Kremlin Says Putin Not Influenced by ex-Trump Official Flynn

Former US national security adviser Michael Flynn pleaded guilty on 1 December, to lying to the FBI about Russia.

Michael Flynn with US President Donald Trump.

(Photo Courtesy: Twitter/Red T Raccoon)

The Kremlin said on Monday Russian President Vladimir Putin had taken a decision to hold off responding to new US sanctions last year independently and had not been influenced by former US national security adviser Michael Flynn.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin had taken the decision to hold off retaliating independently and had not known of Flynn's alleged request to Russia to refrain from an immediate response.

Flynn was not in a position to ask Kislyak, the then Russian Ambassador to the US, to do anything, said Peskov, calling the idea "absurd."

US President Donald Trump, in his first comment on a guilty plea by his first national security adviser Michael Flynn to lying to the FBI, said on Saturday, 2 December, there was "absolutely no collusion" between his campaign and Russia.

Trump made his comment to reporters as he departed the White House.

Former US national security adviser Michael Flynn pleaded guilty on Friday, 1 December, to lying to the FBI about Russia, and ABC News said he was prepared to testify that before taking office President Donald Trump had directed him to make contact with Russians.

Flynn, as part of his plea on Friday, 1 December agreed to cooperate with special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into possible collusion between Russia and Trump's 2016 presidential election campaign.

The dramatic turn of events also raised new questions about whether Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, had a role in those Russia contacts.

Flynn was the first member of Trump’s administration to plead guilty to a crime uncovered by special counsel Robert Mueller’s wide-ranging investigation into Russian attempts to influence the 2016 US election and potential collusion by Trump aides.

His decision to cooperate with the investigation led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, marked a major escalation in a probe that has dogged Trump’s administration since the Republican president took office in January.

ABC News cited a confidant as saying Flynn was ready to testify that Trump directed him to make contact with Russians, initially as a way to work together to fight the ISIS group in Syria.

It was not clear when Trump supposedly told Flynn to contact Russians and whether there would be anything illegal in requesting such contact.

Flynn pleaded guilty to making false statements about contacts he had in December with Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Sergei Kislyak, during the transition period after Trump was elected and before he was sworn in.

The charges carry a sentence of up to five years in prison.

The White House said Flynn's guilty plea implicated him alone.

“Nothing about the guilty plea or the charge implicates anyone other than Mr Flynn,” Ty Cobb, a White House attorney, said in a statement on Friday.

Flynn was forced out of his White House post in February for misleading Vice President Mike Pence about his conversations with the ambassador.

“The false statements involved mirror the false statements to White House officials which resulted in his resignation in February of this year,” Cobb said, adding that the plea “clears the way for a prompt and reasonable conclusion” of Mueller’s probe.

Moscow has denied a conclusion by US intelligence agencies that it meddled in the election campaign to try to sway the vote in Trump’s favour. Trump has denied any collusion by his campaign and has called Mueller’s probe a witch hunt.

Flynn said on Friday his decision to plead guilty and to cooperate with the investigation was “made in the best interests of my family and of our country.”

In a statement issued by the law firm representing him, Flynn also said it was “painful to endure” the “false accusations of ‘treason’ and other outrageous acts” over the past several months but that he recognised “that the actions I acknowledged in court today were wrong.”

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