Mike Flynn, Who Once Said Immunity Is for Criminals, Is Requesting Immunity

In mid-February, President Trump's newly-appointed National Security Advisor Mike Flynn quit in disgrace after it was revealed that he had engaged in sensitive, clandestine, legally dubious discussions with Russian officials before President Trump officially took office. It was the first tangible bit of evidence of the murky, ominous-sounding allegations of connections between the Trump campaign and Russia, and at the time of his resignation, the Washington Post's sources stated that although they believed Flynn had lied to Vice President Pence about the nature and extent of his contacts with Russia, they "couldn’t rule out that [he] was acting with the knowledge of others in the transition."

Six weeks later, the other shoe hasn't quite dropped yet, but it's at least teetering perilously closer to the edge. After a few intriguing rumors floated around last week, the Wall Street Journalreported today that Flynn's lawyers have informed the FBI and various congressional investigators that he is willing to sit down for voluntary interviews in exchange for a guarantee of immunity from prosecution.

As an adviser to Mr. Trump’s presidential campaign, and later one of
Mr. Trump’s top aides in the White House, Mr. Flynn was privy to some
of the most sensitive foreign-policy deliberations of the new
administration and was directly involved in discussions about the
possible lifting of sanctions on Russia imposed by the Obama
administration.

Before we get too ahead of ourselves, it's important to note that offers to talk, and negotiations about the circumstances under which those conversations might take place, are pretty conventional in high-profile law enforcement matters, and these overtures should not be interpreted as tacit admissions of guilt. That said, it's also fair to point out that one reason that one might request immunity like this is if you have good reason to believe that, without that deal in hand, things will go badly for you and everyone you know. A statement released by Flynn's lawyer only asserts that the retired general is seeking assurances against "unfair" prosecution, which...sort of begs the question.

The Journal's report adds that although Mike Flynn has made his pitch to the powers that be, right now, it's just languishing there on the table.

He has made the offer to the FBI and the House and Senate intelligence
committees though his lawyer but has so far found no takers, the
officials said.

Of course, it may be the case that investigators are just mulling over the offer right now. But at this early stage in the inquiry, and with more information trickling out every week about the Trump camp's affection for all things Kremlin, they might also be thinking, Cool, man, but we're going to keep doing our job and see if we can't nail you and your people WITHOUT having to give you a Get Out of Jail Free Card first. Thanks for the offer, though. You can't blame them for waiting, given how hilariously clear Flynn has made his opinion about what a request for immunity means.

At this point, we still aren't really sure where the fire might is coming from, or how big it is, or if it's even been extinguished already, to be honest. But it's sure starting to look like there's way too much smoke up in here to be a coincidence.

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