President Trump spoke briefly with reporters Friday morning en route to the F.B.I. Academy in Quantico, again attacking the Russia investigation and the agency he was on his way to address.
NYT:
“It’s a shame what’s happened with the F.B.I.,” the president told reporters on the South Lawn of the White House...“It’s a very sad thing to watch.”
Without citing specifics, Mr. Trump described an extraordinary “level of anger” at the F.B.I. over the investigation. He labeled “disgraceful” recently released text messages between one of the agents on the investigation and a lawyer for the bureau who were critical of him. The special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, removed the agent from the investigation when he learned of the texts.
“I have nothing to do with Russia,” Mr. Trump said. “Everybody knows it. That was a Democrat hoax. It was an excuse for losing the election and it should never have been this way, where they spent all these millions of dollars.”
When asked, the president did not dismiss the possibility of pardoning former national security advisor Michael Flynn who has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his conversations with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak:
“I don’t want to talk about pardons for Michael Flynn yet,” Mr. Trump said. “We’ll see what happens. Let’s see. I can say this: When you look at what’s gone on with the F.B.I. and with the Justice Department, people are very, very angry.”
The president had said after Mr. Flynn’s guilty plea that the reputation of the F.B.I. was “in tatters” and its standing with the public was the “worst in history.”
By not ruling out a pardon for Flynn, Trump could be signaling to his former national security adviser that he will be rewarded if he does not reveal any damaging information about the president, his family or his advisers.
White House lawyer Ty Cobb had a different take on a possible presidential pardon:
"No — there is no consideration at the White House of pardoning Michael Flynn," Cobb said in an email to The Hill.
According to NBC News' Kristen Welker, Trump's response to the question of when he knew Flynn lied to the FBI was, "You know the answer."
President Trump Escalates Criticism of F.B.I. Role in Russia Inquiry (NYT)