Flynn seeks immunity over inquiry into Russia links
Trump’s former security adviser asks for protection, as the President calls investigation ‘a witch hunt’
A ROW was developing last night over whether General Michael Flynn, Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, should be given immunity in exchange for testifying at a congressional investigation into Russian interference in America’s presidential election.
The development came as Mr Flynn, who is being investigated for his connections to Moscow, faced questions over his failure to disclose meetings with a Russian and a British woman reported to have contacts in Moscow spy agencies.
Mr Flynn has asked for protection from what his lawyers have called “unfair prosecution” if he testified before the intelligence committees of the US Senate and the House of Representa- tives. Robert Kellner, his lawyer has said Mr Flynn “has a story to tell” and is willing to be interviewed about the Trump campaign’s possible ties to Russia.
This might have seemed an ominous development for the White House. But Mr Trump responded yesterday by encouraging the move, and calling the investigations into Mr Flynn and his presidential campaign a political “witch hunt” instigated by Democrats.
“Mike Flynn should ask for immunity in that this is a witch hunt (excuse for big election loss), by media & Dems, of historic proportion!” he tweeted.
Mr Flynn was forced to resign from his post after only 24 days, when it emerged he had lied to Mike Pence, the vice president, about conversations he held with Sergey Kislyak, the Russian ambassador to the United States.
Mr Flynn’s connections to Russia have also been questioned following the revelation that he was paid $45,000 (£36,000) plus expenses to speak at the 10th anniversary gala of Russia Today, the state television network in Moscow in December 2015, while he was already an adviser to Mr Trump.
His testimony could reveal more about the nature of his conversations with Mr Kislyak, and give potentially valuable insights into activities by other members of Mr Trump’s campaign staff, who are also under investigation.
But Adam Schiff, a Democrat congressman on the House of Representatives intelligence committee, said it was too soon to consider immunity requests.
“As with any investigation – and particularly one that grows in severity and magnitude by the day – there is still much work and many more witnesses and documents to obtain before any immunity request from any witness can be considered,” Mr Schiff said in a statement.
Concerns were also raised yesterday about Mr Flynn’s failure to disclose contact with a Russian-British academic at a seminar in Cambridge in 2014.
Mr Flynn met Svetlana Lokhova at The Cambridge Intelligence Seminar. At the time, he was one of the top US spies and the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. Mr Flynn would have been expected to “self report” any conversation with links to an “adversary” country, such as Russia.