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Mimi Rocah, a former federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York, said that any information Mueller needed from Flynn was probably "already locked up" before the grand jury and that the former general had probably no more value of investigation for Mueller. "I'm sure it's not an accident that Manafort just pleaded," said Rocah, referring to former President Paul Manafort, who pleaded guilty on Friday to charges of conspiracy and obstruction. "Flynn probably had information on Manafort and now that Manafort has pleaded, Flynn is no longer as necessary."
Flynn served as Trump's high-level advisor during the election and was a member of Trump's transition team before being appointed a national security advisor last January. He had been stationed for just over three weeks before reports revealed that he had discussed the issue of sanctions with Kislyak during the transition period, despite repeated denials – notably to Vice President Mike Pence – . Intelligence officials, however, had listened to the Flynn-Kislyak calls as part of their regular tapping against foreign diplomats and knew that Flynn had been lying – he had actually asked Kislyak "not to make the situation worse in response to the sanctions. that the United States had imposed on Russia "in December 2016, according to an indictment filed last year by Mueller's office to which Flynn had pleaded guilty. In response, Kislyak said that Russia had "moderated its response to these sanctions from its request," said the indictment.
Veteran reporter Bob Woodward spoke about Flynn-Kislyak's calls in his new book, Fear. According to Woodward, not only the penalties discussed on each phone call, but also the transcripts obtained by the White House in February 2017 – as they were going to decide to dismiss Flynn – demonstrated that it was Flynn, not Kislyak, who had that President Obama had issued in December in response to Russia's electoral interference. Acting Attorney General Sally Yates warned White House lawyer Don McGahn that Flynn had misled the FBI about the calls. Still, the White House waited 17 days to dismiss Flynn, and the day after his ouster, Trump met with James Comey, then director of the FBI, and asked him if he was considering letting Flynn "go away." asked Comey) were examined by Mueller.
Once he began cooperating with prosecutors, Flynn seemed to be able to answer some of the biggest lingering questions in the investigation of Russia: did Trump order Flynn to do anything? to relax sanctions in front of Kislyak during the transition period? And did the President know that Flynn had misled the FBI when he denied ever discussing sanctions with Kislyak? (If Trump knew how much Flynn was in the FBI's line of fire when he asked Comey, who he later dismissed, to consider letting Flynn go, that could significantly strengthen the White House's record. she waited nearly three weeks to dismiss a high-level advisor who, according to Yates, was at risk of being blackmailed by the Russians? Flynn was also reportedly aware of a "peace plan" for the withdrawal of Moscow from its support for pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, allegedly delivered by the long-standing advocate of President Michael Cohen.
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