NBC News reports that former national security advisor Michael Flynn met alone with two FBI agents in his White House office last January and did not inform his lawyer, administration officials, or President Trump.
Flynn's FBI interview on Jan. 24, 2017, set in motion an extraordinary sequence of events unparalleled for the first year of a U.S. presidency. A national security adviser was fired after 24 days on the job, an acting attorney general was fired ten days after the president took office, an FBI director was allegedly pressured by the president to let go an investigation into the ousted national security adviser, and then eventually fired.
An attorney general recused himself from a federal investigation into Russia's meddling in a U.S. election and possible collusion with the sitting president's campaign, and a special counsel was appointed.
The developments ensnared the president in an obstruction of justice inquiry, which resulted in his top intelligence and law enforcement chiefs cooperating in some form with that probe.
President Trump's ongoing assault on the FBI appears to have roots in who set up the Flynn meeting and who conducted the interview.
In recent weeks Trump has taken aim at [deputy FBI director Andrew] McCabe, whose office first arranged Flynn’s FBI interview.
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And one of the two FBI agents who interviewed Flynn was Peter Strzok, whom Mueller removed from the Russia investigation last summer after the Justice Department’s inspector general's office found he'd written text messages to a colleague criticizing Trump ...
According to NBC News:
A brief phone call from the office of Andrew McCabe, the deputy FBI director, to a scheduler for Flynn on January 24 set the interview in motion, according to people familiar with the matter ... Later that day, two FBI agents arrived at the White House to speak with Flynn ... He met with the two federal agents alone ...
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White House counsel Don McGahn was the first senior official to learn of Flynn's interview during a meeting on January 26 with [Sally] Yates in which she warned him that Flynn had lied to Vice President Mike Pence and other top Trump officials about his conversation with the Russian ambassador, Sergey Kislyak, and could be vulnerable to blackmail by the Russian government.
McGahn has sat for two days of interviews with Mueller's team, according to a person familiar with the matter, including one interview that was rescheduled after Flynn’s plea deal was announced the day it was supposed to take place.
NBC News notes several more current and former government officials either have been interviewed by Mueller's team or will be interviewed by the end of this month.
By the end of 2017, special counsel Robert Mueller’s team had spoken with Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats, Mike Rogers, the director of the National Security Agency, former FBI Director James Comey, and numerous members of Trump’s campaign and White House inner circle ...
NBC News also has learned that former acting attorney general Sally Yates, who informed the White House about Flynn’s interview two days after it took place, has cooperated with the special counsel. CIA Director Mike Pompeo, who was allegedly asked by Trump to lean on Comey to drop his investigation, has also been interviewed, according to people familiar with the inquiry.
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Trump's former chief strategist Steve Bannon is expected to meet with Mueller’s team by January 31, according to a person familiar with the discussions.
Unresolved is whether Trump will voluntarily agree to be interviewed by Mueller ...
Full story: Flynn kept FBI interview concealed from White House, Trump (NBC News)