A new report indicated that Mueller related files show that Michael Flynn was under investigation much earlier than previously thought.
Comey apparently hinted at it during testimony where he stated that the investigation into Flynn was about to be closed but was extended when they found out about calls he had with the Russian ambassador.
Trump tweeted about this new revelation wondering why he was not made privy of this information so he could have avoided hiring Flynn in the first place,
It now seems the General Flynn was under investigation long before was common knowledge. It would have been impossible for me to know this but, if that was the case, and with me being one of two people who would become president, why was I not told so that I could make a change?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 17, 2019
Trump is hinting at the fact that Flynn was used to set him up.
According to Fox News:
Michael Flynn was under FBI investigation earlier than previously thought, according to a little-noticed section in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report — and the former national security adviser’s brother told Fox News exclusively this week that the revelation suggested a long-running, high-level effort to “trip him up” and “trap” him.
Buried in the second volume of the Mueller report was a mention of an existing FBI investigation of Flynn “based on his relationship with the Russian government,” which predated Flynn’s phone calls during the presidential transition in December 2016 with then-Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak that ultimately led to his termination for lying.
Before this revelation, it was thought that these phone calls which the intelligence community found sparked the investigation into Flynn.
However, Comey’s testimony shows this was wrong:
The special counsel’s disclosure also sheds new light on a cryptic passage in the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence’s report on Russian interference released last year. The report said Comey, in closed-door testimony, indicated there was an open case on Flynn — which was about to be closed, until Flynn’s calls with the Russian ambassador.
“Director Comey testified that he authorized the closure of the CI [counter-intelligence] investigation into General Flynn by late December 2016; however, the investigation was kept open due to the public discrepancy surrounding General Flynn’s communications with Ambassador Kislyak,” the report said. “Deputy Director [Andrew] McCabe stated that, ‘We really had not substantiated anything particularly significant against General Flynn,’ but did not recall that a closure of the CI investigation was imminent.”
The report also shows that President Trump was never briefed that members of his campaign were a concern to the counterintelligence community. This is directly opposite of a briefing given to Senator Diane Feinstein about a potential Chinses spy working for her office. This is despite years of questionable relationships between Senator Feinstein, her husband, and the Chinese government. [READ MORE: Spy Infiltrates Top Dems Staff]
