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'I Think He's Exonerated': Will Trump Bring Michael Flynn Back into His Administration?

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President Donald Trump voiced strong support Thursday for his former national security advisor Michael Flynn after Flynn's lawyers disclosed internal FBI documents showing the FBI tried to "intentionally frame" him.

In her first briefing as White House Press Secretary on Friday, Kayleigh McEnany was asked about whether Flynn was guilty. She turned the tables on reporters saying, "Do you not consider it a miscarriage of justice" that the FBI actually plotted against General Flynn, to try to trap him?

Trump says he believes Flynn should now be cleared in court, but if that doesn't happen, he as president has "a different type of power."

"It looks to me like Michael Flynn would be exonerated based on everything I see," Trump told reporters Thursday. "I'm not the judge, but I have a different type of power. But I don't know that anybody would have to use that power. I think he's exonerated."

"General Flynn was under an enormous pressure and it was an artificial pressure because what they did to General Flynn was a disgrace, it was a total disgrace, it's shocking," Trump said. "What they tried to do to destroy him and to hurt this presidency was — there has never been anything like it. An absolute disgrace."

A reporter then asked Trump, "Are you going to pardon him, and if so are you considering bringing him back into your administration?"

"Well, it looks like Michael Flynn would be exonerated based on everything I see," Trump responded. "I'm not the judge, but I have a different type of power but I don't know that anybody would have to use that power - I think he's exonerated. I've never seen anything like it."

"I think he's a fine man, I think it's terrible what they did to him," Trump continued. "I would certainly consider it, yeah, I would. I think he is a fine man. I think he has got a great family."

Trump has long said he is considering pardoning Flynn, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his conversations with the Russian ambassador to the United States. 

Fox News reported internal FBI documents that were unsealed Thursday indicated that Peter Strzok – the fired chief of the FBI's Counterespionage Section whose text messages revealed him plotting against President Trump – had also ordered the investigation of Flynn to remain open even after it was scheduled to be closed due to a lack of so-called "derogatory" information.

Flynn's lawyers have released internal correspondence they obtained through a Justice Department review of the handling of the case. They argue the documents support their allegations that Flynn was set up to lie when he was questioned at the White House on January 24, 2017, about conversations with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak in which the men discussed sanctions recently imposed on Russia over election interference.

Flynn later pleaded guilty to making false statements to the FBI agents but did not contest the way he was interviewed during his sentencing hearing a year later. His legal team has since sought to get his guilty plea withdrawn citing "egregious" FBI misconduct.

Flynn is still waiting to be sentenced. Judge Emmet Sullivan has not ruled on his request to withdraw the guilty plea.

Among the documents is a redacted internal memo from Jan. 4, 2017, saying the FBI was closing out its investigation into whether a subject with the code name of Crossfire Razor was an agent of a foreign power or acting under the direction of Russia. The subject is described as a Trump campaign foreign policy adviser who traveled to Russia in 2015.

Flynn's attorney Sidney Powell confirmed Thursday that Crossfire Razor was Flynn.

Those handwritten notes – written by the FBI's former assistant director of the Counterintelligence Division, Bill Priestap, Fox News is told –  suggested that agents planned in the alternative to get Flynn "to admit to breaking the Logan Act" when he spoke to then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak during the presidential transition period.  The Logan Act has never been used in a criminal prosecution and has a questionable constitutional status; it was enacted in 1799 in an era before telephones, and was intended to prevent individuals from falsely claiming to represent the United States government abroad, Fox contends. 

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Steve Warren and Benjamin Gill
Steve Warren and Benjamin Gill