Former U.S. attorney Preet Bharara said Sunday that it’s likely President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, is in discussions with special counsel Robert Mueller about cooperating with his investigation into Russian interference in last year’s election.
“My view is based on how things used to operate in my office and based on how the world works, (which) is that there’s a substantial likelihood that they’re at least in discussions with regard to cooperating,” said Bharara.
Asked if the President should be worried about the possibility that Flynn is cooperating with Mueller’s team, Bharara said: “It depends on what the President has done and what the President’s conversations with Michael Flynn and others have been. But if you’ve done bad things, then you should be very worried.”
Bharara was fired by the president in March and is currently working as legal analyst for CNN. He tweeted on Thursday that Flynn’s lawyers were no longer sharing information with Trump’s legal team, concluding that Flynn was cooperating with Mueller or even preparing to plead guilty.
Jay Sekulow who is part of the president’s legal team said the decision to cease information sharing was somewhat expected and should not be interpreted as indication of cooperation.
“No one should draw the conclusion that this means anything about General Flynn cooperating against the President,” he said.
The special counsel has investigated the business dealings of Flynn and his son with foreign countries, and Bharara maintained the only way for Flynn to get both himself and his son “off the hook” was to cooperate with investigators. Bharara added that based on what prosecutors discover about Flynn’s business dealings and communications, they could go up to the president himself in their investigation.
“They could include other Cabinet officials. They can include members of the President’s family who also serve in some capacity for the President, and they can include the President himself,” he said.
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