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Barack Obama criticized Attorney General Bill Barr’s decision to drop the charges against Michael Flynn as one that puts the rule of law ‘at risk’ just a day after learning that the former president knew details about the phone calls intercepted by the former general with Russia ambassador.
The 44th president made the comments during a conference call with former members of his administration. Yahoo News obtained an audio of the call.
Obama is facing scrutiny after it became known through declassified documents that he knew details of an FBI counterintelligence investigation against Flynn and had discussed it with senior administration officials just 15 days before Trump took office.
“I think the news for the past 24 hours has been downplayed, about the fact that the Justice Department dropped the charges against Michael Flynn,” the former president said during a web conversation with members of the Alumni Association of Obama.
President Barack Obama (right) smiles alongside then-President-elect Donald Trump (left) at the White House before the inauguration on January 20, 2017
Obama said Friday that Attorney General Bill Barr’s decision (right) to drop the charges against Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn (left) meant that “our basic understanding of the rule of law was at risk.”
“And the fact that there is no precedent anyone can find for someone who has been charged with perjury who has just been released,” the former president said.
‘That’s the kind of thing you start worrying about the basics of, not just institutional norms, but our basic understanding of the rule of law.
“And when you start moving in those directions, it can accelerate quite quickly as we’ve seen elsewhere.”
Obama intervened in Flynn’s case a day after the declassified documents showed he raised the issue of the FBI investigation of Flynn with then-Assistant Secretary General Sally Yates.
The documents, which have been used as evidence in the government’s motion to dismiss the case against Flynn, who at the time would become the national security adviser under the incoming Trump administration, show that Obama’s knowledge of the call stunned Yachts.
According to Fox News, on January 5, 2017, fifteen days before Donald Trump took office, Yates attended a meeting in the Oval Office with Obama along with other notable national security figures, according to the recently declassified documents, They include an ‘FD-302 FBI’ report, a document used to detail interviews the office conducts.
The other assistants were Vice President Joe Biden, FBI and CIA Directors James Comey and John Brennan, respectively, and then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.
Former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates appeared before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee hearing titled “Russian Interference in the 2016 United States Elections” on May 8, 2017
The meeting was held to discuss interference in the Russian elections, and also involved Susan Rice, the National Security Adviser who Flynn soon replaced, and other national security officials.
After the meeting, the president asked Yates and Comey to “stay behind” in the Oval Office, saying he had “learned the information about Flynn” and the phone conversations about the sanctions with the Russian ambassador.
Obama “specified that he did not want any additional information on the matter, but was seeking information on whether the White House should treat Flynn differently, given the information,” according to the documents, which showed at this point that “Yates had no idea. what the president was talking about, but he resolved it based on the conversation. ‘
In a separate note from Susan Rice about the meeting, Joe Biden also stayed after the briefing.
Obama’s knowledge of the phone calls, which the FBI said at the time were not criminal in nature, is remarkable because of his own history with Flynn.
High-ranking FBI officials had secretly discussed whether their goal was to ultimately fire the adviser when they interviewed Flynn at the White House on January 24, 2017.
In addition, in 2014, President Obama had fired Flynn as his head of the Defense Intelligence Agency and had warned the incoming Trump administration not to hire him as National Security Adviser, making it clear that “he was not a fanatic “according to multiple sources. .
In December 2017, Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia during the Russia investigation.
He also admitted not registering as a foreign agent due to his lucrative job for the Turkish government while serving as a campaign advisor for the Trump campaign.
On Thursday, the Justice Department abruptly asked a judge to drop criminal charges against Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser, after mounting pressure from the Republican president and his right-wing political allies.
Obama was wrong to say that Flynn was charged with perjury. Flynn had pleaded guilty to making false statements to the FBI, not perjury.
Attorney General Bill Barr insists he is NOT issuing Trump’s orders by dropping the charges against Michael Flynn
Attorney General Bill Barr defended the decision not to press charges against the firing of Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn on Thursday, who pleaded guilty in court to lying to the FBI about his contacts with the Russian ambassador during the transition from Trump.
Barr said he doesn’t know how history will judge him because “history is written by the winners” hours after the Justice Department said it would drop its criminal case against Flynn.
The attorney general told CBS News that while Flynn lied, the false statement was not “material for a legitimate investigation.”
“It is on the issue of materiality that we really feel that a crime cannot be established here because, in our view, a legitimate investigation was not being conducted,” Barr said.
“They had no basis for a counterintelligence investigation against Flynn at that stage, based on a perfectly legitimate and appropriate call that he made as a member of the transition.”
Attorney General Bill Barr said he doesn’t know how history will judge him because “the story is written by the hours of the winners after the Justice Department said it would drop its criminal case against Flynn.” In the photo: Attorney General Bill Barr at the White House in April
The attorney general said FBI investigators “essentially” caught Flynn for lying.
The startling change drew immediate praise from Trump, who has long claimed that Flynn was jailed and kept the possibility of a presidential pardon alive while attacking prosecutors who said they were on a ‘witch hunt.’
Flynn celebrated by tweeting a photo of her grandson Travis reciting the pledge of loyalty with the words “justice for all.”
The Justice Department filed a motion to dismiss the charges before US District Judge Emmet Sullivan, who has presided over the case and has a reputation for fierce independence.
Judges generally grant such motions, but Sullivan could demand responses from the department on its revocation or even deny the Flynn motion and sentence, a less likely scenario.
Sullivan at a 2018 hearing expressed “disgust” and “disdain” for Flynn’s criminal offense, saying: “You could say you sold your country.”
Donald Trump reacted in the Oval Office saying that Flynn “was an innocent man.”
“Now in my book he is an even greater warrior,” said the president. Trump said he would contact Flynn at the “appropriate” time.
‘I think he is a hero. Is a gotcha. It was a scam and a hoax. I think he’s a hero, the general, ” Trump said.
However, Democrats criticized the measure.
‘President Trump does not care about you. He doesn’t care about your health. He doesn’t care about your family. He doesn’t care about the evidence. He only cares about his buddies taking care of themselves, ” Chuck Schumer tweeted.
Adam Schiff, who led the Donald Trump indictment, said Flynn was not exonerated by the measure, adding: “But it does incriminate Bill Barr.” In the worst politicization of the Justice Department in its history.
The move drew furious criticism from Democrats in Congress and others who accused the department and Barr of politicizing the U.S. criminal justice system by bowing to Trump’s wishes and unduly protecting his friends and associates in criminal cases.
Flynn, a retired army lieutenant general who served as Trump’s adviser during the 2016 campaign, had been trying to withdraw his 2017 guilty plea in which he admitted to lying to the FBI about his interactions with the Russian ambassador to the United States. United, Sergey Kislyak, in the previous weeks. Trump took office.
The Justice Department filed a motion to dismiss the charges before US District Judge Emmet Sullivan, who has presided over the case and has a reputation for fierce independence.
Recently declassified transcripts released Thursday by the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee reveal that senior Obama administration officials had no concrete evidence that Trump campaigned in collusion with Russia in the 2016 election. Susan Power (left) and Loretta Lynch (right) were unable to point to specific examples of collusion, coordination, or conspiracy
Trump described the allegations that his campaign could have colluded with Russia in the 2016 election as a “hoax” and a “witch hunt.”
Judges generally grant such motions, but Sullivan could demand responses from the department on its revocation or even deny the Flynn motion and sentence, a less likely scenario.
Sullivan at a 2018 hearing expressed “disgust” and “disdain” for Flynn’s criminal offense, saying: “You could say he sold his country.”
Trump, who had publicly attacked the case against Flynn and has frequently punished the FBI, said he was “very happy” for his former aide, adding, “Yes, he was a great warrior and he is still a great warrior.” Now in my book he is an even greater warrior. “
Trump said in March that he was considering a full pardon and accused the FBI and the Justice Department of having “destroyed” the lives of Flynn and her family.
In his web call on Friday, Obama, a constitutional law expert who was the first black president of the Harvard Law Review in the spring of 1990, said the Flynn case was one of the main reasons his former administration officials needed do everything. They could help Biden defeat Trump in November.
“So I hope you all have the same sense of urgency as I do,” he said.
‘Whenever I campaign, I have always said,” Ah, this is the most important choice. “
Obviously Especially obviously when I was on the ballot, that always seems to be the most important choice.
‘This one, I’m not on the ballot, but I’m pretty invested.
“We have to make this happen.”
Other recently declassified transcripts released Thursday by the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee revealed that senior Obama administration officials had no concrete evidence that Trump campaigned in collusion with Russia in the 2016 election.
The transcripts come from 57 witnesses who were interviewed by the committee during the Trump Russia investigation.
Obama’s national security adviser Susan Rice and former Attorney General Loretta Lynch were among those who gave their testimony.
Samantha Power, who was appointed by Obama to be the United States Ambassador to the United Nations, told the House Intelligence Committee: “I am not in possession of anything, I am not in possession, and I did not read or absorb the information that came out of the intelligence community ‘
In her interview with the House Intelligence Committee, conducted on September 8, 2017, Rice admitted that “there was nothing to smoke” showing that the Trump campaign had helped with Russia’s meddling.
“I do not recall the intelligence that I would consider evidence to that effect … before my departure,” he said.
Meanwhile, Lynch similarly stated that he ‘could not say’ whether there was evidence of collusion, coordination or conspiracy when he gave his interview on October 20, 2017.
Other officials working in the Obama administration were also asked whether or not there was concrete evidence they had seen.
Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper stated: ‘I never saw any direct empirical evidence that the Trump campaign or anyone in it was conspiring / conspiring with the Russians to meddle in the election.
‘That does not mean that there are no concerns about the evidence we were seeing, anecdotal evidence. … But I don’t recall any instance where I had direct evidence. ‘
Samantha Power, who was appointed by Obama to be the United States’ ambassador to the United Nations, was also among the 57 interviewees investigated by the House Intelligence Committee.
The House of Representatives Intelligence Committee on Thursday released transcripts of interviews with key Trump figures around the world during the Russia investigation, and Rep. Adam Schiff complained of a delay in declassification.
“I am not in possession of anything, I am not in possession and I did not read or absorb information that came from the intelligence community,” Power said, according to recently released transcripts.
People critical of the investigation and who worked closely with Trump in the 2016 campaign were also interviewed.
Donald Trump Jr., Hope Hicks, and Steve Bannon were among them.
The publication of the transcripts comes after a dispute over whether they should have been declassified or not.
The House panel voted in 2018 to publish the documents, but it was not until this week that Acting Director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell told the committee that they were ready for release after a lengthy inter-agency classification review.
During the interim period, President Trump’s impeachment and trial have come and gone, the Mueller report has been published, and Trump has waged a lengthy campaign against FBI agents and other key figures in the investigations.
Panel chairman Rep. Adam Schiff, a Democrat who is a regular Trump target, complained in a statement about the delay in the review, as his panel released the information for all to see.
“These transcripts should have been published much earlier, but the White House delayed their disclosure to the public by refusing to allow the Intelligence Community to write on the basis of classified information, rather than political interests of the White House,” Schiff said, despite the fact that former Obama officials were unable to provide concrete evidence of the collusion.
Obama criticizes Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic as “an absolutely chaotic disaster” and blames the president for making the United States more “selfish, tribal, and divided” in a leaked call
The Trump administration’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic has been an “absolute chaotic disaster,” former President Barack Obama said Friday.
President Trump’s predecessor blamed the current occupant of the Oval Office and his allies for exacerbating “tribal” tensions across the country, which he said has hampered the effort to reduce the total number of cases across the country.
“What we are fighting against is against these long-term trends where being selfish, being tribal, being divided, and seeing others as enemies has become a stronger drive in American life,” the president said in the call.
‘And by the way, we are also seeing it internationally.
Part It is part of the reason why the response to this global crisis has been so anemic and irregular.
‘It would have been bad even with the best governments.
“It has been an absolutely chaotic mess when that mindset – of” what’s in it for me “and” to screw everyone else “- when that mindset becomes operational in our government.”
On April 22, Obama launched a veiled attack on Trump without using the president’s name, alleging that there is no ‘coherent national plan’ for the coronavirus response
Obama added: “So I, by the way, am going to spend as much time as necessary and campaign for Joe Biden as much as possible.”
Except for campaign speeches during the 2018 midterm elections, the former president has remained silent since Trump took office and replaced him after defeating Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Obama’s comments about the Trump administration’s handling of the pandemic were a much sharper attack on his successor than last month.
In April, Obama offered veiled criticism of Trump about the COVID-19 crisis, alleging that there was no “coherent national plan” to address the outbreak.
“As we continue to wait for a coherent national plan to navigate this pandemic, states like Massachusetts are beginning to adopt their own public health plans to combat this virus, before it is too late,” the former president tweeted.
Obama used the tweet to launch an attack on the president, but he also praised Massachusetts for its response to the pandemic with a New York article titled: It is not too late to commit an offense against the coronavirus.
As various states continue to regret that they do not have the supplies to administer enough tests, some have taken matters into their own hands.
