President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, John Dowd, claimed responsibility for the president’s Friday tweet, in which he said national security advisor Michael Flynn’s false statements to the FBI caused his firing.
Dowd told Axios he drafted the tweet and passed it to White House social media director Dan Scavino. Dowd said the tweet, which critics allege implicates Trump in obstructing justice, was his “mistake” and jokingly noted that he is “out of the tweeting business” and “did not mean to break news.”
“I had to fire General Flynn because he lied to the Vice President and the FBI,” Trump wrote. “He has pled guilty to those lies. It is a shame because his actions during the transition were lawful. There was nothing to hide!”
Dowd pushed back against claims the tweet represented evidence of obstruction, saying “The tweet did not admit obstruction. That is an ignorant and arrogant assertion.”
Flynn pled guilty Friday to lying to the FBI about conversations he had with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak and revealed that he is cooperating with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
Trump’s implication that he was aware of Flynn’s false statements prompted the assertion that the tweet amounts to an admission of obstruction of justice given former FBI Director James Comey’s testimony that Trump asked him to scale back the investigation into Flynn’s contacts with Kislyak.
Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, asked Trump pointedly if he was admitting to obstruction of justice in a biting Friday tweet.
If that is true, Mr. President, why did you wait so long to fire Flynn? Why did you fail to act until his lies were publicly exposed? And why did you pressure Director Comey to “let this go?” https://t.co/Ea4kOBpWPv
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) December 2, 2017
Former director of the United States Office of Government Ethics Walter Shaub also issued a harsh assessment of Trump’s tweet.
…just couldn’t resist commenting on Flynn.
Are you ADMITTING you knew Flynn had lied to the FBI when you asked Comey to back off Flynn??????????????????????????????????????????? https://t.co/HJWlUvC99F
— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) December 2, 2017
Tell us, @realDonaldTrump, did you know Flynn had lied to the FBI when Counsel to the President Don McGahn snubbed Yates as she tried to warn the White House Flynn had been compromised?
Did you know Flynn had lied to the FBI when you fired Yates days after her whistleblowing?
— Walter Shaub (@waltshaub) December 2, 2017
California Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu responded to the tweet by flatly accusing the president of obstruction of justice.
THIS IS OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE. @POTUS now admits he KNEW Michael Flynn lied to the FBI. Yet Trump tried to influence or stop the FBI investigation on #Flynn. https://t.co/8JqGBxgou0
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) December 2, 2017
Comey testified in June that Trump approached him in February and asked that he discontinue the investigation into Flynn’s calls with Kislyak.
“I replied only that ‘he is a good guy,” Comey wrote of the private Oval office meeting that took place one day after Flynn was fired.
“I did not say I would ‘let this go,'” Comey added.
Flynn was fired from the Trump campaign in February after it was revealed that he lied to Vice President Mike Pence about his conversations with Kislyak.
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