Trump should be 'very worried' about Flynn cooperating with Mueller, Preet Bharara says
On Thanksgiving, lawyers representing President Trump's former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, pulled out of an agreement to share information with Trump's lawyers about Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian election meddling and the Trump campaign. Trump's lawyers reportedly believe the move could mean that Flynn is cooperating with Mueller's team, and former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, whom Trump fired as the top federal prosecutor in Manhattan, said Sunday that Trump's team has good reason to be concerned.
"My view," Bharara told CNN, "based on how things used to operate in my office and based on how the world works, is that there's a substantial likelihood that they're at least in discussions with regard to cooperating." He added that Trump shouldn't necessarily be worried about Flynn flipping. "It depends on what the president has done and what the president's conversations with Michael Flynn and others have been," Bharara said. "But if you've done bad things, then you should be very worried."
Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow cautioned that "no one should draw the conclusion that this means anything about Gen. Flynn cooperating against the president," and in fact lawyers can scrap such informal information-sharing agreements for several reasons. Bharara agreed on Sunday that Flynn turning on Trump is "speculation," albeit "based on how the process has tended to work in the past." But if news reports are true that Flynn has "considerable legal liability, criminal liability," he added, then the only way to get him and potentially his son "off the hook" is "to cooperate with the prosecution." You can watch his entire interview at CNN.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Striking homes with indoor poolsFeature Featuring a Queen Anne mansion near Chicago and mid-century modern masterpiece in Washington
-
Why are federal and local authorities feuding over investigating ICE?TODAY’S BIG QUESTION Minneapolis has become ground zero for a growing battle over jurisdictional authority
-
‘Even those in the United States legally are targets’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
The billionaires’ wealth tax: a catastrophe for California?Talking Point Peter Thiel and Larry Page preparing to change state residency
-
Hegseth moves to demote Sen. Kelly over videospeed read Retired Navy fighter pilot Mark Kelly appeared in a video reminding military service members that they can ‘refuse illegal orders’
-
Trump says US ‘in charge’ of Venezuela after Maduro grabSpeed Read The American president claims the US will ‘run’ Venezuela for an unspecified amount of time, contradicting a statement from Secretary of State Marco Rubio
-
Bari Weiss’ ‘60 Minutes’ scandal is about more than one reportIN THE SPOTLIGHT By blocking an approved segment on a controversial prison holding US deportees in El Salvador, the editor-in-chief of CBS News has become the main story
-
CBS pulls ‘60 Minutes’ report on Trump deporteesSpeed Read An investigation into the deportations of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador’s notorious prison was scrapped
-
Trump administration posts sliver of Epstein filesSpeed Read Many of the Justice Department documents were heavily redacted, though new photos of both Donald Trump and Bill Clinton emerged
-
Trump HHS moves to end care for trans youthSpeed Read The administration is making sweeping proposals that would eliminate gender-affirming care for Americans under age 18
-
Jack Smith tells House of ‘proof’ of Trump’s crimesSpeed Read President Donald Trump ‘engaged in a criminal scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election,’ hoarded classified documents and ‘repeatedly tried to obstruct justice’
