Trump praise of ‘tormented’ Flynn raises pardon speculation

President Donald Trump voiced strong support Thursday for his former national security adviser Michael Flynn, raising speculation that a pardon may be coming after Flynn’s lawyers disclosed internal FBI documents they claim show the FBI tried to “intentionally frame” him.

Trump said he believes Flynn should now be cleared in court, but if that doesn’t happen he as president has “a different type of power.”

“It looks to me like Michael Flynn would be exonerated based on everything I see,” Trump said at the White House. “I’m not the judge, but I have a different type of power. But I don’t know that anybody would have to use that power. I think he’s exonerated.”

Trump has long said he is considering pardoning Flynn, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his conversations with the Russian ambassador to the United States. The president spent Wednesday night and Thursday morning retweeting supportive statements and a video Flynn tweeted of an American flag flapping in the wind.