Trump claims no one told him not to hire Michael Flynn. Obama did.

published 17 May 2019

If only someone who wasn't former President Barack Obama had raised some red flags about Michael Flynn.

On Friday, President Trump dug up an old complaint about his quickly disgraced national security adviser, tweeting that "it now seems the General Flynn was under investigation long before was common knowledge" and questioning why he wasn't told about it. Except it's public knowledge that Obama fired Flynn, and that he warned Trump against bringing him back on.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

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.

Trump hired and quickly fired Flynn as national security adviser in the early days of his presidency. Flynn later pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI, and eventually gave interviews to Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Trump's tweet is likely tied to the Thursday revelation that Flynn told investigators that people with ties to the Trump administration and Congress contacted him in an attempt to interfere with the Russia probe. Mueller included that information in newly unredacted court papers.

Explore More

Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.