The White House responded to former national security adviser Michael Flynn’s guilty plea Friday, saying the charge against him doesn’t reflect on anyone else in President Donald Trump’s orbit.
“The false statements involved mirror the false statements to White House officials which resulted in his resignation in February of this year,” White House lawyer Ty Cobb told pool reporters. “Nothing about the guilty plea or the charge implicates anyone other than Mr. Flynn.”
Flynn was fired from his Administration position in February after it was revealed that he had misled Vice President Mike Pence about the nature of his contacts with a Russian official. Special counsel Robert Mueller’s team charged him with making false statements about his contacts with Russians to the FBI.
Cobb ended his statement with a remark looking forward to the end of Mueller’s investigation, which has now criminally charged four people connected to Trump.
“The conclusion of this phase of the Special Counsel’s work demonstrates again that the Special Counsel is moving with all deliberate speed and clears the way for a prompt and reasonable conclusion,” Cobb said.
As part of his plea deal Flynn admitted that an unnamed senior member of Trump’s transition team directed him reach out to Russian officials following Trump’s election last year, the Associated Press reports.
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