveillance of the Russian ambassador, and the transcripts clearly showed Flynn had discussed sanctions.

Trump’s team had known for more than two weeks that their national security advisor had lied, that the Russians knew he had lied, and that this gave Moscow leverage over the person with the highest-level access to American secrets. They did nothing. Worse, they fired Yates four days after her warning — ostensibly over the travel ban, but the timing raised obvious questions about whether silencing the messenger was part of the motive.

A Pattern Takes Shape

Flynn’s exposure on February 12 was not merely the downfall of a single official. It was an early preview of the Trump administration’s characteristic response to scandal: deny, deflect, claim ignorance, attack the investigators, and only abandon an ally when the political cost becomes unbearable. Flynn would resign the following day. He would later plead guilty to lying to the FBI, cooperate with Special Counsel Robert Mueller, attempt to withdraw his plea, and ultimately receive a presidential pardon — a full cycle of the corruption loop that would repeat throughout Trump’s presidency.