Trump tweet on Flynn suggests obstruction of justice, critics say
On Saturday morning, President Trump tweeted a response to Friday's news that former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI:
The Washington Post later reported, citing unnamed sources, that the tweet was written by Trump's personal lawyer, John Dowd. While Dowd told NBC News the post "simply paraphrases what [White House lawyer] Ty Cobb said" about Flynn's guilty plea, critics argue it says much more.
The timeline here is crucial: When Trump fired Flynn on Feb. 13, he only mentioned lies to Vice President Pence, ostensibly learning of the lies to the FBI three days later, on Feb. 16. If Trump knew about the FBI lies when Flynn was fired, his alleged Feb. 14 request that then-FBI Director James Comey let the Flynn investigation go could be obstruction of justice.
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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.
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