Former Vice President Joe Biden appears to have “personally raised the idea” of investigating Michael Flynn for potentially having violated the obscure Logan Act during his phone calls with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, according to newly filed court papers Wednesday.
The previously sealed document also says that former President Barack Obama told top members of his administration that “the right people” should investigate Michael Flynn.
But then-FBI Director James Comey acknowledged during the meeting — which also involved Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates and possibly National Security Adviser Susan Rice — that Flynn’s conversations with Kislyak “appear legit,” according to the Washington, DC, federal court filing by Flynn’s defense lawyers.
The revelations are contained in hand-written notes prepared by disgraced ex-FBI Agent Peter Strzok that Flynn’s lawyers called “stunning and exculpatory evidence” in the government’s since-abandoned case against President Trump’s former national security adviser.
Strzok’s notes, apparently written on Jan. 4, 2017, were “previously withheld from General Flynn” until finally being turned over on Jan. 23 of this year, his lawyers wrote.
A partially blacked-out copy is attached to the filing and bears an annotation that says it was declassified by the FBI that same day.
Wednesday’s four-page court filing, which was submitted in secret on Jan. 24, was made public following Wednesday’s blockbuster ruling by a federal appeals court that ordered the judge in Flynn’s case to let him withdraw his guilty plea for lying to the FBI about his conversations with Kislyak.
Asked by ABC’s George Stephanopoulos in a May 12 interview what he knew about the Flynn investigation at the time he was serving as vice president, Biden said “I know nothing about those moves to investigate Michael Flynn.”
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