Senate Judiciary Committee member Angus King says Mueller's Michael Flynn recommendation is the 'most troubling' for Trump
- Sen. Angus King said Sunday that new court filings on President Donald Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn were "the most troubling" recent development in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation.
- Speaking on NBC's "Meet the Press, King said prosecutors' recommendation of no prison time for Flynn, who provided early and extensive cooperation, means he provided enough significant information to spell trouble for Trump.
- Flynn met 19 times with the special counsel and provided information that was redacted from his sentencing memo.
Sen. Angus King said new court filings on President Donald Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn were "the most troubling" recent development in special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of Russian involvement with Trump's 2016 campaign and election.
Speaking on Sunday's "Meet the Press," King said prosecutors' recommendation of no prison time for Flynn, who provided early and extensive cooperation, means he provided enough significant information to spell trouble for Trump.
"The filing last week that should be the most troubling to the White House weren't the ones made on Friday, but the ones made with regard to General Flynn earlier in the week," King said, referring to separate filings, one of which recommended "substantial" prison time for Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer and longtime fixer.
King, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said that "Robert Mueller felt that [Flynn's] cooperation has been of such an extent that he recommended no jail time," which apparently caused Mueller to give Flynn "a kind of prosecutorial pardon, if you will."
King went on to point out Flynn's potential for providing extensive information about Trump's campaign, that included "nineteen meetings with the special counsel, and a lot of redacted pieces in the filing that was made last week."
"That's the one I think that really raises some very difficult questions that go to the heart of the question of whether there were relationships between the Trump campaign, President Trump, and the Russian government during the campaign in 2016," King said. "Flynn was, as they say in Hamilton, in the room where it happens."
Read more: Mueller sent a clear message - and a warning - with Flynn's sentencing memo
The sentencing memo for Flynn claims he lied in a 2016 FBI interview about what he said to the Russian ambassador regarding sanctions. Trump's former aide also made false statements to the Department of Justice about his contact with Turkey.
The memo reads: "When the FBI interviewed the defendant on January 24 about his interactions with the Russian ambassador, the defendant falsely stated that he did not ask the Russian ambassador to refrain from escalating the situation in response to the sanctions, and falsely disclaimed any memory of his subsequent conversation with the ambassador in which the ambassador stated that Russia had acceded to the defendant's request."
Trump fired Flynn, who was on the job for just 25 days, in February 2016, citing an "evolving and eroding level of trust" after the former national security adviser lied to Vice President Mike Pence about his interactions with Kislyak.
Sean Spicer, who was then the White House press secretary, said at the time the firing was "not based on a legal issue, but based on a trust issue."
Flynn is due to be sentenced December 18, 2018.