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Headline Roundup April 30th, 2020

Newly Released Documents Thrust Michael Flynn Case Back into Spotlight

Summary from the AllSides News Team

The case of former national security adviser Michael Flynn is back in the spotlight after the Justice Department's release of previously sealed evidence Wednesday and Thursday. The unsealed documents include internal FBI notes, which suggest possible misconduct by agents influenced Flynn to plea guilty to lying to the FBI about Russian connections in 2017. Right-rated outlets are framing the news as more support for claims that the FBI actively moved to undermine the Trump administration. Many left- and center-rated outlets focused more on President Trump's reaction to the news, and speculation that Flynn could be presidentially pardoned; some left-rated voices were critical of Flynn, his legal team and supporters for purportedly pursuing baseless accusations against the bureau.

Featured Coverage of this Story

Trump praise of ‘tormented’ Flynn raises pardon speculation
Trump praise of ‘tormented’ Flynn raises pardon speculation

Associated Press

News

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,...

Open on Associated Press
Records Show Strzok Intervened when FBI Moved to Close Flynn Investigation Due to Lack of ‘Derogatory Information’
Records Show Strzok Intervened when FBI Moved to Close Flynn Investigation Due to Lack of ‘Derogatory Information’

National Review (News)

News

New unsealed FBI memos show that the Bureau found “no derogatory information” on former national security adviser Michael Flynn while investigating his alleged Russian contacts, and moved to close their investigation of him in early January 2017 before former FBI agent Peter Strzok intervened, asking to keep the case open.

The documents, which were released Thursday by the Department of Justice, show that Flynn was given the codename “Crossfire Razor” and investigated in a spinoff case predicated by the FBI’s “Crossfire Hurricane” surveillance of the 2016 Trump campaign — a...

Open on National Review (News)
Flynn Lawyers Seize on Newly Released F.B.I. Documents
Flynn Lawyers Seize on Newly Released F.B.I. Documents

New York Times (News)

News

President Trump’s allies cheered new documents unsealed on Wednesday in the criminal case of his former national security adviser Michael T. Flynn, saying that internal investigative notes showed that Mr. Flynn was set up by F.B.I. officials intent on undermining the president.

It will be up to a federal judge to decide if the notes and emails advance claims that Mr. Flynn was framed when he lied to the F.B.I. in January 2017 about his conversations with a Russian diplomat, a felony he twice pleaded guilty to.

The documents show...

Open on New York Times (News)

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