White House refuses to take back claim that Flynn was ambushed

President Trump’s top spokesperson on Tuesday offered well wishes for former national security adviser Michael Flynn and said she had no reason to take back her claim he was “ambushed” by the FBI. 

 

“The delay is something between Gen. Flynn and the courts,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said after a federal judge delayed his sentencing. “In the meantime, we wish Gen. Flynn well.”

 

{mosads}Flynn has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russians during and after the 2016 campaign, but Sanders said earlier Tuesday the FBI acted inappropriately in questioning him early last year. 

“No. We still firmly believe” that he was ambushed, Sanders said when asked about her previous comments. 

The White House and its allies have attempted to argue that federal agents entrapped Flynn by refusing to inform him it is a crime to lie to FBI agents. Flynn himself disagreed with that argument in court, telling the judge he knew it was illegal to make false statements to the FBI.

“We’re arguing that he was certainly ambushed and that the FBI, that we know, had clear political bias. We’ve seen that time and time again,” Sanders said earlier on Fox News. 

Trump has continued to defend Flynn, who was cooperated extensively with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, even as he condemns his former personal lawyer Michael Cohen as a “rat” for pleading guilty and cooperating. 

“It’s perfectly acceptable for the president to make a positive comment about somebody while we wait to see what the court’s determination is,” Sanders said when asked to defend the president’s comments.

Good luck today in court to General Michael Flynn. Will be interesting to see what he has to say, despite tremendous pressure being put on him, about Russian Collusion in our great and, obviously, highly successful political campaign. There was no Collusion!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 18, 2018